Alert Ringtones

If you’re a web designer, or just want to create a homepage that can display nicely on the iPhone, then you will need to consider the pixel limitations of the iPhone – 320 by 480-pixel canvas. Will your homepage look stretched or go off the screen on the iPhone? Well now there’s a way to tell. Welcome to the iPhone simulator, aka iPhoney, powered by the Safari browser.

This is a free downloadable simulator that can be used to view your website and how it looks on an iPhone. It’s also now open source, meaning anyone can improve on the code and functionality. Some of the best software around is open source (yes, WordPress as well), and encourages product updates and cool features to be developed.

A nice little product!

Ah the iPhone, a $500 gadget that in the hands of the average technophile will expand his or her ability to log onto the Internet for work or play on the go. Users have full Internet access whenever the urge strikes them. There have already been hundreds of articles written about the best features, worst features, and what to expect functionally from the iPhone, but I don’t want to talk about all that. What I want to discuss is the effect that the ability to log onto the Internet wherever you are, will have on mobile marketing in the United States.

Are these new phones going to be a revolution or just a reason to own a bigger, newer phone? Does it signify the next chapter in the big book of marketing, or will the numerous functionalities lie dormant?

What the iPhone will do is give Americans the ability to catch up with the rest of the world on the mobile capability front and finally help us start seeing the cell phone as a mobile computer, rather than simply a way to make calls away from home.

So how will all this be good for marketing?
Will it be harder to see banner ads on the smaller screen? Will users be able to see text ads at all? Is geocentric marketing (ads designed to change with the users position) going to create technical challenges for web developers? Do these types of devices fall under the laws of mobile phone use, or under the laws of the Internet? As users leave the comfort of the 19 inch computer screen and start using more compact smart devices with information collected more frequently, what role will advertising play? Finally, and most importantly, is there revenue out there to be earned?

This article is a beginning point, not an end. The nature of advertising is determined by the images we convey, and ultimately the effectiveness of the tools we use. In a world where we are moving from consumers sitting down at a computer for two hours a night and surfing the Internet, to having the ability to get online 24/7, how do marketers best utilize those sources to increase revenue? Where on that tiny screen is there room for the ads we love and rely on so much? I post these questions without knowing all of the answers, but as they say in the film Jurassic Park, “life always finds a way”. So does advertising.

It has been suggested that cellular phones will be the tobacco of the 21st century. It appears that their use is almost as addictive as cigarettes, with psychologists’ reports claiming that there is evidence that users display withdrawal symptoms if deprived of their mobiles for more than 24 hours.

There is certainly no doubt that mobile phone use in public is just as annoying as smoking. Mobile-free zones are already being set up in cinemas and restaurants and it would seem that trains will soon be following suit with “mobile” and “non-mobile” carriages available on all the commuter serves to London. In fact, this has already occurred in Tokyo and Osaka.

How do you feel about mobile phone use? Personally I get irritated if dining with a friend and they accept a phone call and leave me dangling for more than a minute.

I’ve just come across a site that offers FREE unlimited music downloads. For a 3-minute automatic setup, members can be on their way to grooving with the latest music. Free free free… but is there a catch?

The site has been around for just under 5 years, and is hosted in the US. It claims to be 100% legal and free… but somehow there must be a catch. Nowhere on the site does it disclose prices or anything to suggest charges are involved. Anyway, the curiosity got to the better of me and I signed up.

Anyway, after entering my email address and name, I was shown the prices page below. Ok, it’s not free, but close to it.

The Unlimited access plan is a lifetime membership. All plans are a one-time charge with no re-billing.

Anyone with an iPhone can now get such affordable music downloads that it has become a consumer’s paradise. Beats the traditional ringtone download plans we’ve seen in the past and even to this current day. The future of free information!

For those that don’t know, YouTube Mobile was released back in May of this year. The idea is to get users to upload funnier content from their mobile phones whilst on the road. You no longer need to be at a PC to browse or upload videos to YouTube. However, YouTube Mobile wont suit all phones or phone plans. You will need:

1. A mobile that supports RTSP (Real Time Streaming Protocol)
2. A service carrier that supports video streaming

Check your phone’s manual and speak with your service carrier to confirm whether you are ready to go. Or even easier, visit m.youtube.com from your phone’s browser and see what happens.

Beware of Costs Though
Whilst YouTube doesn’t charge you anything, your service carrier may charge you for data downloads. YouTube Mobile is quite a data intensive application that could soon eat into your back pocket. I suggest subscribing to a flat-rate data plan.

Uploading
The uploading process is simple. Members simply create a YouTube Mobile profile, receive a unique email address and then send videos from their mobile to this address. To keep you from wondering, YouTube will then send you an SMS upon successful upload.

Hopefully as time goes, we will then see funnier and more on the spur video footage.

The mobile phone was once JUST a humble mobile phone. Then in no time, it went to a triad of entertainment options:

• Audio
• Games
• Video

And now we see the next generation phones offering even more:

• Audio
• Games
• Video
• INTERNET
• TV

Some experts say that we now spend more than 80% of our time using mobile phones for entertainment rather than chatting. The new iPhone would surely make this figure rise too.

Cell Phone TV

The ultimate in cell phone entertainment is video. Whilst many would tell you that TV on a cell phone is ludicrous due to the small screen size, slow 12~15 frames per second, dropouts and whatnot, manufacturers are still heading towards making this a standard feature. Nearly every survey conducted, cell phone users are telling us that TV on a cell phone is plain stupid. Manufacturers do not care though – perhaps they will beat our expectations. Already in Japan we are seeing waterproof cell phones with inbuilt TV. The idea is to watch it in the bathtub! And Nokia’s N92 cell phone is already shaping the future for some exciting new trends in entertainment.

Today brings us to the end of our first week of blogging here at Alert Ringtones. I hope readers have been somewhat happy with the content and quality I have brought you. If you would like to see certain topics discussed, then post your comments. I have a growing list of topics and will try to get through 1 every weekday. Weekends I reserve for time off and to chill out.

I’ve been quite surprised at how easy it has been to write blog topics on the cell phone industry. Probably because of my passion to these gadgets which now rank as the most quickly embraced gadget in the world. From a decade ago, there were 34 million cell phones in the USA. Today, there are 203 million! Now that’s getting close to almost one cell phone for each person in the USA.

Enjoy the weekend!

Hi Guys!
Today is a milestone for great things to come.

We will be presenting a neat blog all about cell phones, ringtones, wallpapers, logos, arcade games, mobile technology and well, the list goes on.

So stand by, and get ready for one of the best blogs devoted to cell phone technology.

Introduction will come a little later.

Just installed this blog this evening, so time to read up more about blogging and bringing the best for users.

Cheers.