Prepare for the iTunes phone media blitz

If you want to hear all about the new iTunes cell phone, you won't have to go far.

Cell phone giant Cingular is hitting the airwaves, billboards, magazines and Internet with a barrage of images and video focused on selling the Apple/Motorola device officially known as the Rokr E1.

The phone, announced this morning at an Apple press event in San Francisco, goes on sale this weekend for $249 with a two-year contract. It carries 100 iTunes-compatible songs that you can only download through a computer.

Ralph de la Vega, chief operating officer at Cingular, said his company would target both English and Spanish consumers with television commercials showing young people casually walking down the street alternating between listening to music and taking a phone call. Their shadows reveal their inner need to dance and jump around.

Cingular's billboard displays will be decked out in Apple iPod colors with catchy phrases that fuse musical group names and cell phone activities.

Keep an eye out for "KISS and tell," "Smashblabbermouth," and "Mathew Sweet talk" on a street corner near you.

Reading a magazine anytime soon? Cingular is investing there as well, with full page ads that suggest that "Elvis may have left the building but now you can get him on the phone."

While Apple is happy to support Cingular's efforts, Apple CEO Steve Jobs revealed an Apple commercial highlighting the new iPod Nano.

The scene focuses on a hand waving the music player around and playing keep away with other hands that invade the screen.