Robyn / November 5, 2007 12:47 AM

It's s factory-installed tone called Tropicasia, and it's funky. I always say I'm gonna shill out the money for a cooler song but I never do.

Leroy / November 5, 2007 7:21 AM

I don't have a cell phone, but I sure as hell can tell you what everyone else's ringtone is....

Dragonslayer / November 5, 2007 7:24 AM

I also use a factory ringtone called "Here It Comes".

All I look for is enough distinction to know my phone from the cacophony of others and loud enough to hear it in my gadget bag.

Lizzy / November 5, 2007 7:52 AM

It's the provider-installed doorbell chime (bing-bong) but my phone is always on vibrate, so I never hear it.

Brian / November 5, 2007 7:53 AM

I set up a bunch of custom ones, all based on who's calling me. For business, it's a ringer that sounds like an office phone. For my local friends, "This Fire" by Franz Ferdinand. For my old friends from college, the Super Mario Bros video game music. For my mom, "This is Grand." For one particularly annoying bipolar friend who calls 3-4 times a day (more if you don't answer), "Where is My Mind" by The Pixies. Unknown Number, it's the factory default "Nokia Tune." Oh, and for bootay calls, "Astroglide" by The Mystechs.

Doyle / November 5, 2007 8:19 AM

I'm with Lizzy on the "always on vibrate" approach.

On the rare occasions that the ringer is on, it's "Rockit" by Herbie Hancock. It has to be one of the funkiest tracks ever written!

missmolly / November 5, 2007 8:30 AM

usually on vibrate, but when it does ring, it's the level one music for super mario brothers.

Shasta / November 5, 2007 8:45 AM

My phone is always on vibrate. However I do have this nifty ringback feature that when someone calls me, instead of hearing ringing, my callers hear classical music. I could change it to something else, but I haven't bothered.

jasmine / November 5, 2007 8:47 AM

Beep following by vibrate.

I hate the sound of cellphone ringtones and everyone thinks they're so clever with their choice of ringtone. If I heard Brian's (see above) phone ring, I'd be like, "Well, alllllllright. Finally a good tune." But apparently Brian and I are never in the same place because all I ever hear are BAD top 40 songs that sound like very loud static.

jasmine / November 5, 2007 8:48 AM

My grammar is horrible.

What I meant to write was "Beep followed by vibrate."

I really is literate. I swears.

JasonB / November 5, 2007 8:53 AM

I patiently await the world's first "ringtone induced" shooting spree.

Spook / November 5, 2007 9:07 AM

I don't have on, which is especially hard to belive for folks that know me given my day job "cover" that funds my real work of revolution.

I mean really, you can reach me in the office and reach me at home. I read on the train and on the walk home so I'd rather not be disturbed. Its also annoying when people talk on them at bars and resturants. An article in yesterday's NY Times reported about a device that allows you to "hang" up others cell phones. Its ilegal in the U.S but more and more people are buying them. I'm totally for this!

Second Hand Yak aint as bad a Second Hand Smoke, but it still sucks!

I can understand why women should have cell phones for safety reasons, but why so men choose to have them is beyond me.

And Honeslty I belive they cause brain cancer.

vit / November 5, 2007 9:17 AM

The same tone it came with. But it is usually on vibrate and if you call me, I only average actually answering it about 1 in 5 times (generally only if I am expecting your call). However, I will call you back, usually from home

I view cell phones as a necessary evil, and don't like to answer them or talk on them when I am with other people unless it is an emergency.

Hal / November 5, 2007 9:17 AM

My brother has one of those devices which he was going to lend me for my commute. But fortunately, I realized right before I was leaving his house to go to the airport that it looks WAY too much like a bomb and trying to explain its function ("It massively disrupts radio signals.") would guarentee me a nice bunk in a holding cell.

My ringtone? My Treo 650 is kind of limited, but I use the European-style old-school double ring. Which, I found, every other Treo user I know uses because all of the other basic ones really suck. So, we're always all reaching when one in the group goes off.

kate / November 5, 2007 9:38 AM

Always on vibrate.

