iOS 4.3 spotlight: Message alerts options
Aside from major features like Personal Hotspot and iTunes Home Sharing, iOS 4.3 also brings some subtle changes to the way message alerts work. The settings for the Messages app now allow you to have alert tones repeat up to ten times at two minute intervals, which will come in handy if you're away from your iPhone for awhile and miss a text.
Most of the 17 new (iPhone 4-only) text tones introduced in iOS 4.2 have been retooled. These new tones were quite lengthy before iOS 4.3, with some of them seeming more suited to a ringtone than a text message alert. Eleven of the tones have been dramatically shortened and/or sped up -- including Noir, which I thought was short enough to begin with -- while six tones remain at roughly the same length they were before iOS 4.3.
Most tones are now less than a second long, and they sound much less overdriven, too; several of the new tones were so loud in iOS 4.2 that they sounded distorted through the iPhone 4's speaker. That's no longer an issue now as far as I can tell.
Another subtle change that you might not even notice at first: vibration alerts for messages have been changed up. Before, new messages had the same brief vibration as the new mail alert. As of iOS 4.3, new text messages will instead give two sharp and quite noticeable vibratory pulses.
We're unsure if the new tones have made it to the iPhone 3GS as of iOS 4.3; they weren't available on the older iPhone in iOS 4.2, so chances are they're still iPhone 4-only.
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Source: http://tuaw.com/tag/ios4.3
Aside from major features like Personal Hotspot and iTunes Home Sharing, iOS 4.3 also brings some subtle changes to the way message...
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One word can describe what I think of the cropped version of the Telegraph tone:
STUPID
Thank god Apple are not in the clothing industry, because it would be one size fits all.
They butchered Telegraph to a short 2 seconds, I really loved the lengthy one. I would like to ask Apple to restore the tunes or actually place an option to control the length of the ringtone itself.
March 14 2011 at 8:23 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyA control option for length and volume sounds like the only solution to satisfy everyone.
March 16 2011 at 9:32 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyThe Noir text tone doesn't sound right anymore.
March 09 2011 at 11:57 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyAgreed. Noir was my favourite tone in iOS 4.2, but Apple really butchered it for iOS 4.3. I switched to Telegraph, which I hated in 4.2 but rather like now that it's not three seconds long anymore.
March 10 2011 at 12:27 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI dislike the shortened alert sounds. I loved hearing the original full Telegraph sound when a tweet came in ("this just in...") but now it is lame. #fail
March 09 2011 at 10:49 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplySeriously? You really think *APPLE* would chop (not shorten) out the first 1/2 to 3/4 of a SMS tone, mid-sound? Does that really seem like the approach that Apple takes with their products? Clearly this is some sort of bug, and not an intentional action.
March 09 2011 at 10:32 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Replyimagine: Customized Vibration Patterns - available at the iTMS for only 9.9¢ each
March 09 2011 at 9:26 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI'm not sure if it was in 4.2 or not, but I just noticed that if you double-click home, then swipe left-to-right (to get the portrait orientation lock and ipod controls) and then swipe left-to-right AGAIN, you get a volume control slider. Was that there before?
March 09 2011 at 5:03 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyI thought my phone was playing up as I was using the noir tone too. It sounds broken to me now! The new vibrations are welcome though!
March 09 2011 at 4:51 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyHow come when I check for updates iTunes says my iPhone is up to date (running 4.2.6)?
March 09 2011 at 4:35 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyALL I want is to make custom text message tones.
March 09 2011 at 4:12 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyAmen to that. Hopefully Apple comes to its senses with iOS 5.
March 09 2011 at 4:30 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyHot Apps on TUAW
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