The ROKR entered into my posession this Saturday. My wife and I visited the Cingular store in Dallas. Service was good, By Cingular standards. What I mean by this is that Cingular sells a commodity - phone service. Because the product/service is cheap, readily available and not unique, one usually learns to expect the same from the outlets that sell it. A fellow by the name of John helped out, and was later chastised in front of us for not up-selling bluetooth harder. We made it a point to thank him in front of his manager, as we just wanted to get in and out with a ROKR.

Because I had only been on a Cingular plan for 11 months, I couldn't just upgrade my current device - so I bought the phone - at about 100 Dollars more than the advertised 249 Dollars. I was familiar with the E398 model Motorola phone, so I knew the phone's pros' and con's. Pro's - good interface logic, great sound, preferrable weight and size, already built for MP3 playing. Con's - DAMN SLOW interface to the microSD card (this is an industry problem, not a Motorola problem - MicroSD is a cool miniaturization technology, but it's going to take industry geniuses to increase throughput to it as fast as we're used to in the world of gigabit ethernet), XP-like interface personalization options (Moto skin that comes default is sooooo XP). The familiarity factor was a big deal to me - I don't want a whole new learning curve for the integration of two technologies I already know well - iTunes interface and Motorola phones.

The hardware is E398 technology - Motorola's flagship MP3/Video playing phone. It's not the old E398 that's now running at under 250 Dollars - it's an upgraded E398 - 262k colors (a significant enhancement from the 62k of the early E398)and a better processor. The phone has a weight and size I really like. It's easy to handle. It's also just gorgeous to look at - The white and chrome industrial design really integrates well with the iTunes interface. For those who have been bashing it as a 'has-been' technology, I challenge you to find a 'bleeding edge' phone that has speaker sound or screen quality that's as good. Granted, I'm not going to be playing it much without headphones, but Motorola has outdone itself on built-in speaker sound, AND the E398 has already been in the market as an MP3 player-phone, so the technology is market-tested. The USB cord is a big white clunky thing. It was easy to hook up, but it seemed slightly out of place. The heaphones that come with the ROKR are excellent, and even though Cingular folks are told to up-sell ROKR buyers to Bluetooth headphones, Motorola's attention to detail on the default heaphones shows good planning. The ROKR comes with some very cool light and video options - the side grills reveal about 5 color options, and one can choose how those light up and when - a very nice aesthetic touch that turns your phone into a "Communications, Music Playing Glow Stick". :) The ROKR even carries MPEG-4 recording and playback ability - so, whether you're watching a downloaded music video or recording your own stuff, you'll get it in fantastic quality. Don't let anyone fool you on this one - for your money, you're getting one of the best screens on the market, and some of the best cell phone sound out there.

Aside from the new iTunes software on the ROKR, the firmware is basically an E398. Here's a photo of the E398. As well, here are some short Yahoo shopping reviews of the E398. You get the familiar interface logic, the familiar skin option styles, but you also get the ability to change those default options. It's time the Mac Fanatics, purveyors of tasteful interface design, begin influencing phone skinning - many skin options on the Motorola phones are nothing short of (F)ugly. Having said that, with about 10 minutes worth of work, I was able to turn off enough of the skin and theme options to make it look as gorgeous and clean as the iTunes interface. Motorola personalization options exist, and aren't hidden behind too many option as they are on other phones. The iTunes interface is familiar and beautiful. You get it in gorgeous color - the Motorola screens are just unbeaten in contrast and brightness, even outdoors. You get the album cover as well as the other iTunes song/track/album notes. Another nice touch - when you get a call, iTunes playing automatically pauses (One small suggestion to Firmware engineers for future releases would be that, once your call is done, the device should by default start playing again). The iTunes interface also carries over to your default screen (home screen) when it's active. It's obvious that the interface and hardware engineers worked well together on these issues.

USB TRANSFER IS SLOW AND AT TIMES UNPREDICTABLE! Make sure you're aware of some fundamental factors, or your initial experience will suck so hard that you might want to just take it back. First off, the microSD card is twice as thin as a credit card, and even though this is really good for cell phone makers, it's not so good when you start shoving the equivalent of a two-ton Hummer through a tunnel that was built for scooters. The E398 phone technology is good compared to other market standards, but when you combine the process of transferring half a gygabite of information through a USB cord into the card through your phone, you're using a pipe that was never built with that in mind. If you intend to rotate all of the 100 song options regularly, either learn to be patient, (as in 30 minutes to an hour patient) or buy yourself a small flash card reader, then dump your songs through it instead. Also, my ROKR wasn't fully charged or AC plugged in when I began transferring my 100 song collection - bad idea - during the 45 minute process of transferring the 100 songs from iTunes, the connection was lost twice when I picked up the phone and started messing with it - I had to start over. Unless all songs are transferred completely during your transfer, the ROKR won't see any. I'm willing to live with this - I'll probably be changing one to two on occasion, but rarely will I be switching the whole batch. Apple Care has now released some pretty thorough notes on this and other issues.

Let's not forget Bluetooth and Mac syncing. It was seamless, painless, and quite frankly, pleasant. I set the ROKR to 'Find Me' mode, then set my Mac to discover new bluetooth devices - it found it, synced with my address book and iCal data with breathtaking speed and ease. Another integration suggestion - Delicious Monster Syncing with the ROKR would be very cool - I'd love to see book covers from my collection on there as well!

I love the ROKR - it fits my needs just perfectly. I already have a U2 iPod, but I wanted a better cell phone that would allow me to listen to my favorite tunes on the road. Sure, the U2 iPod can do this for me, but there are times I'd just rather not be carrying yet another extra gadget. It's a first-generation-integration technology, so there are glitches that I can live with. The ROKR is solid hardware design. There's alot of 'proven' technology here, which is why others are complaining, but why I am thankful and appreciative - Motorola chose to use some of it's more stable and market-tested technology. The phone is wonderful to look at, and the iTunes interface is familiar in all the right ways. This is it's selling point to me. Software integration is seamless. First Gen Firmware will be upgraded, 1 gig MicroSD cards will come out, and this phone will continue to be worth every penny.

The ROKR suffers from a communication problem with my Mac. Then again, it's a brand-new conversation, and one that I'm looking forward to seeing evolve and improve.

It's amazing to me that so many smart people out there just don't get it. This isn't about the iPhone. It's not about hardware. It's about software - it's about iTunes ubiquity. iTunes, at its heart, is a medium for content delivery. Apple is expanding beyond the desktop platform in providing this content medium. Apple will soon expand beyond Motorola in providing iTunes to deliver content on cell phones. It could also expand beyond cell phones and into the game console market and other hardware. In the end, Apple's getting better at providing the right interface pipelines to creative content (iPhoto and iTunes, for example).

The ROKR is the beginning of Apple's strategy to expand their content delivery tools beyond the desktop. The big deal is that this is the beginning of Apple's migration in delivering content beyond your Mac or PC.

For those of you out there that actually prefer primary source materials, as opposed to emotionally laden editorials, please see the two below links.

Motomodder Forum site

Howardforums site