[Eric Lin]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/07/07/ntone07.xml&secureRefresh=true&_requestid=40397

"They go off everywhere: infuriating trills that can make half a dozen people reach simultaneously into their pockets.

But soon, the tinkly tunes of mobile telephones could become passé. Instead of playing snatches from chart hits and irritating television and film theme tunes, Britain's estimated 50 million mobiles will be able to reproduce the song of a cuckoo, a greenfinch, a house martin or a nightingale.

If the idea catches on the streets of Britain will also echo with the thump of gorillas beating their chests, the roar of the lion, the hiss of a cobra and the squawks from a colony of penguins."

Accuring to the Inquirer , a company called the Tao Group was selected by the British Library to convert some of the thousands of animal recordings it has into phone ringtones. The Tao Group selected and created 40 .WAV file which can be used on Windows Mobile phones as well as models from a few other manufacturers (like Sanyo). The rings will sell for BPS 1.50 - 4.00.

The author of the Telegraph article has some fun with the ringtones. I don't blame her. Do you have an entertaining ringtone? Did you make it yourself or download from a site? I make my own using my music collection and a nice Mac application called Audicity.

[Eric Lin]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/07/07/ntone07.xml&secureRefresh=true&_requestid=40397

"They go off everywhere: infuriating trills that can make half a dozen people reach simultaneously into their pockets.

But soon, the tinkly tunes of mobile telephones could become passé. Instead of playing snatches from chart hits and irritating television and film theme tunes, Britain's estimated 50 million mobiles will be able to reproduce the song of a cuckoo, a greenfinch, a house martin or a nightingale.

If the idea catches on the streets of Britain will also echo with the thump of gorillas beating their chests, the roar of the lion, the hiss of a cobra and the squawks from a colony of penguins."

Accuring to the Inquirer , a company called the Tao Group was selected by the British Library to convert some of the thousands of animal recordings it has into phone ringtones. The Tao Group selected and created 40 .WAV file which can be used on Windows Mobile phones as well as models from a few other manufacturers (like Sanyo). The rings will sell for BPS 1.50 - 4.00.

The author of the Telegraph article has some fun with the ringtones. I don't blame her. Do you have an entertaining ringtone? Did you make it yourself or download from a site? I make my own using my music collection and a nice Mac application called Audicity.

[Mike Temporale]

I don't know if my ringtone is entertaining or not, but it's definitely different. My phone rings. "Bring-Bring" Just like you would expect from a phone. :wink: (Which I had to make myself, since my Sony Ericcson T200 didn't even have a normal ringer on it !!)

I'm not real big on these cheesy ringtones. Maybe it's just because my phone doesn't support polymorphic ringtones.

On a side note, I read last week that a lot of these ringtones web sites are just fronts to capture mobile email addresses. Then they are used for spam later. So be careful, and choose your ringtone site carefully!