Long gone are the days when you could easily download a song onto your device and set it as your ringtone. One would think that with the advancement of phones, this process would in fact be easier than it was on my 2003 Nokia. But instead, the options have become extremely convoluted, and for iPhone owners, the workarounds can be a pretty annoying hassle.
We’ve shown you how to set any song as iPhone ringtone using iTunes. But as reader Lana Del Rey Globe pointed out, for folks that purchased the iPhone 6s andiPhone 6s Plus, or anyone with GarageBand on their device, you can create your own ringtones with “relative” ease without using iTunes or needing a computer.
How to set any song as iPhone ringtone without using iTunes
Step 1.
Download or import the song that you wish to be your ringtone into your Music Library. If you skip this step you will not be able to find the song within GarageBand.
Step 2.
Open GarageBand. If you do not have GarageBand pre-installed on your device, you can download it in the App Store.
Step 3.
Import the song you want by choosing any of the instrument sections and tapping on the View button followed by the Loop Browser button.
Step 4.
Next, select the Music tab and find the song you want from any of the sections. Songs that are grayed out cannot be added to GarageBand.
Step 5.
Drag the song to the left or right to add it to GarageBand. Since the default length is extremely short you’ll need to edit the track length in order to view and hear more of your song. Hit the small + icon to add bars to your track; the more bars you add, the longer the song clip becomes.
In the editing section you can trim the song to the desired length. The sides will turn yellow and you can pull in from the beginning or the end to create your trimmed clip. You also can loop it, split it, and more by double-tapping the song preview.
Remember that this will be a ringtone, so trim a part of the song that is appealing to the ear, and would make for a good ring whenever you get a call.
Step 6.
When you are finally happy with your creation, hit the drop-down arrow and tap My Songs. The ringtone you have created will automatically save as “My Song”. You can rename it by tapping on the title.
Step 7.
Tap and hold the thumbnail for your song and menu options will appear above. Tap theShare icon, followed by the Ringtone icon.
Name the ringtone, hit export.
When finished exporting tap Use Sound As, and select the option for when you want to hear the ringtone in the following menu.
Alternatively you can add the ringtone the normal route, by going to Settings -> Sounds -> Ringtone and selecting your ringtone from the list.
These steps can be replicated numerous times. So if you wanted to create a different ringtone for each of your friends, you could do that as well.
Let us know if you think ringtones are really worth the extra effort in the comment section.
There are all kinds of ways to save in the iPhone Hacks Deals Hub, but if you’re really on a budget then you’ll love these great deals that won’t cost you more than an Andrew Jackson.
The ExoMount Touch Universal Car Mount allows you to house your iPhone in a place where you can still get use out of it without making it a total distraction. You can place this car mount on the windshield or the dashboard and get the perfect viewing angle thanks to its 360 degree pivot capability. Get it for just $19.99.
When it comes to mobile, there are plenty of languages to learn and design principles to master. Luckily, you’ll get a crash course in it all with the Pay What You Want Mobile-First Developer’s Bundle. You can pick your price for it right now!
When you need a charge while on the go, the last thing you want to do is deal with knotted cords and tangled wires. Avoid the hassle with Cord2Go, on sale for just $9.99.
With magnetic rings to adapt the lenses for any model iPhone, you can capture images up close, far away, and with the 180-degree “fisheye” look. Easily switch between lenses with “snap-on, snap-off” functionality, and keep the others close by until you need them. They’re yours for just $19.99.
In case you were busy last week and didn’t get a chance to take a look at Cydia, don’t worry as we have compiled a list of all the new tweaks that were released in the week which are worth checking out.
The newly released tweaks range from bringing Peek and Pop functionality to app icons for older iOS 9 devices to providing a quick way of creating new alarms, reminders and calendar events on your iPhone.
Auris ($1.99): lets you choose the music app to launch when you plug in your headphone to your iPhone.
Bluetooth Devices Renamer (Free):allows you to rename the name of bluetooth devices in Settings.
BrowserBreadcrumbCleaner (Free):closes all the tabs in Safari when using the ‘Back to App’ button.
BrowserTabs ($1.49): allows you to switch tabs in Safari with a single swipe gesture.
FSVideoOnlyMessages (Free): full screen video attachments Messages.
Ghosty (Free): dims the app icons when the 3D Touch shortcut menu is opened.
LabelNotify ($0.99): displays notification count as app icon labels.
Pegasus ($2.99): brings Picture-in-Picture to older iOS 9 devices.
Popcorn ($0.99): brings Peek and Pop feature to unsupported devices for Home screen icons.
Remote Messages ($3.99): lets you access and use iMessage from your Windows PC.
Safe Alarm 2 ($1.99): provides a handful of new options when settings an alarm on your iPhone.
SFSafariViewController (Free): adds in-app Safari window for browsing.
Shake To Undo Flipswitch (Free): adds a flipswitch toggle for Shake to Undo action.
SwitcherTweak Pro ($0.99): provides a bunch of options to customize the App Switcher.
Tactful (Free): adds 3D Touch menu for Cydia.
Tether ($0.99): brings a cool new way of quickly creating alarms, reminders and calendar events on your iPhone.
TypeStatus 2 (Free): displays an indicator in the Status bar when someone is typing a reply in iMessage.
Unicode Faces (Free): adds unicode faces to your stock iOS keyboard which can be invoked by holding the space key.
