Apple Wins Big With Little Nano

The longevity of the Motorola Rokr E1, the iTunes phone Apple showed off, isn't nearly as certain. This fusion of Apple's software and Motorola's hardware -- sold only by Cingular for $250, with a two-year contract -- is a mobile mediocrity, phenomenally unworthy of the hype built up before its arrival.

The Rokr isn't even the first phone to play songs downloaded from a major online music store -- phones with Microsoft's Windows Mobile software already do that. It is the first to support iTunes, but it does so about as awkwardly as possible.

Copying music from your computer -- either Windows 2000 or XP or Mac OS X 10.3 or 10.4 -- will take about an hour, thanks to the phone's poky USB 1.1 plug. (Although Motorola couldn't be bothered to add a USB 2.0 connection, it did find the time to put in speakers that provide all the thump of a clock radio.) The iTunes software in the Rokr accepts only 100 songs, even if the phone's 512-megabyte memory card can hold more. And you can't download songs over the air to the Rokr, should inspiration strike while you're away from your computer.

Without a Click Wheel, controlling iTunes on the Rokr requires flicking a tiny joystick back and forth -- then waiting as this program haltingly moves from one screen to the next. The phone's screen doesn't just dim but shuts off if you don't touch its controls every two minutes or so -- although the Rokr is smart enough to pause music playback when a call comes in.

Even as a phone, the Rokr is a bit weak. It offers excellent battery life -- 16 1/2 hours of music playback -- but it buries its Bluetooth wireless capability so deep in its interface that it took me a week to stumble across it. It leaves out any software to synchronize a Windows PC's address book, though Apple's built-in iSync software can do the job on a Mac.

To go with the iPod Nano and the Rokr, Apple released iTunes 5, the latest edition of its digital music program. (The old 4.9 version also supports these new models.) Beyond offering a refreshed, slightly more angular appearance, iTunes 5 can group playlists inside folders, allows more ways to focus a search and shuffle songs for random playback, provides parental controls to block access to explicit songs in the iTunes store (or to the store itself), lets you store song lyrics, and adds a more efficient "variable bit rate" advanced audio coding format to its menu of CD-importing choices.

In addition, the Windows version of iTunes 5 can synchronize Microsoft Outlook or Outlook Express contacts files and Outlook calendars to an iPod. But if you run a current version of Outlook, you'll have to click past numerous security warnings before iTunes can get your schedule on your iPod.

More awkward moments ensue when you try to manage your music library, since iTunes 5 lumps podcasts in with songs. One of its most important settings, the CD-importing format, now lurks behind an "Advanced" heading in the Preferences window -- and you'll want to double-check this after upgrading, as the new software alters some custom MP3 format settings.

Some Windows users have reported more serious, systemwide issues with installing iTunes 5; Apple announced last week that it was working on a bug-fix update to the Windows version.

Since the first iPod, Apple has maintained an impressive winning streak in the music business. Sloppy releases such as iTunes 5 -- not to mention outright duds such as the Rokr -- can put that in jeopardy. But as long as this company can invent products with the art and utility of the iPod Nano, it should continue to be successful.

Living with technology, or trying to? E-mail Rob Pegoraro atrob@twp.com.