MakeiPhoneRingtone hits 1.1, further obsoletes the ringtones racket

Rogue Amoeba has already updated their MakeiPhoneRingtone application to 1.1, in order to bring in the Cleverboy hack that was discovered the other day. If you missed it, they also posted a guide on how to turn any audio file into an AAC file with their product Fission (but don't forget that iTunes will also do it for you as well, it just won't cut your file for you). We're still waiting on someone to make a program that turns any file into a ringtone by itself (Rogue Amoeba is talking about adding the functionality straight to Fission), but all the tools are there.

So Apple's whole ringtone system is completely, totally, and devastatingly broken. Why would anyone possibly pay money for ringtones from iTunes when it's so incredibly easy to make your own? As Gruber said in his great and very thorough commentary, the whole Ringtone racket is just that -- a racket. There's no such thing as a "ringtone" -- a ringtone is exactly the same as a song, in a different context. The idea that studios should charge more for you to choose which 30 seconds of a song you want to listen to is complete bunk.

And if you think ringtones are a joke (and I do -- I've been rolling my own ever since my first cellphone), just wait until you hear about "ringles". Unbelievable.

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Source: http://www.rogueamoeba.com/utm/posts/Article/MakeiPhoneRingt…

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Analysis / Opinion Software iTunes Apple iPhone

Rogue Amoeba has already updated their MakeiPhoneRingtone application to 1.1, in order to bring in the Cleverboy hack that was discovered...

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scott

I wasn't aware Obsolete could be used as a verb...

September 16 2007 at 2:42 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Nathan

The sendsong native app allows you to convert any song (I believe, I haven't paid attention whether the samples I tried were purchased or from CDs) into a ringtone. It works for me!

September 15 2007 at 7:38 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

wsnoble

Hi

Do we know how to make separate ringtones for separate things yet?

Example: One ring tone for phone ringer and separate one for new email

I would like to have a separate one for email and SMS as I use this phone as a pager for me job also, and having a more annoying email or SMS ringtone will have a better chance of waking me @ 3:00am.

Cheers
-wsn

September 15 2007 at 11:15 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Likely

Anyone stupid enough to pay Apple for a ringtone deserves to pay the 'idiot fee' and it's not in Apple's interest to lock anyone out of anything (as history shows, any Apple sw and hw can be hacked).

"Can you spell 'hyperbole'?"

We all know what they mean but I bet they can spell 'anal'.

Funny

September 15 2007 at 5:39 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

joven

best program ever!

September 14 2007 at 11:11 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

frank

uh, never mind about my previous post. i'm a dork. never mind, please continue on...

September 14 2007 at 11:01 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

frank

thank you, Ashraf (#6) -- your instructions work perfectly to create a snippet in itunes. BUT, now i'm not getting how to get the file into my ringtones list. drag & drop ain't working, and it doesn't seem to automagically think it's a ringtone. the old trick of changing the extension worked before, but clearly there's something i'm missing here... can anyone help a brother out?

September 14 2007 at 9:46 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Jon

I use Audacity too. It is a wonderful piece of freeware. It will not convert to aac as far as I know, but I have used it to crop, then import my wav or aiff to iTunes, convert in iTunes to aac, and grab that new file. A little cumbersome perhaps, but it works and it's free.

September 14 2007 at 6:18 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

aj_robins

I don't think Audacity can convert to AAC ....

September 14 2007 at 5:48 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

I second Audacity.

Great piece of software, opensource and best of all, it's free.

September 14 2007 at 5:47 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply