I was recently browsing the app store on my iPhone when I came across the dog whistle iPhone app from a company called Wawa Mobile that claims that by using ultrasonic frequencies on the iPhone, you can call your dog with it and it was only $0.99 to download it. The concept is similar to the ultrasonic ringtones in which dogs have much better hearing than humans, young or old. They have an even much wider range of hearing than those that are not affected by presbycusis do!

The App:
It’s a single screen app that has all the options on it including a slider to adjust the frequency of the “Whistle” and a bark detector! If you enjoy playing around with mosquito ringtones and seeing who can hear what, it’s worth it to be able to change the frequencies quickly.

It didn’t quite work for me with my dogs though, but I have’t had a lot of time to spend fine tunning the frequency yet. I did notice that when I played some of the frequencies that correspond to our free ringtones of the same frequency, my kids where unable to hear them as the normally do on my website. Either the frequencies are off or it’s getting changed/modified somehow. I hope to have time soon to fine tune it for my dog and see if it is a viable replacement for a dog whistle.

We had a suggestion from one of our visitors and we decided to add a new area to the website, “Mosquito Games”. These are simple free flash games that you can play that involve mosquitoes. Now you can blast them, swat them and even become a mosquito in order to save the world!

We thought what better way to entertain our visitors then to let you have fun playing with the mosquitoes!

Play Mosquito Games

If you know of any other mosquito games please let us know! We’ll be looking out for them too!

In 1997, 17-year-old student Daniel Malmedahl recorded audio of himself impersonating the noises produced by internal combustion engines. He posted the sounds on a website that caught the attention of a Swedish television researcher, who convinced Daniel to perform the sound live on the air. After the annoying thing debuted on TV, recordings of his performance began appearing on P2P file sharing networks and various websites under the filename “2TAKTARE.MP3″ (”Tvåtaktare” is Swedish for “Two stroker”).

The sound effect was quickly included in Flash animations that spread virally among Internet users becoming an Internet phenomenon. Arguably, the most famous example was the Insanity Test, which challenged listeners to keep a straight face while staring at a still photograph of Rubens Barrichello, a Brazilian Formula One racing driver in a Ferrari Formula 1 car as the outrageous sound effect was played.

In 2004, the German-based company, Jamba! Group (eventually owned by VeriSign who then sold 51% of the group to Fox in 2006) licensed the animation and sound for distribution as a mobile phone ringtone. It is arguably the most commercially successful ringtone of all time. Jamba! has also produced other successful animated creature ringtones, including Sweety the Chick and Nessie the Dragon, and produced other ringtones featuring the Crazy Frog including Crazy DJ Frog. There is also a series of Crazy Frog World Tour tones featuring the Frog performing his usual vocalizations against backgrounds of various countries’ musical styles. These include the sitar-based “Crazy Frog India”, reggae-flavoured “Crazy Frog Jamaica” and John Barnes-esque “Crazy Frog Australian Rock”.

What do you think of the Crazy Frog Ringtone compared to the Mosquito Ringtone? Both of them got their fame from the Internet!

Many older electronics emit high frequency sounds that work on the same principle as the Mosquito Ringtone. A few weeks ago I was in the finance department at a car dealership, buying a car for my 17-year old son. As soon as the old model dot matrix printer started warming up he was asking who was playing the Mosquito Ringtone…… except nobody was, and no one but him heard the buzzing!

This was unusual as there were four adults in the room, including one I know can hear the Ultra Sonic Ringtone, we call the Mosquito Ringtone.

I can remember growing up in the 80’s and hearing those big bulky tube TV’s turn on from across the house because they emitted a very high frequency sound. I don’t however have any idea if current flat panel LCDs and Plasma TV emit those same sounds because I haven’t been able ot hear the ultrasonic ringtone in years! Next time you that the ringtone is annoying or hurts your ears, go find some real old electronics and see if they aren’t worse!

What everyday devices do you know of that emit these Mosquito Ringtone like sounds? - leave your comments below

Did you know that based on the average age of people being able to hear the Mosquito Ringtone most of the U.S. presidents would not be able to hear them?

As a result of the condition known as presbycusis, most adults over the age of 24 lose the ability to hear high frequency sounds like the mosquito ringtone. There are no exact numbers but based on polls conducted on our site, we estimate that at least 90% of adults cannot hear the ringtone that high schoolers and college students are using in class to receive cell phone calls and text messages. Seeing as all the presidents are over the age of 24, in fact US law dictates that the president must be at least 35 years old, statistical averages say that only 4 of the 43 Presidents of the United States could have heard the ringtone if they were alive to be tested. As for the 44th president, whether it is Barack Obama or John McCain who wins the election tomorrow, there is only a 1 in 10 chance that either of them would be able to hear the mosquito ringtone if they wanted to, and a 1 in 100 chance that both of them would be able to hear it!

For those that can hear the ringtone, you are able to do something that most Presidents of the United States cannot do and will never be able to do!

*statistics derived from random sampling of website visitors during the first half of 2008 and should not be substituted for actual scientific research in a controlled environment. We are not liable any statistical inaccuracies during the course of our study.