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iPhone still not "Consumer Friendly"

I

iphonewiz

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 30, 2008
133
0
A good friend of mine recently got an iPhone and she had to call "Tech Support" (me) to figure out how to get a frackin custom ringtone on her phone. Honestly, I hadn't done that so I said to myself, "how hard could it be"?

Boy was I surprised! Most phones allow you to buy ringtones right on the phone! Well after 30 minutes on the phone with her, we finally got her ringtone. We had to go through iTunes on her Mac, and could only select "certain" tracks, then had to pay for the song and for the ringtone! After attempting to sync the ringtone onto the iPhone unsuccessfully, we discovered that her Mac had not been "authorized" to play that particular track. After authorizing it, things finally worked.

She asked a simple question, "why do I have use my Mac to buy a ringtone? I can't use the iTunes on the iPhone? That's kind of stupid".

Well it is.
 
yet it still has the highest customer feedback of any cellphone, and pretty much any consumer electronics devise.
 
speakerwizard said:
yet it still has the highest customer feedback of any cellphone, and pretty much any consumer electronics devise.
Click to expand...

Of course it is, there is nothing like it still today; nevertheless, my point is performing simple things like downloading ringtones or even sending picture mail are far more difficult with the iPhone than a $40 brand X phone.
 
iphonewiz said:
Of course it is, there is nothing like it still today; nevertheless, my point is performing simple things like downloading ringtones or even sending picture mail are far more difficult with the iPhone than a $40 brand X phone.
Click to expand...

I think the main problem here is the limitations imposed by Apple. Doing the things that Apple lets you do are very easy.
 
Well at least you can get ringtones from iTunes. Here in the UK it is still not possible (except using Garageband) despite being launched a long time ago in the US.

Just like we are waiting for the price drop on the Apple TV! mind you with the exchange rate now, that is never going to happen :(
 
iphonewiz said:
She asked a simple question, "why do I have use my Mac to buy a ringtone? I can't use the iTunes on the iPhone? That's kind of stupid".

Well it is.
Click to expand...

The real question is, why does she want to pay for ringtones?

Apple offers it, but clearly they're not interested in having people do it.

I think Steve Jobs is embarrassed by the whole idea of paying for ringtones and thus makes it hard on purpose. Search google for 'iPhone Ringtones.' The first Apple page on the subject comes up NINTH. And that's not even a page about ringtones. It's a page about iTunes that mentions ringtones in passing.

They're obviously not pushing the concept.

There are tons of free ways to convert DRM-free songs to ringtones, but that doesn't seem to be what you came here for. I think this reason is the answer to your question, in general.
 
iphonewiz said:
She asked a simple question, "why do I have use my Mac to buy a ringtone? I can't use the iTunes on the iPhone? That's kind of stupid".

Well it is.
Click to expand...

Because, even though I've never done it before through iTunes, aren't you selecting a portion of the song that you want for the ringtone? It'd be sort-of difficult to do that on the phone
 
Small White Car said:
The real question is, why does she want to pay for ringtones?

Apple offers it, but clearly they're not interested in having people do it.

I think Steve Jobs is embarrassed by the whole idea of paying for ringtones and thus makes it hard on purpose.
Click to expand...

Ringtones are one of the most profitable revenue streams in the mobile phone profit model. Why make it difficult for customers to give you money?

I believe Artist should be compensated for their work. I don't mind paying for ringtones, but I do have a problem with paying for a ringtone for a song I already paid for, but that's another issue altogether.
 
Really? You know, you could of bought the ringtone in iTunes...

But,


The iPhone is one of the easiest phones to use. One Apple commercial can teach me how to do something in 30 seconds than anything I would get from another phone. Maybe not for such advanced things that are hard to find on the iPhone (like adding ringtones). But if you have never seen a blackberry or an iPhone in your life, using the iPhone is much easier.
 
iphonewiz said:
Ringtones are one of the most profitable revenue streams in the mobile phone profit model. Why make it difficult for customers to give you money?

I believe Artist should be compensated for their work. I don't mind paying for ringtones, but I do have a problem with paying for a ringtone for a song I already paid for, but that's another issue altogether.
Click to expand...

Isn't 2 dollars (.99 + .99) less than the typical ringtone price, anyway?

And, as matter of interest, how does one buy ringtones on a BlackBerry? Or a Nokia smartphone?
 
speakerwizard said:
yet it still has the highest customer feedback of any cellphone, and pretty much any consumer electronics devise.
Click to expand...

That certainly says something about iPhone owners and feedback surveys, but little about how good or bad the UI really is.

nickspohn said:
The iPhone is one of the easiest phones to use. One Apple commercial can teach me how to do something in 30 seconds than anything I would get from another phone.
Click to expand...

It's easier in some ways, once you've been shown what to do. Otherwise, there's a lot of mystery gestures involved. For examples:

Pinch is not intuitive, but okay once shown. Ditto for double-click zoom. Clicking top bar of Safari to scroll to top. Double-finger scrolling in Safari. Having to click a physical Home button to back out from an touch app. How to rearrange icons (help is shown once and never again). How to add cities to Weather. All of these supposedly simple actions generate questions on the web.

One can only imagine the puzzled questions if/when the iPhone gets copy and paste.

Hand an iPhone to a Martian who can read English, and they'd never figure out Safari zoom. Hand them a WM phone and they would figure out IE. The former is easier to use. The latter is easier to learn on your own with no manual.

