| YouTube: it's another craze as big as smartphones | | | | that, while it may not seem like much, grows |
| (maybe even more so ). Which is why it was only a | | | | increasingly distasteful as people's constantly changing |
| matter of time before all the various smartphone | | | | tastes are taken into account. Meaning, if you want to |
| makers made sure to come up with ways that their | | | | have a unique ringtone for, say, 5 different contacts, it |
| customers could access and view YouTube videos | | | | would cost you $5 to get them that way. And if you |
| through their smartphones. Many have made the | | | | had a new favorite song every month, it would cost |
| grade, some are still trying - with the Apple iPhone | | | | you $12 per year to replace each month's ringtone |
| being the latest to join in. Only, as is par for the course | | | | with a new one for the coming month. These costs |
| with the ever-innovative, pioneering Apple (never one | | | | add up, and what they mostly add up to is a growing |
| to be outdone, or even beaten to the proverbial punch), | | | | demand among iPhone users for a cheaper alternative |
| the new technology takes YouTube for smartphones | | | | to Apple's own ringtone service for people who like |
| into a whole new arena - and one, at that, that makes | | | | variety in their smartphone experience (which , these |
| one wonder what took them (or anyone) so long to | | | | days, is just about everyone). |
| think of it. | | | | YouTube videos have become such a sensation, that |
| It's called "iRinger" and it's a third-party downloadable | | | | many of them wind up getting play on the evening |
| application that empowers iPhone users to convert | | | | news or even become widespread cultural |
| YouTube videos into ringtones. Because if YouTube is | | | | phenomena. Consider the sobbing, freaked out fan |
| the web's top video site, and the iPhone is the world's | | | | pleading for people to "Leave Britney Alone", or the |
| most celebrated smartphone, then ringtones are | | | | young police officer who called 911 because he thought |
| likewise one of the most popular and profitable | | | | he and his wife were overdosing on the cannabis he |
| smartphone features. | | | | stole from his department ("I think we're either dying or |
| Furthermore, iRinger doesn't only convert YouTube | | | | we're already dead, I can't tell, but everything is moving |
| videos into ringtones but videos from most other major | | | | really slowly"), or the myriad bloopers and blunders |
| video sites (such as Google). What's more, not only | | | | from every major media figure from pundits to |
| does iRinger let iPhone users convert online videos into | | | | politicos. Now consider any of these (or any of your |
| ringtones, but MP3s audio files as well - including songs | | | | other favorites) as the signal your iPhone gives you to |
| users may already own in their iTunes library. | | | | let you know that your best friend or ex-boyfriend or |
| The program came as a proactive user-response to | | | | mother is calling.iRinger is free to download and is |
| complaints that Apple's own ringtone conversion | | | | capable of making ringtones up to 30 seconds long. |
| service cost customers 99 cents per ringtone, a fee | | | | |