In light of the recent announcement of Motorola’s phone division separating from the mother company, I feel strongly that the company should change their name into the coming year and brand themselves as something completely different.

If you ask me, if they want a complete redesign, Motorola Mobile Division should change their name. I mean, why not? They won’t be having any responsibilities towards the mother company. And guess what? Everyone will know that they are Motorola anyway. It may be all marketing. It may be hype, but an identity change is something Motorola needs to do to bring home the notion that they want a fresh start with already great successes in the market. They have good products - the ROKR logo has been tweaked to spell a serious music lifestyle niche for instance, and Moto needs to make an even bigger impact if they want to get back in the game.

In my last post I briefly mentioned how the ROKR E8 implements a technology called “Song ID.” This is an interesting new kind of database identification for wireless devices. It’s the first time I’ve seen it implemented on a device so let me tell you about it.

Have you ever had that experience where you just can’t sleep because you’re trying to remember the title of the song that’s playing on the radio? Like when the DJ plays this really great song you heard in a club and when he finally gets to announce the track name, a huge bus cuts you and drowns the audio from the car? Sucks ain’t it? I’m sure we can all relate. Motorola definitely can, so they’re doing something about it.

Song ID is very similar to how GraceNote DB identifies the track name and album art of a CD when you insert it onto a computer to rip. If there’s a song playing on the radio or the immediate ambient environment, all you need to do is launch the Song ID application of your ROKR E8 and hold the phone close to the sound source. The phone will record a small 10kb file for 15 seconds and pass it via GPRS or EDGE or whatever and send you back an SMS of the song title and artist.

Wow. Thanks Motorola for helping us sleep well

I was able to handle the Motorola ROKR E8, Motorola’s third iteration of the ROKR series. The design and feature highlights include a glass surface with a “virtual” keypad, the new Song ID feature, and the patented FastScroll navigation.
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