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Posts with tag ringtones

Filed under: Fun, Video, Windows Mobile, Symbian, Commercial

Vringo does video ringtones


When Mom calls the cell phone, you might have a special ringtone just for her--like Squeezebox by the Who. When Dad calls, maybe it's Simple Man by Skynyrd. For your significant other, maybe it's a cheesy 80's power ballad. Ringtones are fun, and they've become a huge segment of business for the music industry. Of course, who's willing to settle for ringtones that employ just audio, when you can use video, too?

Vringo offers sharable video ringtones that work with smart phones from Sony-Ericsson, Motorola, and Nokia (like the affable N73 in the picture). You can choose a "VringForward"--that is a video ringtone--to assign to each person in your phone's buddy list. The cool part is--they'll see the video when you call them. A "VringBack", on the other hand, is a video that one of your buddies has chosen for you to see when they give you a call.

What's even more nifty, you can record videos with your phone's camera and share those as VringForwards, too. So, if it's your best friend's birthday, you could create a special birthday greeting just for her. Plus, Vringo offers a slew of licensed video content from big-name music publishers.

The catch? Vringo's video ringtones work for buddies that are members of the service. You've got to join Vringo by entering your wireless number on their web site. They'll send their software to your phone via the Net, and you're in.

Filed under: Business, Design, Internet, Apple, Analysis

AT&T Wireless drops iPhone from main page



[Update: As readers are pointing out, the iPhone is appearing in various other, though sometimes obscure, areas of AT&T's site. We stated in our post that this could simply be nothing, so that fact should probably be reiterated given that this does seem to be a false alarm. Guess the version of the site in our screenshot could have easily been a fluke, capped in the middle of a redesign or who knows what else. Thanks for keeping us on our game everyone, as for now, there doesn't seem to be anything else to see here. Let's all move along.]

Rumors that Apple is wearing the pants a little too often in their iPhone relationship with AT&T have received a boost, now that the wireless carrier seems to have stopped promoting the pricey phone on their main page barely a month after its June 29th launch. While we know that Apple negotiated an unprecedented deal for a percentage of every iPhone customer's monthly contract, many suspect AT&T is becoming less and less happy with the rest of Apple's plans. Note, for example, the iPhone's lack of any integration with AT&T's profitable video, audio and ringtone offerings - all things that Apple either sells through their iTunes Store right now or, in the case of ringtones, is widely expected to with a future software update. The more software and media-based services Apple prepares to unleash, the more monthly, revolving revenue passes by AT&T's bottom line.

Of course, another possibility here is that the iPhone has received all the promotion it needs from AT&T. The device has arguably succeeded in Apple's marketing efforts to get it inserted into all the major media hubs, from the Today Show to Steven Colbert. Still, after adorning the pages of Cingular-turned-AT&T during the six month period since its announcement in January of this year, the iPhone's sudden disappearance from the main page and even the phone-specific page is raising our eyebrows.

Featured Time Waster

Forumwarz - a potentially offensive time waster

I pwn UAfter spending the better part of an hour on Forumwarz I still can't decide if it's just sick or if it's kind of fun. It's a bit like a car wreck on the highway. I know I shouldn't be looking but I can't quite turn away.

It's sick, it's twisted, it's the internet on it's worst level and darn it, it's kind of fun. At least for a little while.

Forumwarz is a parody role-playing game that takes place on the internet - or at least the Forumwarz version of it. Your goal is to complete missions that are given to you through a mock up of GoogleTalk called Sentrillion.

Your first "friend" is ShallowEsophagus who begins giving you missions to pwn various forums by being a troll. Depending on the character type you are assigned at start up, you have tools like drooling on the keyboard or bashing your head on the keyboard that you can use to destroy forum threads and eventually, pwn a forum.

Future missions involve buying illegal software from the Russians, pwning more difficult forums and other internet oddness.

Completing missions gives you cash, called Flezz in game, and items that you can pawn or use in other missions. The game is NOT for those easily offended. It's crass, coarse and there are frequent f-bombs in the fake chat sessions.

This is also a game for a more mature audience as it requires you to shop at the Drugs R Fun store to get various concoctions to improve your playing, engage in certain cyber activities to get more Flezz and just generally use a more adult perspective.

If you can get past that, here are the more enjoyable and time-wasting aspects.

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