As an Android fan I was tickled by the original version of this video (which only had text, no voice), so I volunteered my services to this tongue in cheek retort to Apple's current ad campaign.
Enjoy!
Showing posts with label cellphones. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cellphones. Show all posts
Monday, March 28, 2011
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Unhelpful Robot Remixed into a Song!
So, two years ago I recorded a series of cell phone alerts I titled "Unhelpful Robot", and they were pretty popular for a while. I haven't checked in on them for a while, but apparently people have still been downloading them, which is pretty rad.
Well I just received a message from a DJ in Amsterdam who has used Unhelpful Robot in a club track, that he's actually played FOR OTHER PEOPLE. I can't tell you how exciting this is for a lowly sound designer like myself. I cut my teeth recording club tracks, and I wasn't that good at it, so having someone else not only enjoy your work, but SHARE it with you, is pretty rad.
So now I'll share it with you!
"What Dave Does" by Save and Sound:
Save and Sound feat Some Audio Guy - What Dave Does by Save and Sound
Download the original Unhelpful Robot alerts!
SomeAudioGuy on Freesound!
Well I just received a message from a DJ in Amsterdam who has used Unhelpful Robot in a club track, that he's actually played FOR OTHER PEOPLE. I can't tell you how exciting this is for a lowly sound designer like myself. I cut my teeth recording club tracks, and I wasn't that good at it, so having someone else not only enjoy your work, but SHARE it with you, is pretty rad.
So now I'll share it with you!
"What Dave Does" by Save and Sound:
Save and Sound feat Some Audio Guy - What Dave Does by Save and Sound
Download the original Unhelpful Robot alerts!
SomeAudioGuy on Freesound!
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Unhelpful Robot for Skype and VOIP
Hey all!
Thanks for the positive feedback on UR.
I went back in to record a few more alerts for myself for Skype, VOIP, and Instant Messengers.
You can download them here:
VOIP TONES FOR UnHelpFul RoBot
Take a listen:
And you can download the original batch of U.R. HERE.
Thanks for the positive feedback on UR.
I went back in to record a few more alerts for myself for Skype, VOIP, and Instant Messengers.
You can download them here:
VOIP TONES FOR UnHelpFul RoBot
Take a listen:
And you can download the original batch of U.R. HERE.
Friday, September 7, 2007
iTunes Hack for FREE RINGTONES
Just posted up on Engadget...
If you read my last story on this, it's just ridiculous to me that ringtones should cost extra on the iPhone. It's another example of them fundamentally missing the market.
If Apple had said "Those other companies make you PAY for ringtones, with Apple the music IS your ringtone!" or some other such nonsense, he could've driven so much more business to the iTunes music store. Instead Apple/AT&T are trying to shear a sheep that's already been shorn (I know that was meta).
The fact that music costs about .99 a song anywhere you go (except eMusic!), and ringtones cost about $1.99, is retarded (and I mean that in the classical sense of the word as in "to retard progress of the music/cellphone industry").
Anywho, there's a story up at Engadget telling us how to get around their 99 cents extra charge:
Read the rest here @ Engadget!
KNOW YOUR RIGHTS: Is it Illegal to Make My Own Ringtones @ Engadget
If you read my last story on this, it's just ridiculous to me that ringtones should cost extra on the iPhone. It's another example of them fundamentally missing the market.
If Apple had said "Those other companies make you PAY for ringtones, with Apple the music IS your ringtone!" or some other such nonsense, he could've driven so much more business to the iTunes music store. Instead Apple/AT&T are trying to shear a sheep that's already been shorn (I know that was meta).
The fact that music costs about .99 a song anywhere you go (except eMusic!), and ringtones cost about $1.99, is retarded (and I mean that in the classical sense of the word as in "to retard progress of the music/cellphone industry").
Anywho, there's a story up at Engadget telling us how to get around their 99 cents extra charge:
To get this to work, we hear you only need to rename an AAC track to .M4R, then double click it and iTunes
will automagically load it into iTunes for you. Next time you plug in
your iPhone to sync up, just check off the song in the Ringtones tab
and voila, instant tone gratification.
Read the rest here @ Engadget!
***EDIT***
Having read this over now, it doesn't look like this will work for music purchased through iTunes (which has copy protection on it, but should work fine for unprotected songs (like the ones you rip off CD's).
