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.