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I agree that it's a total rip off. And I also agree that they are not tech-savy to make their own. It's just that I personally have a principle to not buy stuff that are rip offs even if I don't have the means to make them myself.

I believe that the cellular carriers are so seriously ripping off their customers that in my book, is even worse than anything RIAA has done so far. And RIAA gets most of the slack for this kind of stuff while cellular carriers don't. It's unfair.

Its no unfair; do what I do, stick with the standard ring tone! hell, there are idiots out there who pay for those jingles, themes, wall papers etc.

Its a bloody phone for heaven sake! its used to make calls, txt message, maybe send a few bloody photos, but it isn't some sort of damn 'life style' device that one must feel the need to 'customise' and 'pimp up' like some sort of damn car or bike.

I have only a minimal interest in mobile phones outside of their basic functions too. However, a customized ringtone is useful to distingiush the sound of your own phone when it starts to ring.

Well then, why not have a ring tone AND the thing vibrating at the same time? thats what I do!

Is it...? I got my current phone for almost a year now and I only ever had somebody in my proximity with the same ring tone *once* (and I live in a biiig city!). And since this person wasn't sitting on my lap, I could very well tell that it wasn't my phone ringing there. -- No, you don't need a ring tone to distinguish your phone from others ringing around you, you need it because you are into goofy things like that most other grown-ups consider outright silly. - Proof? Well, read this thread, noone is all too overwhelmed with ring tones. On the other hand, watch some advertising during teen an pre-teen TV-breaks -- there you got 99% of the ring tone advertising, which in turn defines your audience... Ring tones are childish.

I agree.

Just a bit problematic to find a decent midi application which doesn't cost a fortune

. o O ( Perhaps it's about time I start working on my midi-files again, though I'm no great songwriter )

You do realize that the RIAA takes a cut from the ringtones, right? It is their "intellectual property", and they are somewhat responsible for the absurd pricing.

If it were up to the RIAA, the iTunes store pricing would be much higher than $1/track. They wanted to raise prices a while back, but Steve Jobs said no and even called them out on their greed.

That's not to say that the carriers aren't also ripping off customers. But that's always been the case. They charge for everything they can. They push some fees off as "taxes" or whatever, so your $30/month plan really comes out closer to $35 or $40.

And they disable features of some phones to lock you into their own add-on services, rather than using built-in phone features to squeeze a few more bucks out of people.

Its absurd, but as long as fools pay for it, they'll keep doing it.

My favorite is the new ring-back tones, or whatever the hell its called.. You call me, but instead of hearing the usuall "brrrrrrr... brrrrrrrr" ring sound while you wait for me to answer, I can pay $3/month so you hear a particular song.

And people are buying it...

It's more than just "users not tech-savy". The cell-phone companies have closed off competition to those who can create (content savy) ring-tones that people would want.

I'm a musician and a geek but I'm no expert on mobile phones. I thought that ring tones were those little tunes that are played via the little monophonic synthesis system of the phone. For reasons of vanity I made a little version of one of my own tunes to play when my phone rings.

The program that is linked to (audacity) wouldn't have helped me as it is an audio editor not a sequencer. Do better phones have the ability to playback .wav audio now?

It's only a dollar. How long does it take make your own ringtone if you are starting from scratch and don't know what you are doing? How much is your time worth per hour?

> Do better phones have the ability to playback .wav
> audio now?

wav, or even mp3's, for that matter.

Ah, just shows how out of date I am then.

Mobile phones still require a second man to carry them on a huge rucksack and have dial faces though, right? :-)

My basic point still stands though.

I like his/her nickname! Linux is Poo if you you were a girl I'd marry you! Then again, only if you were a pretty girl.

Sometimes people feel like punching you in the face.

As for the topic: it's all within the framework of 'It's my territory, dude. Don't even go there.'

How's about Apple fix a lot of software bugs they have pushed with Tiger instead of focusing on useless, grabe D software that about 1% (or less) of their customers are going to use?

Um, dude, you're the one feeling inadequate enough to have nicknames actually displaying that inadequacy.

In the real world, people use whatever they want to use for whatever reasons they want. Your 'superior' MacOS (which I'm a user of) uses a lot of open source technologies, including the one that makes it possible for you to actually use that piece of software: GCC. Not only GCC, but even basic pieces of its software are based off of open source (Linux) technologies: Safari + KHTML.

So when you press that 'Power' button in your Mac mini, and click the Safari icon so you can come to OSNews and display your arrogance, remember that what made it possible for you to do that was... oh yes, GCC and KHTML.

open source = Linux ? GCC is a Linux technology ?

Not necessarily, but the dude has an obsession with talking crap about any type of OS that isn't OS X. And almost always that's Linux.

No, I talk crap about everything that deserves to be talked crap about -- and in some cases that's OS X too.