These are all the new tweaks that have been released in the week. If we have missed any, let us know in the comments section below.
Starting from December 8, a bunch of Apple and Beats products will be marked as obsolete by the company that will no longer make them eligible for any service or repair support from Apple or its third-party authorised service centres.
Apple usually marks its products as obsolete 5-6 years after it stops selling them. Usually, such a long timeframe is enough for owners of these products to upgrade to a newer variant variant of the device.
The list of Macs that will be marked as obsolete starting from December 8 are as follows:
iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2009)
iMac (27-inch, Late 2009)
MacBook Air (Mid 2009)
Mac Pro (Early 2009)
MacBook (13-inch, early 2008)
MacBook Pro (15-inch, early 2009)
Apple Cinema Display (23-inch, DVI early 2007)
In California and Turkey, Apple will be marking the above Macs as ‘Vintage’ and will continue to offer basic support due to the regional laws.
In addition to the above Macs, Apple is also marking the following iPods, its other accessories, and Beats products as obsolete:
iPod Touch (1st generation)
Time Capsule 802.11n (1st generation)
iBeats
Beatbox
Beatbox Portable (1st generation)
Wireless (1st generation)
Diddybeats
Heartbeats (1st generation)
All the above products will go obsolete from December 8, so if you own any of them that require any kind of hardware support, make sure to take them to your nearest Apple retail store as soon as possible.
Winterboard, the popular theming tool for iOS, has now been updated to support iOS 9 devices. You can now install themes from Cydia and apply them to your iOS 9 device using Winterboard.
Saurik mentions that the update was primarily tested by Saurik using his popularayecon theme. However, there are still chances of other issues appearing as Winterboard gets tested by more users so Saurik has requested to report any problems that occur.
Here’s the complete changelog of Winterboard version 0.0.3919:
9.x: Fix Calendar Icons (Surenix)
9.x: Don’t Crash Spotlight Search
It’s important to note that the alternative tool for Winterboard, namely Anemone, has been out in Cydia for a long time with support for iOS 9 and works pretty much the same as Winterboard so if you face any issues using Winterboard then you should consider checking out Anemone.
If you haven’t updated Winterboard yet then head to Cydia and perform the update now. Let us know what your favorite themes are in the comments section below.
What appears to be Apple’s first indoor positioning app has appeared on the App Store ahead of its official unveiling. It’s called Indoor Survey, and it allows users to pinpoint their position within a building using their iPhone’s sensor data.
“By dropping ‘points’ on a map within the Survey App, you indicate your position within the venue as you walk through,” the app’s description reads. “As you do so, the Indoor Survey App measures the radio frequency (RF) signal data and combines it with an iPhone’s sensor data.”
“The end result is indoor positioning without the need to install special hardware. Apple has been working on indoor mapping technologies,and patented a number of them, for many years. The company has alsoacquired indoor mapping companies like WifiSLAM, and hired those with expertise in this field,like former Wifarer CEO Philip Stanger.
The Indoor Survey app, which was spotted by Steve Troughton-Smith, is thought to be part of Apple’s mission to bring indoor mapping technology to iPhone, giving users the ability to report their location from inside buildings and venues, and to navigate them using indoor maps.
Apple has also provided iOS developers with sample code, dubbed Footprint, that demonstrates how they can transition between outdoor mapping systems that read latitude and longitude to indoor mapping systems that use MapKit.
The company also offers iBeacons, which are used in its retail stores to provide customers with information, special offers, and more over Bluetooth.
It’s not totally clear what Apple’s plans are for Indoor Survey at this point, but it seems the company was hoping to keep it hidden for now. The app does not appear in App Store searches, but can be accessed and downloaded using the direct link below.
Unfortunately, you can’t do much with Indoor Survey once it is installed on your device; it will prompt you to login using your Apple ID, but attempting to do so throws up an “Authorization Failed” error.
If you want to try it out anyway, we recommend you download it now; Apple will almost certainly pull this app as soon as it notices they people are downloading it. Note that the app requires iOS 9 or above, and is only available in English, Chinese, and Japanese.
The smaller the bezels around your smartphone’s display, the prettier it becomes. That’s proven in this amazing iPhone 7 concept from DeepMind, which imagines a “fullscreen” device that allows photos, videos, and more to take up the entire front panel of the phone.
At first glance, the handset in this concept looks like any other iPhone, with standard sized bezels around its display, and a physical home button with Touch ID. But those bezels are only virtual, and they have the ability to disappear so users can take their content “fullscreen.”
Pretty incredible, right? Although, I don’t think I would ever want the bezels to appear; I’d want my iPhone to be in fullscreen mode at all times. It looks so much better that way.
In fact, Apple could make big improvements to the iPhone’s design and size by making its bezels smaller. Other manufacturers have been able to pack larger displays into smaller handsets by doing this; for instance, the Galaxy Note 5 has a larger 5.7-inch screen, but is still smaller overall than the iPhone 6s Plus.
It probably isn’t possible to eliminate the bezel entirely just yet, but here’s to hoping Apple takes note of concepts like this one and at least makes them smaller on future devices.
In the editing section you can trim the song to the desired length. The sides will turn yellow and you can pull in from the beginning or the end to create your trimmed clip. You also can loop it, split it, and more by double-tapping the song preview.
