When your phone starts ringing at an inappropriate time, the scramble to shut it off is embarrassing. Give yourself a buffer by adding a few seconds of silence to the beginning of your ringtones so you only feel the vibrations at first.

Dear Lifehacker, Is it legal to make your own ringtones in Australia? If not, what's the worst that could happen to me?

Android: customising your Android phone's ringtones and alert sounds isn't difficult, but Ringtone Slicer is a lightweight audio editor that removes the need to use a bulkier tool or your desktop computer. The app allows you to select songs or loops on your phone, slice them up, and then use them as custom rings or alerts.

It's annoying when a phone goes off in a movie or in a meeting. If you struggle to remember to turn your phone off at the appropriate times, Redditor Asmailes has a clever solution: make your ringtone sound like a cough.

Nokia may have released a dubstep version of their iconic ringtone, but undoubtedly the coolest ringtone you can have is one you made yourself. Here's how to turn any MP3 into a ringtone for free on both the iPhone and Android.

We've featured ways to call your lost phone so you can find it, but reader Java-Princess lets us know that a white noise ringtone on the other end will make it even easier to find.

Android: If you'd like to be able to tell who's emailing, texting or calling you without even taking your phone out of your pocket, free app WhoIsIt will let you assign specific ringtones and vibration patterns to each contact on your phone.

Researchers in Germany have found that the brain does indeed power up and start running whenever it hears the ringtone you've associated with your ever-present phone. Change your ringtone to something very unique, then, to avoid accidental anxiety and interruption.

If your phone's ringtones just aren't doing it for you anymore, or if everyone at work is sick of that one MP3 snippet, WolframTones can generate original, 8-bit-sounding ringtones based on genres you select and send them to your phone.

Get alerted to incoming calls and text messages without a lot of impolite clamour with a subtle ultrasonic ringtone.

Windows only: Free application ToneThis makes it simple to create MP3 ringtones, wallpaper, and videos for your mobile phone. Apart from its simple MP3 ringtone creator, ToneThis sports a lot of great features—like simple tools for sending media to supported phones in a few clicks. Unfortunately those features don't always work perfectly—as CNET can attest to—but as a simple ringtone and wallpaper creator, it does the job admirably. If you decide to give it a try, be sure to read the installer carefully—this thing tries its best to install all kinds of toolbars and other crap that you probably don't want. ToneThis is a free download, Windows only.

ToneThis

Windows only: Desktop app iRinger converts any video or music file into an iPhone ringtone, including YouTube videos. You already saw how to make a ringtone using only iTunes, but iRinger brings audio effects (like fade in and out, flanger, and delay) and video support to its single, simple interface. You can download any YouTube clip, for example, and import it into iRinger to create a tone. iRinger does nag you with a pop-up sponsor window that you can't close unless you donate to the project; otherwise it's a handy all-in-one iPhone ringtone utility. iRinger is a free download for Windows only. Thanks, nyifan!

iRinger

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission issued a warning this week to providers of ringtones, games, wallpapers and other "premium" mobile content, noting that "attempts to distract and confuse so that consumers cannot make informed choices are not acceptable". At the same time, it reminded consumers not to dive into these deals without careful consideration:

Television advertisements with small print disclosure and busy or distracting images and magazine advertisements featuring tiny print and confusing clutter mean that many consumers would not appreciate the significant ongoing costs they could incur by simply texting in to the number on the screen or in print.

While this may seem obvious advice, it's worth reinforcing in an era when people will rush out to buy the latest fashionable phone and its accessories (though arguably one advantage of the iPhone is that it doesn't work with most of these providers). If you want to make your own ringtones instead, here's how to get it done for Windows and Mac users.

We've shown you how you can turn your (non-DRM-protected) music collection into custom iPhone ringtones using GarageBand and iTunes on a Mac, but the CyberNet tech site's made it easy for those with just a copy of iTunes for Windows to hack together their own tones. The basic trick is to single out a short section of a song in iTunes, export it to a non-protected AAC/M4A format, then do a quick file extension switch and re-upload it to iTunes. CyberNet details the process in greater detail, of course, and it's a nice fix for those who don't want to edit waveform files just to rock out to 20 seconds of "London Calling."

Create Free iPhone Ringtones Using iTunes in Windows

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

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

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

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