Tuesday, January 09, 2007

digg ringtone

w00t! DiggNation ringtone!

Using Audacity I 'trimmed' the excess podcast off the latest episode of DiggNation (episode 79) leaving only the introductory music. I have a Motorola RAZR v3c through Canada's Telus Mobility which kind of sucks ass.
It sucks ass not due to the phone itself because I'm having a great time playing with it. The situation Telus puts you in sucks ass.

The idea behind getting a new cell phone is that you want to put your own custom ringtones and wallpapers on there and be able to transfer off the images you snap with the digital camera. The idea Telus has is that they want to make that as difficult for you as possible. Using the tools mentioned in the next paragraph you are able to upload the "ringtones" you like (but Telus makes sure they go to the "audio" folder and not the ringtone folder). But when you go to assign the uploaded audio file as a ringtone, you can only play it! There's no option to set it as a ringtone.

Well! Thanks to the forward-thinking people at Motorola (Phone Tools) and the beautiful minds behind BitPIM we can finally stick it to Telus.

Want to know how to get those audio files out of the audio folder and instead being read as a ringtone? I found these instructions (1, 2) which I will paraphrase here:

Note)) The following instructions can be followed with the phone plugged in to the computer via a USB cable the entire time, until specifically stated. The USB cable I used was the same cable that came with my SanDisk Sansa m240 1gb MP3 player. The following are instructions for WindowsXP when using Motorola Phone Tools and either Windows or Linux for BitPIM (though I tested on my windows partition).

1))
Using the Motorola Phone Tools (MPT for short) that you purchased from Motorola you can upload as many mp3 or wav (possibly midi but I haven't tested that) as you like. This is done from the "Multimedia Studio" tab, and then inside there from within the "Melody Studio" tab.

2))
After you have transferred the audio files you want to eventually use as ringtones, close the MPT.

3))
Open up BitPIM and follow these very important steps for the Motorola RAZR v3c.

4))
You may have noticed your phone was auto-recognized. Forget that. Open up the phone profile settings "Edit -> Settings" and change the phone type from v3c to "Other CDMA phone".

5))
Click the Com Port "Browse ..." button from within the "Edit -> Settings" menu and select the "(*) Motorola USB Modem" (which should have been installed when you plugged your v3c into your computer the first time. The Motorola USB Modem drivers install off the MPT install cd. The warnings from WinXP during that install are normal).

6))
Click "OK" to finish the manual setup of the v3c in BitPIM. You should now be back at the BitPIM screen.

7))
Select that you want to view the file system on the phone by clicking "View -> View Filesystem" or hot-keys "Alt-V F".

8))
Click "Filesystem" in the very left browse window and expand the root directory "+/" in the second browse window by clicking the plus beside the directory. (As a reminder, we are still inside BitPIM. We closed MPT long ago).

9))
Another directory will appear under the root directory that says "retrieving". This will happen for a few seconds while BitPIM reads the content on the v3c.

10))
In the last browse window on the very right of the BitPIM screen will be a long list of files. You want to locate "MyToneDB.db" and "TmpTneDB.db" and delete them. Yes, delete them. This worked for me when following the instructions on the previously mentioned site. If you are sceptical, I'll note my phone's firmware version right now. It worked for me when using firmware version GATW_06.08.00R and you can find your firmware version by clicking "Edit -> Phone Info".

11))
After you have right clicked the two .db files mentioned above and selected "delete" for each of them, you can then close BitPIM and then unplug your phone.

12))
Before browsing to look for your ringtones, turn off your phone (press and hold the red phone button on the right side of the v3c's keypad).

13))
Turn on your phone by pressing and holding the red phone button on your v3c. The phone will restart and generate new "MyToneDB" and "TmpTneDB" .db files which will include your audio files as ringtones.

14))
Now you can browse to assign your ringtones. If you look in the "Media Gallery -> Sounds" you'll notice there is still no option to assign the audio file as a ringtone. Instead, go to "Settings -> Ring Styles" and then "-> {whatever} Detail" and from there you can change the ringtone to your own audio files.

Note)) Your ringtones can be found at the bottom of the list, regardless of alphabetization. They are easily found by immediately browsing "up" the list rather than scanning down through the entire list.

Enjoy your new ringtones!

-Hopefully helping the community

Followers