How to Create Custom Ringtones
WINDOWS:
Open an MP3 or WMA in any audio editing program, (ex: Adobe Sound Booth, Adobe Premiere, Audacity (which needs the patch to export to MP3)
Once you have it open, cut the song down to about 40 Seconds, if the file is too long, it will not show up on your iPhone.
Once its at the right length, save or export it as an MP3
Open up iTunes and add the newly created MP3 to your Library. Once in there, right click on the song and convert to AAC. Once the MP3 is Converted to AAC, Drag the AAC to your desktop.
Once you got your ringtone as an AAC file on your desktop, change the file name from .M4A to .M4R.
Re add the clip back into iTunes but now in the Ringtone section... Once in there plug in your iPhone and set it to get the ringtones in your library.
MAC:
The first thing you'll need to do, if you haven't already, is download and install the latest update of GarageBand from Software Update (at the time of this writing, that's version 4.1.1). Once you've installed and restarted your computer, turning any song on your computer to a ringtone is a breeze. Here's how it works.
- If you're using a song from your iTunes library, just open GarageBand, open iTunes, and simply drag and drop the song from iTunes to a new track in GarageBand.
- Now click the Cycle Region button pictured above, which will activate the region loop tool.
- Now adjust the length of the region to the section of the song you want to export to iTunes as a ringtone (40 seconds long or less), again as pictured above.
- Finally, when you've got everything set the way you want it, just go to the menu bar and click Share -> Send Ringtone to iTunes. GarageBand will automatically convert the song to the proper format and sync it to your iTunes library as a Ringtone.
Disable iPhone's Backup Process (MAC Only)
You might have observed that iPhone syncing with firmware 2.0 takes a very long time. The real culprit for this is the iPhone backup process which takes majority of the time.
It appears that the reason for the long time taking backups is because iTunes is taking a complete snapshot of the iPhone applications that you have installed on your iPhone for restoring purpose instead of taking back up of only the applications documents and library data.
If you are desperate for a solution, then one of the options would be to disable the backup process. However, this is a risky option as it would mean that you will not have a phone backup to restore your iPhone in case you hit an issue which requires restoring the iPhone.
So, if you are willing to take that risk, folks at ZeroLogic have figured out a simple hack to disable this iPhone backup process.
This hack (for Mac users) will change a hidden setting in the iTunes preferences that will force it to skip the backup process. The steps are as follows:
- Quit iTunes.
- Open Terminal.app
- Copy and paste this in, then hit return:
- defaults write com.apple.iTunes DeviceBackupsDisabled -bool true
- Open iTunes
- Plug in your iPhone (running iPhone firmware 2.0 or iPhone 3G) and sync.
Changing the 'true' in step 3 to 'false' and running it again will re-enable the backup feature.
Via: iPhoneHacks
Send Free SMS using AOL's Aim iPhone App.
We have already seen a method to send and receive free SMS using iPhone 3G. This is another way to send free SMS if you just bought an iPhone 3G and want to avoid paying $5 per month to $20 per month for SMS as per AT&T's iPhone 3G rate plans.
This method is simpler and only requires AOL's AIM iPhone App to be installed (if you don't have installed already).
Here are the simple steps can need to follow:
- Install the AIM iPhone app from iTunes App Store.
- You need to then create a new contact whose AIM address is a plus sign and the mobile number of a friend, such as "+12065551212".
- Then launch AIM from iPhone's home screen. As your contact list is stored on AIM's servers, you should be able to see the newly added contact.
- Tap the buddy's name, compose a text message, and tap Send.
- When the other person receives the message and writes a reply, the return message appears in AIM.
I am not sure if this will work outside of US or Canada, but will work on the first generation iPhone (makes sense if you have exhausted your free SMS messages) as well as iPod Touch.
It might not be the perfect solution if you an SMS junkie but a neat solution nevertheless if you want to send those one-off text messages to your friends.
Via: iPhoneHacks
Built-in Screen Shot
With iPhone firmware 2.0 its very simple to take screen shot as it has a built-in screen capture shortcut.
All you need to do is Hold the "home" button, then hit the "power/sleep" button, the screen will momentarily flash, and the iPhone’s current screen contents will be saved to the Camera Roll.
Via: iPhoneHacks
Fix iPhone Apps Crashing
If you are having trouble with an iPhone application downloaded from the App Store where it opens up and immediately exits (crashes) every time you try to launch it then here are some solutions that you might want to try out to resolve the problem
It appears that the reason for the application crashes that many iPhone users have reported is due to a problem with Digital Rights Management (DRM) that is embedded in each iPhone app installed via the App Store.
There are some solutions that you can try to fix the problem:
Reboot iPhone
Perform a hard reboot of your iPhone, i.e turn your iPhone off completely, by pressing and holding the Sleep/Wake button (on top ) for a few seconds then slide the red slider. Turn it back on by holding the Sleep/Wake button until the Apple logo appears. This can clear potentially problematic data, preventing some type of crashes.
