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.

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.

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!

To start, open up the ‘Settings’ application:

You should see something like this:

Then make sure to scroll all the way down to the bottom. The list of applications with configurable settings is all the way at the bottom:

Select an application to view the settings available for that app. Here I have selected SmugShot:

Update any preferences that you want and that’s it! If you don’t have enough applications yet, then make sure to check out my lists of the top iPhone applications.

First, open the app store:

If there are any updates available, you will see a number in the lower right of the screen:

Tap on the updates button in the bottom right and you will see a list of applications with updates:

Then just tap ‘Update All’ to get all the available updates. If you only want to update a select few, then you can tap on an individual application and then update that one only.

You will be prompted to enter your iTunes account password:

Then the new version of the application(s) will download and install. Once that’s done, start them to see what’s new.

Make sure you are viewing the home screen on your iPhone:

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

Now, press on an application that you want to move and drag it around with your finger (I’m moving the Remote application around in this example). Release your finger from the screen when it’s in the place you want:

When you’re done, press the button (the only button) on your iPhone and your changes will be saved.

A few other tips:

• You can drag applications off the screen to the left or right to move them to another home screen. You can only have 16 applications per home screen and your iPhone will automatically make new home screens for you when necessary.
• To delete an application from your iPhone press the X next to an application when your iPhone is in rearrange mode. Your iPhone will then prompt you to confirm the deletion.
• If you delete an application from your iPhone you can always download it for free again from the App Store.

It’s as easy as that! If you don’t have enough applications on your iPhone yet, check out my lists of the best iPhone Applications.

To browse the App Store to find applications that you want, then find the ‘App Store’ application on your iPhone’s home screen and open that up.

Then find a game, productivity tool, utility or other application that interests you and tap on it.

To download it, press ‘free’ or the price that the application costs.

Then confirm that you are willing to pay that price by tapping ‘install’.

A prompt will appear for your iTunes account password. Enter that and the program will start downloading.

It may take a few minutes to download and install the application to your iPhone.

When the application has been downloaded and installed it will appear on your home screen.

If you have more applications than fit on one screen, then you will see a few dots on the bottom of the screen. Swipe the screen from side to side to switch the set of applications that are visible on your home screen.

Tap on the application you downloaded to launch it and have fun!

• www.amazon.com - This easy interface allows you to always check amazon for prices before you buy something in the real world.
  
  
• m.google.com - A simple way to get access to most of your Google services.
  
  
• www.fandango.com - Check movie times when you’re on the go. Combine this with the Tomatoes downloadable application for movie reviews and you won’t go wrong.
  
  
• forums - There isn’t an application to view forums on your iPhone, so you have to use the browser. My favorite forum: Supertopo
  
  
• craigslist.org - Possibly the only website out there that doesn’t need an iPhone specific interface for it to be extremely usable.
  
  
• www.digg.com/iphone/ - A nice Digg interface.
  
  
• iphone.ebay.com - eBay for your iPhone. Never get sniped again!
  
  
• www.getleaflets.com/ - A nice collection of iPhone formatted content, from RSS feeds to sports, weather and more.
  
  
• iphone.facebook.com - The iPhone browser optimized version of Facebook. Now that you can download their application, this is less useful, but still good if you need to do things that the application doesn’t allow you to.
  
  
• m.yahoo.com - Yahoo has a good set of mobile services available here. Most notable is their oneSearch, which brings you search results optimized for your mobile phone.
  
  

• Remote - this app is at the top of everyone’s list. In short, it allows you to control your iTunes from your iPhone over your wireless network. It gets fun when multiple people fight for control of the music
  
  
• Wordpress - mobile blogging at its best. This application makes it easy to post to your Wordpress blog and allows you to post images from your phone too.
  
  
• Shazam - this application can amazingly identify what song is playing on the radio. It is impressively accurate and only had trouble with mashups in my tests. Great for road trips.
  
  
• Facebook - Slick interface to Facebook that gives you access to your messages, status, chat and contacts. A very promising start from the top social network.
  
  
• Twitterific - A nice Twitter application for the iPhone. It allows you to easily post links to photos you’ve taken on your phone via twitpic.com.
  
  
• eReader - This eBook reader allows you to download eBooks from its site as well as any other site. Try manybooks.net for a good selection of free books.
  
  
• Yelp - a simple mobile interface to Yelp. It allows you to search for businesses around you and is very useful.
  
  
• Pandora - stream music to your phone. It works great on all iPhones and is a great radio replacement if you hook it up to your car’s stereo.
  
  
• AIM - good old instant messaging on your iPhone. There are also ways to use this to avoid text messaging charges.
  
  
• Tomatoes - This Rotten Tomatoes application lets you look up movie ratings in a quick and easy user interface so you don’t have to go to the web. Handy when you’re at the theater and trying to decide what to see.
  
  

• Super Monkey Ball - this game took the iPhone by storm from day one and within the first thirty days, generated $2 million in revenue. To play, you move the iPhone around and the monkey in its ball moves in that direction. So simple and fun! If you collect all the bananas in a level on the first try then you will see a crown in the lower right of the screen. Do that for all the levels in a world and you will unlock a bonus level! This app costs $9.99 but you’ll get your money’s worth.
  
  
• Labyrinth Lite Edition - I nearly forgot about this old game and it’s a brilliant adaptation for the iPhone. Gameplay is similar to nearly every other iPhone game on the market - use the accelerometer by moving the iPhone around! This game is free and highly recommended. There’s also a full edition available for $6.99 that allows you to download many more levels, including those created by people in the community.
  
  
• Texas Hold’em - another classic from Apple itself.  You can play with your friends over Wi-Fi or against the computer whenever you want.  I’d like to see a multiplayer version over Edge/3G because it’s way better to play against other random people instead of the computer.  This will put you back $4.99 but if you’re into poker, then it’s the best way to keep up your game while you’re on the go.
  
  
• Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3d - Crash Bandicoot was a great Playstation game and this brings all that Crash fun to the iPhone.  I’d like to see a second version of this with expanded gameplay aspects, but this is awesome for the 1st generation of iPhone games.  For $9.99 it’s not too pricey and it’s available in Spanish.
  
  
• Sol Free Solitaire - Solitaire has to be one of the top software games of all time.   What computer doesn’t have it?  Well, now you can bring that good old fashioned fun to the iPhone and it’s free!
  
  
• Crossword Light - Crosswords are a great pastime and they are perfect for the mobile phone. The light version includes 30 puzzles which should be enough for a casual player, but if you are serious about the game then you’ll have to put down some cash for the full version that allows you to download new puzzles.
  
  
• Sudoku (Free) - Sudoku has become popular in the U.S. over the past few years in the casual gaming world and this mobile version is a nice addition. The free version comes with only a few puzzles to get you hooked and you’ll have to throw down $2.99 for the full version with 200 puzzles.
  
  
• Tap Tap Revenge - Popularized originally on hacked iPhones, this application made it to the App Store and features a great two player mode on a single phone. You tap the screen to the beat of the song playing and the best person wins! This game is free.
  
  
• Brain Tuner - This is an easy and fun way to keep your brain sharp when you have a minute of downtime. It’s a free app that tests your math abilities and the same company makes an iGoogle gadget version if the iPhone app isn’t enough for you.
  
  
• 300 Bowl - Just like bowling became an instant classic on the Nintendo Wii, I think that bowling is perfect for the iPhone. This game costs $3.99, which is nicely less than a lot of the other games out there.