Push Ringer: is ringtone hijacking acceptable?
James has a thought piece published over at the Houston Chronicle and it raises some interesting questions. I’ve read through it a few times and I’m sill looking for the benefit justification of Emotive’s "Push Ringer" service. Essentially, Push Ringer allows you choose a ring tone for your calls; pick a tune and your recipient’s phone will play it when you call them. Sounds like a fun way to personalize your calls, right? For some, it probably is, but there’s a glaring issue: the person receiving your call has temporarily lost control over the ring tone on their phone. You "push" the ring tone and they hear it when you call, no if’s, and’s or but’s.
Make no mistake, I’m all for personalization and social sharing oftechnologies. In this case however, I’d like to see some way for thecall recipient to have some way of maintaining control on the ringtones of the phones and service they pay for. Emotive: if you’re reading this, pleaseconsider what you’re taking away from the call recipient before youhand it over to the call initiator. Some kind of opt-out should be available. The product concept is fine if and only if the call recipient can maintain control over their experience.
Let’s run through a scenario for a second: suppose I’m in a business meeting and get a call. I’m not a big ring tone fan, so I tend to go with standard sounds that convey a purpose (I’ve got a call), but still maintain some manners (sorry for the interruption). So I’m in my business meeting and get a call from someone using Push Ringer. I have zero control over the sounds that come out of my phone at this point. Perhaps someone has created a custom audio file with obscenities or something else inappropriate for the context of my current environment; how will that go over at my business appointment? What if my kids are around? You see where I’m going here…
Customization is a key enabler of any technology, but you can’t use the word "customization" without preceding it with or implying the word "personalized". When my phone rings, I want customization for my own personal experience; not be forced with someone else’s.
Thoughts?
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Just another symptom of how the RIAA (and associated record labels) doesn’t get it. If after years of flogging their product only 6% of cell phone users care to purchase and use custom ring-tones most folks would see that as a major clue stick that perhaps the overwhelming super majority (94%) don’t want their over priced ring-tone products.
Sounds like a stalker’s dream. Why let caller id stop you when you can send a special message to that special someone regardless of whether they want it? Stevie Wonder (“I Just Called To Say I Love You”) and The Police (“Every Breath You Take”) should make a killing off this service.
Also a good service for the run-of-the-mill jerk who just wants your phone to play Debbie Gibson or Vanilla Ice at random, potentially embarrassing times. And once a hacker unlocks this service, we can look forward to receiving porn ring tones from random perverts (also look for those aforementioned stalkers to jump on this).
Lot of potential here. I look forward to adding push ringtones to my list of reasons why I don’t like phones.
no ifs, ands or buts…apostrophe overkill!
Could this herald the return of Baby Got Back? (I like big butts and I cannot lie..)Surely we could have some fun with that. I see a whole new wave of prank calling in someone’s future.
From the article:
“The ringers can comprise audio, video, animations, avatars or flash files.”
I suspect there are still some technical difficulties since many ringtones still have to be purchased based on the model of the phone and not all phones support all ringtones. One could make an argument that this is a reason to stick with minimal function phones. Then again, how many phones support flash today anyway?
Mark
If you are in a business meeting, you should either 1. turn your phone to vibrate, 2. turn your phone off, or 3. don’t bring your phone in with you.
While I certainly agree that this technology is a Bad Idea, saying “What if it ruins my business meeting” is a poor argument.
I’m going to bet that you cannot use custom ringtones or images with this, and instead can only use the ones provided by the carrier.
Why?
Well, it’s obvious… people would otherwise instantly start porn-jacking phones, etc.
Even with the limitation, it’s a dumb idea. Custom ringtones are useful and fun. Ringbacks are pointless, but generally harmless. But being able to force things on people? That’s not gonna fly.
One BIG problem, chances are that the recipient (if it were me) wouldn’t recognize that s/he were getting a call until it was too late to answer. I hear my ring tone, but others just get lost in the din.
IMHO, stupid idea.