iPhone still not "Consumer Friendly"

[deannnnn]

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

Or just you know, open GarageBand, cut your song, save as ringtone.

 

[milani]

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.



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.

Sorry didn't mean to come of like a dick. I was just kidding. But I'm also surprised you had so much trouble figuring out how to make a ring tone. It's definitely not impossible without a Mac. I don't have a Mac and I made a ring tone pack for these forums. I figured out how to do it with a quick Google search.

I just got the vibe from the thread that you were criticizing Apple for something that seems to me was basically your inability to make a ring tone and not really the fault of Apple at all. Keep in mind it's not in Apple's best interest to publish information about making ring tones. In a general sense it's copyright infringement (assuming you're using songs as ring tones) so Apple is wise to avoid specifically explaining how to breech copyright. Plus the iTunes store has DRM music, which requires extra efforts to make ring tones out of. That alone is a good reason for Apple not to explicitly explain how to make a ring tone, because step one would be "Go to Amazon..." (to get DRM-free tracks) or "Use the following crack to..." (break the DRM). Not to mention the music industry is looking for any excuse to try to take power away from iTunes, and Apple publishing information on how to hack up their songs and make them into ring tones (without paying them the extra money they want) is a pretty good one IMO.

 

[mrtune]

And, as matter of interest, how does one buy ringtones on a BlackBerry? Or a Nokia smartphone?

On a blackberry it's a simple as hooking up the phone via usb. Take whatever mp3 you want and copy it to the ringtone folder. Done.

Apple's way is too much work.

You should just be able to pick any song already on the phone and make it a ringtone. Jumping through hoops is dumb.

 

[Michael CM1]

On a blackberry it's a simple as hooking up the phone via usb. Take whatever mp3 you want and copy it to the ringtone folder. Done.

Apple's way is too much work.

You should just be able to pick any song already on the phone and make it a ringtone. Jumping through hoops is dumb.

Complain to the RIAA. They're the ones that force you to pay 99 cents to crop a song you already own in iTunes just so you can use it as a ringtone. Apple can't totally piss of the RIAA for fear of not having music to sell. RIM doesn't have that issue.

I would also like to say to people if you'd rather pay $3 for a ringtone of someone else's cropping instead of using the multitude of methods given here, geeeeez. If you have a DRM-protected song, here's the trick: Burn it to a CD, rip it back into iTunes. No DRM! Proceed with GarageBand trick.

 

[savar]

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.

Agreed, it's silly.

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

This sounds like a tricky method, but it's actually really fast and easy. I made the 4 ringtones that I use on my phone in about 5 minutes using this trick.

 

[milani]

On a blackberry it's a simple as hooking up the phone via usb. Take whatever mp3 you want and copy it to the ringtone folder. Done.

Apple's way is too much work.

You should just be able to pick any song already on the phone and make it a ringtone. Jumping through hoops is dumb.

Refer to the post right above yours. I explained why it is the way it is, as did the poster above this (my) post.