See the Palm Pre Tips and Tricks for many other tips.
NEW: Free Music Ringtones - uses a million+ 30 second free iTunes samples as ringtones!
There are literally a million free MP3 ringtones from websites such as CrackBerry, Freesound, Ringtone-Mania, Tonzr, Brinked, CellSea, Myxer, or zedge. You can use Filecoaster to download ringtones Over The Air but that is so much harder than using a computer and so limited.
Someone has even taken all of the Pre ringtones and made them loud enough to hear. Plus here are the Treo Ringtones converted over for the Pre. We also have a Wallpaper Forum. In addition almost every site listed for free ringtones has 320x480 wallpaper.
But what if you want to make your own?
It is easy and even fun to make ringtones for your Palm Pre from your existing MP3's.
The Pre can make a ringtone from any song on the Pre. Just tap Launcher>Sounds>Ringtone Add in the lower-left and choose a ringtone.
The problem is the the ringtone will choose the first 30 seconds of the song. You invariably would not choose that part and it is often fading up so the first part can't be heard.
But you can easily choose just the part of the song you want and set the volume you want if you know the tricks!
Here are the key things you need in an audio file editor to do this:
1. An easy way to cut out just the right section, about 30 seconds long
2. An easy way to fade-in or fade-out, adjust loudness, etc.
3. It should be free and easy with no learning curve.
For Windows or Macs,
Audacity is all of the above. Here is how easy it is to customize MP3's into good ringtones.
Let's start with an easy one. Take the Older Phone ringtone that came with your Pre and make a new version that is loud enough to hear. The first thing is to find and edit the Older Phone mp3 file.
1. Connect your Palm Pre to your computer as a USB device using the USB cable.
2. Use Windows Explorer or an equivalent to find files in your Pre.
3. Open the Subdirectory "Ringtones".
4. Right click on Older Phones and click copy.
5. Go to your computer's hard drive, right click a subdirectory you want to use and choose paste.
6. Open Audacity and choose the Older Phone file to edit.
Editing the file is easy. For instance the installed Pre ringtones are too soft. To make "Older Phone" louder, click Effects>Amplify. Try a level and listen to it. Click Edit>Undo if you don’t like it. Try highlighting just sections and making changes. When you are done, save it as "Older Phone 2" so as not to confuse the two.
Safely remove the USB device and you should have a new ringtone, Older Phone 2, on your Pre. Check out your new ringtone on your Palm!
You can do the same with any mp3 that you have on your computer. Just use your audio editor to find your music subdirectory on your computer and choose one of your songs. If you imported your music using iTunes they may be hidden. (Real or others programs let you keep your own music.) You want to clip out about 30 seconds to make your ringtone. Then copy the new ringtone you create using the USB Drive feature above to the Pre ringtones subdirectory.
One other cool trick. You can also change the email and calendar notification sounds. Use the
Homebrew Apps Gallery:
My Notification.
Have fun! Post any questions.
- Craig
Here are a few of my favorites: Ringtones and Cricket Alerts.