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Verizon Wireless has launched three new applications that interact with the voice recording feature on select cell phones to allow users to create new content. The content can be used on the phone or shared with other Verizon customers.
With Sonic Boom's ToneMaker users can create their own music by layering their own vocals on prerecorded tunes. You can then use the clips as a ringtone or pass them on to others. ToneMaker is $3.99 per month on handsets with Verizon's Get It Now Internet service.
YouTones from FunMobility takes the same concept in a slightly different direction. Users can combine their own voices with a selection of prerecorded thematic YouTones performances to use as ringtones or audio messages. Also available on Get It Now phones, YouTones charges $2.49 for each created clip.
The last application is mSpot's Make-Ur-Tones. With this application you can create customized ringtones from a catalog of over 250,000 music tracks. Users select a 30-second audio clip of their chosen song before downloading the new ringtone to their phone. Ringtones are $2.49 each.
Some of my favorite cell phone apps and services are also the simplest. Thumbplay, a major content storage and sales company (coverage), gets that with its latest service for Web-enabled phones, Thumbplay GET.
It's essentially a link request and return service for Thumbplay's content offerings. Users text GET, followed by the artist's name or song title, to Thumbplay's short code, 48000. Seconds later a link is returned through text, which leads to the search results. Users can then click to purchase the download.
Though primarily positioned as a song and ringtone service, Thumbplay GET will also serve some listings for wallpaper and games.
David Goldfarb's phone won't stop ringing.
The Vringo CTO is giving me a demo of Vringo's video ringtone service, now in public beta, to demonstrate how users can assign phone-formatted video clips as their outgoing ringtones. David has chosen a humorous singing cartoon of a green bear as his video calling card. He's set it up so that any phone he calls with a Vringo client will light up with his chosen video. If so desired, he could limit the output to his wife and send everyone else a much more sober video to announce his call.
Vringo reverses the conventional ringtone concept of users choosing songs to differentiate between contacts, entertain themselves with favorite songs, or make a stylistic statement. Here individuals control how they're perceived by friends, and can use "vringos" as a gift or personalized greeting. Users can upload their own clips on Vringo.com or record clips from within the Vringo phone app. It's easy to see how users could create happy birthday messages or video gifts.... Read More
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