Android Ringtones – How to get/make them.

Ringtones. You would imagine the your options for ringtones would be so much better than on a normal non-smart phone, and you would be correct in that assumption. There are multiple ways to get ringtones and even multiple ways to make your own ringtones onto your phone.

For starters, the way that android organizes his ringtone management is (in my opinion) very well laid out. On your memory card there are a bunch of folders.  If you look very carefully you will see a folder called “media”.  If you don’t have one, create it.  then inside of that folder you should have an “audio” and a “video” folder.  Then inside of the “audio” folder you should see the below group of folders “alarms” “music” “notifications” and “ringtones”.  This is the place on the SD card where the Android OS looks for sounds.

So if you want to make a tone that is for a phone call put it in the “ringtones” folder.  For an alarm put it in the “alarms folder, etc.  Modern android phones (version 2 and up) will support multiple file formats.  The main ones are .ogg and mp3.  So you can manually cut down a music file with a desktop application and copy it to your phone’s memory card in this folder and you are good to go.  But wouldn’t you like something easier?

The easiest method of making a ringtone is to do it right through the "Music” icon that is preloaded on your phone.  Let’s say you are listening to your MP3 collection and you hear a song that you want to make your ringtone.  No worries, just press the menu button at the bottom of your phone (while the song is playing) andyou will see an icon called “Set as Ringtone” (see image below). That’s it.  It will do the dirty work for you – create the tone and set it as your default.  Can’t ask for an easier option. Although there is a pretty big downfall to this.  It creates the tone just for the first 30 or 40 seconds of the song.

When your phone rings you don’t always want the intro of the song (although the beginning of the pictured Radiohead song is pretty badass).  Let’s say you want the tone to start at around 2:42 when the hard part kicks in.  So you need a solution that will let you pick that certain chunk of the song and make that your tone.  That’s where RingDroid comes in.

RingDroid is an app that lets you create a start and stop point of an MP3 file and turn it into a ringtone/alarm/notification.  All right on the device, Plus it gives you an option to set it as your default tone.  The best part of the app is that it is a FREE app available from the Android Market, or through the Google Code site. See the image below:

Name: RingDroid
Description:
Create ringtones from your own music library, or record new ones on the fly!
The original open-source ringtone editor for Android, first published in 2008 and downloaded by millions of users worldwide.
Create your own ringtone, alarm, or notification sound from an existing audio file, or record a new one directly on the device.
This application is compatible with most Android devices running system versions 1.6 (‘donut’) through 2.3.x (‘gingerbread’).
Download Link: http://goo.gl/x08x0

Some “Best of the Best” accessories for your Android phone:

Over(Under)clocking – “Why Root?” Part 3

Me: Age 7

For the 3rd installment of Root – The “What?” “Why?” “How?” I will be covering an option for root users called overclocking (or underclocking – depending on what you are looking to do).  Overclocking is the process of speeding up your processor.  In the case of a lot of phones the manufacturer will underclock the processor, essentially slowing it down a tad to give you the benefit of better battery life.  A couple of examples of this are the original Motorola Droid (Verizon) and the HTC EVO Shift (Sprint).

With overclocking you have the ability to undo what the manufacturer has done and then some.  On some devices where the manufacturer has set the speed at 500MHZ you have the ability to overclock it to 1.2GHz, or even faster.  Therefore you end up with a crazy fast phone that would have the ability to run the latest cutting edge game without having to shell out the money for a new device.

So you are probably asking what the downside to this is?  Well aside from the possibility of ruining your phone (as with anything root) you will notice a drastic decrease in the battery life. Which is why I mentioned that the manufacturers will underclock the devices to give them a battery boost.  So for the people not looking for performance, and just want to make it through the day without needing a charge on their way home from work, underclocking is a great option.

BUT: What if you could have the best of both worlds?  The ability to jump the speed up for your games and slow it way down when it’s not in use.  Well you can do that with the below apps.  Just mess around with the profiles and you can set it to do whatever you want.   Well check out the below recommended apps.

Name: Android Overclock by JRummy16
Description:
Make your device blazing fast and save battery life by using this user friendly app! You can overclock to increase speeds or underclock to save battery life. Set custom profiles to increase performance to the max.
Android Overclock also includes tons of extra tweaks and hacks to make your device truly your own. As shown on droid-life.com and other popular android news sites it is the user-friendly and easy way to fully customize your device.
Download Link: http://goo.gl/kiBRq

Name: SetCPU for Root Users
Description:
SetCPU is a tool for changing the CPU settings (capable of overclock and underclock) on a rooted Motorola Droid, Nexus One, G1, G2, Samsung Galaxy S, myTouch 4G, Motorola Xoom, or one of many other devices to improve performance or save battery.
SetCPU also allows you to set up powerful profiles to change the CPU speed under certain conditions, such as when the phone is asleep or charging, when the battery level drops below a certain point, when the phone’s temperature is too high, or during certain times of day. See the screenshots for examples of how you might set up profiles.
Download Link: http://goo.gl/hQOpU
PS:  Another thing to remember.  If you are rooted and you can’t get this to work you are going to have to do  some research on Android Kernels.

Some “Best of the Best” accessories for your Android phone:

Google+ Opens Up Their Invites (Invites Available)

Taking a cue from the easy invites on Spotify, it looks like Google has opened up it’s invite system for Google+.  Upon logging into my account today I discovered a link to directly invite people.  (As opposed to the old way where you had to create a circle and share something with people – the way that only worked 15% of the time…)

So if anyone out there wants an invite leave a comment and I will see how many it will let me send out!

   

 Some “Best of the Best” accessories for your Android phone: