Droid vs iPhone, round 1

[Hypo Luxa]

Just a little anecdote for something off the beaten path...

So I buy my dad an iPhone for Fathers because he's kinda old skool and the Android phones are a little more complicated for him to grasp. But he HAD to have a smart phone since my mom, my brother, my sister, and I all have Droids. So I get him the iPhone because it is a little simpler for him to use.

So he wants me to put the Marine Corps hymn on it as his ringtone since he is a former Marine. So I connect it to my mac and grab the mp3 online somewhere and try to load it much as I would do with my Droid. Well, can't seem to find it when searching through the ringtones. So back to connecting it to my mac and searching for a more appropriate folder. Yeah right...

So after about 45 minutes, my brother tags in and I give him the phone and he hooks it up and he has about as much luck as I did. Meanwhile my dad is losing confidence in our technical prowess. About 40 minutes later, my brother throws his hands up as well in defeat.

So I took another stab at it having researched how to add a custom ringtone in Google. Well, it turns out that I gotta go through this whole annoying process of converting the mp3 so that it is compatible with iTunes (shudder). I try to do the prescribed method, still nothing.

So I finally break down and call my dads carrier (AT&T... shudder again) and try to get them to tell me how to do it. They are even more useless than the Verizon techs, so they transfer me over to Apple. Turns out that now you have to download it through iTunes and there IS no converting. So basically if it isn't in the iTunes store, which was the case for this song, you can't have it.

The phone was really slow and clunky as well. I am SO glad I have an Android!!!

 

[sharpgator]

Wow, I had no idea you could only use iTunes stuff as your ringtones. I use a lot of stuff that isn't music (gunshot sounds, etc..). I actually had an interest in checking out the iPhone 5 when it comes out but this would kill it for me. I have used specific ringtones for specific people for many years. I could never replicate this on an iPhone.

 

[sharpgator]

By the way, have you checked out Missingsync.com? I use it for my Droid and it works great. I can't speak to the iPhone version because I don't have an iPhone, but it does say that you can create ringtones out of whatever music you have. So, you could get an MP3 of the song you want and convert it.

Hope this helps.

 

[rjasonw]

Yep this is one of my biggest complaints with iTunes. You never have full control of YOUR music that you buy from them. I quit using them & now have Google Music & Amazon Cloud Player as my exclusive means to my music. It is much better & you can use a Ringtone maker from the Market, I recommend Ringdroid, to make your own ring tones.

Good luck whatever you choose.

 

[CPR]

Wow, that sucks. On the flip side, you can open .rtf documents and take screen shots with an iPhone on a system that works as advertised (unlike the DX2).

 

[UserName872]

Agreed that the iphone process for getting a ringtone is a royal pain in the ass but the techs were incorrect in saying you can't do it anymore unless you have the song through itunes.

If you open your mp3 file in itunes, you can right-click and select "create AAC version". Once thats created you open the folder that the new file is saved in and change the file extension from .m4a to .m4r. close itunes and double-click on your new .m4r file. This will add the file as a ringtone.

 

[Hypo Luxa]

UserName872... damn.. could have used that info a couple weeks ago.. hehe. Of course the techs aren't going to tell me that! Oh well. He got used to the ringtone we ended up setting up for him.

 

[UserName872]

UserName872... damn.. could have used that info a couple weeks ago.. hehe. Of course the techs aren't going to tell me that! Oh well. He got used to the ringtone we ended up setting up for him.

Oh well at least you have the info for next time so when someone asks you can say you got the answer!