Maybe not for such advanced things that are hard to find on the iPhone (like adding ringtones). But if you have never seen a blackberry or an iPhone in your life, using the iPhone is much easier.
Click to expand...

Well, yeah. The iPhone has to be kept less advanced. The more features it gets, the more it starts to be as complex to learn as every other phone. Perhaps more so in some ways, since it sometimes has hidden touches instead of discoverable menus.
 
mobile17.com is a good ringtone website as well.... simply upload any song from your library and specify when you want it to the start (what part of the song) and how long you want it to play for. It's also free.
 
after 5 minutes I would have "googled" it and figured out how easy it was to do with Garage Band. Literally took me 5 minutes to make the custom ringtone of my choice
 
iphonewiz said:
A good friend of mine recently got an iPhone and she had to call "Tech Support" (me) to figure out how to get a frackin custom ringtone on her phone. Honestly, I hadn't done that so I said to myself, "how hard could it be"?

Boy was I surprised! Most phones allow you to buy ringtones right on the phone! Well after 30 minutes on the phone with her, we finally got her ringtone. We had to go through iTunes on her Mac, and could only select "certain" tracks, then had to pay for the song and for the ringtone! After attempting to sync the ringtone onto the iPhone unsuccessfully, we discovered that her Mac had not been "authorized" to play that particular track. After authorizing it, things finally worked.

She asked a simple question, "why do I have use my Mac to buy a ringtone? I can't use the iTunes on the iPhone? That's kind of stupid".

Well it is.
Click to expand...

It took you 30 minutes to find out how to add a ringtone to the iPhone? Holy smokes. You should stick to yelling from a hilltop as a means of communication...
 
kdarling said:
That certainly says something about iPhone owners and feedback surveys, but little about how good or bad the UI really is.



It's easier in some ways, once you've been shown what to do. Otherwise, there's a lot of mystery gestures involved. For examples:

Pinch is not intuitive, but okay once shown. Ditto for double-click zoom. Clicking top bar of Safari to scroll to top. Double-finger scrolling in Safari. Having to click a physical Home button to back out from an touch app. How to rearrange icons (help is shown once and never again). How to add cities to Weather. All of these supposedly simple actions generate questions on the web.

One can only imagine the puzzled questions if/when the iPhone gets copy and paste.

Hand an iPhone to a Martian who can read English, and they'd never figure out Safari zoom. Hand them a WM phone and they would figure out IE. The former is easier to use. The latter is easier to learn on your own with no manual.



Well, yeah. The iPhone has to be kept less advanced. The more features it gets, the more it starts to be as complex to learn as every other phone. Perhaps more so in some ways, since it sometimes has hidden touches instead of discoverable menus.
Click to expand...


Actually the problem is that the UI is too intuitive, people have been trained in the difficulty of using windows devices and expect things to be more difficult than they are, and set out to make them that way.

How is squeezing with two fingers (to make it smaller) or spreading to fingers (to make it bigger) not intuitive?
 
People seem to be missing a vital point here. The download a ringtone services are huge money spinners for record companies, and telco providers, because though they make it easy to download ringtones onto your phone, they do it a a huge cost.

Therefore few of these vested interests want to grant the sort of licences to either Apple or us, the end users, that would allow us to use our iTunes tracks as ringtones. And Apple quite rightly don't want to do the sort of deal that would allow ringtone providers the sort of access they want to the iPhone garden.

I'm personally happy to Garageband a sample of a legally owned track for my only custom ringtone.
 
milani said:
It took you 30 minutes to find out how to add a ringtone to the iPhone? Holy smokes.
Click to expand...

It took ME 5 minutes to figure it out myself. It took me 30 minutes to talk her through it, answer questions like why do I have to pay twice and can't I do this on my iPhone, why do I need my Mac? Plus another 10 minutes to figure out why the ringtone won't sync to her iPhone afterwards. The problem was her Mac wasn't authorized to play the DRM protected music she downloaded.

BTW it was the theme song to Sex in the City! What are friends for. :)

milani said:
You should stick to yelling from a hilltop as a means of communication...
Click to expand...

THIS WOULD BE YELLING FROM A MOUNTAIN TOP. Not sure what you are talking about here. I thought this was an open forum to discuss OUR experiences, PRO and CON.
 
Who needs Garageband?

this is what you do:
Choose a song, it Apple+I (File>Get Info)
Go to Options
Change the start time and stop time to A THIRTY SECOND INTERVAL (at most) of the song that you want as the ringtone
Now, at least one box next to Start/Stop Time should be checked (two if you started the tone into the song and finished it before the end)
Click OK
Control click the song, Click: Convert Selection To AAC
Let it convert the song, then click the original song
In Options, UNcheck Start or Stop time if it's checked
Find the converted 30 second song, it should be below the original song (it will say 30 seconds, or less)
Control click that one, then Show in Finder
Drag it to the desktop, it will be the one that's selected
Go back to iTunes and DELETE the 30 second song, it should just disappear
On the desktop, find the song that you dragged, click it once so that the cursor comes up so you can change the file name
change the last letter of .m4a to .m4r (so just change a to r)
it will check it you want to keep .m4a or use .m4r, click use .m4r
double click, it should open in itunes under ringtones on the side
then sync your iphone and wherever you edit ringtones it will be there
 
I refuse to pay for ringtones on any phone, especially when I already own the music. On all my other phones I had to use a third party program like BitPim. With the iPhone I just use iTunes and that's it. It seems much easier to me...
 
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