ROKR E1 images to Mac g5

May 15, 2006 11:16 AM

Help my friend download images captured from her Motorola ROKR E1 to her Mac computer.

She wants to transfer the images that she takes on her Motorola ROKR E1 onto her G5 running OS 10.4.6 which has iPhoto 2.0.1.
How does this work, if at all?
What else do you need to know to tell us what to do properly?

posted by UnclePlayground to technology (9 comments total)

Is she using Verizon?
posted by jca at 11:19 AM on May 15, 2006

Are we talking a ton of photos here?

I know nothing at all about direct connection to a computer, but most mobile services allow upload of the photos to the website.

From here, you could just upload them, go view them on your "my pictures" page of whatever your carrier is (i.e. sprintpcs.com) and right click each picture and do a "Save As"...

Not the ideal solution, but if nothing else is suggested, this should work just fine.
posted by twiggy at 11:19 AM on May 15, 2006

What happened when she plugged the thing into her computer?
posted by interrobang at 11:20 AM on May 15, 2006

I've never used the ROKR specifically, but every phone and provider I've ever used has had the ability to send MMS messages to e-mail addresses. just have your friend put his or her e-mail address as the recipient, and then it's just matter of saving the attachment to your hard drive.

of course, the service provider will probably charge your friend slightly for each MMS you send unless it's included in their monthly plan. if they plan on copying photos somewhat frequently, then it might be worth picking up a USB data cable or bluetooth adaptor and a copy of Mobile Phone Tools (although take it from me, it completely sucks).
posted by mcsweetie at 11:30 AM on May 15, 2006

She's using Cingular, not Verizon.
She would like to take a few pictures per week, or so. Is that a "ton"?
Computer does not recognize the phone as an external device when she plugs it in with the supplied cable. Just kinda sits there, taking up space on her desk.
So, she plugs it in as one would be expected to, and nothing happens. iPhoto does not recognize it as a camera, like iPhoto normally does with any other camera.
posted by UnclePlayground at 11:56 AM on May 15, 2006

UnclePlayground: I'd see if there's an upload to web option with Cingular like I have with Sprint. A few pictures a week is very easy to just go to the website and right click / save-as to get it to your computer.
posted by twiggy at 12:44 PM on May 15, 2006

The easy way to do this is to connect the phone as a bluetooth device. If your iMac doesn't have built-in Bluetooth, you can get a little D-Link bluetooth->USB adapter for about $30.

Once that's in place, you have to turn Bluetooth on in the phone. After that, the standard OS X Bluetooth software will walk you through the minimal setup needed to transfer files (pix) onto your HD.
posted by ikkyu2 at 1:42 PM on May 15, 2006

You can buy a cheap no-brand USB Bluetooth adaptor for like $10 (eg on eBay) and it will work just as well for this as the D-link one.

When you plug it in a new Bluetooth pane will appear in System Preferences. Click that, switch on "Show Bluetooth status in menubar". In the new Bluetooth menu make sure "Discocerable" is turned on. Then, on the phone, select "Send photo via Bluetooth" (I don't have a ROKR so can't comment on how to find this). Select the Mac as the destination, accept the file transfer on the Mac, and that's it.
posted by cillit bang at 2:22 PM on May 15, 2006

The way to do it is called "Bluetooth"

Macintosh HD -> Applications -> Utilities -> Bluetooth File Exchange

She can browse the phone and just drag the photos to her desktop. From "File" she'd want to choose "Browse Device" and then select her phone.

Uh, first of all, make sure that the two are paired. Get a Bluetooth adapter (D-Link one is nice) and then run the Bluetooth Setup Assistant.

Our CFO has a ROKR and I assisted him in setting up the exact same thing a while back.

Bluetooth totally rocks. It's dead easy on the Mac.
posted by drstein at 10:34 PM on May 15, 2006