Treo and Centro Ringtones: Quick, Simple & Free With MiniTones
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Last year I wrote a long post explaining how to “Make Your Own Free Treo Ringtones” in either WAV, MIDI or MP3 formats and how to change, add and manage these on your Treo [update] AND Centro smartphone.
At the time the best solution that I had found was using an application called WavePad on my PC to edit the MP3 music files and convert them to a Treo/Centro-friendly WAV ringtone.
I have however now found an even better, faster and much simpler solution to add MP3 ringtones directly to my Treo thanks to a freeware application called MiniTones.
MiniTones is a small (only 55K) application that enables you to select any MP3 file from your SD card [see Treo accessories or Centro accessories] and quickly add it to your “Ring Tones” list in your “Sounds & Alerts” Preferences (without MiniTones you can natively only add WAV or MIDI files to your Treo). When you launch MiniTones the application quickly scans your SD card for compatible MP3 files and then lists all of these (below left). You can play the file here and once you have selected the one that you want press the “Add Selected” button that will open an “Add Tone” window (below right).
However, you will typically not want to immediately add the entire MP3 file because 1) your ringtone only needs to be 20 to 30 seconds long instead of 4 minutes+ and 2) because you don’t want to add a 5MB+ file to your main memory.
Conveniently, MiniTones incorporates an extremely useful and powerful “Trim” tool (below left) that allows you to quickly select only the portion of a song that you wish to use as your ringtone. You simply select the Start and End of the trim by either sliding the timer bars on the screen or by pressing the “+ or -“ buttons and you can also easily see the trimmed file size on the left and duration on the right.
In this case I selected a 32sec segment (reducing the original file from 5.9MB/4mins 16s to only 764.7KB/32s). After pressing OK and then Add my newly created MP3 ringtone was almost instantly added to my Ring Tones list (below left) and ready to be used for any profile that I want.
Overall, MiniTones is an extraordinarily quick, simple and extremely convenient way to add MP3 ringtone capabilities to your PalmOS Treo smartphone and is an ideal solution for any Treonaut with basic ringtone needs. More demanding or advanced users will continue to be best served by the more extensive features of Ringo Pro or the latest version of mRing which has become increasingly more popular.
Treonauts always have the best tones ringing… 
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Comments
You should also point out that you can assign a different ringtone to each contact. Just set up a favorites button in the main phone application, and select a ringtone. The only advantage of 3rd party ringtone managers is the ability to store the tones on a SD card. But, with Minitones there are no worries about stability (Ringo) and the price is right.
I cannot make this application work. Installed as described, found mp3 file on SD, trimmed to reasonable size, initially 30 secs; then 1 minute. applied, but when I select, I only hear a short 'whooshing' sound followed by silence? attempting to install on just rec'd Treo 680.
I've been using MiniTones for a couple of months now it works flawlessly. One trick I learned was to copy my MP3's that I intended to use as ring tones to a new directory on the SD card. Copy them at the lowest bit rate you can and set the output to mono instead of stereo. (You can't hear the difference through the Treo speaker.) I then run the MP3 through MiniTones and get a 20-30 second clip with a file size of about a 100k. Since I have a Treo 650 this saves on storage space. Once they are converted I go back and delete the original low-bit MP3 file. It works great and have never had a problem.
Andrew FYI,
LightWav is a MP3/WAV/OGG ringtone and caller ID manager for the Treo 600/650/700p/680 packed with cool features such as MP3/WAV/OGG ringtones, full screen JPG callerID, GIF and Animated GIF and Live! video callerID, callerID blocking, Announce call with many different languages, ringtone volume boosting, do not disturb, call notes, Missed Call, powerful Simple Profile and many more features.
Features
--------
-Includes MP3/WAV/OGG player. No need for 3rd party audio player
-Repeat individual ringtone specifying duration in seconds to repeat
-Set song position to start playing as the ringtone
-Full screen JPG caller ID. Only possible with Lightwav
-GIF and GIF Animation as caller ID
-Live! video caller ID. Required Live www.toysoft.ca/live650.html to record high resolution videos
-Classic and Picture Dial views
-Set custom MP3 ringtones for sms and voicemail notifications
-Assign custom wav/mp3/ogg ringtone to Contact and Categories
-CallerID and SMS blocking. Block unwanted callers and SMS
-North America area code. See where the caller is calling from
-Convert sound files from card to RAM.
-Do not disturb feature. Send friendly SMS message when you are busying or away from the phone or forward the call when DND is active.
-Block any caller or callers not in your Contact database
-VIP feature. Allow VIPs to call you regardless if Do Not Disturb is enabled
-Call notes. Add a journal for the caller. Export to MemoPad or file on the SD card
-Ringtone volume boosting. Ringtone not loud enough. No problem with Lightwav
-Option to always Send SMS to mobile number if exists. No matter it the caller called from Landline
-Announce incoming call. Many different languages
-Send friendly SMS message for missed calls
-Pager. Use Lightwav as a traditional pager for incoming SMS and Missed Calls
-Simple yet powerful Profile Manager. Take control of your Treo.