When it's plugged in and refuses to vibrate, it's some ringtone called "In Transit".

J / November 5, 2007 9:42 AM

I'm using one of the basic ringtones that came with the phone, that simply sounds like a phone, set to low volume.

I hate loud musical tones. Nothing classy about having Mozart or 50 cent start playing in the middle of a meeting/restaurant/class.

Jo / November 5, 2007 9:51 AM

Like many others my phone is almost always on vibrate, it's basically an expensive clock. When the volume is on it plays the theme song from Indiana Jones.

sam b / November 5, 2007 9:56 AM

i keep it on vibe and i keep it real.

in other news, i want a t-shirt that says:

"Get better music or turn it down."

yeah, you know who you are. franz ferdinand... geesh. (+1 for the pixies ref.)

carrie / November 5, 2007 9:59 AM

I had mine set to "Clowns" for the longest time. That's right, "Clowns". Then I'd say "oh it's the clowns calling!" if someone accidentally calls me during the day at work.

It's currently set to "Beach" so I can dream of vacation when someone calls.

Sam / November 5, 2007 10:05 AM

On my old phone, I had different rings for each person that calls me regularly, so I could decide if I should get out of bed to answer it or not. My best friend was "Blitzkrieg Bop", another was "Wake me up before you go go", which he hated but I thought was funny. Booty calls were "Anybody wanna take me home" by Ryan Adams.

I just got a new phone that you can put mp3s on, so for now everyone is "the Comeback" by the Shout Out Louds. It sounds like old Atari Pole Position in the intro. However, I always set my phone to vibrate first, so the only way you'd hear anything is if it's in the other room.

Andrew / November 5, 2007 10:07 AM

Mine is a custom ringtone of "Pengin/Powerhouse" by The Coctails. I actually had the opportunity to play it for a member of the band once, and he was very amused.

It used to be a loop of the violin intro from "Capital I" by Andrew Bird, but it got lost in a software upgrade.

Andrew / November 5, 2007 10:09 AM

Oh, and my old phone? Chickens clucking. Freaked people out, it was so realistic, and then they laughed when they realized it was a phone.

Flynn / November 5, 2007 10:26 AM

I have customized ringtones for most of my friends, but my generic one is the phone ringing sound at the beginning of Björk's Possibly Maybe.

flange / November 5, 2007 10:32 AM

my phone is set to silence automatically between 7:30am and 6:45pm. doesn't even vibrate. there is a little blinky light in case the phone happens to be in front of me so i can see if the caller id gives me useful information.

the rest of the time, i mostly have animal sounds assigned per person based on their pets.

graumach / November 5, 2007 10:33 AM

I make my own ringtones with a sound-editing program & uploading via Bluetooth. So it's always changing in terms of what songs I use.

Plus I keep the thing on vibrate about half the time, anyway.

Sometimes I have it on a looped sound effect of a guy coughing & sneezing. In the office during wintertime, it blends in perfectly and goes unnoticed. Audio camouflage ringtone, effectively.

Emerson Dameron / November 5, 2007 10:40 AM

It's usually on vibrate. I'm thinking of switching it to "Crank That" next year, when it's cheaper.

C-Note. / November 5, 2007 10:41 AM

Vibrate. Ringtones are for shitheads.

anne / November 5, 2007 10:47 AM

Funny you should ask! I just made one from "You're the Best" by Joe Esposito from the "Karate Kid" soundtrack. It's my new favorite thing in the world. If you have a Razr, and bluetooth, it's easy to cut down mp3s using this How To.

amyc / November 5, 2007 10:52 AM

My ringtone is someone yelling "Hey everybody! Look at me! I have a cell phone and I'm so important!"

Just kidding. I don't actually have a cell phone.

