Slashdot Mirror
More on Apple/Motorola Joint Cell Phone Venture
1+(smarterThanYou) writes "Forbes.com has an article with updates on the previous Slashdot story on the Motorola/Apple iTunes compatible mobile phone.
'Apple Computer and Motorola could soon show us the mobile phone they are developing to play music purchased from Apple's iTunes online music store.
'We've said we have something coming on this in the first half of 2005 and we're definitely on schedule for that. Hopefully you'll be able to see more about it soon,' says Eddy Cue, vice president in charge of applications at Apple.'" Theories about this device showing up at the next MacWorld Expo abound.
Could this phone be the rumoured flash-based iPod?
well, motorola is the company that is going to be delivering the application, so I think the apple related logo at the top has got to go........
anyway, Eddy Cue is about to be fired, leaking a comment a couple weeks before macworld, and a couple of days before christmas????? not that any of his comments are going to slow down the sale of any apple produced products, it is still a slip and he must be cut loose, there can't be any leaks in the apple ship
it seems that this phone + mp3 player might be the convergence of the "flash based" ipod and the apple/motorola venture. Mac heads gotta have their lifeblood flowing...rumors...mmmm
So many things are becoming an addition to the mobile phone, and different groups teaming up to cover their core areas. Obviously Sony are placed fairly well at the moment with their audio, imaging, comms and gaming devices. Who else will team up to compete?
Personally, I'd love to see the Nintendo technologies meshed with Apple and Motorola. To me both Apple and Nintendo, lean towards highly usable, simple technology with high build quality.
Who else is next?
-----
Glen Williams
Hm...it doesn't look like they'll be able to use the name iPhone...Nuvio's got it locked up:
http://www.iphone.com/
For some reason, I don't think this idea of yours will take off...
CodeWarrior was released in the early '90s by a small Canadian startup named Metrowerks. When Apple transitioned to the PowerPC and was only able to come up with an abominably slow, clunky and cumbersome development system for it (a set of multipass C++ compilers bundled with their ancient MPW evironment), Metrowerks saved the day by shipping CodeWarrior which had a kick-ass IDE (inspired by Think C, formerly Lightspeed) and a fast, efficient one pass compiler and linker. A few years later Motorola released a compiler plug-in for Codewarrior; then Metrowerks started trying to branch out into other areas such as embedded systems and cross-development systems. Eventually they were bought by Motorola by the end of the '90s.
Motorola already had a real phone (and I still do). This beast has a plain old LCD display (not color), takes no pictures, has survived numerous falls onto concrete, has battery life that won't quit, and a speakerphone that works fairly well. I almost switched carriers when I was told I would have to "upgrade" after they "upgraded" their network. It took 3 or 4 calls before I actually got someone who let me keep the phone. So I stuck with them.
What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
How about Apple and Motorola produce a phone that fully synchronizes with iSync for all the productivity items like contacts and calendars? The only folks that make such devices are Nokia and Siemens. I want everything down to the photo on the Address Book entry... plus decent enough e-mail for getting warning messages from the servers.
I suppose it's only a small thing, but I think Apple could at least bring their good design sense to bear.
For all the huge number of cell-phone makers and phones, about 70% of them are completely awful in design, and most of the rest merely OK; even manuf.s who are normally good at product design, like Sony, seem to completely lose it when it comes to cell-phones (in Sony's case, they seem to be partnering with Ericson, so perhaps it's the latter's fault).
We live, as we dream -- alone....
Apple's iPod hardware buddy HP seems to sell might-look-good-in-white, curiously out-of-stock bluetooth stereo headphones, but without a mic. Hmmm...
About that #14... is there a reason behind it,or did U2 really think that it was 4?
On UK radio recently, Bono was asked this question - his response was a non-committal "Oh, OK, we may have had a few beers the night we wrote that one.".
Check your renters'/homeowners' associations.
