iPod Motorola E790 Apple iTunes phone w/ Pic's

[Machead III]

Now THAT I would buy, although the inside views are a little awkward (pretty messy buttons etc.). At least a couple of billion times better looking than the first hunk of crap we saw. Hopefully that is either just a super-super-micro-mini low end version or a test device for the software.

 

[remingtonhill]

Call Quality

Hi

While they are getting better, can we make the phone part of it stupendous and than work on the extras?

You hit this nail on the head!

Cell Phones Suck! You can barely have a conversation with anyone because of the delay and digital effects. Sometimes it's nice though when the call drops during an uncomfortable conversation.

I won't talk on cell phones anymore. Unfortunately I have to talk with ******s daily on cell phones. And they have the nerve to get frustrated with me because I can't understand a damn word their saying due to the digitized distortion.

To all the chronic cell phone users who think they look aristocratic: Cell phones aren't cool anymore! This ain't the 80's! Cell phones are as outdated as Limos and pegged jeans.

 

[speleoterra]

You can't patent a name

Sorry, right....i used the wrong terminology. I meant...

"iPhone" is a registered trademark of Apple Computer and also owns the domain; iphone.org

Now back to my beer. Ahhhhhh.

 

[DeepIn2U]

Speaking of the PEBL, what ever happened to the SLVR? Is it due out at approximately the same time, or did the E398 steal its mojo?

Dude the E398 is more than a year old. The PEBL is being released in less than 2 months in 2 coats; DarthVader black suede coat like the V300's and in chrome.

My god, how long did motorola have in making this iTunes phone? (Lowercase pronoun intended until they get things straight) Although the E398 has good stereo speakers (with bass) and TransFlash/MicroSD - not my favorite too small easier to loose - its still a lower end phone. The menu is god-aweful (even with Flexing; dont ask) and the phonebook design is pityful.

Sure Apple didn't design this phone, but you cant help but think, with the success of the iPod, iPod Halo ->iMac G5; and now with Podcasting, that the view of Apple's iPod will diminish. People across the world & markets by phone s much faster than any other product, bar none! So this phones influence may impact the iPod lineup in perceived lack of quality. There are still many of us that haven't purchased an iPod as of yet, myself included but very very soon.

Seems that Motorola has been concentrating too much on the Razr lineup. I think this'll end up shooting themselves in the foot doing this.

 

[stephenli]

My god, how long did motorola have in making this iTunes phone? .......
Seems that Motorola has been concentrating too much on the Razr lineup. I think this'll end up shooting themselves in the foot doing this.

Yes. My god, what are they doing in such a long time?!
I have no doubt that Razr is a good design (though not my cup of tea), why not just made Razr equipped with iTunes?! E790 is a nightmare.

 

[s10]

iphone

don't want a phone with iPod functions... I want an iPod with phone functions!

 

[DeepIn2U]

Yes. My god, what are they doing in such a long time?!
I have no doubt that Razr is a good design (though not my cup of tea), why not just made Razr equipped with iTunes?! E790 is a nightmare.

Thats actually a much smarter idea; since the upcoming UTMS version of the Razr will include a TransFlash slot & 2MP cam. They should just make a version with say 1MP cam and TransFlash for the iPod phone. or just a competely new design altogether. Razr definately not my cup of tea either. I'll stick with Series60 phones.

 

[Machead III]

don't want a phone with iPod functions... I want an iPod with phone functions!

Amen to that bruv.

 

[cellnut]

Cing-Old Tech, VZW-New Tech...

Was about to point that out, verizon is old tech, they don't use GMA. But the rumors have been for Cingular anyway.

Sorry but it is just the opposite! Verizon & Sprint use new tech! They are the only 2 national carriers in America offering true broadband data services and are doing so over CDMA2000 EV/DO. This provides for average data speeds of 400-700 Kbps per Sprint's recent announcement!!!

Meanwhile, Cingular, is on pokey old GSM, not GMA as you stated... This is an 18 year old European technology.... It is noisy & sloppy (from an RF perspective)... Try putting your GSM phone near your cordless phone, TV or computer when making or receiving calls... and just watch and/or listen to the interference! Meanwhile, CDMA phones don't interfere at all!

This means that over-the-air iTunes downloads on Cingular's network will be; a. impossible b. take a horrendously long time to complete, c. not be the same bit rate as what is purchased from iTunes over a broadband connection. This is what's happeneing in Europe, the carriers are selling over the air downloads at 64 Kb, or even 32 Kb... Not exactly the kind of quality I'd be willing to pay for!

