... Or maybe we just want our phones not to sound exactly like the 70 nearest phones in our immediate vicinity, so when it rings we can pick it out of a crowd. You can't always tell where it's coming from, especially in a noisy environment.

This is especially a problem at my house, where three people have identical phones and a very, very limited set of tones. Not all are pleasing, and we need to decide which to use for receiving phone calls, SMS, calendar reminders, Google Talk messages... and for several different volume profiles. We'd like to also know whose phone is doing what.

I'd like to replace this phone but I have limited budget. You know what I've done for now? Turned it to "vibrate" and left it there. Now when a phone rings I know it's not mine.