This happens in my area, too, and it's caused by the NIMBY attitude of people when they see a cell phone tower. Even if the cellular provider proposes a camouflaged tower (one that looks like a tree, etc.), they are beaten back by the pseudoscience wackos threatening health problems. They've even taken out existing towers ("Too close to the schools--think of the children!"), which I suspect is why you remember your MetroPCS phone fondly. As a result, my nearest cell tower is a zillion miles away and, like you, I have no coverage indoors.
http://treomac.com/v-web/portal/cms/modules.php?na me=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=32
I can throw a little more gas onto the Apple phone rumors. I was on a train this weekend, watching an episode of the Simpsons on my Treo600. The gentleman sitting across from me asked me how I liked the phone. I told him I loved it and we began a tech conversation. He mentioned that he worked for Motorola. I told him I was a Macintosh consultant, and then he dropped the bomb! "I've got a scoop for you", he teased.
Apparently some of his associates had been telling him earlier in the week about an Apple branded phone that had been circulating around the office at Motorola. The phone had Motorola components, but most certainly had Apple brandings on it. He said that he did not have a chance to handle the phone, but that his direct supervisor did. The phone was "sleek and sexy" in her words. He mentioned that there was talk amongst the people who had seen it that itunes and iphoto would factor into this device somehow. They also said that the phone had a slot on the top (media slot?) as well as what looked to be a usb 2.0 port on the bottom.
All very interesting. He gave me his card, so I'll be sure to press him for more details in the coming weeks.
Stay Tuned!
_________________
Tony Ricciardi
Administrator
TreoMac.com
Also, from another source:
It's basically the successor to the Motorola E398, but with iTunes, and extensive Apple influence and iPod integration. I haven't seen it yet, but my info is direct from Moto top people.
The current Motorola E398 was a tri-band GSM bar form factor phone, with a large screen, TransFlash slot, Bluetooth, camera, media player, speakerphone, and FM tuner. And since this offering is GSM, and Steve Jobs has twice trotted out Cingular CEO Stephen Carter at Macworld keynotes, and given other carriers' resistance to the idea of iTunes on a phone (for reasons of either not wanting to provide bandwidth for such a service at a reasonable cost, OR being opposed to having full computer/device connectivity via Bluetooth bypassing their networks), it would appear that Cingular/AT&T might be a good candidate to carry such a device.
And for all those who think that Motorola phones suck OR are only basing your opinion on NEXTEL phones, trust me: they've gotten a LOT better, and actually have some excellent offerings (e.g., RAZR V3 and v710, Verizon crippling aside).
I have to admit I'm a bit curious about all the effort and publicity surrounding this, but I guess with Apple and Motorola being former bedroom buddies and with iTunes and Apple as hot as they are right now, anything involving either would make news.
Most of Apple's functions (Bluetooth, MP3, AAC, 3GPP, contact synchroniztion) already work with Nokia's Symbian platform right now, except for iTunes' DRM - which, admittedly, is the show-stopper. But why would you not also try to partner with, or license your stuff to, another company who has done much of the grunt work already ?
IIRC the Samsung Uproar was the first phone to come out with mp3 playback capability. For the technology available at the time (2001) it was a great device - 64MB flash player with a decent phone.
One of the best features of that phone was completely unintentional - since it had stereo headphones for both phone and mp3 player usage you could have two people talk on the phone at the same time without having to use a speakerphone by giving each person one of the earpieces.
Have you seen my stapler?
Isn't this the same news organization that has such wonderful writers as Daniel Lyons, and publishes glowing articles about what a wonderful case SCO has? Wern't they buying SCO's story even as of August 2004?
Those who would give up liberty in exchange for security and DRM should switch to Microsoft Palladium!
The last analyst report I saw pointed out that the entire revenue from legal downloads amounted to 5% of the current revenue from mobile phone ringtones.
If I was Apple I'd be selling ringtones on the ITMS.
Da Blog