Windows Phone Thoughts - Daily News, Views, Rants and Raves

"Bing isn't just a search engine, it's a decision engine. Download these Bing-branded ringtones to your mobile device, then make www.bing.com your new default search engine today."

Microsoft's BingTones certainly live up to their name. There's more "bing" in them than you could ever imagine. Perhaps to the point where using them would cause offense to those around you on your daily commute. Still, check 'em out and let us know if they've found a new home on your Windows Mobile device.

There's a fresh breeze going through HTC HQ at the moment. The company has opened up ROM updates to almost everyone. I say "almost", because you still need your device's serial number to download the updates, but that's a heck of a lot better than the notoriously flaky process of registering your device in the e-Club.

With ROM updates available in the Support section, the e-Club now serves as a hub for mobile content. While only twenty ringtones are up for grabs at the moment, they're surprisingly decent. Four of them are the tunes featured in the Touch Diamond promo videos. The rest are a mix of electronic, folk, rock, hip-hop, and new age beats. You do need to be an e-Club member to download them, but it's free for anyone (even non-HTC customers) to register.

"Jagamaga.mobi provides alternative ringtones for mobile download. The service is truly free and does not even require registration. Jagamaga is optimized for convenient direct download to mobile phones. Jagamaga seeks to collaborate with creative sound designer and musicians to distribute their inventions to a wider public. The idea is to provide promotion for lesser known artist."



Beyond your basic bells, buzzes, and tones, most carriers offer a wide variety of ringtones taken from pop-culture. If you're looking for something just a little different, you might try Jagamaga. Sound engineer and content manager Andreas Mehrens selects high-quality ringtones from an eclectic group of artists like Acclivity, Danger Mouse and Jemini, Enrico Caruso, Freq Man, Haroldo Torrecilha and Zap Mama. He's even got a handful of audiobooks available for download. As these are all licensed under Creative Commons, the only thing you may have to pay for is data time to download them.