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How to make free ringtones and text tones in iOS 5

A little-known feature in iOS 5 is the new option to create free, custom ringtones and text message alert tones.

The iTunes store is flooding with tones for $0.99 to $1.29, prices that are high enough to make you stick with the iPhone's default tones. But now, with a few easy steps, you can make unique tones that set your phone apart from the many others who share the same standard tones.

Watch the video to learn how:

iOS 5 tip: How to enable LED flash alerts

iOS 5 introduced a number of new and varied notifications, from the Notification Center and different alert tones for different apps to custom vibration patterns and a new visual alert.

Buried in the accessibility settings is a new feature that uses the LED flash next to the rear-facing camera on the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S to notify you to incoming calls and alerts. It's a great feature for the hearing impaired and anyone who would rather receive visual rather than audio alerts.

To set it up, to to Settings > General > Accessibility and then scroll down until … Read more

How to change alert tones in iOS 5

"Was that you or me?"

I can't tell you how many times a perfectly mediocre episode of "NCIS L.A." or another procedural crime drama my wife forces me to watch is interrupted by the ding of an incoming e-mail on one of our iPhones. If we had different tones, then she could continue watching the NCIS team's riveting investigation while I checked my phone, or she could pause the show and check her phone. So that I would not interrupt Chris O'Donnell, L.L. Cool J, and the rest of the gang, … Read more

Help, I'm getting arrested!

Imagine you're in New York (or perhaps another major metropolitan city) peacefully protesting.

Your cause? Let's say, to curb excessive influence of big business and the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans on U.S. laws and policy. You're holding up a sign declaring your heartfelt beliefs and chanting a bit with some of your fellow demonstrators when, all of a sudden--bam! The cops slap the cuffs on you, with the intention of carting you off to the nearest police station. Meanwhile, your friends and family are at home completely clueless about your situation.

Enter I'm Getting Arrested, … Read more

How to change your iPhone's e-mail alert tone

My wife's office recently ditched its BlackBerrys for iPhones. Now, when one of our iPhones chirps with the arrival of a new e-mail, we look at one another, wondering who just got an e-mail and who can continue uninterrupted with his or her evening. Unless you have been using a prerelease version of iOS 5, which lets you change the tone for any alert, you're stuck with the default tone. (On my iPhone running iOS 4.3.5, I can change my ringtone and my text tone but not the tone for e-mails.) I wanted to find a way to change the tone for new e-mails without (a) paying any money, and (b) jailbreaking my phone. After an intensive search, I found iPriorityMail 2, a free app that does the trick

iPriorityMail may not be the prettiest app, but it's fairly easy to set up an alert with a custom tone for all new e-mails. You can also set up alerts for specific contacts or groups, and you can also set up alerts for Facebook and Twitter and other apps. For this tutorial, I'll show you how to set up an alert for all incoming e-mails, how to create a different tone for a specific contact, and then how to disable the default tone in iOS so you don't get two tones when a new e-mail arrives.… Read more

15 iOS 5 tips and tricks

The time has finally come, and iOS 5 will be available to the general public October 12. During the last four months, we have been covering some of the key features of iOS 5 to ensure we were prepared to help you on the first day of iOS 5's release. Below you will find 15 tips and tricks to help you master iOS 5, and maybe even allow you to show off a bit to your friends. … Read more

How to get started with iOS 5's Notification Center

Notification Center is one of the most anticipated (not to mention long overdue) features in the upcoming release of iOS 5 for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. Apple has completely redone the alert system in iOS 5, taking away those annoying and intrusive alerts we all had grown accustomed to on iOS. In this post we are going to show you exactly what to expect from Notification Center once iOS 5 is released.… Read more

How to adjust the frequency of Facebook alert e-mails

There it is, an e-mail from Facebook telling you to expect less e-mail from Facebook. Seems counterproductive, doesn't it? Either way, Facebook has started rolling out a new feature that limits the e-mail frequency of alerts to a summary of popular stories.

We know the pain of excessive e-mail alerts all too well, which makes this a welcome change, so long as the e-mailed summaries are few and far between. But, for some users, the old e-mail alert system is what works best and what they are used to--and what they ultimately prefer. With that in mind, we are going to show you how to turn off the new e-mail frequency feature.

… Read more