Mario Tapia

Two years ago I gave my nephew a Nokia 3300 and after a couple months I asked him if he wanted any ringtones for it. He told me he didn’t need any, he had started to cable load music on the phone and use it as an MP3 player. The phone was able to use the loaded MP3s as ringtones, once I saw this I knew the lifecycle of the ringtone was on the decline.

The recent announcement of Infospace’s loss of Cingular as a client for its ringtone service and the dramatic dip in its stock, plus the recent selloff of Jamster from Verisign to News Corp are all signs that the ringtone segment is in store for a shake up. New services such as Mixxer will allow the creation of personal ringtones as well as ringtone creation from your MP3 music catalog.

BTW, When was the last time you downloaded a monophonic or polyphonic ringtone to your phone? or How many of you know what a polyphonic is? …. I am definately dating myself here.

Here’s a list of MVNOs that have launched or in the works. I can’t believe the number…

• 9278 Mobile 18
• Affinity Mobile
• Airlink Mobile
• Airvoice Wireless
• Amp’d Mobile
• Apple Mobile
• Beyond Wireless
• Boost Mobile
• Bratz Mobile
• Bravo Cellular
• Cbeyond
• Circle K
• Consumer Cellular
• cool.Prepaid
• Cricket
• DBS Communications
• DEXA Wireless
• Disney Mobile
• Embarq
• Firefly Mobile
• Flying J
• GlobalTalk PCS
• Graffiti Wireless
• GTC Wireless
• HELIO
• JitterBug
• Jump Mobile
• kajeet
• Liberty Wireless
• Locus Telecommunications
• MetroPCS
• Microsoft Media Mobile – Zune
• MobileESPN
• Movida
• Nexus Mobile
• nTelos
• Omni Prepaid
• Page Plus Cellular
• PlatinumTel
• Primus Wireless
• Qwest Wireless
• Revol Wireless
• Speak Out Wireless
• Sprint Nextel Cable JV
• STi Mobile
• Total Call Mobile
• TracFone
• TuYo Mobile
• Virgin Mobile USA
• Voce
• Wal-Mart
• Working Assets Wireless
• XE Mobile
• XERO Mobile
• Xtreme Mobile

I listen to the This Week In Technology (TWiT) podcast.  Its a great podcasted tech magazine to listent to when you want to catch up on some of the latest tech news while you do boring tasks, like cleaning your room or cleaning out the ole inbox.  The 1/30/06 podcast mentions call spoofing provided by Spoofcard. Spoofcard allows you to call a person while spoofing the calling number.  Not only can you call your buddy from his own phone number, you can also synthesize your voice so that also can be spoofed.  A friend of mine, Joe Heitzberg, also had done a service similiar to this, Channel Calls,(Joe that wake up call and reminder service isn’t foolin anyone, you can use it to spoof). Joe had setup some of us with free calls on his service, it was great fun for a while, and I must say I was really tempted to go a little overboard with the spoofing, sorry everyone I called, you were good sports.  These services are good fun when used in moderation, but they can totally wreck havoc in the wrong hands.

So how do these services work?  In the age of VOIP, we are able to create the CID/ANI in a VOIP call, its legal, as long as you don’t commit fraud.  I wonder if listening to someone’s voicemail is fraud…. hmmmm

–and so it goes      

This is hilarious!   Stephen King Ring tones.  I thought this was a hoax, or a gag site, but sadly its true.  Mr King has joined the mobile craze and has written a book that will make people fear these cute little beeping devices, shame on you Mr King.

"Civilization doesn’t end with a bang or a whimper.  It ends with a call on your cell phone.

What happens on the afternoon of October 1 came to be known as the Pulse,
a signal sent though every operating cell phone that turns its user into something…well, something less than human. Savage, murderous, unthinking – and on a wanton rampage. Terrorist act? Cyber prank gone haywire?

It really doesn’t matter, not to the people who avoided the technological attack. What matters to them is surviving the aftermath. Before long, a band of them – "normies" is how they think of themselves – have gathered on the grounds of Gaiten Academy, where the headmaster and one remaining student have something awesome and terrifying to show them on the school’s moonlit soccer field. Clearly there can be no escape. The only option is to take them on.

CELL is classic Stephen King, a story of gory horror and white-knuckling suspense that makes the unimaginable entirely plausible and totally fascinating."

Lovely…now take a look at the ringtones.  Sorry, but this one book that I won’t wait for, even for the TV movie.  Mr. King you should have stopped writing when you said you would.