Brian / November 5, 2007 10:56 AM

The problem with having it on vibrate is that often it's in my hoodie or coat pocket, and unless I have my hands in there, I don't feel it vibrate. I'm self-employed, so 9 times out of 10 it's the office phone ringer anyway. I seriously don't get this holier-than-thou attitude of “ringtones are for shitheads.”

sam b: Oh, give me a break! I could use any number of really awful ringtones that can be purchased from my carrier. Instead, I make my own and upload them to the phone. Maybe you'd rather hear really loud, static-y, awful booty-bitch pop from the attention-seeking little girl du jour?

shechemist / November 5, 2007 11:06 AM

Usually my ringer is off which is why I miss 95% of my calls. When I remember to turn it on, Long Dark Veil By Cash when my husband calls, and Don't Fear the Reaper by B.O.C. for everyone else.

Greg / November 5, 2007 11:14 AM

The most discreet-yet-audible out-of-box ringtone on my cheap phone.

Custom ringtones are as dumb as pictures of Garfields, etc. on your checks...and yet I'm glad Thomas Dolby made a second fortune on them.

Cliff on Rosedale / November 5, 2007 11:25 AM

If it's not on vibrate then you'll more than likely hear "Folsom Prison Blues" by Johnny Cash. Unless it's my friend Dean who gets the theme to "Raiders of the Lost Ark" or my friend Starbuck who gets "Fascination St.", or the fiancee who is "Oooh-La-La" by Goldfrapp.

emyduck / November 5, 2007 11:45 AM

my old phone had birds chirping, and i loved it. then i got a new phone about 2 weeks ago and it only had like 4 stupid generic tones, so i bought a ringtone called "tweet 2 da beat" by girltalk. it's pretty awesome.

eep / November 5, 2007 12:24 PM

First of all, I want to say THANK YOU to everyone who puts their phone on vibrate mode during work hours, restaurant time, etc. While I am all for fun, customized ringtones, there is a time and place for them. The fact that 75% of my office doesn't realize this pisses me off to no end. So thank you to the people who have the courtesy to turn yours off.

That said, my phone usually plays Oingo Boingo's "Dead Man's Party," though now that Halloween is over I'll probably switch back to Theivery Corporation's "Lebanese Blonde." When my boyfriend calls, it's Oingo Boingo's "Weird Science," because he's a scientist.

KevinB / November 5, 2007 12:52 PM

The presidential ringtone from the 1960s movie "In Like Flint and Our Man Flint"

KevinB

Lori / November 5, 2007 12:54 PM

mine is like easy listening/old folks music like you might have once heard at the grocery store. It makes me laugh and do the slow jam.

It doesn't ring that often though, and when it rings in public I feel wierd about talking on it.

the wierdest phone thing to me is when you see people just blabbing away to no one because they've got the bluetooth thing in their ear.

vanessa / November 5, 2007 12:59 PM

I loaded random sound effects on to my phone, so currently, my ringtone is a car crash: glass smashing and all.

printdude / November 5, 2007 1:25 PM

For my friends, it rings "So Whacha Want" - Beastie Boys.
For my Wife, it rings "The Chain" from Poi Dog.
For family, it rings "Pump it Up" Elvis c. Covered by Danko Jones.

Everyone else gets "Hand of Fate" Rolling Stones.

But mostly it's on silent, because the damn vibrate makes too much noise when i'm con-CEN-trating.

I do miss my Simpsons theme from my old phone, but it wouldn't transfer.

Steven / November 5, 2007 1:27 PM

ring ring

short and sweet

peta / November 5, 2007 1:27 PM

If I had a cellphone, I'd use this:

http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/samplesViewSingle.php?id=30988

Anne / November 5, 2007 1:53 PM

Mine's virtually always on vibrate, but when it's not, the ringtone is either "Ring of Fire" or the theme to the Beverly Hillbillies.

Flynn / November 5, 2007 2:24 PM

It should be mentioned that most of the cooler custom ringtones here are probably NOT purchased. I make all my own....the RAZR can play any MP3 files anyway, so you just have to cut them to the right bitrate and you can have any darn sound you want on there.

The gf currently has Homer singing Spider Pig as her default. Kinda hard to hear, though.

Also, I assumed that the question meant "when your phone *isn't* on vibrate, what's the ringtone?"

Leelah / November 5, 2007 2:26 PM

Vibrate. I don't even know how to download email on my phone, let alone a ring tone...

