Friday, December 18, 2009

Free Ring Tones – No gimmick

Being that it’s Christmas season, I figured I give some of you free ring tones. How you ask? I been playing around with ring tones for a while, shortening music files, making alterations, configuring MIME and creating XML. In that time, I realized, there are easier ways to do it. Moreover, there are sites that offer the free files. I have not tested on many phones, so it will be a trial and error for some.
First step, you visit  a website with ringtones, I use www.tuneusin.com or try www.coolfreeringtones.com. Next, select the music genre and select a song. Here is where it varies. On a smartphone, play the song, or sample, directly on the browser. Copy the link and send as an SMS to yourself. Read below on how to do this. Another way to do this is visit the site directly from your phone and do the same steps, however, it is not a mobile friendly site. When you receive the text or visited the link of the MP3 or MDI, you have an option to save the file on your smartphone, At this time, true on Moto Queue and Blackberry, you have the option to save as a Ring Tone. Voila!
For phone without online access, follow the first step, then opt to save the file or download the file to your computer. Next, you email yourself the file to your phone as an MMS and attach the file. (see how below). When you receive the MMS on your phone, for most flip phones including most LG and Razors, you play the MMS and select the option to save. At that save time, you have the option to save a Ringtone as well.
Sending SMS and MMS messages via email Go to your email client of choice and send an email accordingly to the table below. Remember, phone number, with area code first, no dashed "-" or parenthesis "()" followed by the @ sign and SMS or MMS extension. Example: 2125551212@message.alltel.com
Carrier SMS Address MMS Address
Alltel @message.alltel.com
AT&T @txt.att.ne @mms.att.com
Boost Mobile @myboostmobile.com
Sprint PCS @messaging.sprintpcs.com @pm.sprint.com
T-Mobile @tmomail.net
Verizon @vtext.com @vzwpix.com
Virgin Mobile USA @vmobl.com

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

My Tech Tools 2009

Friday was “ShareWare Day”. It turned me to share my top 20 tools of 2009. Although previously mentioned on my Tools I use on a daily basis, this list is compiled in order, with a summary on my top 10.
  1. Google Voice: I use this as a personal VOIP manager. I have the ability to give out one phone number, and I can mange call to my office or cell phone. Moreover, voicemails are transcribed and sent via SMS or email. 
  2. Chrome Browser: This is my default browser.
  3. Pidgin: I utilize this to connect instant messenger accounts, including AIM, Live, Google Talk and Facebook Chat.
  4. Gmail: My default email client. I connect any POP account in addition to Hotmail and Gmail accounts.
  5. Google Calendar: Online calendar, you can share public and private meetings.
  6. Google Sync: This is a great tool, I can sync my Google Voice Contacts and Google Calendar appointment to my Outlook and Blackberry.
  7. Virtual Box: This is Sun Microsystems virtual machine application. i have flawlessly ran multiple operating systems using Virtual Box rather than VM Ware, or Virtual PC.
  8. Fedora Linux: I was introduced to linux via Red Hat Linux 7. After Redhat 9, the FOSS OS took Red Hat to the enterprise level and created Fedora Linux, the same OS open to the community.
  9. Ping.fm: With Ping.fm,  you can configure one social network update to post on multiple sites, including Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Linkedin and more.
  10. VLC media player: It the ultimate media player. I have note found a media file it will not play.
  11. CCleaner
  12. Last.fm
  13. Rapid Share Downloader
  14. Live Writer
  15. DropBox
  16. WinRAR
  17. FireFox
  18. Spybot - Search & Destroy
  19. Juice
  20. Tooble