KNOW YOUR RIGHTS: Is it Illegal to Make My Own Ringtones @ Engadget
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Free Ringtones and Alerts: UnHelpful RoBot!!!
So I finally finished the editing for my UnHelpful Robot series of ringtones and alerts. I designed the alerts around my Windows Mobile phone, so there might be some alerts in here which only work for the features of a WM phone, and I might be missing alerts for other types of phones.My general inspiration for U.R. comes from classic "evil" sci-fi computers. They always seemed to deliver vital information just a split second too late for the villain to do anything about it. Almost as if they had their own nefarious goals to fulfill.
A perfect example would be the Nod Computer from C&C. It always seemed to let me know one of my units was under attack just after it was to late to save them.
So anywho, please download these ringtones and alerts, give em a spin, and let me know what you think. The link contains a zip file with over 27 individual files, each a 128Kbps MP3.
DOWNLOAD UNHELPFUL ROBOT HERE
Don't hear what you need?
Would you like to customize U.R.'s alerts?
Would you like to hear U.R. say "I'm a big fat doody head"?
U.R. will say anything you want for $1.99 per ring tone/alert. Contact me at SomeAudioGuy@gmail.com for more info.
ENJOY!
***Update 8/25/08***
Recently I've been using Ventones to get ringtones and alerts on my friends cellphones.
It's the first service I've found that plays well with most cell carriers (even Verizon Woot!), and it's pretty easy to use.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Weekly Wrap Up for August 19th, 2007
This is a wrap up of stories posted on the blog for the last week including stories about Dragon Ball Z, Free Music, Alex Albrecht SMS Alerts, The Simpsons Sound a Like Contest, The CD turns 25, Jack Palance Flips Out, Concerts on USB Memory Sticks, BBC and Net Neutrality, DRM Circumvention, Podcast traffic, and Thor gets his own movie!
My AC is busted, so I apologize for the fan noise in the background, but take a listen as I re-cap some of my fave stories for the last week.
Also be on the lookout for some cellphone alerts I'll be putting out, and I should be starting up a monthly poetry read in the next couple weeks.
Enjoy!
My AC is busted, so I apologize for the fan noise in the background, but take a listen as I re-cap some of my fave stories for the last week.
Also be on the lookout for some cellphone alerts I'll be putting out, and I should be starting up a monthly poetry read in the next couple weeks.
Enjoy!
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Cingular (AT&T) Waiver Ruled "Unconscionable" By Circuit Court
"Like many companies, Cingular has a little thing in their contracts saying that if you use their service, you void your right to a class action lawsuit and instead have to go through "mandatory binding arbitration," which is basically an extra-judicial corporate court exempt from many of the basic laws and procedures and rights of real court."
This is a step in the right direction for those of us wanting a little more control over what services we use. I for one can't wait until companies like at&t, Verizon, and Sprint are finally sued over not allowing us to unlock our phones.
read more | digg story
Sunday, March 11, 2007
Economies of Sound: Ringtones
Not an original topic, I know. Ringtones have been discussed, and debated, and analyzed to death.
One problem though, I still don't get them.
Ok, so I understand their popularity. It's an identity. Just as people put skins and cases on their gadgets, having a speaker blare out a particular tune is as close as most of us will come to having a soundtrack (lest we walk around with a ghetto blaster 24/7, and risk getting lynched). I get that part. I take part in that part. My 6700 is currently pimped out with a delicious little sample of Baba O'Riley by the Who (just the opening intro right before the drums and guitars kick in, very simple, very subtle, and as rings go, I either get the "I know that" nod, or the I-think-that's-cool "what is that").
What I don't understand is people's willingness to accept the current business model surrounding the ringtone. It's currently a boon to the music industry, and another source of revenue to keep a failing business model afloat (and yet another way NOT to pay artists, but that's another post).
Love them or hate them, Apple has set the price of a single at 99 cents. This seems appropriate (though I question their crappy bitrate, and DRM, but that's also another post). After years of CD inflation pricing at places like Tower Records (RIP), the 99 cent store attitude of the iPod companion was a breath of fresh air.
