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CUSTOM SMS on iPhone 3GS WITHOUT JB

B74A

B74A

macrumors member
Original poster
Mar 31, 2008
96
4
Asia and Europe
I don't want to jailbreak my iPhone. I don't care for the new SMS tones.

But I would loooove to overwrite existing tones. I DON'T want to jailbreak, can I still somehow log into the phone, and manually transfer some updated tones? If the phone has some kind of memory checksum, it might ... report an error of some sort (hope not).

I can make ringtones myself, which is great, but I miss being able to change the SMS, email and calendar alert sounds.
 
B74A said:
I DON'T want to jailbreak, can I still somehow log into the phone . . .
Click to expand...

I know people think Cydia and apps when they hear jailbreak, but Cydia and apps are a result of a jailbreak. Jailbreaking in it simplest form is just gaining root access to the iPhone. Gaining access to log into the phone IS jailbreaking. Sorry, but as Big Ells said, the answer is no.
 
2010

This is 2010, soon 2011. The iPhone is great, I really like it, but such a simple task as being able to set your own SMS tone is really basic. I can do that on my 40 dollar cheapy nokia which I only use for backup call and texting ...

I know, I know, Apple know what is good for you. If you cannot change it, it means Apple thinks you better not ... duh!
 
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B74A said:
This is 2010, soon 2011. The iPhone is great, I really like it, but such a simple task as being able to set your own SMS tone is really basic. I can do that on my 40 dollar cheapy nokia which I only use for backup call and texting ...

I know, I know, Apple know what is good for you. If you cannot change it, it means Apple thinks you better not ... duh!
Click to expand...

I don't think any of us can answer why Apple doesn't allow us to change our text tones. I can't think of any good reason for it and I can't defend it. Apple made a choice and we need to live with it, switch to another phone or jailbreak it. I personally went for the jailbreak. I know that solution isn't for everyone.
 
IMHO apple originally had all this stuff available for the iPhone to begin with, but decided to hold out so they have people looking forward to updates. Which which is part of what keeps people hooked. If iOS 1.0 had everything 4.2 has now, everyone would have moved on to different phones by now.
 
mobiletech said:
IMHO apple originally had all this stuff available for the iPhone to begin with, but decided to hold out so they have people looking forward to updates. Which which is part of what keeps people hooked. If iOS 1.0 had everything 4.2 has now, everyone would have moved on to different phones by now.
Click to expand...


You're right about that, if everyone got what they wanted right away they definitely would have moved on to another phone. As a phone, the iPhone is nothing special. I said this before and I truly believe it, the iPhone will NEVER has cutom text tones other than jailbreaking. I think Apple does this as a way of advertising. 10 text tones for like 10 million (or whatever it is) iPhones out there. People get used to hearing them, even non iPhone users and they get to know the sounds. BAM, free advertising. You get a text and everyone immediately knows you have an iPhone.
 
Everyone wants different things for the iphone. Admittedly, the iPhone is not everything to everyone.
Yes, you can put a custom text tone on your $40 Nokia/Samsung/etc. If its that important to you, why don't you use it instead? Does that Nokia do everything the iPhone can? Probably not. Thus...its not everything for everyone.

My car won't fly me to Hawaii.
 
Ljwinter said:
BAM, free advertising. You get a text and everyone immediately knows you have an iPhone.
Click to expand...

You nailed it! Even with the new text tones (which I think Apple threw in just to make people happy) I bet 90 percent of iPhone users stick with the same 2 tones. The Tri-tone and Chimes. The new ones are really ridiculously long and annoying. For anyone receiving more than 5 text messages a day, those would get really old. Myself and my Girlfriend's entire family all have iPhones (8 total) and everyone except myself stuck with the tri-tone. I switched mine to Chimes just so I would not have to check my phone every time I heard tri-tone.

Still though, the majority of iPhone users will stick with tri-tone, which will get everyone thinking iPhone every time you receive a text.
 
Maybe Apple just figures their resources are better used in other areas of iOS? Yes it would be nice to have, but it's certainly not a deal breaker for me.
 
I can see it now, the day Apple allows for custom ringtones they are going to claim that they do it better than everyone else and it will be like a spiritual revelation to Apples customers. :rolleyes:
 
BTW I can see steve forstall saying: "now we added the ability for custom ring tones, I was totally blown away by the beauty of such a fabulous ability"

Apple is so full of $h!t :rolleyes:
 
Thank you for your answers

I think we can agree that it is not a technological issue that stops Apple from doing this. It is so obviously irritating that you have to have the same SMS tone as the people sitting around you. But I can understand the two commercial reasons mentioned above: 1) Apple need some goodies they can save for later and 2) The "I have an Apple product" advertising effect.

Just as our Macbooks cannot start with any other sounds than those Apple thinks are "good for us".

I really like that Apple products work so well, I just wish they were not so arrogant.

I complained that after one of the iPhone firmware updates, my phone would sync its clock to the macbook. Against my will! I want to decide what time is on my iPhone (local time zone whereever I am) and my Macbook (same time zone no matter where I am). When I reported this bug, Apple just replied along the lines of "That's not a bug, that's a feature". And they said there were never going to change it, amen. Even so, after about a year of this frustrating need to reset my iPhone clock after each and every sync, it suddenly "fixed itself" after an update, and "That's a feature" was silently admitted as being a bug.

As I mentioned, I do like my phone and I am not going to jailbreak it. I had just hoped that one could finally make SMS tones personal, just as alarm and ringtones have been for a while now. Maybe on the iPhone 5?
 
B74A said:
I think we can agree that it is not a technological issue that stops Apple from doing this. It is so obviously irritating that you have to have the same SMS tone as the people sitting around you. But I can understand the two commercial reasons mentioned above: 1) Apple need some goodies they can save for later and 2) The "I have an Apple product" advertising effect.

