Just when you think you've given your dog everything it could ever want (gold plated water dish, rhinestone collar, a copy of Tegan and Sara's "The Con" on vinyl) the Japanese go and one up you. A Tokyo-based content provider named Dwango announced today that it would start selling specialized ringtones which can be heard only by dogs. The service, called Inu ni shika kikoenai chakushinon (ringtones only dogs can hear) will make free downloads available to current DoCoMo i-mode subscribers. No word on whether the company will provide Bluetooth headsets and holsters suited to our canine friends, but we understand plans are in the works for a line of bacon-themed wallpapers. [Warning: read link is a PDF, and it's in Japanese]

[Via CrunchGear]

It's just the tip of the iceberg for the legal fallout from deceptive charges rung up by cellphone users hoping for a shot a free ringtones, wallpapers, and winning shots at contests simply by sending off a text message or an online form with their mobile number. Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint, and others are likely going to have to end up taking it on the chin after AT&T was taken to task -- first by the state of Florida and now by a series of class-action lawsuits that the carrier has chosen to settle (without admitting any wrongdoing in the process, for the record). It seems that customers will be able to file for refunds for such charges rung up between January 1, 2004, and May 30, 2008, for a total of up to three bill cycles' worth. AT&T will be sending out notifications of the settlement to its subscribers shortly; meanwhile, the lawyers involved in the suits collect a nice paycheck of $4.3 million -- a shade more than the average class action member is liable to get, we'd imagine.

[Via Phone Scoop]

According to a churning rumor-mill, Apple desperately wants to make over-the-air downloads of iTunes content a reality on the 3G iPhone. Apparently, a record label executive "familiar with the discussions" states that the Cupertino gang is hoping for a "big launch in June" which includes OTA music downloads, ringtone sales, and ringback tones (the substitute music you hear instead of a ring when calling someone). There's only one problem: the labels want a higher premium for those services than a typical MP3 download. Of course, Apple's iTunes pricing has been a point of contention for some time, though its recent rule-bending for HBO could lead to upped charges for the new services. Something tells us Apple has the tenacity and bullheadedness to make this work -- let's just hope they can temper the labels' greed with the end user's economic realities.

[Via AppleInsider]

Suffering a rash of complaints after allegedly free ringtone downloads from shady random companies started showing up on AT&T subscribers' bills, the state of Florida stuck it to the carrier -- and they've agreed to pay up. AT&T and the state have jointly announced that as much as $10 million or more could ultimately be refunded to customers, depending on how many folks file claims, in addition to a $2.5 million fine payable to the state itself and $500,000 for educating consumers on "safe internet use." What's really funny about the whole deal is that Florida's attorney general has flat-out admitted that they went after AT&T only because the actual offenders -- the fly-by-night shops operating the free ringtone schemes -- were too difficult to round up and sue. The carrier has said that it has since made unauthorized charges more difficult to rack up, and is quick to point out that other carriers have been just as guilty of allowing the shady dealings; indeed, Florida says there are other investigations underway.

Remember how Apple rushed out 7.4.1 on the double after folks hacked 7.4 to enable free ringtones in mere hours? Turns out we may now know exactly what Apple did to patch it up -- and, naturally, how to enable 'em once again. It looks like Apple added new metadata to music in 7.4.1 that was missing in 7.4, a value called "stik" (what that could possibly stand for, we're not sure). Anyway, the value needs to be present and set to "14" on any AAC tune for iTunes to identify and sync it as a ringtone. That's it. Turns out there's an open source package to let you play with the metadata, too, so the whole procedure really couldn't get less expensive. Give it a shot and let us know how it goes!

If paying for ringtone snippets of the songs you already own is your idea of a good time, then get on over to iTunes trust funders, Apple's now serving up ringtones at $1.98 a pop. But they're only $0.99 you say? Nope, remember, you have to buy the rights to the song too. Fun. Keep it safe, kids.