David / November 5, 2007 2:27 PM

"Ping Island/Lightning Strike Rescue Operation" from The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. It's probably my favorite ring of all time, but I used to have "Beat on the Brat" by the Ramones, and that was pretty fun too.

hannah / November 5, 2007 2:28 PM

Crickets chirping

Mac / November 5, 2007 2:35 PM

Cell phone?
What is this thing you call a "cell phone"?

jennifer / November 5, 2007 3:25 PM

vibrate. this way I am never that jerk in class whose phone interrupts the prof's moment of brillance. vibrate also proves to be useful in living alone. I can hear the thing banging against my desk, but it's not as startling as the generic melody that my phone blares when I have it off vibrate.

Jasmine / November 5, 2007 3:28 PM

For people I know, Gnarls Barkley's "Smiley Faces". All others get a monophonic version of The Smiths' "Girlfriend in A Coma".

Spook / November 5, 2007 4:10 PM

I guess Blagg the Ax Man won't be sounding off on this topic

Val / November 5, 2007 4:24 PM

Just Red RAZZZOORRR (side note, phone names are funny).

Among the amenity ringtones I discovered something called "Clubland". I realized anyone wanting to go to "Clubland" is no friend of mine.

Trying to download my FIRST ringtone... Amy Winehouse/Mark Bronson version of Valerie. Quality.

Val / November 5, 2007 4:24 PM

Just Red RAZZZOORRR (side note, phone names are funny).

Among the amenity ringtones I discovered something called "Clubland". I realized anyone wanting to go to "Clubland" is no friend of mine.

Trying to download my FIRST ringtone... Amy Winehouse/Mark Bronson version of Valerie. Quality.

JD / November 5, 2007 7:24 PM

Mylo

Drop The Pressure

Jim / November 5, 2007 9:17 PM

Godzilla's roar with a little kid cheering him on.

Leah / November 5, 2007 10:09 PM

When mine isn't on silent, I use that doorbell "bing bong" ring.

My blackberry has whatever the standard ring was when I got it out of the box, but only one person has that number so that ring really means, "Hooray! He's calling!"

Michael / November 5, 2007 11:07 PM

I always have mine on vibrate unless I'm with friends or something, in which case it's Paper Planes by M.I.A., or alternatively Cell Phone's Dead by Beck.

Dutch101 / November 6, 2007 8:42 AM

I think that generally, keeping your phone on vibe, or having something pretty innocuous is a great idea. If you have Chingy blowing up in your pocket when you are around people who matter, that's pretty stupid.
That having been said, I work in a business full of immature idiots, which gives me some latitude. I had the theme from "Rockford Files" for a while, which was a good one because it sorted out the kids from the adults.
When the GF calls, it is "Like Gold" by Erland Oye.
I definitely like the idea of having the hotline ring from "In Like Flint" (or reprised in Austin Powers) and the scream is amusing too. I once had the Wilhelm as my windows shut down noise on my computer.

Chicago Hot Blog / November 6, 2007 8:51 AM

I just use the vibration setting. The ringtones only seem to get me in trouble.

Andrew / November 6, 2007 9:35 AM

It's on vibrate more often than not. When the ringer's on, it chirps out the CTU ringtone from 24. When the GF calls, it's the Super Mario Bros. starpower (invincibility) music: "I better hurry up and answer this!"

KevinB / November 6, 2007 9:38 AM

For those interested, the "in like flint" mp3 is available like alot of other free ringtones (Sorry if this seems like an ad, but it actually is really free and not the fake free that wants your credit card numbers). Its a great resource..www.phonescoop.com

Kevin

paul / November 6, 2007 10:01 AM

I do like the idea of the in like flint tone, or maybe the opening tone from "Emergency" (anybody old enough for that one?), but any tone would lose it's novelty for me after the first call.

I hate phones, so the soft purring of my unanswered vibrating phone is about as much as I can take.

I also can't understand why anyone would buy a ringtone. Makes me extremely worried about what people are going to try to charge me for next.

