Justin Timberlake Sexy Tone

Justin Timberlake wants all bizarre readers to be the first to hear his comeback single SexyBack, according to The Sun.

Click here to hear a short clip of the song to be released on August 28.

The official edit of SexyBack as a ringtone, is available (UK mobile users only for now), by by texting JUSTIN SEXY TONE to short code 82088."

Just Tap It

The review of Nokia 5500 by Mobile-Review reveals another interesting fact – it uses the built-in sensor to control some of the phone functions by… tapping. For example to skip to the next song just tap it twice on the right side. To listen the previous song, tap it twice on the left side. No need for dedicated buttons.

But it seems you have to tap rather hard. There's a video link to a demo, but for some reason, it freezes both my browsers.

[via mobiface]

TomTom The Portable GPS Gets Navtones

Tom Tom, the Portable GPS, gets voice tones, aptly named Navtones.

TomTom customers can now hear their driving directions with attitude from Mr. T, from the distinctive voice of Burt Reynolds or from the revved up Dennis Hopper.

... TomTom also offers 70 preloaded voices in 36 languages. Other entertaining voices available for download from TomTom include celebrity John Cleese, a NYC cab driver, a Freudian psychoanalyst, Granny Rose and many more. Go to www.tomtom.com to see and hear a complete list, and for easy download instructions.

"Similar to ringtones on cell phones, we find that drivers are most interested in hearing navigation directions from a voice that matches their mood or personality", said TomTom vice president of marketing, Anne Louise Hanstad. .

[Press Release]

Mobile phone users to buy songs from radio

Record companies are hoping the mobile phone will help save the radio star after technology was unveiled yesterday that could allow listeners to buy any song playing on any station at the touch of a button. The Guardian reports.

... "While tuning in to digital radio stations through headphones, listeners will be able to click a "buy" button on their phone and have the track downloaded to their phone. Each track will cost around £1.25 ($2.27), with one copy being transferred to the phone and a second copy made available for download to a computer or iPod-type device.

This is a variation on music recognition services such as Shazam, which allows people to identify a song heard on the radio, then purchase it.

Related links to music recognition services

Coke slots in extras to new machines

Coca-Cola said trials of new vending machines that allow users to take digital photos and download ringtones for mobile phones could be replicated worldwide as the soft drinks company seeks to interact more directly with consumers, reports MSNBC.

"The trials of the "Cokefridge," which have been under way in Germany over the past three months, come amid rising concern by governments over the way companies are using new technology to market sugary and salty food and drinks to children."

... The Cokefridge machine, on display at the CIES world food business conference in Paris last week, has an interactive screen that runs advertisements, and allows users to obtain free photos, games, logos and ringtones after they have bought a drink."

... Consumers can use a "Coke Cam" to take a photo of themselves in a frame that contains a Coke logo, and send the photo to an e-mail address or to a mobile phone. They can also interact with a website, www.cokefridge.de.

Ringback tones help corporates bond with customers

Companies in India have caught on to ringback tones are are incorporating their signature tone son their employees handsets, according to The Times of India.

"The tone is mostly an ad jingle which has worked so well for the company that it wants to be identified with it.

Sanjay Tikotekar, jt GM, ICICI Bank, says, "The mobile phone is an important device through which the customer interacts with the bank. We felt that by introducing this jingle as a standard ringback tone, we could reiterate commitment to our customers."

Says Naveen Chopra, chief marketing officer, Hutch,"If you are contacting a corporate executive and hear the company tone, you know immediately that you've dialled the right number."

Also, a standardised ringback tone is seen as building affinity inside an organisation. Adds Sanjay Kapoor, jt president, mobility, Bharti Airtel, "Our research has shown that a corporate executive gets a minimum of 30 calls everyday. When both employees and customers hear the same tone, it goes a long way in reinforcing brand identity." .

Relaled in corporate way, and one of my favorite stories:

-- Company song a smash hit on the charts - The corporate song of a Japanese demolition firm, Nihon Break Kogyo, broke into 22nd place of the nation's most influential music charts in December 2003.

Your cellphone is coming out!

A new mobile content portal for the gay and lesbian community called Medialicious.TV has just launched.

Featuring original ringtones and wallpapers from leading LGBT and LGBT-friendly celebrities, musicians, comedians and artists, the Medialicious initiative evolved from changes in the media industry that have opened up opportunities for new voices to tell their stories.