So, why are ringtones still 2-3 times more expensive? In essence they are the same thing, both a data file with the audio information needed to create sound to drive a speaker, but the ringtone is a vastly inferior version of that information. Usually consisting of just an intro or chorus, and at a ridiculously low quality (as it only will be played out the back of a crappy phone speaker), One would assume that it would be the single NOT the ringtone that would be worth more...
Of course Apple has recently announced their Awesome Phone (awesome like a hotdog), and sadly I think a lot of people will be disappointed by it once they use it for a while.
One reason they might not realize right away:
It will probably still use ringtones.
This is of course WILD market speculation, but the music industry has already ceded too much power over music to Apple as it is. I find it highly doubtful that they will just yield one of their last remaining cash cows over to Jobs and Co. Also, if you watch this insanely fine toothed comb over of the iPhone announcement, you'll see a new iTunes tab for ringtones.
So, how disappointing will that be? Here you've payed $600 for the privilege of being locked into a 2 year agreement with Cingular, and you legally buy your music at 99 cents a song, and this is going to be the Music/Feature phone to kill all SideKicks and Chocolates, but you'll still have to buy separate ringtones. This thing'll hold 8GB of movie and song data files, but you'll still have to purchase separate audio data files to change your ringer? It WONT be able to use the songs already on it as ringers?
Of course, we don't know this is what will happen, but looking at how cut throat the economies of audio have become, I just don't see this working out in favor of Mr and Mrs Consumer.
Most phones these days use MP3 files for ringtones. For my next post, I'll talk about another topic that's been beaten to death: How to "roll your own" ringtone.
ringtones, cellphones, audio sound design, some audio guy, business, annoyed, rant, iphone
One problem though, I still don't get them.
Ok, so I understand their popularity. It's an identity. Just as people put skins and cases on their gadgets, having a speaker blare out a particular tune is as close as most of us will come to having a soundtrack (lest we walk around with a ghetto blaster 24/7, and risk getting lynched). I get that part. I take part in that part. My 6700 is currently pimped out with a delicious little sample of Baba O'Riley by the Who (just the opening intro right before the drums and guitars kick in, very simple, very subtle, and as rings go, I either get the "I know that" nod, or the I-think-that's-cool "what is that").
What I don't understand is people's willingness to accept the current business model surrounding the ringtone. It's currently a boon to the music industry, and another source of revenue to keep a failing business model afloat (and yet another way NOT to pay artists, but that's another post).
Love them or hate them, Apple has set the price of a single at 99 cents. This seems appropriate (though I question their crappy bitrate, and DRM, but that's also another post). After years of CD inflation pricing at places like Tower Records (RIP), the 99 cent store attitude of the iPod companion was a breath of fresh air.
So, why are ringtones still 2-3 times more expensive? In essence they are the same thing, both a data file with the audio information needed to create sound to drive a speaker, but the ringtone is a vastly inferior version of that information. Usually consisting of just an intro or chorus, and at a ridiculously low quality (as it only will be played out the back of a crappy phone speaker), One would assume that it would be the single NOT the ringtone that would be worth more...
Of course Apple has recently announced their Awesome Phone (awesome like a hotdog), and sadly I think a lot of people will be disappointed by it once they use it for a while.
One reason they might not realize right away:
It will probably still use ringtones.
This is of course WILD market speculation, but the music industry has already ceded too much power over music to Apple as it is. I find it highly doubtful that they will just yield one of their last remaining cash cows over to Jobs and Co. Also, if you watch this insanely fine toothed comb over of the iPhone announcement, you'll see a new iTunes tab for ringtones.
So, how disappointing will that be? Here you've payed $600 for the privilege of being locked into a 2 year agreement with Cingular, and you legally buy your music at 99 cents a song, and this is going to be the Music/Feature phone to kill all SideKicks and Chocolates, but you'll still have to buy separate ringtones. This thing'll hold 8GB of movie and song data files, but you'll still have to purchase separate audio data files to change your ringer? It WONT be able to use the songs already on it as ringers?
Of course, we don't know this is what will happen, but looking at how cut throat the economies of audio have become, I just don't see this working out in favor of Mr and Mrs Consumer.
Most phones these days use MP3 files for ringtones. For my next post, I'll talk about another topic that's been beaten to death: How to "roll your own" ringtone.
ringtones, cellphones, audio sound design, some audio guy, business, annoyed, rant, iphone
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