I’ve mentioned before that I love music, and one of the little ways I enjoy it is by making my own ringtones. This is no big deal for iPhone users, who now can make ringtones in a snap, but back in the Dark Ages we BlackBerry users didn’t have a place to shop for ringtones, let alone an easy means to make our own.
So I was stuck with canned sounds, while it seemed everybody else had cool ringtones. Until I discovered Audacity, free open-source software for recording and editing sounds.
For non-techie types, making tones on Audacity is a bit much, especially since there are probably easier tools to work with now. But back when I started doing this, the ends more than justified the means. I used the songs I wanted from my music collection, got the snippets I wanted from them, and I didn’t have to pay a dime.
Even though I no longer have my BlackBerry (still like it better than the iPhone, but that’s another story), I still enjoy making my own tones and adding them to whatever no-contract phone I’m carrying at the moment. Now that my son makes beats, I tote them around on my phone and turn them into tones, too.
I’ve established that a sister will go to some lengths to have her music how she wants it, when she wants it. So let’s just say I was a little annoyed when out of the blue I started hearing “Verizon Airwaves” instead of Bobby Caldwell when my mom called, perplexed at hearing those same “Airwaves” instead of Usher when my daughter rang, and downright angry when my son’s hot beat was replaced with “Airwaves” for all incoming calls. A disaster, I tell ya.
An investigation revealed that the tones were on my memory card, but the phone just wasn’t reading them. A little Googling showed me that I could format my card (basically, restore it to factory specs), but that would also mean erasing all my data. Since my contacts are automatically backed up through an app, and I have copies of my pictures and tones on my computer, I thought this might be the answer.
Then I read that Windows users could format their cards via computer, and I Googled to find out how Mac users could do the same. That’s when I discovered another wonderful use for Mac’s Disk Utility application. Here’s what I did: 1) Took the micro SD memory card out of the phone; 2) Inserted the memory card into a micro SD adapter and inserted the adapter into my Targus card reader/writer; 3) Inserted the card reader into my laptop’s USB slot; 4) Started up Disk Utility , selected the card reader disk and clicked “Repair Disk”
Et voila! When I put the memory card back in the phone, the tones were recognized, “Airwaves” were banished, and all was right with my world.
Angie's Leap 