| In the old days of land-bound telephones an | | | | |
| electrical pulse sent through the wires and | | | | Now modern ringtones have matured to the |
| into your phone set off the mechanism that | | | | level of Truetone capability. Using a variety |
| caused a bell to ring and alert you to the | | | | of different sound file formats you can use |
| incoming call. This sound became so | | | | pieces of actual recorded music to create |
| synonymous with the telephone call that it | | | | ringtones. Some popular formats are mp3 and |
| became a part of our language and culture. | | | | WAV files while a few companies create |
| | | | specialized file formats for their exclusive |
| Such phrases as; "Give me a ring" and "Ring | | | | use on their phone equipment. Most new cell |
| me up", became standard parlance for the | | | | phones, however, can use any popular format. |
| telephone call. The ringing sound has even | | | | |
| carried over into the world of wireless | | | | Some new phones have the programs for |
| cellular telephones in the form of | | | | excerpting snippets from song sound files |
| "ringtones". | | | | built right into the memory of the phone. A |
| | | | growing business is to have a digital audio |
| The modern mobile cell phone has the | | | | editor program online that can be used to |
| capability of playing a short digital sound | | | | create new ringtones and then charge a small |
| file to alert the user to an incoming call. | | | | fee to download the resultant ringtone to |
| The first ringtones were simple monophonic | | | | your phone. |
| sounds that could be buzzes, chirps, pings or | | | | |
| other unique sound. The early ringtones were | | | | The new Apple iPhone is partnered with iTunes |
| heavily influenced by the video games of the | | | | to provide not only downloadable music to |
| time. These first ringtones, while you could | | | | carry with you on your multimedia capable |
| interchange them as you wished, could still | | | | phone but offers the use of a program to edit |
| only be programmed in to use one at a time. | | | | ringtones out of any music file you have |
| | | | purchased from them. The limit on the |
| As cell phone technology grew, so did the | | | | ringtone file for the iPhone is currently set |
| sophistication of the ringtone. Polyphonic | | | | at between three and thirty seconds with the |
| ringtones were developed using the MIDI | | | | capability of looping the sound indefinitely. |
| (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) | | | | |
| format. These new ringtones were capable of | | | | Making the ringtone file from your own music |
| producing musical selections instead of mere | | | | file eliminates one of the few major dangers |
| alert sounds. Whether you preferred clips of | | | | that can be associated with Truetone |
| classical or popular music or just | | | | ringtones. With the increased computerization |
| interesting sound sequences huge libraries of | | | | of the cell phone technology and the use of |
| ringtone sound files were soon available for | | | | the same type of sound files, hackers have |
| your selection. | | | | found ways to embed spyware and malware into |
| | | | mp3 files. |
| Another new feature was introduced into the | | | | |
| cell phones. It became possible to program in | | | | They can use them against your phone in much |
| individual ringtones to play depending on the | | | | the same way as they do your computer. |
| phone number initiating the call. With this | | | | Caution should be used in downloading any |
| advancement you could now not only | | | | "free" ringtone. For both safety and the fun |
| distinguish your phone in a room of other | | | | it can provide, it is best to use the |
| cell phones but could tell who was calling | | | | available technology to create your own |
| from the individualized ringtone you had | | | | custom ringtones. |
| programmed for that person's phone number. | | | | |