Apple Rokr phone and new iPod Nano announced
September 7, 2005 by Mike Wendland
As expected at today’s press event in San Francisco, Apple’s Steve Jobs introduced the ROKR E1 phone - which holds 100 songs and works like the iPod Shuffle. As with the Shuffle, you can choose the songs you want to sync or let iTunes choose them for you ? autofilling your phone with a random selection from your iTunes music library. Music is transferred via USB. The music stops if you get a call while listening. It works with both Macs and PCs and costs $249 with a two-year contract from Cingular, the exclusive U.S. provider.
Jobs also announced an update of the iTunes music program and a brand new iPod, the super slim iPod Nano to replace the iPod mini. It works with flash memory, instead of a hard drive and that’s why it’s so slim. It’s about the width of a pencil. The nano comes in two versions. The 2 GB version (500 songs) costs $199, a 4 GB version (1,000 songs) $249. It has a color screen, too.
For complete coverage of everything Jobs had to say, check out Macworld: Apple Special Event announcements.
Weigh in under comments with your thoughts on these announcements.
iTunes phone is a big dissapointment. $250 with 2/yr service agreement and it only holds 100 songs. And the phone design is not Apple like.
The phone is what I expected and not for me. The Nano, OTOH, is just what I’ve been waiting for. It’s already ordered.
I’ll pass on the phone. I’ve got a Treo since I need all the PDA type functions.
However, I ordered a 4gig nano the day it was announced. However they took a couple days to ship, so I ran to the mall and picked one up yesterday. I will tell you that it’s stunning. Photos look fantastic on the 1.5″ screen and the UI is really snappy.
Of course, audio playback is great, as always.
Now I have the dilemma of a second 4gig nano showing up on Monday that I don’t need.. thanks to my impatience.