PonderEthereal

1) The first thing you need to do is create your free MP3 ring tones. :) This step can be used for any type of cell phone. Download and install Audacity to your computer. Audacity is free software that allows you to manipulate music. Any music. You can use it to chop off the best few seconds of any song to use as a ringtone. However, although Audacity will let you chop up an MP3, you can’t save in MP3 format by default. So, also install the LAME MP3 codec(or for linux or mac). The LAME codec will work WITH Auacity… so when you get ready to export, you will have the option, in Audacity to export to an MP3.

Using Audacity is easy. Here is a tutorial that covers the basics - along with using the LAME portion to export.

2) Move your MP3 ringtone to your phone using Real Player (comes with the Treo). Brief instructions : Open Real player on your computer. Add the ringtone to your library and queue it up for transfer to your ‘mobile device’. Plug your Treo into your synch cable, turn it on and open Real Player on the Treo. The Treo will connect to the computer automatically. Click the button in Real Player on the computer to start the transfer. (in depth instructions)

3) Once the ringtone is on your Treo, it’s just a matter of being able to use it. The Treo doesn’t come with the built in ability to allow you to use MP3s as ringtones by default. However, being a palm computer, it has the capability to allow you to do it with the right software. I use Ringo Pro. It allows you to assign mp3 ringtones to groups or individuals or as your default ring tone. They have a free trial if you just want to try it out first. Once you have it installed (or Ringo also comes with installation instructions), open it and navigate to the MP3 ringtone that you just uploaded to your phone.

It sounds like a lot but the good news is, once you’ve done it once, the software is installed and it’s really easy to create ringtones and move them over.