Apple Computer, Cingular and Motorola on Wednesday unveiled their initiative that allows clients to listen to music acquired via iTunes music store. While iTunes on the go is really not offered ?Motorola ROKR phone, which comes preloaded with iTunes player, cannot download music via GPRS, but should be loaded with it from a computer ?it eliminates need to carry a music player and a mobile phone. The gadget is to be exclusively offered by Cingular operator.

Motorola ROKR is a tri-band GSM (850MHz, 1800MHz, 1900MHz) cell phone that weighs 107 grams (3.77 oz) and measures 4.25?x 1.81?x 0.80? The phone is equipped with colour screen with 176x220 pixels resolution, up to 262K colours; digital camera (VGA, 640x480 pixels) with flash and video support; speakerphone; stereo speakers; and is bundled with wired stereo headset. The ROKR gadget is GPRS and Bluetooth capable. The manufacturer declares up to 9 hours talk time and up to 9 days standby time. Motorola's ROKR can play iTunes music for up to 15 hours using wired headset, or up to 6 hours using Surround Sound feature.

Motorola ROKR features removable flash memory cards called TransFlash, which are smaller compared to SD and MMC cards. The company sells 256MB and 512MB TransFlash cards currently.

Motorola ROKR

Motorola also supplies car kits and wireless headsets for the ROKR.

Music fans can randomly autofill or manually fill the mobile phone with playlists from their favorite music, audiobooks and Podcasts from their iTunes library via a USB connection. Though, some may consider it too slow, as loading of a 4MB file takes approximately 30 seconds, which equals to 133KB/s transfer rate, according to the maker. The Motorola ROKR pauses music automatically when users take a call and offers the ability to listen to music while messaging with friends or snapping a photo.

It is unknown whether the ROKR fundamentally can download music via GPRS connection, or can only playback preloaded tunes.

The new Motorola ROKR with iTunes pre-installed is available exclusively for $249.99 with a two-year commitment at all Cingular stores nationwide and includes stereo headphones and a USB cable. Some carriers in Europe are also expected to offer Motorola ROKR, but the terms of deal can be different compared to Cingular. At least one operator said that it was interested in selling music tracks to its clients.

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