On Fri, Mar 21, 2003 at 11:32:18AM +0000, Jack Campin wrote:
> I've just found out, via uk.media.radio.archers, of all places,
> that mobile phones use MIDI for their ringtones.
Some do, particularly the most recent phones. Older models may use a
format called RTX or RTTTL.
> I am not sure how
> the download is managed, presumably a phone call using some
> TFTP-like protocol with the billing managed by the phone network
> provider.
It's usually either by the customer calling a premium-rate phone number,
or sending a premium-rate SMS message, which captures their phone
number. The ringtone is sent to the phone using a mechanism called OTA
("over the air") which is a special type of SMS. The company I work for
does some work with these things.
I've been planning to write an ABC-to-RTX converter for a while, but
not got round to it yet. There is some information at
http://www.biff.org.uk/dave/software/abc2rtx
which might be of interest. It'd be neat to have it able to send the
ringtone by SMS too. :)
> of the time. (ABCMus can do polyphonic stuff, can't it? -
> even if not yet, chord playing would be a good start).
ISTR that not all MIDI-capable phones are polyphonic...
> (4) download/billing links to the mobile phone networks
That'll be fun. The up-front charges for handling premium and/or bulk
SMS aren't cheap.
Cheers,
Dave
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