Cell Phone Hub

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A ringtone is a sound file that is played by a cellular or a mobile phone. This concept was introduced to give a unique ring to a mobile phone so that it can be distinguished in an environment that has many cellular phone users.

These ringtones are normally melodious in nature and are played to convey an incoming call or a message. Due to technological advancement of cellular phones over standard fixed line phones, they can be better personalized to suit ones tastes. With more and more options of ringtones coming up, this form of content is helping the mobile hand-set market grow. Ringtone content has become an USP in selling of a mobile phone.

Ringtone popularity

Mobile phone ringtones, along with operator logos, have been the easiest way to personalize a mobile phone. Many new models of mobile phones also have features that allow users to create their own ringtones. Most people tend to enjoy this process of personalization and a few find ringtones an irritant in public places.

There are many companies that make and sell ringtones, mostly through websites. In many countries of Asia, television advertising has become very popular to sell ringtones pertaining to songs or music being played. The flip of website advertising is that these companies want customers to be committed for a particular period, and is not popular with most customers. The sale of ringtones has not only boosted the mobile phone sales but also the bottom lines of recording companies as a way earning of royalties.

Types of Ringtones

There are three distinct types of ringtones: monophonic ringtones, polyphonic ringtones and music ringtones.

Monophonic Ringtones
Monophonic cellular phone ringtones are very simple and are compatible with most of the mobile phones in use. It comprises of a series of sequential tones at varying frequencies.

Polyphonic Ringtones
Polyphonic ringtones can be played on mobile phones which are capable of playing 16 tones simultaneously. The combination of these tones creates a harmonic melody. Polyphonic ringtones are more musical and carry better presence than a monophonic ringtone. New advanced mobile phones support polyphonic ringtones.

Music Ringtones
Music ringtones are often referred to as voice tones, realtones or true tones. They use original pieces of music along with lyrics, exactly as the original recording. The format is usually MP3, WAV, WMA, etc This feature and support for music ringtones is being built into most new models of almost all manufacturers..

Finding Ringtones & Ringtone Compatibility
One can find a lot of websites that offer free ringtones which can be downloaded directly to your mobile phone. Paid websites allow subscriptions or charge on a per ringtone basis. Before one opts for downloading a ringtone, it should be ensured that the ringtone would work the mobile phone model. One should also check whether the website has rights of distribution for the ringtone, since the maker is supposed to receive royalty for use of the ringtone.

technorati: ringtones, cellphones, mobile, cell phones, tones.

Usually students prefer funny ringtones over the ones based on original movie soundtracks. Most of the ringtone sites carry quite a lot of these. The original site of nextel ringtones also has quite a range of these ringtones.

Filed under: Cellphones

We figure peeps who've placed their orders through Verizon's site for Motorola's new gotta-have-it clamshell need a little reading material to pass the time while they wait for the good folks in the shipping industry to make their phones materialize -- so without further ado, we present PC Magazine's take on the Motorola K1m MOTOKRZR (pictured right). While the K1m is undoubtedly a fabulous-looking flip, PC Mag seems to share the same brooding, mildly pessimistic view we do: it's essentially a V3m in a narrower, shinier package. On the plus side, the new dimensions apparently make the phone both easier and more comfortable to hold against the ear, battery life is top-notch with just over five hours of tested talk time, and the microSD slot means many owners will be able to carry over their investments in memory expansion from prior phones. Sadly, signal strength doesn't quite match that of its older sibling, and the UI is typical Verizon fare -- no Flash here, a la the VX8500 Chocolate -- though it does share the Chocolate's tricky-to-use touch sensitive controls. In the end, it seems the K1m ends up setting the standard once again for mobile industrial design, while simultaneously managing to fall further behind in the spec sheet race.

 

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SPONSORED BY: BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time.

Filed under: Cellphones, Media PCs

While various solutions do exist for setting up recording times with your WMCE box remotely, we're not sure many of them could match Casey's new mobileRecord MSN chat bot for sheer geekery. Basically, it allows you to ping your WMCE unit via MSN Messenger with a last minute reminder to record those primetime soap opera episodes you forgot to program -- which sounds great as long as it doesn't get some sort of attitude. After a couple of questions to make sure it's on the right track, the bot takes over and schedules the recording for Media Center. The general idea is for use with a smartphone, but you can message from another desktop just as well. Apparently, the software also supports voice recognition using the Speech Server 2007 beta, which would allow you to just phone in your recording requests, but since Speech Server has been delayed until next year, it looks like it'll be all text requests for now.

[Via MAKE]

 

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SPONSORED BY: BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time.

Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio, Portable Video

Today's discerning consumer can no longer be satisfied by a mere peel-and-win game on their box of fries, now it takes 10 flat-screen TVs and a sound system to keep those burger lovers coming back. McDonalds has started to roll out a new m-Venue system to franchisees, which provides music and videos to customers via text-messaging and WiFi. Users can select the video content they'd like burned into their retina by the in-store big screens via text message while they chow down on fries, and can purchase ringtones, video, wallpaper and games for download as well. This new effort definitely isn't the first attempt at getting customers into McDonalds for more than the meals, but positive reaction at pilot stores might mean this idea is a bit less ill-fated.

[Via The Wireless Report]

 

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SPONSORED BY: BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time.