[Thanks, Pinsleric, Michael F. and everyone who sent this in]

Just thought we'd let the droves of paranoid upgraders know in on a small bit of good bad news. Yes, Apple did already release a new version of iTunes tonight, 7.4.1, and we tested to see if said update "fixes" the ringtone-renaming hack (if you really want to call it a hack) that lets users supply their own ringtones sans Apple's $0.99 fee. Breathe not so easy: it may be legal (probably), but the hack did not continue to work just fine for us. More below.

Update: So yes, our previous ringtones carried over and we were able to add new renamed ringtones to iTunes -- but our readers are right in that 7.4.1 DOES block the renamed ringtone workaround moving forward. Our initial syncs went unblocked, but only until we tried to add new ringtone files. Once you actually attempt to sync new renamed ringtone files, well, then you're in for a heap o' pain (see above).

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

A new version of iTunes supporting custom ringtones for the iPhone ships this evening. They'll run 99 cents on top of the cost of the song, but in trade, you'll be able to make your own custom ringtone from the song. They can run up to 30 seconds in length, denoted by bells that appear next to "ringtoneable" songs -- which'll be 500,000 of 'em at launch. Apple flips the switch to enable the feature "next week."

Want to add iPhone ringtones? iToner's your solution, it's the easiest (and most graphically purdy) method we've seen yet, and it works without even jailbreaking your iPhone. The down side (yeah, there's always a downside) is this simple utility could teach a course in Nagware 101, bugging you incessantly and imposing increasingly longer delays before carrying out its function until you buy the thing. Still, it's worth it if you've been waiting for an excuse not to use marimba anymore. We'd just suggest waiting until next Wednesday before making the buy, we hear Apple might just do this thing themselves. More shots after the break.
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

It's the situation most of us love to hate: we buy that new, shiny handset with full MP3 capability to supplant that fully-fledged, big-gig DAP only to find out that MP3 files -- as clips or songs -- can't be used as ringtones. Sure, there are sometimes workarounds and hacks, but should anyone really have to go through all that? Music-based handset crippling may be coming to Canada's Rogers Wireless, as word on the street is that phones sold by the carrier, like the Nokia 5300, won't allow non-DRMed MP3 files as ringtones. We find this ludicrous on music-centric handset, but reports are that the requirement was at the behest of the music industry (who else). If you're a Rogers subscriber and are locked out of using your own homebrew MP3 clips as ringtones, we'll take it that you're miffed, big time. We gotta go DRM those MP3 files of some barking dogs we have, so catch ya later.

[Via mocoNews and BoingBoing]

The big wigs over at the RIAA have established a new reward system, much like the one they use for traditional albums, called the Master Ringtone Sales Award. They're keeping track of how many times a song has been downloaded as a ringtone -- it has to be the original recording, not some clunky midi version -- and once that number hits 500,000 it's considered to have gone Gold. One million sales merit Platinum status and two million marks the start of the ever-expandable Multi-Platinum category, into which the Black Eyed Peas' "My Humps" and three others have already climbed. Check the link for a list of all 128 songs honored -- including some Mariah Carey recorded for Pepsi -- at the inaugural ceremony held in NYC. Rumor has it that next year's event will have a lifetime achievement award for the late Crazy Frog.

[Via Slashphone]

How do you make an annoying service even more unbearable? In the case of Cingular's Answer Tones (better known as ringback tones), you give customers the option of torturing their callers with "personalized" celebrity greetings to go along with the current catalog of low-quality song snippets. The wireless services provider has just a launched a program called "Say My Name" that offers subscribers the dubious ability of having celebrities like Juvenile, Ice T, Jamie Kennedy, and a bunch that we never head of, repeat a $2 canned message -- complete with the owner's first name (if they're lucky enough to have one of the 40 or so names deemed popular enough for this promotion, that is) -- while they're digging around pockets and purses for their phones. Note to our friends: the first time we hear a "Wassup, this ya boy Juve the Great..." when we call one of you, you'll be immediately kicked out of the Circle of Trust.

[Via Mobiledia]