Selling over 100,000 units on the opening three days of sales, the smart phone labeled as “The Gadget of the Year” by Time Magazine, even though it was released in November, the Droid smart phone is taking personal communications to new and exciting levels. With lighting-fast processing speeds, a 5.0 Mega Pixel (MP) camera, voice activation, a touchscreen andvoice mail transcribing, the Droid really is everything you would ever want in a personal phone, and then some. Customizable ring tones is one thing that makes the Droid stand out, and knowing how to change ring tones on your Droid phone lets you know who is calling, without having to look at the display screen.
Customizing ring tones for each individual on your contact lists on your Droid phone is rather simple, and the applications, like emial, GMail, voice mail and phone calls can all have distinct ring tones.
Changing the ring tones on your Droid phone can be done by following these steps, but is not
limited to these precedures;
1) Using your Droid’s pre-programmed applications (apps);
a) GMail, email, phone and voice mail. Changing the ring tone for when these apps are opened or notified (you can set your Droid to notify you whenever you get a new missed call, email or voice mail message) is extremely simple. Once the app is open, tap the “Menu” icon, then tap the “Settings” icon. Tap the “Set as Ring Tone” icon, and when the app is opened, the saved ring tone will play.
b) Text Messages. When you get a text message, you can personalize the ring tone for when that person sends you another text message, you will know who it is. You can go through your entire contacts lists, and set the ring tones to each person or business in your contacts lists, or do it the easy way. When an incoming text message is opened, tap “Menu”, then “Settings”, and then tap “Ring Tones”. Select the ring tone that you wantassociated with that specific text message originator, and close the app.
c) Phone Calls. You can change the ring tones for each individual in your contacts lists, or for each group that you have created in your contacts lists. Doing this is rather time consuming, and very repetitive, as the same process has to be repeated for every entry. Tap “Contacts”, then tap the contact or group you want to change the ring tone for. Tap “Options”, then tap “Ring Tones”, and select the ring tone that you want associated with that contact or group.
To change the ring tones of people or businesses who call you on your Droid smart phone, when the contact is on the line, tap “Menu”, then tap “Settings”. Tap “Ring Tones”, and select the ring tone that you want associated with whom you are talking to. You can also select images from your photos file to display on the home screen when the person calls.
d) While Listening to Music. When you are listening to MP3 songs, you can store it as a ring tone. With the Media Player open, and while the song is playing, tap “Menu”, then tap “Select as Ring Tone”. The song will play whenever the phone rings.
2) You can download apps from the Droid Apps Store that make ring tones, and with some apps, video displays for each application that is opening, or each call, email or voice mail. Two of the better apps for changing ring tones on your Droid smart phone are;
a) Ring Droid. Ring Droid allows you to record portions of MP3 and other audio files, and store them as ring tones. You can select one contact, a series of contacts, a group or a series of groups, or any combination of these to use the ring tone for. Video files, either streaming video or still pictures, or even downloaded animation, movie clips, or any other medium can be saved as a video ring tone addition using Ring Droid.
b) Rings Extended. Another Droid ring tone app that allows you to use a whole song, or cut a portion of a song, and use it as a ring tone. You can get icons for each ring tone, or save them to your ring tones file. Mix songs with others like a DJ for some rather interesting musical experimentation. Extremely simple to use, and takes very few keystrokes/taps.
No matter which method you choose to change the ring tones on your Droid smart phone, the fun begins when your contacts start calling you. You can even record voice samples, like “It’s Mom calling” as ring tones.If you have a lot of contacts in your contacts list, you should consider forming groups, like “Family”, “Friends”, “Work” and so on, so that each group can have a distinct ring tone, and you could tell that a member from one specific group is calling. If you want to hear from someone in that group, you can then check the video display. Or, you can have a distinct ring tone for every single contact in your contacts list, but remembering who has each ring tone could be a fruitless pursuit.
Your best option when changing ring tones for contacts on your Droid phone is to only change the ring tones associated with the more important people in your life, or the people who call you the most frequently. Having too many different ring tones will spoil the advantage that it was meant to give the Droid owner; knowing who is calling simply by the ring tone.
