Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe STARS' VOICES TO REPLACE RINGING TONES A cellular telephone software company has come out "designer ringing tones and voices." Moviso LLC tells national media it's just released a new series of services called TruTones. Advertisement The concept is to replace traditional cell phone ringing with interesting sounds, voice and movie clips, chart-topping songs and celebrity voices. This is the first time the service has been made available in North America. The company is coordinating the licensing of the various voice and sound products to observe performance rights and copyrights. The collection of celebrity voices includes some 200 actual voice ringers of current and legendary stars of movie, television, sports, music and comedy. In addition, Moviso has completed licensing agreements with multiple sources of master recordings, including a major record label, for songs from rock, rap, hip-hop, country, classical and movie and TV themes. Among the celebrities who have lent their voices are: William Shatner, Anna Nicole Smith, Adam West and John Ratzenberger from television; Ricky Williams, Wally Szczerbiak and Deuce McAllister from the world of sports; Comics Kathy Griffin and Joey Kola; and Vanessa Carlton, The Calling, Destiny's Child, The Baha Men, Sammy Hagar, Isaac Hayes and Alanis Morissette. Advertisement Even super models are available, including Kylie Bax, Coors Light Twins Elaine and Diane and Victoria Silvstedt. Subscribers of T-Mobile will get the new ringers first. Prices will be below $3 each for announcements. MORE DIGITAL INFORMATION IN SMALLER SPACE The new wave in computers is the "flash card," the small removable chip that can hold a ton of information and photos. SanDisk has come out with what it calls the world's largest capacity CompactFlash memory card, which holds 4 gigabytes of information. The card uses the popular Type I CF format. The company says with the growth in digital cameras demanding a higher resolution -- finer grain -- image, many professional cameras require higher-capacity memory cards than currently are available. Larger card capacities also are being driven in point and shoot camera category by the addition of Motion JPEG video clips and audio support for both still and motion images. What all of this means is the I CF chip, less than the thickness of a saltine cracker and about one-third the size, can hold more than 4,000 high-resolution pictures. Additionally, as many as 1,000 songs or even a full-length DVD movie can be stored on one chip. Advertisement The new cards are built to fit any CompactFlash slot. More than 500 different consumer electronics devices have CF slots today. The 4GB CompactFlash card has a suggested retail price of $999.99 and is expected to start shipping this summer. A 2GB CF card has a suggested retail price of $499.99 and also is expected to start shipping this summer.
