Cool Hunting

The lastest in Motorola's line of music phones, the ROKR E8, has a new feature that (believe it or not) rivals the iPhone. The innovation is a little piece of tech called "localized haptic feedback," which makes pushing a button on the touch screen feel like actually pressing a button. This is achieved by a small vibration under the spot where you touch, and feels like the solid surface really is a button. It's a tactile capability that we at CH have often wished for and the experience of using it is nothing short of amazing—upon demoing it, I really thought it was a real button (and I'm not easily fooled).

Other features that make it a contender in the range of music phone devices include a touch-sensitive scroll arc (meaning you can use a touch wheel to scroll through songs, contacts and photos) and keypad buttons that automatically switch between numbers and icons depending on which feature (phone, camera, music player) is in use.

The E8 also adds a built-in FM radio with song recognition and other than the usual expected hardware, the phone has a 3.5mm jack, 2GB of internal memory and up to 4GB more with a card.

It's due to hit the market within the next few months.

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