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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So, iPhone mania is upon us, and much of what I am seeing on twitter and the like is news about the iPhone. Well, I have decided to not get one. Do I have a reason? Hell Yes! I have 10 reasons to not get an iPhone. Let me list them for you:

1. Unclear interoperability with exchange. I read my email on my phone every day all day. So much so, that I burn my blackberry 8800 battery out daily.
2. Lack of Third Party Apps. I use Newsgator to Go and Tiny Twitter several times a day. Not sure if they will work properly.
3. Can’t figure out if I would ever listen to music just wandering around. I have a 80gb Video iPod and a 8gb Nano, but I never use the video iPod unless I am travelling (a couple times a month), and the nano at the gym. Most of the music I listen to is on my computer or through my AppleTV.
4. No tactile keyboard. I know everyone says you get used to it, but I type when I am walking, driving (dont tell my mom), etc, and knowing where the keys are by feel is really important.
5. My attempt to grow up. I am always the first person to buy the new gadget. As I have gotten older, I have realized while there is a ton of excitement in being one of the first people to own a product; the products are almost never ready for prime time. It goes back to my favorite parable:

Two bulls are sitting on a hill overlooking a valley of cows.
The young bull says to the old bull, “lets run down there and screw us a cow!”
The old bull says, “lets walk down there and screw them all.”

With early adoption, the consumer is the one that gets screwed more often than not.

6. The anti-cool factor. Can I be cool for trying to not be cool by buying the new coolest product on the planet? Or is this like when I was the only one without a CrossColors or HyperColors t-shirt?
7. The cost. See #5.
8. Durability. I destroy phones and most electronic devices. I have always wanted to believe it was because my super power was Static Electricity — Able to Break Electronic Gadgets Just By Being There! The truth is I use the hell out of them, and dont really care for them. I would break the iPhone within a week. (I am on my third Blackberry 8800 in 2+ months).
9. The iPhone is going to be like the PS3. Initial demand is driven by people that want to buy and sell iPhones on ebay/craigslist/etc. In a week, there will be plenty. Of course, there is no Wii-like competitor.
10. I just dont wanna! Which, of course, is the best reason.