Since I'm sure it will be covered ad nauseum by every publication over the next few days, I'll keep my summary of the new Moto ROKR E1 iTunes phone brief... BORING!!

I'll take a 4GB black iPod nano please... same $249 price (actually 99 cents cheaper), no two-year service contract, lots more storage (1,000 songs vs. 100).

As expected, the ROKR E1 is just a minor update to the E398 - white instead of black plastic and an iTunes button. I've already got an E398... wonder if I can get the iTunes software for it?

It seems clear that Moto has several more iTunes models on the horizon. And I wouldn't be surprised if Apple is working with other handset vendors as well. Hope some of those are more revolutionary than this one. I would love to see a Nokia Nseries model that supported iTunes, but I think an Apple / Nokia partnership of this nature is unlikely considering their similar brand aspirations.

A couple of specific nits about the ROKR E1...

Use of TransFlash memory format sucks. This format is not as widely used, so higher price per MB than miniSD and harder to find. Good thing Cingular seems to be including a 512MB card.

Although the ROKR E1 commercials make it appear otherwise, I'm a bit concerned that the product descriptions make it seem like you have to manually pause the music when a call comes in:

• "Pause music when you need to take a call" - Cingular's site


• "You can even pause the music when your phone rings, so you won’t miss any incoming calls" - Apple's site

This should happen automatically... incoming phone calls trump everything on a phone. Period.