iPhone Applications

How to make your own ringtones for your iPhone

If you want to make ringtones from your own music collection and put them on your iPhone, then be happy because it is possible. This tutorial will take you through the steps to make a ringtone from an mp3 you own and put it on your iPhone. I will show you how to do this on Windows XP, but the process is similar for other versions of Windows as well as Macs.

  1. Open iTunes and select the mp3 you want to make the ringtone from.
  2. Right-click on the mp3 and left-click on ‘Get Info’.
  3. Click on the ‘Options’ tab and edit the Start Time and Stop Time to be the part of the song that you want the ringtone to be (figure this out beforehand by listening to the song). NOTE: Make sure the length of the ringtone is less than 30 seconds or else it will not work. Click ‘OK’ when you are done.
  4. Right-click on the mp3 again and look for the option ‘Convert Selection to AAC’. If you see ‘Convert Selection to MP3′ or something different, then follow the next step. Otherwise, if it’s already set to convert to AAC, you can skip the next step.
  5. Click on the ‘Edit’ menu and then click on the ‘Preferences…’ menu item.
  6. Click on the ‘Advanced’ tab, then on the ‘Importing’ sub-tab. Then in the dropdown with the label ‘Import Using:’, select the option ‘AAC Encoder’. Click ‘OK’ to save your changes.
  7. Right-click on the song and click on ‘Convert Selection to AAC’. Wait a few seconds and you should hear a little sound from iTunes when it is done.
  8. Search for the song you are making the ringtone of. You should now see two copies of it, one of which is the ringtone with a shorter length.
  9. Right-click on the ringtone and click on ‘Show in Windows Explorer’.
  10. The Windows Explorer window should come up and you should see the song. If you see more than one song then choose the one with the most recent ‘Date Modified.’
  11. If you can see the extension (.m4a) at the end of the file name then skip this and the next step. Otherwise, go to Tools and then ‘Folder Options…’
  12. Click on the ‘View’ tab and un-check the ‘Hide extensions for known file types’ option and click ‘OK’ to save the change.
  13. You should now see the ringtone with .m4a at the end of the file name. Left click on the file name twice and then change the .m4a in the file name to be .m4r
  14. Press the ‘Enter’ or ‘Return’ button on your keyboard and a prompt should come up. Click ‘Yes’ to accept the change.
  15. Left-click on the ringtone file and, holding the mouse button down, drag it to your iTunes library and release the mouse.
  16. Click on the ‘Ringtones’ part of your iTunes library and you should see the ringtone there.
  17. Connect your iPhone to your computer via USB and it should appear in iTunes. Click on it under the ‘Devices’ section and then click on the ‘Ringtones’ tab. You should see your ringtone in the list. Click ‘Sync’ to transfer your ringtone to the iPhone. NOTE: if you don’t see the ringtone, then go back and make sure the length of the ringtone was less than 30 seconds.
  18. When the sync finishes (it could take a few minutes), pick up your iPhone and open the ‘Settings’ application on the phone itself.
  19. Tap the ‘Sounds’ option.
  20. Tap the ‘Ringtone’ option and select your ringtone. That will be your default ringtone now! If you want to assign the ringtone only to a specific contact, then go to that contact and click ‘Edit’ and then assign the ringtone to that person.
  21. The last thing to do is go back to iTunes and select the original song in which you changed the Start and Stop time. Right click on the song, select ‘Get Info’ and in the ‘Options’ tab, uncheck the ‘Start Time’ and ‘Stop Time’ options. The song should now play normally in iTunes.

I hope this helps you personalize your iPhone and really make it yours. When you’re done loading up your iPhone with ringtones, take a look at my recommendations for free iPhone applications.


How to take a screenshot on your iPhone

It can be really useful to take a screenshot on your iPhone.  It’s an easy way to share info that can’t be captured otherwise and if you play games on your iPhone you can record snapshots of cool records you’ve achieved.

To do this, hold down the button that turns the screen off on the top of the iPhone.  Then, while still holding that button down, press and release the home screen button.  You will see the screen flash and that’s the screenshot being taken.  Then release the other button you were holding and navigate to the photos application.  Your screenshot will be in the ‘Your Camera’ photo list.  You can email it, delete it and do anything else you’d do with a photo taken on your iPhone.  Enjoy and make sure to take a look at my lists of top iPhone Applications and other tutorials of what you can do with your iPhone.


How to delete applications on your iPhone

I have another article about how to arrange applications on your iPhone and mentioned deletion, but realized that it’s subtle enough to be called out on its own.  If you find that you have downloaded too many of the top iPhone applications and want to get rid of unused ones, then this tutorial will tell you how to do that.

First, make sure you are viewing the homescreen of your iPhone:

Press and hold down on one application for a few seconds without releasing. The screen should look like this:

Now, pick the application that you want to delete and press the X in the upper left corner of its icon.
A prompt will appear to confirm the deletion:

After confirming, if you want to delete other applications, then delete those too. When you’re done deleting and rearranging your applications press the button on the iPhone and the icons will stop bobbling around.   Note that if you delete an application, you do not have to pay for it again if you choose to download it again later.  That’s it!


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