Medialicious has partnered with creative talent that has a passionate fan base eager to embrace new products. “The fans are our best marketing tool”, says CEO Carolyn Coal. “We’ve signed acts like The Gay Mafia, Melissa Ferrick and Lisp and their audiences are ecstatic."

With community and interactive features including guest blogs, an original podcast interview series called Behind the Tone and viral videos, Medialicious intends to become a daily destination for online audiences seeking original programming they can consume at their desks or on the go.

Other gay mobile portals:

-- GAYmobile - GAYmobile is the name of a new mobile-network provider that is targeting homosexual subscribers in Denmark. The network's service line - called HOMOBILE - was said to offer a wireless dating service as well as subtle ringtones that indicate the users sexual preferences.

-- Gay model voice tones - Original wallpapers, videos, and attention-grabbing voice ringtones will be created by Falcon studios featuring some of Falcon's exclusive models, including Matthew Rush, Josh Weston, Erik Rhodes, and Roman Heart.

-- Gay community goes mobile with m-Qube - PlanetOut teamed with mobile technology company m-Qube to bring lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender content to wireless phones, including including news, ringtones, images, games and access to community-themed information services and event calendars.

"First Ever" Chinese Compensation For Infringing Music Publishing Copyrights

Moco News reports that RG2— which has the exclusive publishing rights to all of Jay Chou’s titles for ringtone applications in China — has won US$6,250 from China.com for “the illegal use of ringtone applications for 18 songs by popular Taiwanese singer, Jay Chou in violation of China copyright laws”.

Some backkground:

-- EMI, first to ban artists ringtones - In December 2001, as reported in Ananova, on behalf of copyright owners who claimed they didn't want their music turned into jingles, EMI was the first record company and music publisher to order ringtone providers to stop converting the songs of it's artists.

-- Links to articles relating to ringtone and copyright issues

A smart ringer

serendipitous altruism has dug up a patent for a telephone that adapts the telephone ring volume to the level of ambient noise - beyond manually adjusting the volume level or setting on "silent" mode.

"A telephone monitors ambient noise, and alters the characteristics of the audible ring to distinguish the sound of the ringing telephone from the ambient noise. Such characteristics include the decibel level, the sound frequency, and the rhythmic pattern or the ringing sound”.

[via digg]

Mobile music sales seen nearly doubling over five years

Sales of music for use on mobile phones are expected to nearly double over the next five years, a European cellular content provider has said, reports the AFP.

"From an estimated 7.4 billion US US dollars this year, sales are expected to reach 13.6 billion US dollars in 2011, said Arena Mobile, a Spanish mobile content supplier, Wednesday.

"The bulk of the sales should take place in Asia, with the region likely to account for more than half of global demand for mobile music services including ringtones."

Musical security tags

reBlogged from Barry Fox' weird and wonderful patent applications on New Scientist

"Researchers at Hewlett-Packard's UK labs have hit on a cheap way to offer a free CD or DVD taster without the need for cumbersome playback devices.

Modified wireless security tags could contain a memory chip pre-programmed with a short, highly compressed music or video sample.

When a modified PDA or cellphone is brought near the tag, it would excite a coil wrapped around the tag to power it up. The tag would then transmit a music or video signal back to the handheld device for decoding and playback

The tags would be mounted onto a CD or DVD as normal and could be removed at the point of sale for re-use on fresh copies of the same titles. When a title goes out of fashion, the store could reprogram the tag with a new music or video clip.

Read the full musical security tag patent".

Chicago Sinfonietta ringtone concert

Karina on mobuzz.tv today mentions the Chicago Sinfonietta's incorporating mobile ringtones into its performance.

As part of their ongoing experiment in audience participation, they are unveiling a new work called Concertino for Cell Phone and Orchestra by David Baker. During the performance, different sections of the audience will be asked to play their mobile ringtones at different times. "The grand finale will probably have everyone play their cell phone at once, according to the Director.

Other ringtone concerts:

-- Rocking the stage with mobile phones - The Handydandy consisted of five media artists from Austria using their mobile phones as musical instruments.

-- Cellphones join the orchestra - German conductor Bernd Kremlin incorporated mobile phone ringtones into his orchestra's performances.

-- Get 25,000-watt music via your mobile phone - An experimental live concert was held at the annual 2003 Ars Electronica festival where performer Tim Didymus conducted a live concert featuring music and sounds generated entirely on-the-fly from a mobile phone application.

