Wanted: Individually customizable SMS tones for my iPhone

Dear Apple,

I really love my iPhone. Your 2.0 update with the iTunes App store has totally transformed the device from high end phone to mobile communicator. However one of the most innovative features of the phone was present in its initial launch: visual voice mail. No longer did I have to hit next next next to skip past all the marketers to find that important message.

But SMS is the voice mail of the 21st century. With all the new ways the iPhone connects me to friends and family, for work or fun, the text messages are flowing at an incredible rate, in July I had nearly 5000. Sadly all SMS message arrive with the same ding, honk, quack, or vibrate (or nowadays silence). My twitter firehose has desensitized me and I am spending more and more time visually checking my phone for an important message from my girlfriend or Mashable.com.

Stemming the flow at its source is one option, but I’m of the mindset that my technology should adapt to my lifestyle not the other way around and you, Apple, have been strong influence in shaping that opinion. So Apple, would you add the ability for individually selectable SMS tones? I’d love to hear my girlfriend’s laugh when her SMS arrives and a robotic “tweet” with each twitter notification. In addition to happy and more productive iPhonauts you could build another wing to the iTunes store, at twenty-five cents per who could resist getting their iPhone to boink, blabble, cry, or personalize in some fashion that otherwise ethereal contact.

All the best

Rejaw.com + Ping.fm

Rejaw was added to the Ping.fm dashboard today, making it easier to add Shouts, Rejaw’s name for public messages. Private messages are available too and are called Whispers.

One of the nicer features of this newer microblogging platform is the threading of replies to your Shouts.

Rejaw’s present features remind me of Kwippy and I am interested to see how the Rejaw team distinguishes itself. Overall it’s a good easy to navigate platform. My only complaint is the lack of ability to easily post a Shout from the global Shout log.

When you stop by Rejaw Shout out or Whisper in my direction:
Rejaw – http://rejaw.com/kestrachern/

Tagga vs. Tatango: options with group SMS

 Two new group SMS startups opened their doors to the public this week. Tagga (http://tagga.com) billing itself as a location based tagging service and Tatango (http://tatango.com) designed for SMS broadcasts to an inclusive group.

Tagga generated SMS badge

Tagga allows a user to create custom tags that will return preordained information. For example selling a vehicle: text MooseB8 to TAGGA (82442). Tagga allows 80 characters in ad-sponsored mode or 120 characters if you wish to pay per each ad free SMS sent. Several preset formats exist, Standard, Website, and RSS with Voting and Newsletter coming soon.

 

Tatango embeded widget

Tatango is a push SMS service where users subscribe to groups to get updates and information based on the group administrator’s updates. Want to keep up with what is happening at Gulfport, Florida’s Geckofest visit:  https://tatango.com/join/2611-MjYxMS0   to sign up. A Basic account nets you one group with100 characters per message in ad-sponsored mode, while going Pro provides an increased number characters with no ads, more groups, integration into websites, and the ability for users to sign up using their mobile phone. Tatango also gives the administrator flexibility to send messages from either a web interface or mobile device and allow responses to be routed back to mobile devices.

 While both Tagga and Tatango can serve the same purpose, keeping users up to date with relevant information, they each take a different path to that end. Tagga allows the user to pursue the information they want while Tatango ensures users stay in the loop of information flow with pushed SMS. In either case, the end user is only responsible for the SMS cost per their contract agreement.