 

[mkrishnan]

Meanwhile, Cingular, is on pokey old GSM, not GMA as you stated... This is an 18 year old European technology.... It is noisy & sloppy (from an RF perspective)... Try putting your GSM phone near your cordless phone, TV or computer when making or receiving calls... and just watch and/or listen to the interference! Meanwhile, CDMA phones don't interfere at all!

Cellnut, most of what you said was spot-on, but two comments:

1) It's true the Cingular and T-mo use GSM, but Cingular overlays EDGE on GPRS. EDGE is not quite as nice as some of the CDMA-related 3G data solutions, but my understanding is that it has broader coverage (because it can use GPRS as a backup) and that when one is in a more urban area where real EDGE is readily available, it is closer to the speed of DSL than to 2G....

2) I have had the opposite experience with GSM as opposed to CDMA. Because US GSM phones operate at 1.9GHz, away from BT, 802.11, and microwave ovens' radiation, I've found GSM to be much better than CDMA for call quality. And I have heard other people say the same after switching. FWIW, I had SprintPCS for about four or five years, before their 3G services came out, and then switched to T-Mo purely because I wanted a specific phone, and not because I particularly wanted T-Mo or GSM. But I have been pleasantly surprised by the call quality of GSM in many circumstances.

 

[Marianco]

Just sell UNLOCKED phones!

Apple's iTunes phone does not need to have a wireless carrier's approval for it to work as long as it is a GSM phone (the ones with SIM cards).

All Apple has to do is to sell UNLOCKED versions of the iTunes phone (just as third parties do on eBay). This allows the phone to work with ANY carrier that uses GSM (essentially all of them!).

Then all the user has to do is place the SIM card of their existing phone into the iTunes phone. Then viola! It works! An unlocked phone is one which is not given a password which forces it to work only with a single wireless carrier.

Note that I am assuming that the user wants to download their music on iTunes then upload it into the iTunes phone via bluetooth or USB, rather than wanting to download music via wireless service. Of course if the iTunes phone has Java, conceivably, you can download a Java cell version of iTunes into the phone and download music from Apple itself via wireless.

Note that the most important thing is the users can use the iTunes phone irrespective of the wireless carrier's consent or not - so long as it is a GSM phone.

I just saw this at Engadget regarding the itunes Phone.

From Engadget :



http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000887049175/

 

[DeepIn2U]

No moto iPhone for me

Well the best example I've seen to an iPod, well mini really 4G, to having an iPod first then phone, or smartphone second is the upcoming Nokia N91.

4G Hard Drive for music, photos, etc.
12MB of RAM for running apps.
Nokia Series60 3rd Edition smartphone running Symbian OS 9.1 (of which may already be supported in iSync 2.1 or the next update).
Stereo Headphones, & speaker; You can use headphones of your choice.
2MP digital Camera with 20x zoom.
keypad is a slider like design with controls for using the music functions on top of the keypad.

 

[GregA]

Meanwhile, Cingular, is on pokey old GSM, not GMA as you stated... This is an 18 year old European technology.... It is noisy & sloppy (from an RF perspective)... Try putting your GSM phone near your cordless phone, TV or computer when making or receiving calls... and just watch and/or listen to the interference! Meanwhile, CDMA phones don't interfere at all!

GSM may have come out before Qualcomm released their CDMA stuff (I don't really know), but both GSM and CDMA have progressed significantly over time. Code-division technologies are being used in the 3G version of GSM, and SIM cards are in some of the 3G CDMA developments. The competition has been good for both.

As for GSM near a cordless phone, that's because a GSM phone divides its broadcast time to use 1/8th of the frequency. It transmits for 1/8 of the time, lets 7 other phones transmit, and repeats. This gives a stutter effect near other receivers, while CDMA doesn't divide by time, it has 8 (or more) phones transmitting at the same time, and the towers use the code to determine which phone is transmitting what. Both are good in different circumstances though I prefer CDMA.

 

[jayscheuerle]

Flip this...

Sure, it would be nice to have one of these the size of a flip phone, but come on.. They're ADDING an iPod to the phone, so it has to increase in size a bit, for the memory cards and their sockets, for audio processing circuitry, for USB ports. It's not like they're just adding some programming to the thing. iPods are ALREADY as small as they can get! Have you ever opened a Mini? The shuffle is already pretty minimalistic, so you should expect the volume of a shuffle to be added to whatever phone you're looking at. Heck, if you have a candy bar phone right now, just glue a shuffle to it! I just find it ridiculous to hear this clamor for more storage, better interface, a click wheel, etc. without realizing that there's going to have to be some size sacrifice for anything you want to add.