-MP3 ringtone safe mode in case the external card becomes ejected
-2Day integration. See all blocked and missed calls on 2Day screen
-Detailed incoming call log
Check it out at www.toysoft.ca
Hi,
Another thing that I found out on my Treo 680 was that only CBR MP3s could be set as ringtones. I tried with a VBR MP3 and though it got added to the ringtones list, I couldn't hear anything, when played.
@Howard
Maybe this was the issue with the file you tried. See if using a CBR file helps.
Happy Palming!
Thanks, Saravanan...that was precisely it. Tried another card (and by happenstance a CBR file) and it worked! Kewl.
Also had a go at getting this to work on my 680 and struck troubles....am currently playing with using Adobe Audition to convert exisitng mp3's over to the right format etc..will probably eventually get there if I persist....(just involves learning a bit of Adobe Audition at the same time!)
...but I can't help reflecting on how playing mp3's on a Treo 680 in the year 2007 should just not be such a complicated thing!!
Why is it I see all manner of mobile users these days...with base level technical skills...happily utilising mp3 ringtones...while us Treo "Smartphone" owners have to delve our hands into converting mp3 VBR's into CBR's!
Don't get me wrong...I love my Treo 680...it beats the pants off all those plain jane mobiles...it's just hopefully mp3 ringtones will become a standard feature on future Treos!
Considering that the 680 has the ability to use a voice memo recording as a ring tone I always thought it a bit of a rip-off that it can't natively use any audio file as a ring tone. MiniTones provides what should have been incorporated into the original software. Well done, MiniTones!
LightWav, which Danny mentioned costs $25 and is 200kb.
I installed this program, and it is working great! My problem is it only finds 17 songs out of my few 100 on my card. My songs are mp3s from Napster. How can I select from the rest of them using this?
aMeek, make sure the songs are not greater than 80 characters. Lwav doesnt search for the entire card. it only searches the folder you browse at. If you are songs are other than the AUDIO folder then in the file browser browse to the correct folder.
I installed minitones in my 650. But the application did not detect any of the mp3 on my card. Need help !
Anyone use a program like lightwav for 700wx with windows operating system?
I installed MiniTones and was able to detect and install a trimmed mp3 to my Treo 650. When I select the ringtone in the manager it plays just fine. It also plays if I select it for one of the main ringtones for the phone. But when I tried to apply it to a specific contact it won't play when selected adn the phone defaults to Ring Ring. Anyone else having a problem like this?
sorry, i'm not too technically saavy...can someone tell me if i can use my songs on itunes with the minitones program? thanks.
Hi, my question is like Paul's (May 8th), I can hear the trimmed songs (to aprox 35kb each) on Manage menu(I have a 650). But when asigned to specific contacts (in favorite pages), they won't play, just defaults are played. Please HELP !! thanks :)
People, who is having problems with Minitones and mp3 empty list, do that: format your SD Card using Treo. That simple. I was facing the same problem and I've searched all over the internet, but couldn't find an answer. So I did some tests myself and I discovered that. I bought my SD card with my Tungsten E2, and I've put the SD card off TE2 and put into Treo, without formating the SD first. It didn't work. Try that tip. Regards! Minitones is a very good FREE Treo App.
I recently installed MiniTones for my Treo 650. It works great when attaching MP3s to the Known and Unknown Caller tones in the Sound & Alerts Menu. I also attached MP3s to specific contacts set up in the Favorites menu as Speed dial buttons. However, when a call comes in from these contacts, MiniTones uses the default MP3 for the Known Caller. Am I doing something worng, or does MiniTones lack this functionality
I am having a problem and havent seen it on here yet. Whenever a caller calls, the tone plays fine one time through but then it starts skipping and it freezes my phone to where I have to take the battery out. Please help me try to fix this.
Please, someone savyy post a solution to the problem posted by Paul - May 8th & Craig June 3. I too have run into this same issue. Minitones finds the .mp3 files, edits quick and easy and they are added to the ring tones. They play when viewed in the tone manage section and when applied to "known callers". However, when applying to a specific contact through the favorites buttons they won't play. What is going on here -- it's making me crazy!!
i have a verizon 700p and every time i finish trimming and went to add to my slection of ringtomes it completely restarts my phone. anyone heard of any madness like that?
I just got a Treo 650, and downloaded both minitune and mring. They found the MP3's on my card, and put them in the sounds menu, where I can here them. The problem is that when an incoming call comes in, there is silence. Any idea what the problem is? The default ringtones work just fine. Any and all help will be much appreciated!
Real quick:
Anyone having problems with Minitones recognizing .mp3 files on your Treo listen up!
You NEED to have an SD card installed. It won't read the mp3 files you have in your ptunes or internal memory.
I was experiencing the same problem of not getting the mp3s to show up, knowing they were on my phone, and then I installed an SD card sync the mp3s onto my SD and it all worked as shown.
Get those SD cards and it will work.
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