Wednesday, July 28, 2004

I just want it to ring!?!?!?

I recently discarded my trusty Motorola V60 in favor of its presumptive successor, the V600 and, except for one annoying flaw, I love it.  The phone book and dialer is the most useful and useable I've encountered since I gave up on carrying a Backberry, the speakerphone is great, battery life is more than adequate for my use, the built-in Bluetooth works flawlessly with my Jabra wireless headset, and -- surprisingly -- I love the camera!  I use it to capture backgrounds of my two daughters; they think its cool, and I get to look at them every time I make a call.

But I hate the ringtones.  Maybe its just me, but it has proven shockingly difficult to find a decent ringer for this phone.  My brain is trained to spring into action, aroused, curious, and aware, at the sound of a phone ringing.  My v60 had a pleasingly utilitarian default ringer that was piercing enough to be heard on the sidewalk or in the car with radio turned up.

In contrast, the default ringtones on for the v600 are gimmicky -- songs or sound effects that call forth anything but "turn on your brain and pick up the phone!"  The ones that do sound like a phone are virtually impossible to hear over any background noise.

Maybe its me.  Maybe I just havn't stumbled onto the trove of useful downloads for this phone that must be lurking out there somewhere.

Anyway, my message to Moto & company is this: Yeah, OK, you made your point.  Now give me a ringer that sounds like a phone ringing.

Saturday, July 17, 2004

First Post

Welcome to Chuck's News and Reviews!  Here you will find commentary, analysis, and speculation on a range of topics including books, politics, media, philosophy, family life, and the software industry.  Watch this space!