Sep 13, 2007
Cell Phone Ringtones and paying for them
I am beginning to regain my faith in the FSJ blog following the dirtbag outing because the posts are so damn on-target.
Two excellent industry call-outs allow me to re-suspend my disbelief. One that I can’t find anymore (regarding the whole NBC dustup) and another about the EFF whom I love completely but the call-out is best for the lovers because the EFF is living in a bubble in terms of what the average consumer does to get some ringtones (and, yeah, that’s why I love the EFF).
Aside
FSJ, I nominate you to succeed His Steveness in the unfortunate event that His Steveness is called back to Jupiter before I leave this world myself. But let’s get back on topic. Topic is:
Cell Phone Ringtones and paying for them
Let’s start out by sifting out the techno-elite.If you can solder your iPhone, install crap-ass GUI-devoid whatever applications, don’t mind doing it all every time that Apple adds some truly functional software via software-upade and/or don’t mind spending an hour sifting through garbage-torrents for your content then you are techno-elite and should read no further because it won’t make you happy, you have more spare time than me and your advice might not be good for others lackingt your l33+ sk1llz or 5w33+ p4+13nC3.
If the above doesn’t describe you (or is unintelligible), then you are a consumer; the sort of person who pays other people for the convenience/joy of just getting stuff that works and getting back to living your life with your family, friends and so on (where “and so on” may equal re-playing all those StarCraft episodes so you’re ready for the upcoming release of StarCraft 2–you can be a dorkbot and/or technology-literate and still be a consumer).
Mea Culpuh, Let’s Get it Ovuh
I know, I know… “Consumer” is a crass and ugly term. But it doesn’t have to be so. “Consumer” could mean “the sort of folks that value their time enough that they pay the 2 dollar shareware fee so they don’t have to bother figuring out how to pirate the g00dz.” Consumers might be people who pay the rent for people who make 5w33+ g00dz.
The meat of this post is much less than the preamble
You don’t use and iPhone and you are a consumer. You pay more than 2 bucks to turn a song snippet into a ringtone and you have to work with a very poor user interface.
Apple charges you one dollar for a seamless way to turn songs into ringtones (I know, I know you wanted it for free because you were planning on using that dollar to buy a Dr. Pepper then drink said Dr. Pepper then pee and forget you ever drank said Dr. Pepper… you’re a Pepper). Outrage. Bring on the outrage folks. Somone is going to charge you a dollar to give you software that allows you to edit audio and load it into your phone for use as a ringtone. Get OUTRAGED! I prefer you do it in Peoria though.
En Summa:
Get worked up about paying a buck for song-editing software so you can make ringtones all you want and point fingers and call people names. Then, when you’re done, show me your free alternative.
Small fact zone:
I believe that His Steveness is a peskatarian, not a vegan. He knows where the movement really happens. But I’m just bloggin’ so do your own fact-checkin’ please.
Also, what’s so fucking crazy about the FSJ link I’ve posted, is how great the Pshop on His Steveness is to the cat thing from the “Austin Powers Does the parody of “Casino Royale” (not to be confused with the contemporary-in-relation-to-this-post-and-best-Bond-flick-in-ages “Casino Royale”) is… That shot is perfect. Whoever did the photoshop work on that rocked it. You’ve seen a Stevenote. You know what His Steveness wears. You are probably visually inclined. The supporting image for this particular post should stand as a model for other fakrs out there. It’s friggin great. Motherfucker. Nuff said.