Filed under: Cellphones

Throwing an iPhone rumor to the gadget-obsessed is a fair bit like burning paper in a fireplace -- sure, things will flare up for a few seconds, but shortly thereafter the flames calm back down again. We recently caught wind of the fact that the new iTunes 7.0.1 update is packed with a bunch of text strings that say things like:" 4301.022" = " ^0 was not copied because the video format is not supported by the mobile phone ^1 ."; and so forth, implying that an iPhone is forthcoming. Now remember, we've seen similar language embedded in Apple software before, but we've yet to see an actual product, although the internet's Magic 8 Ball as of late seems to be pointing to Macworld Expo 2007. But then again, we've heard for months now that our friends in Cupertino are working on such a device, with everyone and everything from analysts to patent filings saying as much; so we're just hoping that Apple is waiting until it's good and ready to release it. For all you Apple and iPhone fanboys, take a moment to do a little jig, and then resume your daily routine.

Read - iLounge
Read - Mac Rumors

 

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SPONSORED BY: BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time.

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds, Laptops

We've been overdue for a lithium-ion successor since forever, and we can't deny the urgency has been bumped a notch by the recent spat of battery explosions. Of course, many have pretended to the throne, but newcomer Zinc Matrix Power thinks their new silver-zinc battery packs really have a shot. They just unveiled the tech at the Intel Developers Forum, and they claim their batteries are safer, longer lasting and more environmentally friendly than those lithium-ion clunkers. As much as we treasure our lap in an intact form -- which silver-zinc provides for due to a safer "inherent chemistry" of silver, zinc and water -- we're especially happy to hear of the "significant" performance gains over lithium-ion, because if there's anything we hate worse than shrapnel in the upper thigh, it's running out of battery mid-way through a high-scoring game of Snood on a cross-country flight. We suppose easy recycling wouldn't suck either. Zinc Matrix says they'll have the new power cells in the hands of device manufacturers for evaluation in early '07, so hopefully we won't have too long of a wait.

[Via Tech Digest]

 

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SPONSORED BY: BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time.

Filed under: Cellphones, Wearables

Sony Ericsson and Fossil didn't just get their hands dirty with a single power-user Bluetooth watch, it turns out they have 'em for the unwashed masses as well. On the left we have the Fossil Caller ID FX6001, while they other two answer to ABACUS MobileWear AU6001 and AU6002. Unfortunately, these watches look to be lacking any sort of music playback controls, and are still beholden to Sony Ericsson compatibility -- though it doesn't seem like it'd be too hard to hack up a phone from a different manufacturer for some Bluetooth watch fun. The good news is that these watches are headed straight for the States, on the cheap. The FX6001 will be available in late October for $250, while the AU6001 and AU6002 will be out in mid-October for $200, with some UK and Germany availability as well. Friends, these are good days to be in possession of a wrist.

 

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SPONSORED BY: BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time.

Filed under: Cellphones

Whoa Nellie. The folks who scooped Disney's ESPN-branded cellphone service -- MobileESPN -- are now calling for "big changes" in the MVNO. According to Rafat Ali and Staci Kramer who cite "numerous sources," the doomed MobileESPN MVNO is set for "a phased winding down/transition, or getting sold" outright this week, just before Disney's fiscal year draws to a close. A spokeswoman for MobileESPN confirmed an announcement was coming, most likely on Thursday, and that staff would not be laid off this week contrary to rumors. Merrill Lynch already asked Disney to pull the plug in a research note published back in July estimating that MobileESPN had only snagged 30,000 of the 240,000 anticipated subscribers since its Superbowl launch representing a loss of some $135 million for The Mouse. All this is potentially bad news for the likes of Amp'd Mobile and Helio who may be in for an MVNO backlash on The Street where investor sentiment is already pretty low. Oh BJ, not you and the Bear too?

Update: Just minutes after we posted the article above, Disney officially dropped the ax on MobileESPN, and the happiest place on earth is just a little bit gloomier today. According to an open letter on the MobileESPN homepage, cellular service will stop as of December 21st, although all that great content that you handful of subscribers have come to enjoy day in and day out will soon be available through one of the major carriers. Meanwhile, existing customers are free to drop the service anytime before the end of the year without penaltly, and once your bills are all paid up, the soon-to-be-defunct MVNO will refund the full cost of your handset. Epitaph: MobileESPN, we had such high hopes for ye, but your glass jaw made a first round KO inevitable. R.I.P, sweet, failed telecom experiment.

[Via GigaOM]

 

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SPONSORED BY: BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time.

Filed under: Cellphones

Just as expected, Verizon is busting out Motorola's KRZR K1m sexyphone today. The 0.6-inch thick, 1.73-inch wide clamshell features a microSD slot, 1.3 megapixel camera and Bluetooth -- just like always -- and of course the flip is shiny as ever. All this MOTOKRZR purty-ness can be yours for $199.99 with a 2-year contract, or $249.99 for a single year of Verizon servitude.

[Thanks, Sean T.]

 

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SPONSORED BY: BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time.

Filed under: Cellphones, Displays

We know you love your cellphones thin and hopefully, rigid so check the world's thinnest TFT-LCD panel just announced by LG.Philips. Measuring a mere 1.3-mm, the panel is 32% slimmer than the current gen of TFT-LCDs and about 0.2-mm thinner than those ultra-slim OLEDs. The new LCD should allow manufactures to dip below that 6.9-mm crown held by Samsung's SGH-X820 yet up the display brightness from 300 to 400 nits. So let's see, a conservative 0.6 less of 6.9-mm means we're looking at a 6.3-mm (0.25-inch) thick phone. Hear that Sammy, we'll expect nothing less, er, we mean more.

[Via Telecoms Korea, Thanks Fred for math lesson]

 

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SPONSORED BY: BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time.