Q: Is there any way to customize the sounds on my iPhone?
– Anonymous
A: The iPhone allows custom ring tones to be used, and you can also choose between six different pre-defined sounds for your SMS (text message) notifications. The options are found under the Settings application on the iPhone, in the Sounds category.
Any custom ring tones can also be used as alarm sounds within the iPhone’s Clock application.
Other sounds, such as the new voicemail and new mail notifications, can merely be turned on or off.
You can purchase custom ring tones from the iTunes Store, however we consider this to be the more expensive and impractical option. Numerous third-party software applications are available to turn your existing songs into custom ring tones, including Apple’s own GarageBand ‘08 application if you’re using Mac OS X.
If you’re a Mac user without the latest version of GarageBand, you can check out iToner (http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/iToner, $15). If you’re a Windows user, there’s iPhoneRingToneMaker (http://www.efksoft.com/products/iphoneringtonemaker, $15).
Note that if you have jailbroken your iPhone, there are numerous options for customizing your sounds, but we do not normally recommend the jailbreaking process unless you are an experienced user and are comfortable with the possible warranty issues and instabilities that this may introduce to your device.
