Monday, December 22, 2008

Cell Phone Ringtones

By Gray Rollins

Ring tones are different between landlines and cell phones. The standard ring tone for a landline is a familiar sound, brrrrrrring. You've heard it in the movies and if your grandparents are keepers of the comfortable landline, they hear it every time you call them.

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.

Cell phones have a few types of ring tones to choose from. Some are monophonic which means that one note is played at a time, no frills, just a ring tone that alerts you that you have an incoming call. Another type of ring tone for a cell phone is called polyphonic; several notes are played as a musical run. The most popular is the true tone; this ring tone is often taken from a MP3 or WMA music file, usually lasting about 15 seconds and mostly taken from the chorus of a song or the most memorable part. The best part about a true ring tone is you can customize a different ring tone to each caller.

You see ringtone promotions everywhere these days; offers of a free ring tone in exchange for signing on to an email list or other conditions. However, you can get these ringtones for a mere 99 cents, which if you ask me is a better deal than signing up to get a deluge of email. If your phone has a recording function, you can even make your own ringtones by recording a sound, even the voice of the caller you want to assign the ringtone to.

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.

The creativity of personalizing a ring tone for everybody in your contacts makes shopping for ring tones a blast. If you live near somebody and all you ever hear is their personal ring tone give him or her a treat and let him or her call you while he or she is standing next to you. It will let them know what you get to hear and you can tell them why you picked that ring tone for them. As some technology becomes impersonal, cell phones are still continuing to allow you to make that little device a fun and effective tool.

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. - 16463

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