JP/18/ZATNI
JP/18/ZATNI
ROKR, The Music Phone That Could
Zatni Arbi
Contributor/zatni@cbn.net.id
By now you must have become familiar with the name iTunes. It is
a set of standards and tools that Apple has developed for
storing, downloading, managing and playing back digital music and
video files.
It also incorporates FairPlay digital right management, which
ensures that you fairly compensate the artists and the music
houses for the enjoyment that you derive from their work.
You can download the iTunes applications from Apple's website
and install it on your Windows 2000 or XP PC. Of course, if you
buy a Mac it is already included. You can then connect to the
iTunes Music Store, preview the music and purchase the songs or
videos that you like. You can then store the files on your iPod
or burn them on a CD or DVD using an iTunes-compatible recorder.
Last week, I promised you a review of the Motorola ROKR,
Motorola's first effort at a cell phone that can also store and
play iTunes music. The ROKR is Motorola's first product to
compete with Sony-Ericsson's Walkman mobile phone series, as well
as Nokia's N91 and its brethren.
We looked at the SE W550i last Monday, and it is just a
coincidence that the ROKR was the next cell phone I got to play
around with.
Courtesy of Motorola Indonesia, I got the first chance to try
out the ROKR. They only have one demo unit for the media, so that
should tell you how lucky I am. The price has not yet been set,
but I was told the phone would cost about Rp 2 million.
What is special about the ROKR? It is the first attempt by
Motorola and Apple to work together to produce a mobile phone and
music player in one single gadget. Now let us see how successful
they were.
The upsides
Like other Motorola cellular phones in general, the ROKR has
an excellent 176 x 220 LCD screen capable of displaying 162K
colors. The five-way joystick is as responsive and as easy to use
as the other cellular phones from Motorola. Like the SE W550i,
the ROKR has a dedicated button to call up its media player.
Like the SE W550i, too, there are no hard keys to control the
playback. However, once the music is playing you can use the
ROKR's joystick to adjust the volume. There are two dedicated
volume control buttons on the left side of the cell phone as
well.
The cellular phone's keypad is a mixed bag. In general, it has
a very nice tactile feel, but I always prefer larger keys with
non-slippery caps. With the ROKR, it is important that you keep
your fingernail cut short.
In the camera mode, the joystick will help adjust the
brightness and zoom level. This is another feature that I like
very much. Music reproduction is done through a pair of great
surround-sound speakers on both sides of the cell phone. The
keypad's backlight can be set to light up in sync with the music.
Perhaps because this cell phone is not an entirely new model
-- a lot of people will notice its close affiliation with the
Motorola E398 -- it was not as buggy as the demo unit of the SE
W550i. The volume up and down buttons worked well. More on this
later, though.
One thing that I noticed was that the ROKR has a superb
reception ability. I usually have difficulty when talking on my
favorite two-year-old Nokia 6800 cell phone inside my house.
People cannot hear what I say, and I get disconnected quite
often. The ROKR, on the other hand, had a very high level of
sensitivity so I never had this problem.
The downsides
If the SE W550i that we looked at last week tried to break
away from the conventional cell phone design, the ROKR is just
the opposite. It is a very conservatively designed candy bar-
shaped phone. As you can see in the picture, it is the E398 with
the music player functionality somewhat forced into it.
The embedded digital camera was also a big surprise. Motorola
threw in a VGA camera. (Do they still manufacture this module
today?) While you can make video clips with this camera, the SE
550i is still better as it has a 1.3 MP camera.
The ROKR came with a 256 MB TransFlash memory card. Here is a
catch. Although you can replace it with a much more spacious
TransFlash card, you will not be able to store more than 100
songs. That is the limit, and there is nothing you can do about
it.
I guess that is one way Apple makes sure that you will not go
around downloading music from your friends' iPods for free. Keep
in mind, too, that the ROKR was launched at the same time Apple
launched its iPod Nano. It is easy to see how the ROKR could
undermine the sales of the iPod Nano if both had the same music
handling capability.
And let me tell you replacing the TransFlash memory card is
just as complicated as changing the air-conditioner filter of a
1995 BMW 5-Series. So, if you think you can use different memory
cards to store more than 100 songs, forget it.
There are other things that I thought could be better
implemented. The non-standard earphone plug on top of the unit is
protected with a rubber cover. I never like rubber covers, they
look very cheap and they get dirty quickly.
And when the cellular phone's iTunes is playing, the whole
thing slows down. You press the volume up button and nothing
happens immediately. You press and press again and suddenly the
sound becomes much louder than you want. Of course, the music
will automatically pause the moment you pick up a call. By the
way, I prefer the list format of the main menu rather than the
icons.
It is also funny that this music cell phone does not come with
an FM radio or a voice recorder. You also have to use the
supplied cable to connect the phone to your PC or Mac to download
music, digital book or podcasts to your ROKR. However, there is
another surprise here: the connection is USB 1.1, which tops out
at 12 Mbps. Downloading music files to the cell phone will thus
take a long time.
Final word
Unlike the SE W550i, the first generation of ROKR does not
look sexy at all, and there will not be too much excitement
associated with hanging it around your neck. However, this phone
will shine brightly in areas where signal reception is not very
good.
There is no doubt that Motorola and Apple have a lot of
potential. Motorola makes great cellular phones and Apple has a
long history of creating cool consumer electronics. But to make
the alliance successful they will have to work more closely at
the drawing board.