Cingular Motorola ROKR Phone a Yawner

On the same day that Apple announced the Nano Ipod, there was another announcement about the new Motorola ROKR that can holds up to 100 itunes songs. You can’t buy iTunes songs onto the ROKR and you can’t get more than 100 songs onto the ROKR despite the fact that it has 512 MB of memory.

Come on guys, this thing sucks. It’s ugly for one thing. Go to the apple.com website and it’s relegated to some secondary announcement at the bottom of the site, which is dominated (as of this writing) by pictures of the Apple Nano. MP3 players on phones is not a new thing, there have been multiple manufacturers (read “Sony Ericsson”).

The only thing great about this phone is that you can play iTunes songs on it on an interface you may be familiar with. Again, *yawn*, big deal. What a disappointment. Go with a Sony Ericsson.
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Palm Treo 700 Set To Abandon PalmOS

In what is surely a blow to PalmSource, the software company spun off from Palm in 2003, the new Treo 700 will be an MSN Mobile-based smartphone. Ever since the software division was spun off, PalmSource has struggled–it hasn’t signed up many phone manufacturers interested in using its OS and lost a huge amount of revenue potential when Sony decided to all but stop making handhelds, all of which were based on the Palm OS.

Surely, the handheld as a gadget in itself is set to be abandoned by devices that combine music, video and communications capabilities. Earlier this year, former CEO David Nagel resigned and a successor has thus far not been named.

T-Mobile to launch black Sidekick

I’ve never been a fan of Internet surfing or emailing via cell phones or small handheld devices (Blackberry and other corporate-based devices excepted) since I find the current consumer interfaces clumsy. However, T-Mobile believes there is a market for such devices and will be coming out with a black version of its Sidekick.

[Via MobileTracker]

Technorati Tags: Cell Phone News, T-Mobile

SIRIUS on Sprint officially announced

Sprint has officially launched SIRIUS Satellite Radio music channels across its multimedia phones. There are 20 commercial-free music channels, plus a channel devoted to exclusive artist interviews and performances. The channels include: Hip Hop/R&B, Rock and Country to Jazz, Blues, Broadway, Electronic and Dance.

Unlimited access to the service costs $6.95 per month. To sign-up, go to channel 23 in the Sprint Media Player. This is available only to phones that can handle media streaming.

[Via MobileTracker.]