-- Radio Ringtone Concert - The Hamburg Kunsthalle was the venue for a musical event dubbed "Wählt die Signale" (Dial the Signals), a radio concert for 144 mobile phones.

-- «Dialtones Symphony» - Was a collection gathered by American composer Golan Levin who initiated the first original «Dialtones Symphony» in 2001, where the 200 instruments played were the audience's ringing cell phones.

Offbeat:

-- Interactive Live Show - A Techno gig using mobile technology in 2001, was broadcast nationally across Japan.

-- Ringtone Concert In Estonia - The Tallinn Song Festival in Estonia planed a ringtone concert planned…sorta.

-- Cell phones and ringtones play part in new musical comedy - A stand-up comedian and a student wrote a musical comedy where cell phones and ringtones play a part.

Crazy Frog Look-Alike Contest

A japanes Crazy Frog look-alike contest - from Japan of all places. Check out the winner in a video on you tube. [via digg].

New Ad For David Lynch Tones

Dark Palette has spotted and posted the ad for David Lynch's rigntones, launched earlier this week.

Related:

-- Film Director Takes Content Mobile - Leave it to film director David Lynch to come up with the latest and strangest in ringtones, writes Wireless Week - with titles like "Angst", "Kill Deer", "StampLicker", "Teeth"... even the Web page is scary.

Mobile music to be beat online by 2010

Analysts are predicting that consumption of music over mobiles is soon to outstrip that of desktop-bound services which dominate today. Silicon.com reports.

"According to research from IDC, the US alone will see 50 million users generating more than $1bn by 2010, by which time 60 per cent of all handsets in the country will have music playing functionality.

Interestingly, the analysts predict the main user group won't be the traditionally tech-hungry youth but rather 25- to 44-year-olds who may be new to digital music."

Keep the noise down

Are you British and annoyed by kids playing music through their mobiles on public transport? Or infuriated by piped music in waiting rooms? Well help is at hand. Parliament is considering laws to keep the noise down. The BBC reports.

"The Piped Music and Showing of Television Programmes Bill, being put forward by Lord Beaumont, aims to outlaw piped music on public transport and in hospitals.

And it also proposes that anyone listening to music on longer journeys on public transport must use headphones.

Even though it's an unintended consequence, Lord Beaumont's proposals for making people use headphones to listen to music on public transport could tackle an emerging noise problem.

A new generation of mobile phones are also portable music players - a combination that can create a noise nuisance far more prolonged than the annoyingly unfunny ringtone. "

Related:

- - Bus Uncle An angry man over a loud cellphone call in Hong Kong bus makes world headlines.

Rapper 50 Cent makes Forbes's annual Celebrity 100 list

Rapper 50 Cent made Forbes's annual "Celebrity 100," for the first time, coming in eighth place thanks to his music, top-selling ringtones, and G-Unit clothing line, according to the Associated Press.

No other rapper made the list.

Tom Cruise ranked No 1.

US mobile users can download official teen buzz ring at FORK:

The Mosquitotone, aka the Teen Buzz ringtone, or more specifically the ringtone adults can't hear, is available for downloading by US mobile users at FORK:. This is the official version from Compound Security.

And Mobile Burn points to another website, www.mozzytones, where mobile users from the UK, Italy, Australia and South Africa can download the official version.

Related articles:

-- A Ring Tone Meant to Fall on Deaf Ears

-- Mosquitotone - Teen Buzz/Teenager Repellent ringtone available

-- Teenager repellent "Mosquito" turned into ringtone

-- Teen Buzz Ringtone to be made available by "Mosquito" manufacturer

-- A Teenager Repellent

Related side stories:

-- Manilow music as another teenage repellent scheme

-- Web Hosting company registers mosquitone.net and exploits teen buzz ringtone

RIAA Certifies Ringtones as Gold, Platinum

Rapper Rick Rosss received a plaque bearing a golden cell phone Wednesday when music industry officials honored 128 songs as the first batch of gold and platinum ringtones. Fox News reports.

"The ring tones are just another gateway to connecting with the kids and the fans," said Ross, whose award sported a shiny cell phone rather than the usual gold album. "That's just the next level."

Ross, whose first album comes out later this year, was cited for his best-selling single "Hustlin'."< He was joined in the ring(tone) of honor by big-name acts like the Black Eyed Peas, Beyonce, 50 Cent, Kanye West and others.

