Windows only: Freeware application ToneShop creates ringtones from a variety of formats, for a variety of formats supported by most popular mobile phones (including the iPhone). To use it, just point ToneShop to the WAV, WMA, M4A, or MP3 file you want to use as your source, and then use ToneShop’s simple editing tools to choose the start and end time of your ringtone. Choose the output format supported by your cell phone, hit convert, and voilà—you’ve got a new ringtone. ToneShop could use a bit of polish on the interface, but as young as it is, it still makes it dead simple to create ringtones for your phone in just a few clicks. ToneShop is freeware, Windows only. If you’ve got a preferred ringtone tool that puts ToneShop to shame, let’s hear about it in the comments. ToneShop [via FreewareGenius]
If you use your cell phone in environments where a blaring ring isn’t always the ideal, but vibrate alone doesn’t always get your attention, then you’d probably do well to set your phone to vibrate first and then ring if you don’t pick it up after a few seconds. This functionality is available on some phones out of the box, but many other phones (ahem, *iPhone*) don’t offer this functionality. Weblog jkOnTheRun offers a simple workaround: Customize a ringtone by adding a period of silence before the actual sound. Then load up up the custom ringtone on your iPhone. Now, make sure you set your iPhone to use the new ringtone and also to vibrate upon an incoming call. When you get dialed up, your iPhone should “play” the silenced part of your ringtone while vibrating.
Obviously this tip works with any cell phone that can vibrate and ring on incoming calls, and it’s a great way to take calls discreetly while still using your ringtone when you need it. If you really want to keep your calls on the down low, try assigning an inconspicuous ringtone. How to make your iPhone vibrate first, ring second [jkOnTheRun]
Apple has introduced a simple and free way to create and sync your own custom ringtones to the iPhone using GarageBand (i.e., Mac only). The first thing you’ll need to do, if you haven’t already, is download and install the latest update of GarageBand from Software Update (at the time of this writing, that’s version 4.1.1). Once you’ve installed and restarted your computer, turning any song on your computer to a ringtone is a breeze. Here’s how it works.If you’re using a song from your iTunes library, just open GarageBand, open iTunes, and simply drag and drop the song from iTunes to a new track in GarageBand. Now click the Cycle Region button pictured above, which will activate the region loop tool.
Now adjust the length of the region to the section of the song you want to export to iTunes as a ringtone (40 seconds long or less), again as pictured above. Finally, when you’ve got everything set the way you want it, just go to the menu bar and click Share -> Send Ringtone to iTunes. GarageBand will automatically convert the song to the proper format and sync it to your iTunes library as a Ringtone.Simple, no? Likewise, if you prefer to create ringtones of your own music, just build your own tracks in GarageBand and repeat steps two through four. Unfortunately Apple hasn’t provided a similar tool for Windows users yet, and I imagine that won’t happen for some time, if at all. But if you’re a Mac owner, creating custom ringtones for your iPhone just became dead simple.
How to create custom ringtones in GarageBand 4.1.1 [Apple via TUAW]The scourge of custom ring tones is inescapable it seems. Hot on the heels of the news that you can now customise your car horn, is this guide on creating a custom tone for your door bell. We are not amused.
Build it: Hack your Doorbell [How 2.0 Blog]
Online storage website Box.net has thrown open the doors and let all sorts of webapps in, giving users a handful of one-click actions and exports for their files. That means MP3s stored at Box.net can be sent to Myxer for ringtone conversion, documents can be opened in ThinkFree or Zoho or faxed through eFax, and the list runs to eight more services at this point, with more likely to come. Along with RSS file sharing and desktop mounting, the free 1GB of space offered to everyone is becoming a handy tool. Box.net requires a sign-up for its free service, as do all of the web services it currently links to.
OpenBox Services [via TechCrunch]
