Stephen Fry Can Blog

Actor Stephen Fry wrote about the iPhone on his blog.

It's a lengthy but entertaining read. Stephen Fry is a bit of a technophile with a long history of buying the latest smart phone. He pans the iPhone's virtual keyboard and the lack of support for custom apps but praises just about everything else.

What's Your Sign? Er, I Mean Ringtone?

Everyone has been in one of those meetings. Profits are down, tempers are heating up, the tension builds and just then someone's cell phone starts playing Who Let the Dogs Out.

As for me, I'll probably stick with the 'Old Phone' ringtone. It's eerie. But evidently a lot of people want something different. According to the research firm IDC:

...230 million wireless subscribers in the United States bought a total of $4.1 billion in data services in the third quarter of 2006... $7.27 was spent per customer on data services during that time, of which ring tones were the most popular paid download... more than a third of all U.S. wireless subscribers to purchase at least one ring tone each quarter.

That's a lot of jingles, but soon, according to Information Week, the iPhone will let you use any of your iTunes songs as a ringtone.

This seems like such a natural feature for the iPhone one has to wonder why it wasn't there from the start. Adding this capability to the iPhone will make it even more attractive to consumers but it probably won't cause much of a dent in the "ringtones for cell phones" business, nor is it likely to help the iPhone supplant the Blackberry. Still, it's a welcome addition.