Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Motorola Announces E1060 Phone With iTunes Support

Posted by timothy on from the for-the-battle-will-be-hotter dept.

amichalo writes "Topping today's earlier news that Nokia and MS are collaborating on digital music in a cell phone, Motorola announced the E1060, a cell phone available Q4 2005 that supports MPEG-4/WMV/WMA/MP3 formats. Interestingly, Motorola is not locking themselves into Apple's iTunes, but also support Real Player. Reuters has more."

12 of 268 comments (clear)

  1. Why? by Quasar1999 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I must be a dying breed... I want my phone to make calls with, I want my iPod to listen to music too, and now you guys are blurring the lines again... Stop it... I can see it now... in a year, I'll have an iPod that does PDA stuff, plays music, is a cell phone, has a 10 megapixel camera in it, and opens my garage door.

    Why can't I have a phone that just works as a phone... and an Mp3 player that just plays music, nothing else? I thought apple was going in the right direction with the shuffle... it's small, and does just one thing... play music... is that too much to ask of phones?

    --

    ---
    Programming is like sex... Make one mistake and support it the rest of your life.
    1. Re:Why? by path_man · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Mod parent up!! -- this might be "News for Nerds. Stuff that matters." but the main thing we nerds want is STUFF THAT WORKS.

      The best example of the converged device that STILL isn't worth a damn is the all-in-one printer which faxes, scans, copies, and prints... not a one of those does it do well. Oh, and by the way, with phones you have the added problem of low price, battery life, portability, and god forbid, if I lose the damn thing I don't want the be SOL because all the stuff I use (mp3 players, PDA, phone, etc.) is missing.

      As usual, the manufacturers have created a solution without a problem. I have yet to hear somone at the gym say "Boy, I'd sure like my music player ring and have all my calendar/contact information as well". These things are a solution looking for a problem

      --
      The surest sign of intelligent life in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us. -- Calvin & Hobbes
    2. Re:Why? by Aqua+OS+X · · Score: 4, Insightful

      True, but carrying a ton of garbage in your pockets can be VERY annoying... and that's what industrial designers are trying to solve. My pants are full of ridiculous garbage. My Costanza sized wallet, my keys, my phone, my iPod, headphones, my pen drive, a ton of change, and, as I recall, some testicles buried some place in there.

      I think a media player / camera / phone isn't a bad idea... if it were done properly. And no one has really done it properly... yet.

      --
      "Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
    3. Re:Why? by blackmonday · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Every time we talk about cell phones, the highest modded post is a version of the one I'm replying to. Don't want new features? Fine, stick with your old phone. Or, buy a used one. Or, buy a new one that doesn't have all the bells and whistles (yes you can still find simple phones in ample supply). Plus, Some of us would like to carry fewer gadgets in our pockets.

      I thought this was Slashdot, a gatehring of people excited about new technology. Why do we mod up people who want to live in the past?

  2. Keyboard? by NEOtaku17 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    No QWERTY? Won't that limit all that instant messaging and e-mailing you could do with it, and before someone tells me about the size being a consideration you should check out my phone: the Motorola A630. Small does not mean no keyboard.

    --
    Creative Demolition
  3. Another... by Robotron23 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Another day, another useless piece of gadgetry. 2005 is turning out to be another year in which the electronics industry as a whole adds to its products useless features, and expects (sensibly) consumers to lap it up and beg for seconds.

    1. Re:Another... by Hawthorne01 · · Score: 4, Insightful
      No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.

      /.'s ability to predict the next hot consumer toy is nothing I'd bet the farm on... ;-)

      --
      "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
  4. Oh no! by Cinematique · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Quick! Grab your umbrella! There's about to be a flood of crotchedy old techies who think mobile phones that serve more than one purpose are crazy! Crrraaazaaay!!

    Seriously though, I'm not the only one who WANTS to see the day where we have a phone, iPod, and PDA all in one device... right? Sure, bring on the "jack-of-all-trades master-of-none" arguement... but carrying around one device that does it all is better than having multiple gadgets. So what if the current creations need a little more R&D... it's not like basic phones can't be purchased anymore.

  5. You aren't looking at the problem right by hellfire · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I, for one, welcome the chance to have an MP3 player on my phone. Why? Because I don't want to carry 4 portable devices. 1 phone, 1 camera, 1 MP3 player, and one palm pilot. That's effectively what I want and it's what the Treo 600 and 650 give me. Well actually no, I don't really want the camera, but I can't get a high end phone these days without it so I'll deal for now.

    Frankly, I'm going to spend the money on the phone, and I like having a portable entertainment and workstation on my hip at all times, which is what it is. I can take care of simple work tasks just from that phone, and i can entertain myself very easily while waiting or traveling. The Mp3 player doesn't store that many songs and i need a memory card, but hell I don't carry with me that many Mp3s! I'm never going to fill up a 10,000 song player... or even a 1,000 song one.

    Just because you don't want one doesn't mean other people don't. So far the only thing I don't like about those phones are the cameras. Everything else does in fact work great.

    --

    "All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"

  6. Re:Hint: by dabadab · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yeah, no one will buy these as noone has bought the Nokia 6230 that has an MP3 player and can be extended with MMC cards.
    Oh no, wait, it sells like hot cakes.
    And, of course, you can record phone calls and ambient noise (that's called "dictaphone") with it. And I, for one, find it a lot more easy to deal with the management of only one battery.
    I don't get your point with regards to pausing the mp3 during a phonecall - I guess that's a feature that shows why convergence is good: if I receive (or make) a call, the mp3 is automatically paused and resumed after the call.

    --
    Real life is overrated.
  7. Before You Say 'Another Useless Gadget'... by fupeg · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Go down to your local mall and its food court. Take a look at the teenagers down there and what they are doing. There has become a huge culture built around cell phones -- talking (of course), text messaging, picture mail, wallpaper, and especially ring tones. I've seen primetime TV ads lately for companies selling animated cell phone wallpaper. It's big business. The iPod, as amazingly popular as it is, is just starting to become a fixture of youth culture. So there just might be some serious money to be made in the convergence.

  8. Re: Keeping the quarterly numbers up by DarkVader · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yes, but I like those features fine.

    I want a big one.

    Nobody makes a phone big enough for me anymore. i want a phone that extends from my ear to my mouth, and can rest comfortably on my shoulder. I'm not interested in putting it in my pocket, I'll clip it to my belt, thanks. But I'm sick of small telephones.

    Oh, and one more little feature that I want - GOOD VOICE QUALITY. I can almost live without big for that one.