iTunes On Your Cellphone? It May Have Already Arrived

Posted by Rob Stevens Categories: Smartphones, Portable Audio / Video

The Apple news just keeps on comin’.  When Apple released their newest version of iTunes two days ago, it was mere minutes before people discovered a hidden ability to sync to what was being called an “iTunes Phone”.  Rumors of Motorola launching an iTunes phone, likely to be called ROKR, have swirled around the Internet for months, and the sync ability signaled that the launch of the new phone could be any minute now.

Or has it happened already?

Business Week is reporting that Motorola will launch an entire series of iTunes compatible phones by the end of the year, a very aggressive schedule.  The first phone will launch through Cingular, which could even see an exclusive on the new phones and service for a period of time.  But if there is to be an entire line of phones, surely Cingular couldn’t be getting them all, right?

Sure enough, AppleInsider is reporting that some existing Motorola handsets can already communicate with iTunes 4.9, are recognized as an “iPod Phone”, and when connected to a computer, will launch iTunes and prompt the user to name the connected device, similar to a new iPod being connected for the first time.  Songs can be transferred to the phone, but the software to play the songs through the phone is still dormant, perhaps waiting for an update to the phone firmware.

In other Apple news, in the past two days, Apple’s Podcasting feature has attracted over one million subscriptions, a blistering pace to be sure.  Many people that couldn’t be bothered to get involved in the world of podcasting until now are finding the feature to be easy to use: a hallmark of the iPod.  All of this success does not come without problems, however, as some reports are coming in that some of the podcasting servers (hosted by the creators, not Apple) are having difficulty keeping up with their newfound listenership.

Read More | Business Week
Read More | AppleInsider