In all, 84 acts were cited as gold winners, 40 platinum and four as multiplatinum by the RIAA. The awards are given based on downloads of the ringtones."

Photo above: Left to Right are: Rob Hyatt, Executive Director of Premium Content - Cingular / Paul Reddick, VP Business Development & Innovation - Sprint / Rick Ross, Def Jam recording artist (gold mastertone certification for Hustlin’) / Ted Casey, Head of Mobile Music - Verizon Wireless / Rio Caraeff, GM & VP Universal Music Mobile US / Scott Moody, Director of Content Services - Alltel

Related: - RIAA To Announce New Gold/Platinum Award For Ringtones

Pepsi Smash - Original artists ringtones

Pepsi and Motorola are teaming up to offer access to 150 original music and voice ringtones by Grammy Award-winning artists and producers. Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige, The All-American Rejects and renowned producers Scott Storch and Luny Tunes are a few of the artists who have produced new ringtones that will only be available through the Pepsi Cool Tones & Motorola Phones promotion.

Pepsi could award more than 260 million ringtones. There will be approximately 800 million Pepsi packages participating in the Pepsi Cool Tones & Motorola Phones promotion.

One in three codes found under the caps of the Pepsi products will be good for a ringtone at pepsismash.com. Yahoo!, the exclusive online partner of the Pepsi Cool Tones & Motorola Phones promotion, developed and is powering the program site, www.pepsismash.com.

A song to promote Net Neutrality - for your cell phone

Jill Sobule, Kay Hanle and Michelle Lewis, three independent singers and songwriters have teamed for a special song that promotes “Net Neutrality”, reports 21talks.

The song, entitled “God save the Internet”, launched on savetheinternet.com, can be downloaded - or listened to - here.

Lyrics (first strophe)

Hey Mr. Telecom Man
Go-od Save the Internet
Don't change my reality
Keep that neutrality
Go-od save the Internet

All I want to be is free to choose
Where I get my music and I get my news
Where I hook up with a creep or I buy my shoes
Don't bring me down
It's an old timer tale about moderness
Where some of them folks in our congress
Want to send us back to days of the poney express
And slow our speediness
Hey Mr. Telecom Man
God Save the Internet
Don't change my reality
Keep that neutrality,
Go-od save the Internet

Download the MP3 version on your cell phone as a political statement!

Related:

-- House Rejects Net Neutrality

-- Net Neutrality Advocates

-- SaveTheInternet.com Coalition Statement.

-- A call for Internet Black Out

-- Links to other examples of political ringtones

Hit phone number as ringtone

Twenty four years have passed since the hit song “Jenny, Jenny, who can I turn to? scaled the Billboard Pop Chart, but the number that started life on the bathroom wall will soon be playing on cellular phones everywhere as the song enters the ringtone age.

Tommy Tutone’s iconic 1982 hit “867-5309/Jenny” — will be Verizon, Cingular and T-Mobile.

More on the 867-5309/Jenny legend and click here to listen to a midi version.

[via Gadgetell]

Film Director Takes Content Mobile

Leave it to film director David Lynch to come up with the latest and strangest in ringtones, writes Wireless Week - with titles like "Angst", "Kill Deer", "StampLicker", "Teeth"... even the Web page is scary.

"Originating from his past works, Website and “unique persona” overall, the director's latest offering comes in the form of downloadable content that includes voice tones, music tones, wallpapers and, of course, “strange tones” for mobile phones, according to a press release announcing the offerings. Website visitors can get a taste of “holy jumping George” and other sounds at davidlynch.com

The first release of content includes tone selections from Dumbland , his first animation series, sound effects from Eraserhead, a sample of original music by Lunch and some of his favorite sayings."

Stand by your tone

I have to admit "you are your ringtone stories" are amongst my favorite posts on this blog. They are usually pure fabrication on the part of the journalist but can be so entertaining. Today, Chicago Tribune metro columnist Eric Zorn rants on ringtones in a general way - in his blog Change of Subject - with some memorable quotes:

Your ringtone...

-- Is like that kooky bumper sticker you put on your car in the 1960s

-- The funny T-shirt you bought in the 1970s

-- The sly vanity license plate you adopted in the 1980s

-- The declarative tattoo you sat for in the 1990s. It lost its cool well before you realized it.

-- Personalized ringtones are the "I'm with stupid" of the new millennium.

