Motorola ROKR

If you're looking at the ROKR, I'd also suggest you look at the Sony Ericsson W600. It doesn't integrate with iTunes, but it doesn't have a 100 song limit, seems to be a generally nice phone than the ROKR.

http://www.phonescoop.com/phones/phone.php?p=761

 

I think there is a new Razr with itunes on the way Razr V3i due out soon but have not seen any definate dates... I just dought a Razr V3 today, old sprint phone crapped out and figured I would go with one that will work with the Prius. Good luck on your decision.

 

Cingular will be carring the SE within a week or two. And you don't need anything other than a PC or Mac to put MP3s onto the phone or move them off. I don't know about the new SLVR + Itunes, but it definitely is a better phone than the ROKR.

 

If you're referring to the Sony/Ericsson phone I mentioned above, there is one big difference and a few minor differences.

The big difference is there is no limit on the number of songs you can have on the SE phone. With the ROKR you are limited to 100 songs. With the SE you can have as many songs as you have memory. The SE also is USB 2.0, so if you're going to move music to it, it should be much quicker than the ROKR (USB 1.1).

The SE also has a slightly nicer camera (1.3 MP vs VGA) and it supports EDGE which means higher data rates if you do any mobile browsing or messaging.

The only bad thing about the phone is the lack of memory expansion. You have to step to the next model up for that. The ROKR lets you expand memory as much as you want, but you're still stuck with that 100 song limit. The ROKR also syncs with iTunes, where as the SE is just a "drag and drop" deal to add your MP3s to the phone. If you have a lot of iTunes purchased songs, you'll need a ROKR or a SLVR + iTunes to really take advantage.

The ROKR (and I'm not sure about the SLVR + iTunes) also has crippled BT, no doubt on Apple's request. I figured I should mention that because Cingular doesn't normally cripple phones and it could be a rude shock to anyone who doesn't know it will be crippled.

One final edit/thought: Unless you need iTunes sync, there are tons of phones that will happily play MP3s. I have a Nokia 6620 (replaced by the 6682) with a 512MB card in it. I also have a nice MP3 player in it, and it does the job just fine. It's also an EDGE phone, and I've got RealPlayer on it, and it does streaming audio and video just fine (it's neat to watch BBC news when you're waiting for a flight or otherwise stuck sitting around). It also does full email, runs a genesis emulator, and so on. Fors a geek phone, you can and will not do better than a Nokia phone running Series 60.

 

SLVR == non flip version of the RAZR. It looks really nice, but again it's not a flip. Supposedly the iTunes version will support bluetooth headphones, which would be sharp. There's also a PEBL coming out, which is a rounder version of the RAZR. Motorola's names are IMO, CRAP.

The manager is very much mistaken. You absolutely would not need a vaio to make it work. Why on earth would SE do something so stupid as to sell a phone that only a very specific (and not very popular computer) will work with. It's just a mass storage device, drag and drop your MP3s and you'll be fine. Review is available here : http://www.mobileburn.com/review.jsp?Id=1781&source=BROWSER

The ROKR does not support OBEX exchange via bluetooth (my guess is apple didn't want people sending and receiving songs). That's what I was referring to by crippled bluetooth.

 

OBEX is the acronym for Object Exchange. It is required in order to transfer data from the phone to the Prius phone book.

Wireless Glossary

 

Unfortunately, it is not possible to manually enter names and phone numbers into the Prius phone book. You can save up to seventeen numbers (but no names) from the incoming and outgoing call logs to the One Touch speed dial screens. Some creative members have associated points of interests in the Navigation system with phone numbers. There are instructions elsewhere on the site on using a Bluetooth equipped laptop computer to populate the phone book.

 

You can also transfer a phone book using a PDA

 

<hijiack thread>

I have two sony cameras - a Mavica CD-350 and a F-828. Both use standard Mini USB connections. I use the same cable for my palm pilot and my flash reader. The charging cable is specific to sony cameras, but my chargers work on both cameras. I might note that my HP laptop, Dell laptop, IBM laptop and Sony laptop all use completely different, (and in the Dell's case proprietary) power cords. My iPod is the only USB device I own that doesn't use a standard cable for communication.

The F-828 camera supports both memory stick and Compact Flash. The Mavica will use a CD from any manufacturer, though it does give a warning message for non Mavica CD brands. Both cameras use the same form factor battery, the Info-Lithium, which also works with all Sony camcorders. By and large, Sony does a good job making compatible equipment.

A Sony phone will work with any brand of computer that has USB.

</hijack thread>

 

They could have been misinformed, or they could be trying to sell you a phone that's available now as opposed to one that's going to be available in a few weeks.

And keep in mind you can use *any* GSM phone that uses Cingular's frequencies. You don't necessarily have to go through their store.