Articles marked as "mobile" :
HOWTO: Get Free Text Reminders
[ 5 January 2009 ]
Marked under mobile, time savers.
Reader Joe recently sent in a tip for a free cell phone text alert service called Text Reminders. Simply enter in your reminder message, a date and time for it to be sent, and you’re all set to be alerted via text message. The service is provided via a free sign-up and supports all of the major carriers out there (over 20 carriers supported). If you’re not looking to get alerts, but want to send texts on the cheap, check out HOWTO: Send Free Text Messages Through Email.
Text Reminders
HOWTO: Send Text Messages via AIM
[ 13 May 2008 ]
Marked under mobile, multimedia, time savers.
As similar method to my previous post on sending free text messages through email, AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) supports sending text messages to mobile phones. It’s a great way to send messages without paying an outgoing fee from your own phone provider. Just add a full 10-digit phone number with a + sign in front of it to your buddy list (e.g. +16175551234). All you have to do is send an IM to that “phone number buddy” and the mobile # will get a text message of that IM. Be careful though, don’t send too many.
Oh Don’t Forget: Text Message and Reminder Service
[ 3 January 2008 ]
Marked under mobile, time savers.
Service site Oh Don’t Forget (ohdontforget.com) provides an excellent way to send FREE text messages either now or in the future. You can set up reminders that will text your phone in the future so you won’t forget to do something. The extremely easy-to-use interface makes it one of the best free simple and useful service sites out there.
Sending free text messages has been covered in the past, but this site has an edge since you can schedule future texts to be sent. Check it out if you need a way to send free text messages or if you’re always forgetting things.
Utility Center: 4 New Additions
[ 9 April 2007 ]
Marked under general, mobile, multimedia, time savers, windows.
Here are a few new additions to the new Utility Center.
IrfanView - this program goes back to my days with Windows 95. This is an excellent image viewer…a perfect replacement to the default view in Windows. You can open plenty of different image formats as well as play audio formats. This program has been written about before for ability to take great screenshots.
FileZilla - this is a very reliable FTP program — and it’s completely free. I highly recommend it for any FTP use. It has n account manager that lets you save passwords and addresses.
CleanUp! - this program has been mentioned in the past as a good way to clean up your hard drive. It can scan though a lot of common areas looking for temporary files, cached files and other junk. This is definitely a good program to have.
BitPim - this program is a great one for cell phones. If you are able to connect your phone to your computer (either hard wire or wireless), you can use the bad boy to transfer media over to the phone. It’s been mentioned in the past in a detailed tutorial on putting MP3s on the LG Chocolate as ringtones.
HOWTO: Free MP3 Ring Tones on the LG Chocolate
[ 5 April 2007 ]
Marked under mobile, multimedia.
UPDATE: See bottom of post!
For those of you with the LG Chocolate, I have good news — free ringtones are possible. It’s possible to transfer your own MP3s to your phone just by using Verizon’s USB cable. That’s all you need to purchase (or borrow from a friend). I’ll walk you through the process of cutting a ring tone to 30 seconds and transferring it to your phone.
1. The USB Cord & Drivers
You need the USB cable that comes with the Music Essentials Kit at Verizon. You can purchase this for about $25 — try eBay for even cheaper prices.
Once you get the cord (or borrow it from someone), you need to install the necessary drivers. You can install them from the CD that comes with the kit, or download the drivers for free via iGoneMobile.
2. Cut an MP3 into a Ring Tone
Now, find an MP3 you have and cut it down to about 30 seconds or less. You can use the fantastic Audacity to get this job done. Download Audacity and the LAME MP3 codec. Install Audacity first. Next, unzip LAME and move the lame_enc.dll to the Audacity program folder (C:\Program Files\Audacity\).
Go to Edit > Preferences and click the File Formats tab. At the bottom, click Find Library and locate the lame_enc.dll file you just moved.
Close the Preferences and go back into the main window. Drag an MP3 into the window. Highlight specific areas of the song and hit Delete to delete them; shoot for about 30 seconds or less for your final cut. When you’re done, go to File > Export As MP3… and you’re done.
3. Send data to your phone with Bitpim
The software that will send data to your phone is called Bitpim. Download and install it. Connect your phone to your computer with your USB cable. To set the phone model, go to Edit > Settings and select “LG-VX8500″ under Phone Type. Bitpim will connect to your phone.
Click on the Ringers section on the left nav under Media. Drag your new 30 second MP3(s) into the Ringers area. A Convert prompt will pop up. Change the bitrate to what you want — I like 128kbps, but a lower bitrate will reduce the file size. Click Convert and wait.
When it’s done converting, it will allow you to crop and preview the MP3. Just hit OK at the bottom. You might get a warning saying the ring tone might be too big for the phone — just hit Yes to proceed.
Once you are all set with your ring tone(s), click Data > Send Phone Data … to send the MP3(s). Check the button next to Ringtone to send that data.
When the transfer completes, unplug your phone and set your new ring tone. That’s all there is to it.
UPDATE!!!
Many people are having problems using Bitpim with the latest software version on the LG Chocolate. If you were unable to get MP3s to your Chocolate for ringers, try the steps below. They may not work, but please give them a try and let us know in the comments in they worked or not.
1. In Bitpim, go to View > View Filesystem (make sure there’s a checkmark here).
2. Click the Filesystem section in the left nav.
3. Navigate to “/brew/16452/lk/mr” and drop your MP3s into the mr folder.
As before, make sure you first cut your song down to about 20 - 30 seconds (using Audacity or another audio editor).
HOWTO: Set MP3s as Ring Tones for Free [Verizon]
[ 25 January 2007 ]
Marked under mobile, multimedia.
NOTE: This will actually cost you the amount it costs to receive a Pix Msg on your cellphone; probably $0.25…so it’s basically free (compared to the $2.99 it costs on your phone).
I recently received a new cell phone, the LG Chocolate. I was tired of flip phones, so I wanted to try something new and interesting. The Chocolate supports MP3s, however they cannot be set as ring tones. I decided I’d still want to get some sort of music ring tone — nothing special. All you need to do is create a small MP3 sample (about 30 seconds), email it to your phone, and set the attached song as a ring tone.
First, choose a good track
First, find an MP3 you want as your ring tone. It’s best to edit it down to about 30 seconds; you don’t need the entire song. If you want to edit the audio, download a copy of Audacity (free and easy-to-use). Make a copy of the song, open the copy in Audacity, and cut it down to about 30 seconds. You will need the free “LAME MP3 encoder,” so download a copy. Once you have it, unzip lame_enc.dll and save it somewhere on your computer (just toss it in C:\Program Files\Audacity\). When you try to export your song as an MP3, Audacity will ask you where the LAME encoder file is. Just browse to it and select it.
Send to your phone via email
Now that you have your desired ringtone in MP3 format, attach it to an email and send the message to your10digitphonenumber@vzwpix.com (similar to sending txt msgs via email). You will get a new Pix msg on your cellphone. Open the message and in the options menu (which may be different on all phones) select Save As Ringtone. The attached song will be saved as a ringtone on your phone.
That’s about it. The quality of these ring tones may not be very good. I think it’s really up to the MP3 you edit, the quality of the export from Audacity, and your cellphone. If you feel the quality is too poor, I understand…just purchase your tones through GetItNow. If you want something simple and cheap, then try this out.
Also, please post any alternate methods or some good improvements to this method.