Motorola dumps Apple for Linux

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.