Paul Grunt

Lifehacker has a great tutorial on Creating Custom iPhone Ringtones For Free.

“Apple has introduced a simple and free way to create and sync your own custom ringtones to the iPhone using GarageBand (i.e., Mac only).
The first thing you’ll need to do, if you haven’t already, is download and install the latest update of GarageBand from Software Update (at the time of this writing, that’s version 4.1.1). Once you’ve installed and restarted your computer, turning any song on your computer to a ringtone is a breeze. Here’s how it works.

1. If you’re using a song from your iTunes library, just open GarageBand, open iTunes, and simply drag and drop the song from iTunes to a new track in GarageBand.
2. Now click the Cycle Region button, which will activate the region loop tool.
3. Now adjust the length of the region to the section of the song you want to export to iTunes as a ringtone (40 seconds long or less).
4. Finally, when you’ve got everything set the way you want it, just go to the menu bar and click Share -> Send Ringtone to iTunes. GarageBand will automatically convert the song to the proper format and sync it to your iTunes library as a Ringtone.

Simple, no? Likewise, if you prefer to create ringtones of your own music, just build your own tracks in GarageBand and repeat steps two through four. If you’re a Mac owner, creating custom ringtones for your iPhone just became dead simple.”

- Lifehacker

Twitterrific and Twitterrific for iPhone are amazing apps. I use them a lot and they’re by far my favorite way to stay current with Twitter.

Brightkite is a great location-based social network developed using RubyOnRails that has been designed to fill the niche in social networks and allow you to meet and communicate with friends in your area as well as view their current location. Best part is they’re based here in Denver, CO. We need more innovative companies like Brightkite in Denver.

“Brightkite is a location-based social network that enables people to take their online profiles with them into the real-world and make real-world friends. Users can see where their friends are and what they’re up to all while maintaining comprehensive degrees of privacy to non-friends. Depending on a user’s privacy setting they can also be open to meeting others nearby.”

If you’re looking for the best way to use Twitter on your iPhone I suggest you check out TwitterForiPhone. All you need is an iPhone and a Twitter account and you’re ready to “Get your Twit on.”

Twitter for iPhone is a RubyOnRails application baked by the creative minds at NewLeaders based in Santa Barbara, CA.

If I had the funds I would buy everyone on my Christmas list this year an iPhone. The iPhone has forever changed my digital lifestyle and I would gladly buy everyone an iPhone so they could see just why I love it so much. So, if you’re reading this and you’re on my Christmas list just know that deep down I wanted to get you an iPhone. :)

Here it is folks!:

“Let me just say it: We want native third party applications on the iPhone, and we plan to have an SDK in developers’ hands in February. We are excited about creating a vibrant third party developer community around the iPhone and enabling hundreds of new applications for our users. With our revolutionary multi-touch interface, powerful hardware and advanced software architecture, we believe we have created the best mobile platform ever for developers.

It will take until February to release an SDK because we’re trying to do two diametrically opposed things at once—provide an advanced and open platform to developers while at the same time protect iPhone users from viruses, malware, privacy attacks, etc. This is no easy task. Some claim that viruses and malware are not a problem on mobile phones—this is simply not true. There have been serious viruses on other mobile phones already, including some that silently spread from phone to phone over the cell network. As our phones become more powerful, these malicious programs will become more dangerous. And since the iPhone is the most advanced phone ever, it will be a highly visible target.

Some companies are already taking action. Nokia, for example, is not allowing any applications to be loaded onto some of their newest phones unless they have a digital signature that can be traced back to a known developer. While this makes such a phone less than “totally open,” we believe it is a step in the right direction. We are working on an advanced system which will offer developers broad access to natively program the iPhone’s amazing software platform while at the same time protecting users from malicious programs.

We think a few months of patience now will be rewarded by many years of great third party applications running on safe and reliable iPhones. ”
Steve

P.S.: The SDK will also allow developers to create applications for iPod touch.

Although I haven’t tried moding my own iPhone, I hear it can be a very liberating experience for your iPhone. So, in the spirit of iPhone liberation here are some sites that can help with all your iPhone liberation needs.

• superfluousbanter
• InstallerApp
• SummerBoard
• ConceitedSoftware
• Ste Packaging

Have fun liberating your iPhone and if you brick it don’t come crying to me! ;-)

I’m glad to announce the introduction of two new iPhones to our family. I got mine first, in trade for some PSD to xhtml work I did for a NewLeaders project and activated it and I could see the yearning in my wife’s eyes to have and hold her very own so we got her one too. We both think it’s the coolest gadget we’ve ever owned. We could never go back to having a standard cell phone. That would be like going back to the stone ages. Thanks Apple for your great products!