Vringo [vring-oh] noun 1. A next-gen ringtone with video and social functionality 2. A mind-blowing way to show off your phone 3. A company dedicated to reinventing the phone call
We’re moving into the UK! Check out the full release below.
August 25, 2010 – NEW YORK – Vringo, Inc., (NYSE Amex: VRNG) a provider of video ringtones and personalization solutions for mobile devices, today announced a major carrier partnership with Everything Everywhere Limited, the UK’s largest mobile communications company. Everything Everywhere Limited is a company jointly owned by France Telecom (NYSE: FTE) and Deutsche Telekom (OTC: DTEGY.PK) that operates both Orange (UK) and T-Mobile (UK) mobile brands. Through this exciting new partnership, Vringo’s video ringtone service will be made available to a combined customer base of over 30 million customers. The initial Vringo launch will be for Orange UK customers only.
“Our upcoming launch with Orange UK represents an important milestone for Vringo,” said Jon Medved, Vringo’s Chief Executive Officer. “We are excited to work with Everything Everywhere Limited, Britain’s leading communication company and look forward to operating in the UK which is one of the most dynamic mobile markets in the world.” Read the rest of this entry »
Add breast augmentation to the list of things you can do with a ringtone. Hideto Tomabechi, a Japanese researcher, is looking to see if a woman’s breasts will grow larger if she hears the sound of a baby crying embedded in a ringtone. This phenomenon actually occurs normally, but Hideto wants to see if a simulated sound, like a ringtone, can bring about the same result. So if you’ve been looking to put some overpaid plastic surgeons out of business, go ahead and experiment! You can checkout Hideto’s experiment on the Discovery Channel here.
Of course, you could take this all one step further and set an auto-tuned baby crying as your ringtone.
You would think that as a video ringtone service we would be the ones to discover or even create the worst ringtone ever. Unfortunately for you, that dubious honor now belongs to insurance provider, Geico, of all companies.
To begin terrorizing yourself and those around you with this masterpiece of a ringtone (and marketing to be honest – people in our office have seriously been whistling this thing since it came blaring over my speakers a few minutes ago) just head on over to http://www.vringo.com/studio, search for “Geico ringtone” and send it to your phone.
Norway can now count Vringo as one of its national treasures along side fjords and Vikings. Telenor Norway, one of Norway’s leading telecoms, is hosting our service on their WAP portal at http://wap.telenor.no/programmer/apps/. Sure, it doesn’t hold a candle to Harald Fairhair’s unification of Norway at the Battle of Hafrsfjord, but it’s a great beginning.
For something more contemporary, why don’t you make this your ringtone? As usual just head on over to http://vringo.com/studio and cut and edit your favorite part.
We doubt you missed it, but it’s Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day. Birthed into existence by an Indiana radio station nine years ago, this last Monday of January celebrates what is most certainly the most important of artificial “Appreciation” days (If you just have to read more, take a look at this article in the Christian Science Monitor).
In case you don’t have a piece of this addictive material handy to relieve Monday’s stress, we thought we’d at least help you alleviate your frustrations aurally with some bubble wrap ringtones. As usual, just go to www.vringo.com/studio, edit your chosen video and start popping the pain away one call at a time. (We’d go with the first video if you’re a purist, but the two after the jump aren’t bad either.)
We try not to take ringtones too seriously here at Vringo, at least until we read this. Apparently, soldiers in Afghanistan can actually separate moderate Afghans from Taliban supporters just by listening to their ringtones. According to the Financial Times, “Ringtones featuring Islamic religious hymns have become a distinctive hallmark of the Taliban and other hardliners averse to music they consider unIslamic.” Good thing the fine people of New York are only armed with awkward stares when my ringtone goes off.
By the way, you too can have this beautiful ringtone on your phone. Just go to http://www.vringo.com/studio
If there’s one thing that only children do poorly but the web does really well, it’s sharing. Nestled near the end of practically every article or video you run across is a simple Facebook or Twitter button just begging you to replicate content in a different location. While these buttons work like a charm at informing close friends and annoying distant acquaintances with your latest nugget of workplace procrastination, they aren’t very helpful when it comes to spreading a piece of content off the desktop screen and onto the mobile screen.
Well, we’ve got an app for that. OK, its really a widget, but close enough. The Vringo Widget at its most basic does what your everyday Facebook and Twitter button can’t; it seamlessly sends any video to which it is attached to your cellphone into one easily accessible and consolidated space.
