Yesterday after spending most of the day up in Boulder, I got home to a nice little message in itunes…Ringtones Are Here!

Excited, I quickly checked to see which songs had ringtones attached. I have a library of more than 24000 songs. Only 1800 had ringtones. 7.5% of my library. Which really is disappointing int that at least 80% is itunes purchased songs (or itunes plus). Which is also an issue, since ringtones seem to be only available for itunes purchased DRM’d songs.

So after looking through the available ringtones, I decided I would make a ring tone out of Ben Folds’ song Bitches Aint Shit, a melodious remake of the Dr. Dre classic.

The interface is pure Apple. Clean and easy to use. I like the fact that the actual sound wave is used, so I can tell where the chorus and heavy piano (yes, I said piano) were located. After picking a decent 10 second clip. I bought my iTunes ringtone and within seconds it was synced to my iPhone.

And thats where the iTunes Ringtones let me down. The volume is so low, its almost impossible to hear the phone ring. As a true mac lover, my first reaction was “Damn it. I did something wrong!” So, I went about making another iTunes ringtone.

This time, I selected Nick Cave’s (Are You) The One I’ve Been Waiting For? Again, picked my 15 second section, bought and downloaded my iTunes Ringtone. Again, poor volume.

Sunnofabeeatch.

So, I took at look at a couple other options, finally settling on iToner. iToner gave me the ability to put the ringtone on my iPhone, but not the ability to trim it. I decided that rather than fussing with a bunch of different tools, which would have required conversion utilities, song trimmers, etc. I thought I would try PocketFuzz. Now as most of my friends know, their founder Danny Newman and I have been friends for a long time. I saw PocketFuzz when it was still in “danny-mode” (concept worked, but danny had to do a bunch of manual things to make it work). I have always thought it was an interesting concept, but never really could find a decent use for it.

PocketFuzz now is a full blown ringtone service for independent artists and their fans. Bunch of cool features, I would suggest checking it out. But enough of the advertisement….

for $0.99 you can upload any AAC/MP3 (non-DRM’d) to an interface very similar to iTunes, and cut a ringtone, which is then texted to your phone (and because this is not supported by the iPhone), you can download the ringtone to your desktop. I chose s.e.k.s’ version of Dont Fear the Reaper.

Then its a quick drag and drop over to iToner, and a click of the sync button. And, more importantly, the volume and clarity of the ringtone is easily 2-3x better than iTunes Ringtones.

My suggestion to Danny is he should call the maker of iToner and create some sort of easier integration, so that folks that want to create their own ringtones out of their own music have an alternative to iTunes Ringtones.

I am not a big ringtone guy, having only 3-4 on my phone, but my experience so far with iTunes Ringtones, while from a user experience was great, has been sub par. I think for now, I am going to stick with my iToner/PocketFuzz solution.

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For those of us in the world of technology, hyper-connectivity is a byproduct of our existence. Most of us are “early adopters” who have several social networking profiles, use services like twitter, write in blogs, and believe that we know the next big thing, or at least, will try it before most.

When I interviewed at ServiceMagic, Rodney Rice, a co-CEO and my future boss asked me what makes the Internet special. I didnt even hesitate to answer, “it increases the flow of information and communication.” When he began to wax philosophically about just how that fact made ServiceMagic a dot com winner, I knew I was at the right place.

That has what has drawn me to technology (first computer a TRS-80 w/ no floppy drive at 10 years old), and the wonderful world that was contained in that ugly grey black box with the amber screen. I wasnt starved for interaction in the real world, I played soccer, had more than my share of friends, and did pretty well in school. But the people that lived in that machine were so much more intelligent and worldly than anyone I had ever met. So I dived in. I learned how to tap into local BBS’; I used Gopher, played in MUDs (Multiple User Dungeons — At least I think thats what they were called). Created my first alter ego, Biff Robinson. He hasnt changed much in the last 25 years, although he is mostly retired now.

I just couldnt get enough of that increased flow of information and communication. And that hasnt stopped to this day. I am always connected; always plugged in. I have had an email device (blackberry or otherwise) for the last seven years, and I have always had at least two computers in my house (I currently have 5). As an example of how bad it has been, once when I traveled to NYC, I left my cell phone back home. The only way for me to get a new phone was to get a new account, which I did, and had my old number forwarded to my new number. For three days.

Over the years, I have learned that this constant connection to the virtual world causes me to neglect my personal world. Bills go unpaid, house goes uncleaned, projects go undone. So, every 5-6 months, I take a week and unplug. Never completely. I still check email; read a few blogs, etc., but mostly I just turn off the computer and the television and complete things.

So, starting in 2.25 hours, my week begins. No twitter, no email on my phone, a blog post (maybe), no tv. For a week. Wow. that seems so long. Do I really need a whole week? Maybe only part of each day…forget it. I will re-engage to the flow of information and communication in 7 days. Peace Out.

By the way, it seems that many people that are overly intertwined in the internet, do the same thing and unplug for a period of time. I wonder if it the only way to deal with it?

So I am basically the same for the past three weeks. It has to be that I am not following my nutritional program properly since I have increased my exercise. My plan is still to hike that Mt. Bierstadt at the end of the month, and be under 270. That puts my monthly goal at 20 pounds.

‘Nuff said.