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− | {{comic
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− | | number = 2272
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− | | date = February 24, 2020
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− | | title = Ringtone Timeline
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− | | image = ringtone_timeline.png
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− | | titletext = No one likes my novelty ringtone, an audio recording of a phone on vibrate sitting on a hard surface.
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− | }}
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− | ==Explanation==
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− | {{incomplete|Created by a COOL SPACE BEEP. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
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− | After the {{w|telephone}} was invented, a way of indicating when a call was coming through was needed. Special voltages sent through the line were used to activate a physical bell on the other end, leading to what we recognize as a {{w|Ringtone|phone ringing sound}}, and that method of generating sound persisted for quite some time, even when new methods of detecting and generating ringing sounds were developed.
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− | Eventually, however, people realized they were no longer confined to the traditional bell ringing sound, as computers became more and more involved with the telephone process, and variations of bell-type sounds were introduced, often sounding like spaceship sounds from sci-fi movies. Probably the most iconic "cool space beeps" are the [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1y64wVO3Uv0 chirps] from the communicators from ''{{w|Star Trek}}'' (which themselves resemble flip-phones in style). Another common ringtone was the {{w|Nokia tune}}.
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− | In the late 1990s and early 2000s, [https://orangemag.co/orangeblog/2018/9/25/a-retrospective-on-ringtones actual songs, or song snippets] were able to be used as a ringing sound. It became common to record song snippets from the radio, or to use song MP3 files as ringtones. Many of these songs are grating to hear, and also a social ''faux pas'' if they sound in theatres or other listening venues. As an example, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-PmJYxusHI this Geico ad] featuring bad ringtones, including "the worst ringtone [the Geico gecko has] ever heard", came out around the end of the "song and novelty ringtone" period (according to Randall's periodization).
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− | As people got sick of that, they reverted to use the default ring tone, a spaceship / computer sound, although this time often of higher quality and more melodious in nature. Nowadays, there are more people electing to use a more traditional ringing sound, both as the novelty has worn off, and possibly also as an ironic statement about ringtones. Randall (in the person of Cueball) made a statement like this in [[479: Tones]] in 2008, which according to his reckoning was in the waning years of the novelty ringtone epoch.
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− | The final stage the comic is pointing to is do away with traditional sound entirely, and going with the vibrate mode most portable phones have; what little sound there is is more of a low rumbling sound. Using this setting is common for schools, workplaces, or churches, as it can be [https://www.androidcentral.com/do-us-all-favor-and-put-your-phone-vibrate-mode disruptive to have a phone ring in a public place]. Some users have chosen to always set their phones to the vibrate setting, to avoid having to change their ringing settings back and forth. [[Randall]] claims that vibrate mode is the "final victory" over ringtones, which he apparently dislikes.
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− | In the title text, [[Randall]] ironically uses a "novelty ringtone" which is an audio recording of a phone vibrating. This would sound like a phone on vibrate mode, but his actual phone is not vibrating, and is actually producing a "ringing" sound. However, if the original phone was vibrating on a hard surface (as opposed to in a pocket, muffled by fabric), the sound would be much louder and more grating. A recording of that sound, played as an audio ringtone, would go back to being annoying again. But maybe less imaginatively so than might be a version of the staccato "drum-da-da-drum-da-da-drum" of a phone's periodic handshaking with a mast, such as you sometimes hear over unassociated audio equipment, at pretty much any time it pleases.
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− | ==Transcript==
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− | {{incomplete transcript|Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
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− | :[A horizontal timeline spanning between the years 1875 and 2022. Every year is indicated by a tick below the line, and labeled every 5 years. There is a gap between 1883 and 1989 with jagged lines to indicate a jump in time. 7 sections are labeled on the chart, each with a border except for the first and last:]
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− | :[1875, with no border:]
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− | :Telephone ringer invented
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− | :[1878-1883:]
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− | :Normal ringing sounds
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− | :[Gap and jagged lines to indicate jump in time from 1883 to 1989]
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− | :[1989-1996:]
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− | :Normal ringing sounds
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− | :[1996-2003:]
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− | :Cool space beeps
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− | :[2003-2009:]
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− | :Song and novelty ringtones
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− | :[2009-2013:]
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− | :Cool space beeps
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− | :[2013-2019:]
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− | :Normal ringing sounds
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− | :[2020, with no border:]
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− | :Everyone sets their phones to vibrate
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− | :[Caption below the panel:]
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− | :After 140 years, humanity is finally on the verge of winning the war against ringtones.
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− | {{comic discussion}}
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− | [[Category:Timelines]]
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− | [[Category:Smartphones]]
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