Vringo tries for new mobile rich media format
Rating: Will anyone bother with video ringtones, though?
by Tony Dennis
Calling yourself the sponsor of the
‘World’s Tiniest Film Festival’ does at least generate a modicum of
interest. Following up with a claim that you’re
making Personalisation 2.0 a reality is the clincher.
What are the
guys at Vringo
up to with their
video ringtone sharing, then?
After a little bit of investigation, it turned out that while I liked
the idea, I’m not entirely convinced that video ringtones will take
off as a fad. The whole thing is too fiddly.
The film festival bit
is actually a competition at the forthcoming Mobile World Congress in
disguise. The objective is to stimulate the public into creating
interesting 15 second video clips which could serve as a video
ringtone.
So
instead of merely playing a 15 second MP3 of Faithless’ Insomnia, you
could - in theory – play a 15 second snippet from the music video
instead.
That sounds cool until you have to install the software.
Vringo try to make the process painless by using WAP push to send the
appropriate URL to your handset. Plus they have client software
available for a large number of popular smartphones.
After
the installation, it’s then necessary to start signing up your
buddies – who need the Vringo client, too. After that you can
download one of Vringo’s ready-made video tones.
I tried recording
my own clip but the file disappeared into the deepest recesses of
Nokia’s filing system. Plus I had to use the rear camera when the
front – video call – camera would have been better.
For
Vringo to function effectively, it’s also necessary to have a live 3G
data session in progress. And to top it all, playing the video
ringtone hides the caller’s CLI. An unwanted side-effect as far as I
was concerned.
It’s all very well creating a whole new category of
‘rich media’ for mobile but somebody has got to be very determined to
use this facility.
Never mind because if yours is the best clip of
the day at MWC, you stand to win a 32 inch flat screen. It’s worth a
punt.
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