Kevin / November 6, 2007 10:28 AM

The site I mentioned has the "Squad 51, Engine 51" mp3 as well as many others.

I use that one as my alarm tone on my phone.

Kevin

mary / November 6, 2007 10:34 AM

for family i have "baby elephant walk", for close friends its "big time sensuality" by bjork, and for everyone else its "the safety dance" by men without hats.

they are all, of course, midi-type files and not the new fangled tones that sound like the actual songs.

Eamon / November 6, 2007 10:45 AM

I've had the same ringtone for at least four years now: a MIDI version of Lil' Kim's "The Jump Off".

CNS / November 6, 2007 10:54 AM

"Hard Out Here For A Pimp," but usually on vibrate.

Erica / November 6, 2007 12:04 PM

"TNT" by AC/DC. Just the intro riff. When I hear the real song, though, sometimes I think it's my phone.

boomer / November 6, 2007 12:19 PM

Spend a lot of time whacking the little white ball with an expensive set of sticks, so I got "I'm Alright" by Kenny Loggins and hope it rings while I'm on the course. It's hilarious to watch middle age guys in bad pants break into the Caddyshack gopher dance when they hear it. They can't help themselves. When I'm not playing, it's set to silent.

C-Note / November 6, 2007 2:03 PM

Brian - my comment that "ringtones are for shitheads" is not a holier-than-thou type of thing. It's more that to hear phones ringing is annoying enough for those of us who think and are constantly interrupted by phone noise created by those who are ignorant of the callousness of contributing to the noise.

Luckily, science has gotten around the problem by making phones vibrate, and I have adapted to the technology by keeping my phone in my pants pocket.

But that's not enough for you; you have to keep it in your hoodie and circumvent the improvement, and alert everyone in your vicinity to the fact that somebody is at that moment dialing your phone.

It's just respectful and polite to avoid making noise in public places unless there's a sufficient reason. Not wanting to carry your phone in a pocket where you can feel the vibration is not a good reason to bother other people, is it?

Spook / November 6, 2007 2:21 PM

C -note

If I was responsible for some type of civic award, I nominate and give it to you along with a six pack of G. Stout. I mean, I can see having music on your answering machine at home because people are calling you! But why the sam hill should I have to listen to AC/DC or be reminded of the type of red neck or Wheeling Il Bewyn, Cicero, type of person who would listen to that crap. Nor would I subject strangers to my music.

B/S Monitor / November 6, 2007 3:14 PM

If a vibrating phone alerts you that someone is calling, then that does the job without disturbing other people.

Anything other than that is nothing more than people purposely disturbing other people.

Picking out a ringtone? Who does that?!? Who hashes out in front of the computer, racking their brain thinking “what can I do to impress people with my ring-tone”?

If everyone were just a bit more “functional” and a bit less “vain”…well, then, who knows where we’d be.

But really…BUYING a ring-tone? Somethin’else.

Spook and I agreeing on this subject...now THAT's somethin'else!!

:-)

ladyfingers / November 6, 2007 4:09 PM

(Yeah, I assumed as well that "vibrate" didn't count as a ringTONE. But who knows.. and jeez, sorry to piss off all the kids without cell phones..)

My ringtones are "Don't Stop Till You get Enough" by Michael Jackson, and "Private Eyes" by Hall and Oates, which I think, when audible, are pretty funny.

that said, I kinda feel like people will know my secret identity now.

dan / November 6, 2007 4:26 PM

uncontrolled weeping.

Brandy / November 6, 2007 10:40 PM

On spy missions = The Avengers theme

Feeling chill = Night Train

On the go = Green Hornet Theme by Al Hirt

When I need a pick me up= SCHNAPPI!

(Little crocodile in German kids cartoon. VERY catchy ringtone.)

I really do hate having a cell phone - but I did have a blast looking for ringtones. Can't believe I blew $20 so easily that night.

Brandy / November 6, 2007 10:43 PM

p.s. To tie together this question and the one about what scared me as a kid -

The Rockit video COMPLETELY freaked me out.

*SHUDDER*