Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Kids love those darn ringtone and ringback tones.  Imagine if those same kids could share their favorite web clips just by phoning someone.  Vringo is turning a simple phone call into an expression of self that can change by the hour.

A Turkish carrier has become the first to venture into a subscription model for video ringtones.  Not only can the Turks with this service enjoy a web clip when their phone rings, they can push out these clips to others, making something that was somewhat personal (setting ringtones for your friends) into a very social party.  Users can push these clips to show on their friends phones when the user calls them.

Learn more about Vringo.

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A few days ago, our friends over at Appletell reported on a possible increase in royalty rates that could spell out a problem for iTunes, and possibly other digital music stores.  A meeting took place on Thursday, and royalties were set on digital downloads and ringtones for the first time ever.  The good news for those who buy songs and albums online: prices probably won’t be going up any time soon, at least not because of this.  The Copyright Royalty Board set the royalty rate for songs on albums and songs downloaded online at 9.1 cents, or the same rate it was.  This rate will remain into effect into 2012.

The interesting rates announced were actually those of master tones.  That rate is a comparatively astounding 24 cents.  Yeah, you read that right, 24 cents.  More after the break.

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Sections: Audio, Web, Downloads, Online Music/Video

AT&T has announced two new music applications; mSpot’s Make-Ur-Tones and mSpot Remix. Likewise, AT&T also announced its plan of expanding the Napster Mobile service it gives under the AT&T network. All three music applications provide mobile music lovers the freedom to choose the music they want to listen to and use in their AT&T mobile phones.

Available for a monthly subscription of $6.99 for three ringtones, the mSpot Make-UR-Tones allows customers to search for music tracks from the AT&T Media Mall, cut a 30-second part of the song using the a built-in editor, preview the output and then download the personalized ringtone to their phone. Unfortunately, mSpot Make-UR-Tones will only work with the Samsung SYNC, Samsung A737, Samsung A747 and the Motorola V3xx.

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Sections: Communications, Cellphones, Cellular Providers, Mobile, Web, Online Music/Video

AT&T has announced a repackaged version of its successful mobile content shop, and is branding it Media Mall 2.0. The Media Mall 2.0 will have a new feature called “try-before-you-buy.” This feature allows consumers to try the mobile content first directly from their cellphone before having to make the purchase. The redesigned Media Mall 2.0 will provide AT&T subscribers with a selection of 90,000 games, full songs and ringtones.

Mark Collins, vice president of Consumer Data for AT&T’s wireless unit envisions that the Media Mall 2.0 will be a one-stop shop for mobile content and applications. Hence the need for the remodeling.

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