Skip the boring stuff, and figure out how to make ringtones here.

A few years ago when my friend got some fancy smart phone, I was immediately jealous of the fact that he could easily use his MP3′s as ringtones. As a (barely) post adolescent with a need for musically identification, the ringtone market for phones sucked. I was lucky enough to have M.O.P.’s “Ante up” as my ringtone for a few years. It generated a lot of dirty looks, but I was never able to find another ringtone that was quite as obnoxious. The jealousy incurred upon hearing my friend’s phone play 2Pac’s “I aint mad at ya” was depressing to say the least.

But then a few years later, and hello iPhone! If you’re like me, a big part of the reason you got an iPhone was for the iPod.

iPhone = Music wherever I want it + a phone + a lot of other shit = Totally awesome – good service

If you’re really a lot like me, you actually lauged at the equation above. Yes, you’re a loser amused by math as well as AT&T’s terrible, terrible phone service. But you’re still musically inclined, thankfully. And perhaps most importantly, you’re cheap like me too!

The most dissapointing thing about the iPhone was finding out that you couldn’t simply take songs off your MP3 collection and set them up as ringtones. Apple wants you to buy songs for a dollar on iTunes, then spend another dollar to get the ringtone!

Pfft.

As usual, there’s a way around this, and only takes minimal hacking. The best tutorial for this I found was on eHow, check it out here.

For those non tech-savvy types (lord knows why you’re reading this blog), just remember that changing the file name is the hardest, and most crucial part. Just renaming the file in most Windows or Mac setups won’t work, because you don’t simply want to rename the file – you need to change the file’s extension, which is something both OS’s like to hide. You may have to enter in command line statements. If this scares enough people / there are requests for it, I’ll write out detailed instructions on how to change the file names. Otherwise, click here to check out the tutorial.