Sunday, December 7, 2008

What Makes Ringtones Fun?

By Gray Rollins

Landlines and cell phones have different ring tones. While most landline phones have only one ringtone (the familiar brrrrrring sound), cell phones give you a lot of options. The standard ringtone of landlines phones are rapidly becoming a thing of the past as more and more people make the transition to cellular.

Cell phone ring tones are commonly used to customize phones. Many cell phones are sold already loaded with a variety of ring tones; a lot of people just stick with the default ring tone, however and whenever their phone rings it makes the same old sound.

There are different kinds of ring tones available for you to select. There are monophonic ringtones, which are very basic - just one tone is plated at a time. These ringtones tend to be very simple. More popular than these are polyphonic ringtones, which offer many notes at once. Last of all and increasing in popularity is the true tone; these cell phone ring tones are created from a music file (MP3 or WMA) and are generally about 15 seconds of a song, usually the hook. You can customize your phone by assigning a different tone to each caller on your contacts list.

Promotions to sell ring tones are all over the place, super size it, get a free ring tone, add your name to an e-mail list, get a free ring tone, read this article and respond, get a free ring tone, kidding about that last one. Since ring tones are generally just a snippet of a song, charging $0.99 cents for one is an affordable bargain. If your phone has a recordable option, you can record somebody's voice or a distinct noise and make that your ring tone. Creativity is not just left up to a musical group; you can become your own performance artist.

Since your cell phone is a primary function of life then why not customize it to your tastes? There are so many ring tones available you can have one for every person who gets the privilege to be on your SIM card. Depending on who is on your cell phone contact list, you can give each person their own ring tone based on a song that you identify with them. College fight songs, wedding songs, just about any song you can think of they've got a true tone available.

I've got about five ring tones on my phone and I rotate them around. I keep one special for my wife and a different one for my son who just got a cell phone; he's 8 and technologically advanced. I've got a college fight song for a buddy and knowing whose calling saves you the hassle of answering a call from somebody who misdialed or from a call wanting to sell you something.

It's fun to pick out ring tones for the different people on your SIM card. People always talk about how technology has made the world a more impersonal place - well, cell phones are one aspect of our tech-obsessed culture where creativity and personality are alive and well!

You can create your own ring tone or buy one from a subscription site. Be careful with the subscription site though, you don't want to get stuck with a bunch of ring tones that don't reflect what you want to say or hear. There are some subscription sites that allow you benefit from their research based on your preferences. Sorry, I've got to cut this short, the ring tone titled, "From This Moment" by Shania Twain tells me my wife is calling. - 16492

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