stupid startup tones

Why is it that mobile phone manufacturers have to try and out-do each other in making their phones as offensive as possible when you turn them on or off? Every phone I’ve had in the past few years has an absolutely deafening, nasty jingle to broadcast to the world that someone in the general area is adjusting their mobile device’s power state. My Omnia is one of the worst offenders, when I turn it on or off I have to hit the button and them clamp it between my legs and it’s still bone-shatteringly loud. It makes me want to stab my phone with a screwdriver, and there’s no option to disable the tones!

Consider when you are likely to want to turn your phone off subtly, like a darkened movie theater. You hit the button and your phone explodes in a hideous cacophony of badly synthesized piano music.

I mean imagine if I was stuck in a closet with armed terrorists roaming about around me, my only hope for survival would be to turn on my phone so I can send a message. I’d be so dead.

Please phone manufacturers, disable those awful startup tones, it’s not about marketing, it’s about survival!