My personal iPhone experience (Ringtones, Activation, etc.)
September 12, 2007 – 5:00 pmSo as I mentioned before, I got an iPhone. When I first got it, a very good person who will remain nameless activated it for me. I’m not about to sign another contract with the devil just so I can have a nice phone. All was grand until I decided I wanted some different ringtones. Since Jesus Jobs had just given his announcement about ringtones that you have to pay for twice, I decided I’d have to pony up and make my own. Yes, I know everyone is doing it, but since I haven’t written a blog post in a while, you get to read about my experience. Lucky you!
Moving on, when I got my iPhone it hadn’t been updated (despite coming from Apple well after the 2 updates had been released). I didn’t think it would be a huge problem since Apple claimed those updates only contained bug fixes (lies). Attempting to follow the instructions online for adding ones own ringtones failed. You see, one of those updates (I assume 1.0.2) twiddled a bit for ringtones. So poor me with my vanilla phone couldn’t get the Ringtones tab to show up in iTunes to save my life. I got really frustrated and decided I was going to install 1.0.2 which I’d been shying away from. So yesterday, I went for it.
Oh Joy, I got the dreaded full download which meant Apple was up to my shenanigans and made restore the entire iPhone. Following that, I had to re-activate it. I used iNdependence to do this which was frustrating for a minute because I failed to read the instructions. You know you ignore readme’s too so stop judging me. Anyhow, I jailbreaked then activated my iPhone in about a half hour (with constant interruptions) and lo and behold, the Ringtones tab showed up in iTunes.
Getting the ringtones I wanted onto my phone was not such a small deal. Here’s a step by step of how I did it, I’m sure there is an easier way but since you’re reading my blog, you get my way. 
- Rip CD since music I wanted to use is not available for download
- Import AAC files for songs I wanted into Audacity 1.3.3. Mind you Audacity 1.3.3 is beta software but is the only version that can handle AAC encoding. Yes I know I could have ripped into mp3 format, but I didn’t, get over it.
- Snip songs until they are a suitable length and style for ringtones. I determined that my phone rings for 30 seconds before going to voicemail so obvs, I made 30 second clips (does fair use apply to ringtones?).
- Export the songs to mp3 format and import into iTunes.
- Convert the songs to AAC in iTunes (Right click on the song in the iTunes Library, choose “Convert selection to AAC”)
- Find the converted songs in the Finder (Right click, choose “Show in Finder”)
- Move the songs from their current location to the iTunes Ringtones folder (iTunes > iTunes Music > Ringtones)
- Change the extension on the songs from .m4a to .m4r
- Open the .m4r files so they show up in iTunes under Ringtones
- Change the extensions of the .m4r files back to .m4a so iTunes doesn’t complain when you try to Sync your Ringtones to your iPhone.
So thats how I did the ringtones thing. I tried the installer.app situation but it failed miserably and almost made me think I bricked my iPhone. Maybe I’ll get the cohones to try it again later.
As far as general usage of the phone goes, there are some obvious problems that I’m surprised Cupertino didn’t get fixed before launch. Here are my OMGWTF’s in no particular order:
- Lack of a decent contact manager seems like a major WTF. I find it annoying to have to go through the Phone app just to change a contact’s information. That you can’t search your contacts would be a non-starter for me if I had more than a few friends. I’m sure the finger scrolling would get old if I had thousands of contacts.
- Support for syncing to more than one computer without wiping the current library of your device. Dear Apple, it’s now 2007 and people tend to have more than one computer they use regularly. Please remove heads from asses and realize how inconvenient it may be for say, college student going home for a break who’d like to add songs to her device from parents computer. Perhaps person who has computer at work and at home that they’d like their iPhone to sync to? Not a 2 way sync, mind, just one way, since Piracy is Bad.
- Support for individually adding a song to the iPhone. Geezus Apple. This one is a royal screw up that I really don’t understand the reason for. I could drag and drop songs to my iPod before, exactly why must I sync only a playlist or my whole library now? Does somebody, anybody, know the reason for this silly change? More importantly, is the direction the entire iPod line will be taking?
- Lack of customization options is a little piss poor. Here are the icons I could do without on the home screen: Calendar, Calculator, Stocks, Maps, Weather, Notes, and Clock. Why can’t I hide them? Also what is the point of using wallpaper if you can’t see it when you use your phone?
- Finally, lack of games. What is one supposed to do while they are taking an hour long train ride? Make calculations? Write notes? How hard would it have been to give us BrickBreaker or some other time killer?
Those are my thoughts on the iPhone. Despite my gripes, I still love this phone. Hopefully Apple will make it better soon.
6 Responses to “My personal iPhone experience (Ringtones, Activation, etc.)”
It’s hard to be legit (and still pay your rent!) Seriously though, you went on a technical adventure. I wonder how you would have handled a PSP?
The bulletpoints at the end are what made the post for me. If you had a choice of games for the iPhone, what would they be?
By Clarence on Sep 12, 2007
You rock girl!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
By Xavier on Sep 19, 2007
apple are selfish bastards that wants people to pay for everything. The phone don’t let me sync any movies or ringtones and 3rd application. I thought this device was a advance phone, There’s nothing advance about this phone.I had a PDA last year and i did everything on that phone from movies,ringtones,instant messaging,3rd apps,and the list goes on. I feel like iam in a leach with apple I have limits with the phone. The only good thing about this phone that is unique thats how apple gets people to buy the product by it’s looks. Hopefully apple finds a solution becuase this phone is really unique and is capable of doing alot but apple got the phone locked for YOU won’t customize YOUR own phone and the only way to do it is to unlocked the phone.Thats why everybody and their mothers are unlocking the phone. If apple dont find a solution there going to lose alot of money because of the hackers that are unlocking this phone.
By None of your buisness on Oct 27, 2007
Thank god for this post. I thought I was going crazy trying to figure out this phone. I’m with you in loving the phone… but the IPod section of it… WTF?! Seriously? Sync… Why?! Who goes backward against technology. If you have a superiour product, why create a new process that just creates negatives. Where they worried their old system could create leagal issues. Cause if not… jesus… Anyway, your point about having two computers… like many many… many of us saved my sanity. Since I just paid $4 for two ringtones (not that much so whatever) and found out that I couldn’t transfer them to a new computer under the purchaced files section I spend about 4 hours on the web looking for solutions, only to come up short. I was just accepting the whole syncing business, cool with only being able to transfer purchaced songs to prevent piracy… and I even felt a little better about sync wiping out the ‘hard drive’? and everything else… but what the hell? Is Apple so pressed for cash they need us to repurchace and create ringtones every time we visit another computer WE OWN! I mean wasn’t that the reason for the 5 computer limit on Authorizing purchace transfer? WTF? Anyway… hopefully Apple will indeed “…remove (their) heads from (their) asses…” soon. Thanks for the post.
By Frustrated... on Nov 8, 2007
I have always been a loyal Apple customer, but will never purchase another Apple product again….it’s a decision based on principle. I just got back from the last apple store in my state to have iphones. The website indicated that the store had phones left last night, so I went at open and they only allowed about five people to purchase phones, because they only had a few left. In sum, I had to make three tripes to Apple stores over the past five days and, because I didn’t have time to wait four hours at a time, was never able to get an iphone.
I believe this is all because Apple has decided to ONLY sell the phone at Apple stores and not stock enough of them in order to increase hype and publicity around the product. They are using their customers as pawns in a chess game, in which they win a few extra billion dollars.
I’ve decided, based on principle, to refrain from buying an iphone or any other Apple products in the future. They should think about their customers first and worry
By FormerLoyalAppleCustomer on Jul 15, 2008