Motorola dumps Apple for Linux

PHONE GIANT Motorola has dumped Apple's iTunes, and a lot of its technical problems, from its ROKR E2 phone.

Its predecessor the E1 was touted as the easiest-to-use music phone ever, thanks to its "seamless integration" with Apple's iTunes jukebox.

It even had a joint launch with Apple's Steve Jobs and Motorola bigwigs. But the relationship between Motorola and Apple was a bit strained because Jobs' Mob insisted that the phone come with a 100-song limit.

Also the phone didn't really look sexy enough for the Apple crowd and the whole thing bombed.

The ROKR E2 comes in black and white and is a bit more rounded. It transfers music using a faster USB 2.0 rates rather than USB 1.1 and it doesn't have a limit on songs.

It also runs on Linux, uses an Opera Web browser, has a higher res screen, a 1.3 megapixel camera with video recording, a built-in FM radio, Bluetooth (including wireless music streaming to stereo Bluetooth headphones), and a standard stereo headphone jack that takes music-player headphones, not cell-phone headphones.

On the whole it is a better bit of kit and it will be roughly the same price.

To replace the lost iTunes, Motorola says that the E2 will use the iRadio Music Service. More at PC Mag, here.