iPhone App Blog

One of the biggest complaints about the iPhone is the inability for users to add custom ringtones. There have been a lot of ringtone hacks around and even a ringtone maker download or two. Most, if not all, of these have required at least jailbreaking your iPhone to get them to work and then have to be re-hacked after firmware updates are released.

Well, there’s a new option in town. Ambrosia Software has just released iToner, a new iPhone ringtone maker that requires NO HACKING. That’s right, you can add ringtones to your heart’s content without worrying about re-installing them after the next update or bricking the thing and voiding your warranty.

And adding ringtones to your iPhone is as easy as it can be. Just drag and drop any MP3 or AAC files into the interface and then click the Sync button to add the songs to add the file to your iPhone ringtone options. There’s a free thirty day trial of iToner from Ambrosia Software, and the full download is only $15. 

Join the discussion at MobileWhack and Techmeme…

Late last night while I was walking my dog Apple released several patches for Mac OS as well as the first update for the iPhone. The six patches released fixed several security bugs and other flaws in Mac OS (including the server versions) and the iPhone. Apple has also released Safari ver. 3.0.3 for Mac and Windows.

The update downloads via iTunes while you sync your iPhone. The most obvious reason for this update is the huge security gap that the guys over at Independent Security Evaluatorsdiscovered. The update addresses the issue by ”performing additional validation of JavaScript regular expressions.” This comes just days before ISE was to announce the vulnerability at the annual Black Hat security conference.

In a rather classy move, Apple gave credit to the hackers at ISE that discovered the security issue that could allow someone to completely take over an iPhone. Charlie Miller and Jake Honoroff of ISE are named right in the update notes. Which I think is rather nice.

Of course the update does more than just block this security hole. Users who have downloaded update 1.0.1 are reporting less crashing while browsing and playing music, a noticeable improvement in volume level, and the ability to drag content from iTunes to the iPhone. For more information on the features of the update visit this PC World article. 

A quick note for those who have hacked their iPhones: the update hates you. If you’ve hacked your iPhone and try to install the update your phone will probably crash, restore, and finish the download. This also means that you’ll lose most, if not all, of your settings. For more info about the update and what it does to hacked iPhones check out this article from Gizmodo.

There have been a lot of custom ringtone hacks for the iPhone floating around the web. Ranging from 7 to 20 steps these hacks are ridiculously complicated and even thinking about using them voids your warranty. Custom ringtone hacks probably won’t do you any good unless you are super versed in the workings of computers.

Not only are these ringtone hacks pretty complicated, but you also risk bricking your iPhone and ripping up the warranty in the process. So for those (like me) who just want showtune ringtones and don’t even begin to know how to hack anything it was “no ringtone for you!”

Well, fortunately, that has all changed thanks to the nerds at Efiko Software. They’ve designed an almost too good to be true iPhone ringtone app. The aptly named iPhoneRingToneMakerlet’s you do just that; make custom ringtones quickly and easily from your existing MP3s.

For the introductory discount price of $9.95 you can download the software and make unlimited custom ringtones. Right now the RingToneMaker is only set up for Windows so Mac users will have to run a parallels desktop program. Matt Miller at ZDnethas some good instructions to do this as well as a video showing how easy this ringtone creator is to use.

And easy it is. Once you have iPhoneRingToneMaker downloaded onto your computer you simply right click onto any MP3 track in your library and select “create a ringtone.” You can also add sound effects to further personalize your ringtone and even set the song as your MP3 alarm on the iPhone. 

This ringtone maker is really super neat and sooooo easy to use. It really beats following a 20 plus step hacking tutorial.