Ringtone Junky

Ronni and I "upgraded" our cellphone plan to 2 phones and 1000 anytime minutes (only 200 of which get used...). The important thing to remember is that we have two phones: Ronni's phone, and the "experimental" phone.

Nokia does't have hardly ANY documentation about all the cool things you can do with the 6101 (or 6103 or any other phone, really), so I had to play "phone hacker" with it.

What Nokia doesn't tell you is that you can send MORE than just pictures to your phone. Supposedy, you can also send midi ringtone files (*.mid) and MP3's! This past weekend, I figured out how to do it. We've got T-Mobile, so if you've got something different, you'll need to figure out how to send yourself email messages to your phone. Check your provider's FAQ on their website for help. For T-Mobile and a Nokia 6101 or 6103:

1. Compose an email to yourself (PHONENUMBER@tmomail.net).
2. Attach the files you want to send (*.gif, *.mp3, *.mid).
- keep the attachments down to 1 or 2, and the total email size <100kb. You can send up to 300kb messages, but the longer the message is, the lower the chance of it actually getting sent to your phone.
3. Wait for message (could take up to an hour. Anything longer than that, and you'd better try again).
4. When it comes, open it and then click "options" (left button).
5. For *.mp3's:
select "Objects"
select and open the file you sent yourself
select "options" and then "Save"
save the file in the "Tones" directory
6. For *.mid:
click "options"
select "save sound clip"
save it in the "Tones" directory

If all went well, you should be able to set your own ringtone. You can also send yourself any picture file <300k to set as a background.

Okay... So it sounds lke a lot of work, but now you can import your OWN unique ringtones, instead of the videogame music the phone comes with. Also, it only costs a quarter to send a multimedia message, instead of $2.99 for each lame ringtone from t-zones.

Some other tips:
* remember to keep attachments <100k (for t-mobile anyway).
* compatiblity is a fuzzy issue. Sometimes even small files won't work (it gives you a corrupt file error). I'm working on some ways around this. For right now, if one file doesn't work, just try another one...
* For regular *.mid files of your favorite music, check out free-midi or Attilla's Punk Rock MIDI.
* Email me or leave comments with questions.