Just as our Macbooks cannot start with any other sounds than those Apple thinks are "good for us".

I really like that Apple products work so well, I just wish they were not so arrogant.

I complained that after one of the iPhone firmware updates, my phone would sync its clock to the macbook. Against my will! I want to decide what time is on my iPhone (local time zone whereever I am) and my Macbook (same time zone no matter where I am). When I reported this bug, Apple just replied along the lines of "That's not a bug, that's a feature". And they said there were never going to change it, amen. Even so, after about a year of this frustrating need to reset my iPhone clock after each and every sync, it suddenly "fixed itself" after an update, and "That's a feature" was silently admitted as being a bug.

As I mentioned, I do like my phone and I am not going to jailbreak it. I had just hoped that one could finally make SMS tones personal, just as alarm and ringtones have been for a while now. Maybe on the iPhone 5?
Click to expand...

Really..I've never had a problem changing my startup sound, login picture, or any background on my Macs. If you're unhappy with the phone, get another one. If the phone can't do what you want, get another. It's not rocket science people, if I owned a product that didn't perform the way I wanted it to, I'd buy something else. You complain and complain about how Apple controls everything, yet you keep buying their products. What kind of message does that send?
 
you know, I don't think everyone cares about it! I'm stuck with tri-tone and I don't need to switch.
(with marimba is another story, the volume of that song is way too low, so I've opted for the Linus & Lucy music theme :) )
 
Look they haven't fixed it yet in order to give us something to complain about. As a whole you've got to admit the iPhone is amazing compare to the competition.

I often find myself at Best Buy picking up phones and comparing them to my iPhone. Nothing feels as solid or as responsive...Period . They all feel cheap and flimsy. So if thats what I would have to put up with just to have custom sms tones..no thanks.


I will admit it does piss me off we cant change em though:mad:
 
Why do people DEFEND the weaknesses of the iPhone? Is it some sort of Apple fanboy thing? Because I don't get it.

For the record I have an iPhone and two Macs. But I sure as hell am going to complain about EVERY deficiency they have.

We should be able to set custom text tones. This is a basic feature that a premium phone like the iPhone should have. STOP DEFENDING the weaknesses of your phone! Just because you don't want a feature doesn't mean everyone doesn't want it.
 
zorinlynx said:
Why do people DEFEND the weaknesses of the iPhone? Is it some sort of Apple fanboy thing? Because I don't get it.

For the record I have an iPhone and two Macs. But I sure as hell am going to complain about EVERY deficiency they have.

We should be able to set custom text tones. This is a basic feature that a premium phone like the iPhone should have. STOP DEFENDING the weaknesses of your phone! Just because you don't want a feature doesn't mean everyone doesn't want it.
Click to expand...

I agree with this sentiment. If there are features that people think appropriate and necessary, I think it's a good idea to express that desire. And what we are talking about here is a feature set that's been available on plenty of other, cheap phones for a long time.
 
people have the right to complain but its easier to jailbreak and get almost every feature you can ever think of

i know the whole warranty thing had me iffy at first but after some research ive found it is pretty hard to mess your phone up to the point you can't restore as new device if you ever needed to

once your jailbreak i dont think you will ever regret it
 
I don't really understand why anyone would be against jailbreaking. Fair enough if they don't want to learn how to do it. But if they want something bad which us only achievable through jailbreak, then just jailbreak. You're not damaging anything.
 
eshroom said:
I don't really understand why anyone would be against jailbreaking. Fair enough if they don't want to learn how to do it. But if they want something bad which us only achievable through jailbreak, then just jailbreak. You're not damaging anything.
Click to expand...

I'm certainly not opposed to it at all. Just have been waiting for 4.2.1 to see whether the features I wanted were available without jailbreaking. Once the latest jailbreak version is available, I'm likely to try it.
 
zorinlynx said:
Why do people DEFEND the weaknesses of the iPhone? Is it some sort of Apple fanboy thing? Because I don't get it.

For the record I have an iPhone and two Macs. But I sure as hell am going to complain about EVERY deficiency they have.

We should be able to set custom text tones. This is a basic feature that a premium phone like the iPhone should have. STOP DEFENDING the weaknesses of your phone! Just because you don't want a feature doesn't mean everyone doesn't want it.
Click to expand...

you could argue the same point about people that ATTACK picking on pointless little things. people that are moaning it's so crap you can't have custom sms tones, seriously if that's the worst thing you have in your life, then either you're lucky or your priorities are out of whack. it's a phone, it's really good at the things it does, it's not the end of your life if it doesn't have some tiny little thing you feel is really important when it's not really that siginficant.

for what it's worth, i would love custom tones, but the pro's of the iPhone EXTREMELY outway the cons for me.
 
zorinlynx said:
Why do people DEFEND the weaknesses of the iPhone? Is it some sort of Apple fanboy thing? Because I don't get it.

For the record I have an iPhone and two Macs. But I sure as hell am going to complain about EVERY deficiency they have.

We should be able to set custom text tones. This is a basic feature that a premium phone like the iPhone should have. STOP DEFENDING the weaknesses of your phone! Just because you don't want a feature doesn't mean everyone doesn't want it.
Click to expand...

if you want certain options jailbreak and stop moaning about it

the rest of 90% of iPhone users are happy with a stable/consistent/integrated os if it means they have to give up a few options

For example my background is still black runing on a jailbroken iPhone 4. I could care less about custom wallpaper, ringtoned, sounds, etc as long as it all works 100%
 
Anyone who posts a question phrased like a how-to in the subject line should be sent to internet etiquette camp.
 
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