Delete the iPhone Application:
If the above solution does not help, try deleting the application from your iPhone and then re-sync it back to your iPhone.
To delete an application from your iPhone, simply press and hold on the application icon on your iPhone's home screen until it begins to wiggle along with other application icons (just as you would to rearrange them). A small black circle with an "x" on it should appear on the top-left corner of the icon. Tap on the "x" of the iPhone app that is giving you trouble to uninstall it.
When thats done, sync your iPhone with iTunes which should result in the application you just deleted to get synced to your iPhone again.
Few iPhone users have observed that re-downloading the deleted application directly from iPhone's App Store (rather than using iTunes on your computer) also helps in resolving the crashing problem.
Restore iPhone:
If deleting the application or full reboot does not resolve the crashing issue, try performing a restore of your iPhone. Connect it to your Mac or PC and, in iTunes, click the Restore button under the Summary tab. Please do remember restoring the phone will erase contacts, calendars, photos and other data on the phone, but will restore automatically backed-up information including text messages, notes, call history, contact favorites, sound settings, widget settings, etc.
Let us know which of the above solutions resolved your application crash issue. In case you have figured out some other way of solving this problem, please do share it with us in the comments section below for the benefit of fellow readers.
Via: iPhoneHacks
Access your Home PC Remotely
We have seen native iPhone apps like Touchpad and iPhone web apps such as WebEx's PCNow which allow you to remotely access your PC or Mac.
However, if you have a LogMeIn account and an iPhone then you are going to love this trick discovered by folks at UNEASYsilence which allows you to access your PC or Mac using your LogMeIn account.
If you don't have a LogMeIn account yet, no worries, you can register for a free LogMeIn account to check this out.
LogMeIn provides a secure, easy-to-use and cost effective solutions for remotely supporting, connecting and accessing digital information, applications and Internet-enabled devices.
If you already have a LogMeIn account then you need to follow these steps to be able to remotely access your PC or Mac from your iPhone (courtesy folks at UNEASYsilence).
- Log in to your LogMeIn account and open the computer you want to access from your iPhone.
- On the left side of the screen you’ll see a section called Preferences. Click on then then click on the ‘Remote Control’ preference option.
- In the top section you’ll find an option called ‘Default Remote Control’ and odds are its set to ActiveX. Select ‘HTML’ and hit save.
Thats it and you are good to go. If you now log into LogMeIn on your iPhone, you should be able to access any of the computers listed in your LogMeIn account via the iPhone.
You should be able to control the host computer by tapping on your iPhone's screen. Though the response to the taps (as in commands) on the iPhone are quite promptly executed on the host computer, it takes several seconds to refresh the host computer's display in iPhone's Safari browser. It goes without saying that you should be trying this out over Wi-Fi rather than over EDGE (and should work well on iPhone 3G).
You can also register for a free LogMeIn account by following this link to check this out.
Via: iPhoneHacks
Optimize Settings to Extend Battery Life
Apple claims of 8 hours of talk time, 6 hours of Internet use, 7 hours of video playback or 24 hours of audio playback and finally 250 hours of standby time.
However, thanks to the revolutionary features of the iPhone where you can do more than one thing at a time i.e use the internet and also listen to music at the same time, you might be experiencing significantly lesser battery life then that mentioned above.
Hence you could use some of the tips mentioned here to optimize settings to extend your iPhone's battery life between charges.
Auto-Lock Your iPhone
Whenever you are not using your iPhone remember to lock your iPhone, to lock iPhone, press the Sleep/Wake button. However, the more efficient solution would be to turn On the Auto-lock settings. To do this go to Settings, then tap General, then Auto-Lock and select 1 minute from the list of options as lower the settings the sooner your iPhone will go into the locked state which in turn will turn off the screen and other functions, saving your iPhone's battery life.
Turn Off Functions if you are not using or can't use them
If you are in an area without Wi-Fi spots, then tap on Wi-Fi in the Settings application to turn it Off. The same goes for Bluetooth as well, tap General, then Bluetooth and slide the button to it Off.
Reduce Brightness of your iPhone
We all know that iPhone's 3.5 inch screen looks even more gorgeous at maximum brightness however it is advicable to use Auto-Brightness as at max brightness it is also consumes more power. So tap Settings, then tap Brightness, then use the slider to reduce the brightness to an acceptable level and turn on Auto-Brightness On by sliding the button.
Reduce the interval of Auto-checking email
Apparently checking email can also drain your iPhone's battery. So its a good idea to reduce this interval to every hour, to do this in settings, choose Mail then tap Auto-Check, you could also turn it to Manual which should significantly conserve your battery life.
Turn Off the Equalizer
Though using Equalizers (EQ) while listening to music on your iPhone enhances sound quality it apparently also uses more of your processor as they aren't encoded in the song. To turn Off the Equalizers tap Settings, then iPod, then tapping EQ and selecting Flat from the available options.
Via: iPhoneHacks