It's official: ROKR E1 iTunes phone can only store max. 100 tracks

Motorola and Apple were masterfully oblique about this during yesterday's press conference, and oddly enough there's zero mention of the issue at all in any of the press releases we've seen, but we double checked with Motorola last night and got them to officially confirm that no matter big of a memory card you have, you can only transfer a maximum of 100 tracks to the new ROKR E1 iTunes phone. Our sources at Moto tell us that Apple had originally insisted on a completely ridiculous 25 song cap because of "licensing issues", and that the current 100 song limit was the compromise number they settled on. We prodded Motorola CEO Ed Zander about this at last night's launch event and his response was simply, "Ask Apple." Ironically, the ROKR E1 has a generic, non-iTunes, Java-based media player that can play as many MP3s as you have room for on your card.

[Adam @ Dec 19th 2005 12:19AM]

It's hard to know who is more pathetic:
- Apple for trumpeting this piece o' crap.
- Motorola for making this pile o' dung.
- Consumers for undoubtedly still buying this overprices schlock.
- Outlets across the Web for breathlessly parroting Apple's line about this yawner of a phone being revolutionary, exciting, yadda yadda.

[Arpad @ Dec 19th 2005 12:19AM]

i give it a max of 10 days after release until somebody patches the firmware...

[Bill @ Dec 19th 2005 12:19AM]

what a pile of poo !

[Mark @ Dec 19th 2005 12:19AM]

definately, #2... someone is gonna hack the firmware to allow as many songs as you can fit on the phone... not that i care or anything, i'm not getting one becuase i'm locked into a contract with SexTel (Sprint/Nextel)

[Dave Zatz @ Dec 19th 2005 12:19AM]

So I guess the hack will be to string together multiple songs in one file. Each file could be an album or small playlist. Assuming of course, that file size isn't artificially limited - after all folks may want to listen to audio books on this thing.

[TZK @ Dec 19th 2005 12:19AM]

mmm where is my mac cube.

[Phil @ Dec 19th 2005 12:19AM]

Why, oh why, didn't Apple team up with Nokia instead? The Nokia N91 with iTunes support would be so much better than this piece of junk...

[JerriCurl @ Dec 19th 2005 12:19AM]

The wait is over...I am in need a new phone and was waiting for the unveiling of the ROKR.

Now that I"ve seen it I'm buying something else!

[Callum @ Dec 19th 2005 12:19AM]

I was considering this (before I saw it, before I saw the UI, before I heard of this cap)... says something about me? Yikes, I'm not going to touch this with my P800's stylus.

[PeeBee @ Dec 19th 2005 12:19AM]

I just added this to the worst gadget flops of all time thread on the right.

[is @ Dec 19th 2005 12:19AM]

"Why, oh why, didn't Apple team up with Nokia instead? The Nokia N91 with iTunes support would be so much better than this piece of junk..."


Well, I can only assume thats what this is all about - the rokr was gonna be the other modal which had a harddrive and clickwheel (we could assume, from the design), but apple have delayed that to compete directly with the n91.


This is not an Ipod phone, which we were led to believe would be announced, its merely a phone running itunes. The ipod phone MUST still be to come, otherwise the n91 will trounce it completely.

Im still disaapointed, but am starting to hype myself up again for another announcement.

[tino @ Dec 19th 2005 12:19AM]

Wow Steve Jobs is gay!

OTOH, Motorola is lucky that Applelet them rebrand a two year old phone.

[skype_fan @ Dec 19th 2005 12:19AM]

Did you ever expect something good from Motorola ? They have been crap, they are crap they will be crap.

[Jeff @ Dec 19th 2005 12:19AM]

erm.... this isn't an Apple phone, it isn't anything. It's just a silver E398 with a java app that looks like iTunes and probably a 256 meg tflash card bundled with it.

It doesn't take much for iTunes to sync with a phone - hell, Mark/Space's MissingSync Smartphone enables me to sync tracks to my Audiovox SMT-5600 if I want to - but only to the internal memory.

This is more crap from motorola and a half-assed attempt by Apple. I have a couple friends who have RAZRs and they loooooooooove them but that phone isn't any better (functionally) than the v551 sitting unused on my desk.

[PXLated @ Dec 19th 2005 12:19AM]

It's not an Apple phone, it's a Motorola phone with iTunes.
I will buy an Apple designed phone, I won't buy this crappy looking thing.

[Tim @ Dec 19th 2005 12:19AM]

That video of the media event yesterday was funny. The Motorola guy that came out and started talking about how Motorola invented mobile music (a stretch) was the biggest dork I've ever seen at an Apple event. Especially when he put the ROKR to his shirt mic and started to fake dance. Very uncomfortable to watch.

The iTunes phone with Motorola is a big yank. All it is is a licensing deal for Motorola to brand iTunes and capitalize on Apple's brand name. Capped at 100 songs? Give me a break. This is the kind of thing that is insulting to we "consumers" to bring out with such fanfare that it's this great new technology or something. I've had music on my Treo for a couple years. Limited only by a # of cards.

[AlanJC @ Dec 19th 2005 12:19AM]

So apart from the sync with i-tunes bit, why exactly is this so new and cool? I had a 256mb MMC in my Nokia 6230 over a year ago listening to MP3's, and FM radio.

