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Posted by Nick Broughall at 2:48 PM on September 4, 2008
The Gadget: Motorola's universal wired portable speaker, the MOTOROKR EQ3.
These days, most in-the-know folks would sooner eat glass than carry a Motorola phone. The company has shredded its reputation by failing to address basic interface design issues: freeze-prone software, head-scratching menus, keys that demand Herculean strength. It's baffling that such a venerable company could build such frustrating phones, considering the zillions presumably spent on development. How did Motorola make such a bollocks of its wireless division? Now that the company has annointed new wireless division chief Sanjay Jha, we surveyed former staffers for the inside scoop, as well as their advice on how to right the ship.
The Gadget: The Moto E8 ROKR is a candybar music phone that makes use of a touch-sensitive, haptic feedback panel on the bottom half of the phone. It's nearly buttonless, save for a few on the side.
Just like they did at last year's ceremony, Motorola is gifting 2008's Oscar nominees with personalised versions of its as-yet-unreleased ROKR E8.
Yeah, yeah, you probably think we are turning into a celebrity website, but, given the past few weeks of will they, won't they? speculation as to whether they are getting out of the handset market, this announcement means, IMO, one thing.
Looks like that Motorola ROKR E8 we first showed you a few weeks ago is fo' reals. In addition to that cool-beans backlit keypad, we're liking that "Omega Wheel" navigation device that makes it easy to jump around your music and menus. Plus, there are haptic controls that give your finger a little vibrating action whenever you press a key. Besides that coolness, the other specs are nothing surprising for this GSM/GPRS phone, giving you a 2MP camera, 2GB of internal storage, a microSD slot and an FM radio. And hey, there's a 3.5mm headphone jack that'll accommodate normal headphones. No pricing was announced but it will be rolling out in Europe in Q1 of next year. [Unwired View]
Following the leaky loo of the ROKR U9 is the ROKR W5, which is a quad-band GSM clamshell that has EDGE, Bluetooth, miniUSB, 20MB internal memory, a microSD slot, and a sad little 1.3-megapixel camera. It actually kind of seems like weak sauce, Mount Doom-inspired paint job aside. More details when we crib them, naturally. [Unwired View]
A new Motorola clamshell, the Rokr U9 has had pics and specs leaked online. And what do we think? Well, smoked mirror effects and ergo-pebble-cum-designer sex toy do not a zexy phone make. See for yourselves in the gallery, then ogle at the specs below.
These first shots of the Motorola Rokr E8 from zol.com.cn shows the unique keypad that Moto went with. Instead of regular keys, they've got little nubs that need to be back-illuminated. When you're dialing, all the keys are lit; but when you're playing music, the numbers are dimmed and only the music controls are bright. This could be even greater if the keys' backlit images could change in the background, but it doesn't seem like the E8 is advanced enough to do that. [Zol.com via IDNES via Phonearena]
Just like with the MotoRIZR Z6, Motorola is taking an old phone and placing the ROKR moniker on it, essentially turning it into a badged music phone. This time they're taking the Moto PEBL U9 and making it a Moto ROKR U9.
It's got RAZR2-like music controls, mini USB headphones (no 3.5mm jack), and the same round PEBL design. PhoneScoop is guessing that the "9" in U9 will mean this is going to have 3G, like other 9-series phones from Motorola, but it's still unconfirmed. [Phonescoop]
