Create your own ringtones: iPhone

If you do not want to buy one or don't like the ringtone for sale, create your own!

Create a Custom Ringtone for your iPhone

1. On the computer that you sync your device with, open iTunes.
2. Search for and select the song you wish to turn into a ringtone.
3. Right-click the song and select Get Info.
4. In the Info window that appears, select the Options tab.
5. Fill in the track start and stop times of the snippet you want to use, and then click OK. Do not use a snippet longer than 30 seconds.
6. Back in the iTunes window, right-click the song and select Create AAC Version.Use the Get Info menu to create ringtones.
7. Your song snippet should now appear in iTunes. You can easily tell which is which by the duration of the track.
8. Right-click your shortened clip and select Show in Windows Explorer. This action will locate and show you the file on your computer.
9. Hold down the Ctrl key and drag the file to some white space in the window. This move will create a copy of the file in the same area.
10. Right-click the copy in Windows and select Rename.
11. Change the file extension from .m4a to .m4r. You may need to enable the viewing of file extensions within Windows first.
12. Double-click the newly created .m4r file to add it to the Tones section of iTunes.
13. Plug in your iPhone to your computer, and highlight the device in iTunes.
14. In the Tones section of your device, make sure that Sync Tones is checked, and press the Sync button. The ringtone will now transfer to your device.
15. After the sync is complete, go to your phone’s Settings app, and then click Sounds.
16. Tap the Ringtone section, and select your customized ringtone. Now you can sync it to your phone and your done!

 

FOR ANDROID USERS: To create a custom ringtone for Android devices, you can follow the same steps above, but keep the file as an .MP3 or .AAC file.  Load the file onto your phones microSD card and go to the stock music app.  Find the file and and long press it until a menu pops up.  At that point, you will have the option to use it as a ringtone or as a notification tone.

So what is Carrier IQ? And why you should care

Quite simply Carrier IQ is software that some Wireless Carriers install on your phone that has the ability to track EVERYTHING you do.  Every call, text and even button you push.  The privacy implications are extraordinary, so you should care.  Computerworld provides a more in depth explanation of Carrier IQ here.

In November, Trevor Eckhart, a 25-year-old security researcher from Connecticut published details of research he had done showing how Carrier IQ software can be easily tweaked to conduct surreptitious and highly intrusive tracking of Android, BlackBerry and other smartphone users.

Eckhart described the software as a keystroke logging rootkit that is hard-to-detect, hard-to-remove and programmed to run by default on millions of handsets without the users' knowledge.

In addition to collecting device and service related data, Carrier IQ's software can collect data about a user's location, application use, Web browsing habits, videos watched, texts read and even the keys they press, according to Eckhart. The software runs when the phone is switched on and can log all activities till it is switched off. Carriers can set 'triggers' or actions that cause specific data to be logged and sent to them.

Need a Hard Drive, better buy quick

Due to massive flooding in Thailand over the past year, Hard Drive prices will be up in the early part of 2012.  Most hard drives are made there and Thailand is in the process of rebuilding much of what was damaged, which includes several facilities that make hard drives for the United States.  Supplies are down everywhere.  Prices will go up until manufacturing catches up.  Buy now, if you can, prices WILL be going up.   For more, check out this article from CNET.

Google Me!

Well, not me specifically, I mean yourself.  57% of Internet users do.  Googling yourself or someone you know has become quite popular.  In most cases, we do it to check out somebody we just met or are interested in.  You would be surprised to see what you can find out about somebody.  Recently I made a purchase from Craigslist.  When I came to pick it up, the guy I was dealing with asked me about my website and other pieces of information that I was wondering how he knew about.  When I asked, he told me that he googled me to make sure I was real.  Hmmm, seems like a good idea.  If you want to know when somebody googles you, do you know you can find out?  Yep, simply set a Google Alert for your name with your gmail account.  When Google gets a search request for your name (or any other search query you can enter), you will get an email telling you about it.  Check out this CNN article for more on the increasing craze of Googling yourself.

I hate Windows 98 and proprietary software

Seems I stumbled on a Auto body shop that utilizes software that only runs on Windows 98 SE.  Yes, the hard drive died (no wonder after 12 years), but the pain is trying to bring the system back.  I had no idea finding a copy of Windows 98 SE and the drivers for devices on it would be such a pain.  Just had to vent...

Why you should be suspicious of Black Friday deals

In short, many deals are not really deals at all.  Check out this slideshow from PCWorld and you will see that often that Black Friday price is not much different any other day of the year.  Example 1, Best Buy had a Dell 15.6 Laptop for $599.  Great Deal?  No, it was $599 for most of that month prior to Black Friday.