Mobile Ringtones
Like computers, cars and PDAs, mobile phones started
out as purely functional pieces of technology, but
quickly evolved plenty of fun frills to keep their
users entertained. Today's mobile phones have built-in
video games, specialized background pictures, switch
able faceplates and, of course, customisable ringtones.
A mobile ringtone version of your new favourite song
does serve some purpose, of course -- it lets you
distinguish your own phone's ringtone from other phones
ringing around you -- but more than anything else,
it's a chance to add personality to technology.
Mobile ringtones outsell CD singles in the UK, Germany,
France, Italy and other markets. They account for
60% of all mobile phone content downloads. Real Tones,
a piece of real music in your phone, have already
been launched. Caller Tunes, replacing the century
old ‘ring, ring’ sound when you call another
phone.
The central "brain" of a cell phone is
a small microprocessor. Just like the microprocessor
in a computer, this unit controls everything that
the cell phone does, working from information stored
in the mobile phone's memory.
At its core, a mobile ringtone is simply a computer
program stored on the mobile phone's memory chip.
This program's sole purpose in life is to tell the
microprocessor what the phone's speaker system should
do when the phone's receiver picks up an incoming
call.
Mobile ringtone-capable phones already have a range
of notes stored in memory (that is, they include information
on speaker vibration frequencies that will produce
particular tones). The ringtone program only has to
tell the microprocessor which of these notes to play,
in which order and at what speed. By adjusting these
variables, the microprocessor can play an infinite
number of ringtones.
The clearest example of this sort of programming
language is the Ringing Tone Text Transfer Language
(RTTTL) format, developed by Nokia. In order to enable
a ringtone on your phone, you just have to get the
appropriate program into the phone's memory.
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