1,000 ways to ring in New Year

Red Circle, a Dublin-based provider of voice-recognition software has introduced an innovative speech-enabled ringtone system.

The software enables mobile users to source more than 1,000 ring tones by speaking into their mobile device rather than by keying in a code number.

Red Circle has already signed deals with British consumer magazines FHM and Loaded, part of the giant EMAP publishing group. These are worth an estimated £250,000 (€317,430) over 12 months.

Ringtones are big business in Europe and Asia, worth more than €300 million (£236 million) in Japan alone.