Your iPhone needs new ringtones now and then. You have someone new calling you. You’ve gotten bored with “Guitar Riff.” You have a new recording of that oboe solo you worked on so hard.

Never mind. You know your reasons. A number of you have asked me personally to share the info. Here’s how to do it:

You Only Need Itunes

1. Use any unprotected Mp3 file in your iTunes library.  ( If it isn’t unprotected, download it using limewire, just remember to quit limewire once you are done downloading. )
2. Right click on it and select “Get Info”.
3. Click “options” and go down to the “Start Time” and “Stop Time” check boxes. Check both boxes and specify your start and stop times. 30 seconds is all you’ve got, so you may need to do some obssessive listening and watching first in order to choose the precise seconds you want. Click OK when you’re done.
4. Right click on your new ringtone and select “Convert Selection to AAC”.
5. Now you’ll have to drag your ACC selection to the desktop and delete the brief selection from your iTunes library so you can drop the ACC file back into the library. This is essential to keep the first selection from saying, “This tune ain’t big enough for both of us” to the new one.
6. Change the extension from “.m4a” to “.m4r.”
7. Drop the new ringtone into your iTunes folder.
8. Now you can sync your phone and get your new ringtone.

For advanced users, I want to figure out how to group contacts and have one ringtone for a group. I think this is possible, but I need to do some more research to figure it out. It always brings a smile to my face when I hear the note of the Godfather playing and I know exactly who is calling. . .

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