You are way off. GCC is a GNU project. KHTML is a KDE project. Neither of those has anything to do with Linux kernel. GNU/Linux as an operating system makes use of GCC, and sometimes makes use of KDE (and indirectly KHTML). This is no different than Darwin/OS X as an operating system making use of GCC and KHTML.

Nice attempt at calling them Linux technologies though -- I mean, they're Linux-specific and all, right? Because Darwin, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, SkyOS, and every other open-source OS don't use GCC?

Freaking nugget. Too bad there's no mod-down option for blatantly wrong information.

Um, dude, KDE is a Linux project. It also runs on Unix (a very broad term) but their focus is first Linux. And by Linux, I don't mean the kernel only, but all those technologies and frameworks that make it possible to run all those open source/free apps using the Linux kernel as the basis of the system. Call it GNU/Linux if you wish.

It's an exercise in futility trying to have a normal discussion with you without retorting to half-baked attempts of arrogance from you. So, due to that, and my general lack of time for trolls, I say bye to you and keep trolling.

KDE is a DE project. It runs fine on many *nixes, even OS X.

Don't try to tell me, or anyone, that it is a "Linux" project, just like you said GCC was a Linux project. Just shut up before you dig yourself into a deeper hole. Loser.

If you ever punch anyone of them, please let me know.

I'll announce to the whole world that "Linux Is Poo" has returned to sanity.

And oh... btw. I'd like to punch them too.

You take the everything west from Greenwich and to the dateline, and I take everything east from Greenwich and to the dateline.

Divide and conquer!

I agree with Linux Is Poo. I actually think that makin g people pay for their ringtons is probably what keeps this behaviour from becoming an epidemic!! If the millions of people who use iTunes suddenly had an easy means of creating ringtones this nuisance would increase ten-fold.

There's no question that ringtones sampled from popular music make money. There's plenty of people who pay for them.

However you can buy an entire song off iTunes for $1. A 10-30 second ringtone sample of that song will cost your $1-$4, depending on your provider, phone, and where you buy it. Paying more for less is what I'd call a ripoff.

Going further, some mobile phone services disable features of some phones (the Sidekick on T-Mobile, some bluetooth phones on Verizon, etc) so you can't upload your own ringtones. They pretty much lock you into their download service to get ringtones, so even if you are technically savvy, you still can't roll your own. Its a business decision, and one that makes them plenty of money.

Unfortunately for me, the limited offering of ringtones doesn't provide compelling content to me. I don't want the same 50-cent tune that everyone else has as their ringtone. I want something unique so when my phone rings, I know its mine. I am technically savvy, and have been able to make my own ringtones and enjoy using them on my phone when my carrier allows it... When they don't I look for another carrier.

Going further, some mobile phone services disable features of some phones (the Sidekick on T-Mobile, some bluetooth phones on Verizon, etc) so you can't upload your own ringtones. They pretty much lock you into their download service to get ringtones, so even if you are technically savvy, you still can't roll your own. Its a business decision, and one that makes them plenty of money.

That doesn't happen in the Netherlands, luckily. Here, you get a contract, and then you can select whatever phone the shop has to offer. It doesn't matter, the phone companies have nothing to say about that. So you always get the real deal, the whole nine yards. And when you buy a phone in combo with a contract, the phones all become very inexpensive, and about 60% even becomes free. The more expensive your contract, the less you have to pay for your phone. My current phone I got for free too when I extended my contract.

Things might be different when talking about pre-paid. But, my last pre-paid phone was 6 or 7 years ago.

"However you can buy an entire song off iTunes for $1. A 10-30 second ringtone sample of that song will cost your $1-$4, depending on your provider, phone, and where you buy it. Paying more for less is what I'd call a ripoff. "

Works for diet and other convience foods.

Apple doesn't want to piss off the cellular networks because they will need them soon enough: http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/index.cfm?home&NewsID=13390

I can see different ring tones being usefull when you need to be able to tell who's phone is ringing. Although personally I preffer phones being set to vibrate, or even better: phones turned off!

There's a certain element of masochism in having a cell phone though. With bored friends calling non stop wanting to talk, being called into work "anytime, anywhere", and getting phone spam when you really want some piece and quiet. Sure the things have off buttons, but few people even seem to know where those are.

I have the same phone. There's a MMC card inside under the battery. All you need is a SD/MMC cardreader and you're golden. If you have a digital camera that uses SD and lets you mount it as a drive, you can even use that.

Remember, with the iTunes phone, Apple is trying to get into the Cell Phone market. Making it too easy to make custom ringtones would irritate the cell phone companies by stealing a cash cow. They don't want to rock the boat at this early stage, wheras the iTunes music store is fairly well established (look at all those iPods, after all)

My phone came with some sort of Midi creation program where you can mix segments. So, MY annoying ringtone is at least partially self-composed...

I keep it on silent mode most of the time anyway.