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Over on this side of the pond I frequently see television commercials for free or low priced ringtones that you can get by sending a text message. If you read the fine print, it tells you that you are actually signing up for a subscription where they send you new ringtones every day or every week, charging you each time. I think this practice is scandalous because people are misled. The scariest thing is how third party companies are able to make charges to your wireless account!

Instead of paying $2.50 per ringtone, why not subscribe to a service called 3G Upload? I believe it's $9.99 for a one year subscription and you get unlimited ringtones. You simply pick the ringtones you want, then it sends a text to your phone which contains a link to download the tone you selected. You're also allowed to change the assigned phone a certain number of times, so I shared my account with several friends.

I downloaded about thirty ringtones from them before my subscription expired. Even though I still have all those silly ringers, I stick with a standard "beep beep beep beep beep beep" or a "ring ring" that sounds like an old fashioned telephone bell.

I guess you havent been here. http://www.3gupload.com/

...you make your OWN ringtones. Use a midi-notation software, then use a site like 3gupload to put them onto your phone. Much cheaper than buying them (the site has a whole bunch of ringtones too), and if you're like me, you can put strange ringtones that you'll never find elsewhere.

I believe if an American lived in Sweden for a while (a country with one of the highest mobile phone penetration rates), they would quickly get used to hearing phones ringing and people talking on them all the time, without feeling necessarily annoyed. It's the constant reinforcement by others in US society that mobile phones are in fact extremely annoying that maintains this perception.

Agreed. I was without a cell phone for a while when I was working for the cable company in a particularly out-of-the-way Pennsylvania (U.S.) village, where cell phone coverage was so poor that almost nobody had them. When I would go back to civilization (read: anywhere but that village), I noticed myself getting irritated at the people talking on their phones. However, once I got my current job (a month ago) and started up a new service contract, cell phone usage by anyone and everyone was just something I kinda brushed off as a fact of life, just like I did when I had had my previous phone.

Did you ever notice that the people most pissed off about cell phones are typically the ones who don't have them? It could be the other way around (they don't have them because they hate them), but I think it's more based in envy.

For the record, I a) move to someplace isolated when I talk on the phone, but answer before I get there; b) dislike SMS texting because it's unusable when communicating with non-tech-savvy folks; c) love my ringtones (3G Upload kicks ass) and have a unique one; and d) turn down/off the ringer when appropriate (movie theater, meeting) and not when it's merely convenient (I don't want to be bothered).

If you don't like ringers and screensavers expiring you should try www.3gupload.com. For a one-time donation ($5.99 minimum) unlimited downloads with no expiration dates. I have sprint and it has paid for itself pretty damn quickly.

3GUpload

3GVisionCorrection

REALLY help you use the most of your phone with minimal spending.

McD