h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

4′33″?

Bah. 4' 33" ?

I have 'ring ring' as my ring tone I've never been able to conceive of the notion of using anything else. Why would I *ever* want to hear tinny snippets of ruined music that I like ? And any other sound effects would be amusing once, maybe twice ... The popularity of ring tones is one of these things I will go to my grave having never understood.

I have Lt. Worf saying, "we are being hailed, Sir"

oh I want that one - what a great voice he has!
I have Marliese by Fischer Z whenever my mate Marlies calls me. That's it.
that's when the stupid thing works - it prefers to switch itself off and then pretend its battery is dead.

I had mine set to the theme tune from Space Patrol Orion, must do that for the new one, too.

I set the ring tone on my old phone before giving it to the wife to use when I got a new one and hers broke, it's a piece written by a mate of mine that was considered by Nokia as their new theme music. It's pretty cool, but so was his band.

I'll stick with silence though

>>I have 'ring ring' as my ring tone erm I've never been able to conceive of the notion of using anything else. Why would I *ever* want to hear tinny snippets of ruined music that I like ?

Why?
1) Because so many people use the standard ringtone that when you're in public, you can't tell whose phone is ringing.
2) If you assign a different tone to different callers, you can tell who's phoning immediately, and decide whether to take the call.
3)Some of us are so incredibly shallow that we find it *fun*.


I mainly use a snippet of the Mahavishnu Orchestra., about 4 min 44sec into this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9DPnYGTxOs

Very few people have my mobile number, and even fewer phone me. When someone does, I can see who it is by looking at the screen rather than having to assign different ringtones. You have to take your phone out of your pocket to reject a call anyway, I wouldn't dream of letting it play out its ringtone in public just because I didn't want to talk to the person calling me.

>>You have to take your phone out of your pocket to reject a call anyway

No, you can reach in and feel for the buttons. Not that I do, I just like to get in the right frame of mind before answering. If it's my lover, I'll be more cheerful than if it's my ex wife.

Ah, I have a touch screen, no buttons

"you can't tell whose phone is ringing"

Didn't we evolve stereo hearing with our two ears for that purpose? Vibrate also helps to confirm it's yours. If worst come to worst and I miss the call ...

One of my friends had to change his ringtone every two weeks or so, because his parrot would learn to imitate it He was happy when he finally got a phone that did polyphonic ringtones.

"Some of us are so incredibly shallow that we find it *fun*."

The odd thing is, the owner of said 'fun' ring tone is in all likelihood the only person within earshot who finds it fun. The vast majority of others will find it annoying. So, a net loss of overall happiness nearby and a tiny, but perceptible lowering of happiness in the universe, making the world a very very very slightly poorer place to live

I may be exaggerating for effect, but there's a grain of truth too it.

>>Didn't we evolve stereo hearing with our two ears for that purpose?

Have you never seen several people check their phones when one of them rings? You'll have to take my word for it, it happens very often to those of us who go out sometimes.


>>The odd thing is, the owner of said 'fun' ring tone is in all likelihood the only person within earshot who finds it fun.

Just because the ringtone is 'fun' to create, doesn't mean it has to sound 'fun' in a crazy-frog manner. Quite why anyone would ever have paid weekly to rent that sort of thing is beyond me.

"Have you never seen several people check their phones when one of them rings?" Yes I have; it makes my day (but then I am easily amused).

Yeah the whole Crazy frog' thing for me, falls into the category of; 'you know what, if anyone's that stupid to spend their money on that crud, let them be ripped off - hope they get spam and marketing texts for the rest of their lives'.

That said, it totally irks me that someone is a millionaire because they came up with such a foul idea and marketed it.

"Didn't we evolve stereo hearing with our two ears for that purpose?"

Bet you a tenner stereo hearing didn't evolve to be able to distinguish whose mobile is ringing.

Seriously though, there are a LOT of factors to consider such as the acoustic properties of the space you're in, where the phone is, how good your hearing actually is (because most people don't have perfect stereo hearing), that different speakers function differently (size, type of magnet, etc.)

It's actually pretty complicated.

"It's actually pretty complicated."

I know; I failed an HND in Audio Engineering because of the acoustics module

Mr D, no, they don’t, but there is a way round is and once you know it, it is rather simple. The new iphone also lets you use music for a text tone, which is great- no more confusing the damned thing with my mother’s! I have Iron Maiden’s Aces High as my ringtone. :D

quotes, I am one of the shallow lot that find it fun. And I like displaying my musical taste, like the geek that I am.

Ah, our parrot used to imitate ringtones, the landline, our microwave, our smoke alarm...

Apple.

For loads of reasons - not least that they package other manufacturers ideas really well, catch the eye and are seen as innovators.

'The new iphone also lets you use music for a text tone'. I am pretty sure that my old Sony Erricson did that. about 4 years ago.

I have a Samsung MP3 player somewhere. 20megalitre HDD. Played games, displayed documents, played video, had radio, etc, etc. And THEN came the first iPod. Suddenly everything (that isn't) gets called an iPod.

PP