iPhone Dispatch Blog

So I haven’t tried it, but it seems you can still get your own ringtones by renaming an aac file to .m4r, syncing, then renaming it back to .m4a, syncing. Maybe some magic dust thrown in for good measure. But it is clear that Apple will block this in the future. They don’t want us to have free ringtones.
My guess is that programs like iToner will be a better option, because there is a cost to it. Apple can still claim that there is no way to get free ringtones. For the price of 15 ringtones, you can do it yourself and make unlimited ringtones. At least someone else will need to keep up with the iTunes changes, and I can just update my software. Hopefully.
Anyway, I’m done writing about ringtones for a while, at least until the situation stabilizes.

Apple released 7.4.1 with no list of changes. But sure enough, it disables the ability to change a .m4a into a .m4r and have it work as a ringtone. So I can no longer take audio files I created and use them as ringtones on my phone. Thanks Apple.
Fortunately, Ambrosia released version 1.0.1 of iToner, which works with 7.4.1 and doesn’t have the problem that 1.0 did where the ringtones disappeared after syncing with iTunes. So we at least have that solution, even if it costs $15.

As “sinh” points out in an earlier comment, there is a super-simple ringtone hack. Just take an aac sound file, change its extension to .m4r, and add it to iTunes. Then sync. It adds the ringtone. An easy way to make a sound into an aac is to bring it into iTunes, set your Import preferences to aac, an convert it.
This hack is so simple I can’t believe it.

A lot of people were upset that iPhones are now $200 less. Not me. I figured that was just business. It’s not the first time I bought a piece of consumer electronics only to ee a huge price drop just a few months later. Happened to me last year with a Sony TV.
But now Steve Jobs has stated that we will all get $100 back. Glad I still have my receipt.
What do you think about the situation? Was the $200 price drop too much? Is the $100 rebate too little?

Don’t get me started on how wrong I think it is to have to pay a buck to turn a song you already own into a ringtone. But, curious as to how the ringtone editor works, I downloaded the new iTunes and went looking for it. Couldn’t find it. No mention of it in the Help, either. I finally found some info at Apple.com, but that didn’t help either. I’m supposed to look for a ringtone icon next to songs I’ve purchased from iTunes. But I couldn’t find any. So I went on to the iTunes store to see if I could buy one, but there is no indication which songs can be ringtones and which can’t. So I’m stumped. I don’t want to spend a buck on a ringtone, but even if I did, it looks like Apple doesn’t want me to.