Cingular debuts new iTunes phone, Moto's SLVR

Ever since the Motorola ROKR E1 cell phone debuted last September to lukewarm fanfare (only about 84,000 have been sold so far, as opposed to millions of RAZRs, according to In-Stat), fans of music-playing cellphones have been waiting for something BTTR. Well, Moto's SLVR L7, which Cingular started selling yesterday for $199 with a two-year contract, probably isn't it. Although, like the ROKR, the SLVR also includes iTunes, it keeps the same 100-song limit and the oh-so-last-year way of transferring music — via USB cable. I mean, if the thing has Bluetooth anyway, why bother with cables? And don't get me started about the phone not being able to buy songs from iTunes directly (you download to your computer, then transfer) or use the songs for ringtones. The SLVR is, however, almost half as thick as the ROKR, following the path laid out by the mega-popular skinny RAZR. Moto is supposed to come out with a new version of the ROKR later this year, but word on the street is it may not feature the iTunes brand.