Filed under: Software, iPhone, iPhone 101
iPhone 101: Adding custom ringtones to your contacts
As Mat posted, Michael Simmons of Ambrosia SW dropped us a note yesterday to give a heads up about their new iToner product. $15 gets you a universal binary application that allows you to install new ringtones and easily assign them to your contacts.
I thought I'd follow up his post with a quick trick to assign custom ringtones to individual contacts.
To do this, choose Phone > Contacts and select any of your contact names. Tap Edit and scroll down the contact information page to tap Assign Ringtone. Select a ringtone and tap Info (top-left) to select that sound or select None to use the default ringtone for this contact.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Steve said 10:57AM on 9-01-2007
"iToner"??
Really bad choice of name.
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Marc said 11:02AM on 9-01-2007
But no ability to add custom text message tone? Sigh, this feature used to be so popular and now it's magically gone.
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WickDC said 11:06AM on 9-01-2007
So how can they get the files over without any jailbreak type of thing? But would be nice to have them "stick" after updates. Given the resent Apple news, doesn't it seem likely that this might at least the very first new thing Apple will be adding (perhaps on the 5th) in a update to iTunes?
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dan2ktj said 12:10PM on 9-01-2007
I thought this added laser printer functionality to my iPhone.
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Greg said 12:25PM on 9-01-2007
No offense, but where's the "quick trick"? In my book, this is just "the way it works." No shortcut, no trick. So, what am I missing?
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TjL said 12:32PM on 9-01-2007
FYI from my own experience (not specific to iToner) I can tell you that after a firmware upgrade my customizations where gone (i.e. the sound files were no longer on my iPhone) however my contacts retained their customized ringtone information.
Result? When I got a call from a contact with a custom ringtone, it made no sound (because it tried to play a tone that no longer existed).
So just be careful after system updates to restore all the custome ringtones you had before are still there.
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Ron Flax said 1:05PM on 9-01-2007
It would be great if there was a way to assign a ring tone to any call that comes in with a number NOT in my contacts. That way I can easily tell if the caller is someone I know.
My Treo could do this. The iPhone should be able to do this too.
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Mo said 2:06PM on 9-01-2007
It would be wonderful if, instead of getting all excited about ringtones, people were just content to keep their phones on “vibrate”, thus making cars, trains, shops, offices and homes the world over ever slightly less irritating than they currently are.
And no, this isn't by any means specific to the iPhone.
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AC said 7:09PM on 9-01-2007
@Mo, Keeping the phone on vibrate means keeping the phone on your person or in sight, and not in a knapsack, purse, or padded pocket, etc. While I agree with you in princple that the world could be less full of noise pollution, I think that the state you describe is as unlikely as it is umpractical.
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Macroy said 4:41PM on 9-01-2007
7: Have you tried adding a custom ringtone to all of your contacts, and then setting a different default ringtone? I know it's sort of doing it the long way around, but that should accomplish what you're trying to do.
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Drupa said 1:52AM on 9-02-2007
Enough about iPhone. It is on the EDGE network! It's like going back to dial-up!
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Drupa said 2:08AM on 9-02-2007
IPhone is limited by EDGE! I won't buy one until it is released from dial-up speeds.
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gizzle_8 said 12:14PM on 9-02-2007
Tried it. Still not as good as iPhoneRingToneMaker as it does not let you select the start and end point within the song
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Richard said 6:03PM on 9-02-2007
Drupa... I and many others routinely get speeds of 150 - 200 kbps. The last time I checked, dial up was 30 - 40 kbps. A little division will tell you that EDGE on the iPhone is 3X - 5X faster then dial up.
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Perry said 4:02AM on 9-03-2007
13- Does the iphoneringtonemaker work as seamless as itoner? with the exception of editing the start and end points?
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DWBjr said 2:02PM on 9-03-2007
It seems clear that iToner knows something about how the iPhone actually works. The ringtone syncing functionality is ALREADY inside the iPhone, it just needs to be accessed. Considering the "sync" button on iToner makes my iPhone fall into "sync" mode, makes me thing Ambrosia figured it out ahead of schedule. Good for them.
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Sam said 9:25PM on 9-03-2007
My main question (and this is something that bugs the PANTS off me with my current phone, a Moto v557, and all Motorola phones I've ever used): Will the ringtone sound only when the contact calls you or will it also play when the contact sends you a text message? For example, I'd really like to set a special song for my special lady, but I hate the idea of the phone ringing for half a minute just when I get a text.
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Petey Esdie said 10:30PM on 9-03-2007
i knew should be a way to do this, but i hadn't found it. trust me to not think to click on "Edit". thanks TUAW!
by the way, i really like iToner. i've been making ringtones by snipping out bits of MP3s and AACs (thanks to the awesome Amadeus Pro) and uploading them. here's a tip: sync the song to your iPhone using iTunes. if it sounds too quiet or like crap coming out of the little iPhone speaker, it probably won't work well as a ringtone. saves me a lot of work testing out songs.
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