Sony Ericsson are also making a big deal over the W800 for it's music capabilities. It's not new, it's not original, it's getting pretty dull now considering nearly every phone with a memory card has been able to do this for some time now.

[Rocky @ Dec 19th 2005 12:19AM]

This thing is a total dog. Can't belive that Job trumpeted it. At least the phone doesn't have an Apple logo on it anywhere.

[Sam @ Dec 19th 2005 12:19AM]

"The Motorola guy that came out and started talking about how Motorola invented mobile music (a stretch)"

They invented the car radio.

[Tim @ Dec 19th 2005 12:19AM]

ROKR = DOA

[jorge @ Dec 19th 2005 12:19AM]

Hahahah.... this is the way for Apple is getting back at Motorola for screwing them over on computer chips!!!!!! Hahahhahah!!!!!!

[Tom Karches @ Dec 19th 2005 12:19AM]

yada yada poo crap ugly yada

whatever...i expected ugly....lets move along. The Pontiac Aztec of cell phones...

the RAZR is the only non-ugly phone that Motorola has designed. Go look at the crap they make for Nextel.

The 100 song limit keeps it from competing with the Nano. Otherwise you could load a 2G flash card and make it a Nano

what I thought was interesting, that no one mentioned, was that the ROKR can play MPEG-4 video. The screen is big enough for casual watching. having "stop making sense" on a phone like this would be awesome.

[Hank @ Dec 19th 2005 12:19AM]

Does anyone know of a head to head review of all of the music phones out now? So far, the Sony 750i/w800 looks like the best option.

[tennis guy @ Dec 19th 2005 12:19AM]

"Motorola invented mobile music (a stretch)"

It's not a stretch. Motorola did produce the first car radios, so yes they did in fact invent mobile music.
.
.

[Jake Clark @ Dec 19th 2005 12:19AM]

#19. . . just as a matter of principle, the only mobile music I know of prior to the car radio would be the traveling minstral, therefore I would have to say that Motorola was the first in the mobile music category

[Oscar @ Dec 19th 2005 12:19AM]

I was expecting something better. This phone doesn�t have anything special apart from the iTunes thing.

[tennis guy @ Dec 19th 2005 12:19AM]

"Motorola invented mobile music..."

Not only did they invent the car radio, the name Motorola was formed by joining "motor" with "victrola." So, their name literally MEANT mobile music at the time.

Not to say this phone doesn't suck, just clarifying things...
.
.

[[e-mail] @ Dec 19th 2005 12:19AM]

Worst gadget flop of all times?

[Kai Cherry @ Dec 19th 2005 12:19AM]

"Apple guy" here to say...

This thing is terrible. As far as a "pure music phone" goes (that is to say, not a pda-a-fied phone with a music player) the W800i spanks, stomps and trounces this...thing.

[Migs @ Dec 19th 2005 12:19AM]

People will still buy it for the "Apple" name. People who don't read Engadget.

[Dan @ Dec 19th 2005 12:19AM]

#12: "Wow Steve Jobs is gay!"

Oh no.. Don't go blaming this on us now! We are not that dumb!

[borg @ Dec 19th 2005 12:19AM]

Remember the Uproar?
that phone was awesome. once piece remote, earphones, headset. ok, only 128, and slow usb but that was 5 years ago. anyone wanna buy mine?

[paralipsis @ Dec 19th 2005 12:19AM]

Sorry. Apple has lost its way. I love my old iPod (as long as its battery holds out), but it is no longer ahead of the trend when it comes to portable music. If I still have to carry my iPod to listen to more that 100 songs, why buy thr ROKR?

I guess there are alot of people out there without a portable mp3 device, but even then, how many of those will be content with only 100 songs?

I guess I should start looking for a non-Apple alternative for to combining my phone and portable music device coz clearly Apple has no idea about customer reputation. Alot of people are going to remember this piece of crap, even if they release a superior alternative.

Not a good device.

[Dull @ Dec 19th 2005 12:19AM]

I still can't figure out why the only have a VGA camera on that thing, and no internal memory for music. T-mob would differently win this war if they would release the w800 in the states.

[Tom Karches @ Dec 19th 2005 12:19AM]

I'd rather velcro a nano to the phone I already have....

[Old Glory @ Dec 19th 2005 12:19AM]

Mmmmmmmmmm...It's just a jazzed up E398!

Get an iPod instead!

[Hugh Jass @ Dec 19th 2005 12:19AM]

It is what it is and for some it may be the ticket. For most, however, it may not be the way to go. The real solution is to integrate Bluetooth into the iPods.

[Doug @ Dec 19th 2005 12:19AM]

I got a question, my motorola e1 phone saids 50 song limit, but i see everywhere else saying 100 limit. Wat the ....? Someone wanan explain?

[Doug @ Dec 19th 2005 12:19AM]

I got a question, my motorola e1 phone saids 50 song limit, but i see everywhere else saying 100 limit. Wat the ....? Someone wanan explain?

[Meck @ Jan 1st 2006 6:35PM]

still havnt found a place to unlock the phone, but heres a cool hack. you can still axcess itunes on the phone even woithout a sim card. turn the phone on, enter the imei code "*#06# and the ime shoews up, then hit the itune button on the phone and there it is,

you can put songs on using itunes and still listen to them with out any sim card indside,.