Zorn is a witty writer, but in truth he really does love his own ringtone. I have a personalized ring tone, he writes:

"An instrumental version of the chorus of "Stand by Your Man," Tammy Wynette's over-the-top 1968 country hit that's so cheerfully sexist I fancy that it has great camp value. Just about the last song that an enlightened person would have on his phone, don't you know."

He admits that inevitably, ringtones are a statement of some sort.

And in in their favor:

--- They are very useful to be able to tell, in an instant, when it's your phone going off and when it's someone else's.

-- Assigning them to different incoming callers create a useful custom form of audio caller ID - (my favorite feature)

A Ring Tone Meant to Fall on Deaf Ears

Apologies. I posted this yesterday and deleted it by error. Here goes again - with some changes.

The New York Times picked up on the Teen Buzz ringtone story - the one with a frequency too high for most adults to hear (links to previous posts below). And described how some freshman honors math class students, tried it out on their teacher at Roslyn High School on Long Island.

Here's the MP3 audio. Can you hear it? I can't - which makes sense, I'm way over 20. My son who's 16 can hear it - he says it's annoying. So it really does work.

Knock offs are sure to proliferate. I found one on a Swiss ringtone site - but it's not the real thing, as I can hear it loud and clear.

This story has been so good for Ringtonia, the smallest sister of the Textually blog network. The New York Times article was digged and gathered hundreds of comments, many of them pointing out and linking to the teen buzz story posted weeks ago. Kevin Maney on USA Today mentioned it too. Thank you!

Related:

-- Mosquitotone - Teen Buzz/Teenager Repellent ringtone available

-- Teenager repellent "Mosquito" turned into ringtone

-- Teen Buzz Ringtone to be made available by "Mosquito" manufacturer

-- A Teenager Repellent

Related side stories:

-- Manilow music as another teenage repellent scheme

-- Web Hosting company registers mosquitone.net and exploits teen buzz ringtone

RIAA To Announce New Gold/Platinum Award For Ringtones

AllHipHop reports that "The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) along with Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association (CTIA) and Billboard will announce a new Gold and Platinum Award, recognizing sales of mobile ring tones.

The event will take place on June 14 at the Time Warner Center in New York.

... Jermaine Dupri, Bow Wow, Bubba Sparxx, Mario and Dem Franchise Boyz, who have sold more than 2.5 million ring tones, are a few of the artists slated to attend the event."

Red Devil Ringtone

KTF has started a new ring-tone service, which allows users to remix and download anthems of national football teams to mobile phones.

KTF is an official sponsor of the Korean national team.

[via The Korea Times]

The Sound of Clothes Truetones?

This is stretching things a bit in terms of cell phones, but it's so interesting. It's a project to capture the sound clothes makes. So why not a collection of truetones that sound like garments russling; feathers, sequins, glass crystals and beads, nylon, taffeta, leather, velvet, jacquard, zips and metallic chains.

Over the Spring '06 season, SHOW Studio has embarked upon a series of projects devoted to exploring The Sound of Clothes.

Beyond overlaying imagery with non-specific sound - such as favourite songs or ambient music - the aim of The Sound of Clothes series is to explore a range of audio possibilities, such as discovering the actual sound a garment makes.

Zora Star was the model for the shoot held June 1st, an 'audio collections story' based on garments from the Autumn/Winter '06-7 season - held in a hemi-anechoic chamber to record for recording.

[via networked performance]

Live Country Concert On Sprint Mobile Phones

Sprint has tied up with Universal Music Group to deliver a live country music concert to its subscribers, during a concert yesterday from Nashville’s Rocketown music venue.

Additionally, Sprint customers will be able to download ringtones, call Tones, video ringers and full-song downloads from the music store. [via Moco news]

Mosquitotone - Teen Buzz/Teenager Repellent ringtone available

The original "Teen Buzz" ringtone is now available from Compound Security Systems the manufacturer of the Mosquito box - a device which emits a sound only audible to teenagers and which shopkeepers have bought in droves to keep away anti social youths who hang out in front of their stores fronts and drive their customers away.

Dubbed and trademarked «Mosquitotone», the ringtone is available by texting ‘mozzy’ or ‘mozzie’ to short code 87070 from the UK for now, and very soon to be available worldwide. Will keep you posted where.

Related posts:

-- Teenager repellent "Mosquito" turned into ringtone

-- A Teenager Repellent