“Ring, ring”, “Ring, ring”. The family watched “Bedtime Stories” last weekend and Adam Sandler has a very distinctive ringtone in the movie. I liked it so much that I HAD to have it for my iPhone. iTunes, however, seems to be very stingy with it’s ringtones. It shows that you can make ringtones out of certain selections in your iTunes library but not anything you want. What to do? Enter: THE INTERNET!
There are many sites that share this but I’ll tell you how to do it also:
The song you want to use must reside on the local hard drive of the PC/Mac you are using
Right-click the song and choose “Get Info”, click the “Options” tab, then enter a start time and a stop time for the clip. It has to be 30 seconds or less. Click on “OK”.
Right-click the song again and choose “Convert selection to AAC”. Then delete the song from your iTunes library but choose to save the file when asked.
Find the converted song (it will have a “.m4a” extension) on your hard drive. Change the extension to “.m4r”.
Add the new file back to iTunes. It will automatically go to the “Ringtones” folder.
Synch your phone and make the change on your phone.
A few weeks ago I was fortunate enough to pick up a new 13″ Macbook Pro the day they arrived in the stores. I’ve always been a PC guy so this is my first Mac. So far I’m not looking back. One of the reasons for making the switch was iLife, Apple’s software that comes with new Macs and includes iMovie, iPhoto, and Garage Band. iMovie is the easiest to use video editor I’ve had. This is important as I have young ones and am taking video everywhere we go. It allows me to put some of the footage out on YouTube closer to the date it is shot so the relatives can follow along with our lives (let’s be real, Grace’s life). I have a lot of fun doing these videos and the latest one has been posted on YouTube, it is called “Father’s Day“. You can see it in the upper right of the home page or you can click the link.
I’ve never been a fan of RF modulators so that you can listen to your iPod in the car. In any metropolitan area there are just too many radio stations to interfere with whatever frequency you choose. This is what led me to purchase the DICE Electronics iHOND3 iPod interface for my car. Not only did my iPod touch charge in the car but I could control it using the wheel mounted audio controls. Life was good. Then I got an iPhone and life was no longer good, it didn’t work in the car.
Enter DICE Electronics. I emailed them and Travis in sales got back to me right away. They explained that the 3G wouldn’t charge at 12V like the original iPhone. He asked for the serial number from my unit and after giving it to him he again got back to me right away. He gave me 2 options:
Option A-Send the module box and the cable that goes to the iPhone back. They’d upgrade the software, install a 5V chip, and get a corrected cable. It can be done now and only take a day or 2. $99
Option B-Wait until mid December for a new cable that will make it work as is. No software upgrade. $45
I choose to wait until mid December as there wasn’t any additional functionality in a software upgrade. I wanted to post about all of this because of how responsive DICE Electronics and Travis have been. You don’t purchase their products directly from them, they work through dealers, but they sure do have a way with making customers feel valued.
This week Heather and I will be leaving for New York City. Our 10th anniversary is Thursday Friday (oops) and the trip is our celebration. We went last year in late August and that was my first trip there. We had a great time. The banner on top of the home page is a picture that I took from the top of the Empire State Building. I believe I am all set with the lastest in technology for the trip. I will be able to post our current location using Twittelator on my iPhone. That will update to the home page here as well as to my Facebook page. Pictures that I take with the iPhone will be uploadable to Flickr and then will be on this site also. The iPhone camera is not the best so most of our pictures will be taken with my Canon EOS xTi and Heather’s Sony point-and-shoot. I am very excited to be going, we have plans to take in a Broadway show, get a massage, walk across the Brooklyn Bridge but mostly we plan on exploring different neighborhoods. If you are interested check back later in the week to see where we are!
