Motorola to Show Off iRadio at CES

By Ed Oswald | Published January 3, 2006, 1:48 PM

Motorola on Tuesday unveiled its plans for iRadio, an upcoming subscription radio service. iRadio would first run on the company's forthcoming Rokr E2 cell phone, due out in October of this year.

However, in a possible sign of early trouble with the Apple-Motorola partnership, the phone will not include the iTunes music software. The company had promised more phones with the feature included, but so far only one has been announced.

Users would pay about $7 USD per month to access the service, although the cost may vary depending on provider.

The first iRadio phone would be able to hold about 70 hours of music, Motorola said. Altogether, 435 commercial-free radio channels across several genres. These channels could be downloaded from the computer and then transferred to mobile phones, cars, or home stereos.

No announcement has been made about which carriers have signed up to offer iRadio to their subscribers. The service could make carriers additional money, Motorola says, as they could sell wireless music downloads based on tracks users hear on iRadio.

The iRadio service, along with other Motorola technologies, will be shown off at this week's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Comments

View comments by with a score of at least

70HR of music, wow! But how about 70HR of battery usage for one charge?

Score: 0

|

I haven't seen specs on this phone yet but I skeptical that many consumer will find iRadio compelling. Without iTunes the Rockr E2 may be a bigger flop than the original Rockr has been.

Score: 0

|

Why would you want this?

A radio?

Score: 0

|

Comcast deal for NBC Universal is about content, not broadband

Although Comcast is certainly America's largest broadband provider, at least for PCs, in most regards, today's deal with GE may not impact the Internet at all.

The Black Screen Syndrome, or, Tech news in search of the apocalypse

Scott Fulton On Point: This is a story about something that should not have been a story, about something that at one time was a story.

Five compact digital camera myths and realities

This holiday 2009 primer offers tips on what and what not to look for in a compact digital camera.

Mark Russinovich on MinWin, the new core of Windows

The next version of Windows three years hence will likely build onto a significant architectural change implemented in Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2.

Android team updates 'Donut' and 'Eclair' SDKs

The Android SDK includes components which optimize app development for each version of the mobile operating system. Today, the 1.6 and 2.0 components got updates.

See ya later, WinMo: Microsoft's mobile strategy needs a reboot

Carmi Levy | Wide Angle Zoom: Hands up if you're considering upgrading to a Windows phone for the holidays...Anybody?

Online advertising evolves away from display, toward interactive software

Marketing departments and agencies are increasingly establishing positions for "creative technologists" who can steer designers and developers toward platforms that enable direct connections with consumers.

Google begrudgingly adjusts news crawling for paid publishers

If publishers want to make readers pay for news content, and thereby drive down its popularity and Google ranking, the company says, they can just go right on ahead.

Fee or free? Murdoch, Huffington square off over the cost of Internet news

Participants in an FTC workshop yesterday witnessed the two extremes of the Web news publishing debate, still centered on the issue of long-term profitability.

Security firm: Windows patches not responsible for 'Black Screen of Death'

On second thought, maybe that access control list thingie with the lockdown something-or-rather didn't trigger an alleged, perhaps non-existent, pandemic.

Apple settles with Psystar except for 'circumvention devices'

The fracas with the Florida clone computer maker might have ended today had Apple not have muddled the issue over a cheap piece of Psystar software.