8th November 2007

Review: Myvu Personal Media Viewer

If you read my previous post about the Myvu Personal Media Viewer, you’ll know how excited I was to order them since they announced an iPhone-compatible version (the Myvu Solo Plus Edition for iPod).

Myvu Personal Media ViewerWell they finally arrived yesterday, and I’ve been testing them thoroughly since then. And yes, they do work with my iPhone. There are definite pros and cons, so read on for my full review…..

First the Pros:

  • Disregard the message that pops up on the iPhone claiming that you’ve plugged in an accessory not made for the iPhone – Myvu works just fine, and very, very simply. Just plug and play, literally;
  • They are very lightweight and comfortable. Out of the box they fit my face and ears fine – both the nose piece and earpieces – but they do come with a few extra ear- and nose-pieces in differing sizes so that you can customize the fit to your liking;
  • Not having to look down to my lap (causing neck strain) or hold my iPhone up (causing arm fatigue) is a HUGE benefit – I can literally sit back and relax and watch my video/movie at whatever angle is comfortable for me;
  • The size of the virtual screen, and the distance it appears to be, is very comfortable also – very much like watching my 32″ television from my couch
  • I didn’t have any trouble with the apparent brightness (a common complaint of competing products), but the Myvu Personal Media Viewer has a brightness control as well as a contrast control;
  • The Viewer itself does not block all vision – you can see above, below, and around the screen on which you are watching your video content – a good safety feature, especially if you are in a public place – like an airport for example, where you’d want to be able to keep an eye on your bags as well, or a train where you’d need to keep track of the stops;

Now for the Cons:

  • The video resolution is good, but not great. Not bad enough to be distracting, but given that the iPhone is capable of putting out better resolution, it would be nice to have that translated to the viewer screen. However, to be fair, the Myvu Personal Media Viewer is a fraction of the cost (yes, even at $199) of much more expensive competitors that promise higher resolution;
  • The aspect ratio is the same as the iPod, with no adjustment for the iPhone’s wider aspect ratio. Since movies and TV shows loaded on the iPhone are automatically shown in landscape mode, there is not an option to use a “letterbox effect” (black band at top and bottom that preserves the wide aspect) but instead the video is cut off on the sides to “square up” what is displayed to the aspect ratio of the Media Viewer. I know, it’s nit-picking, but it would be nice if the Myvu screen could accommodate wide aspect ratio video content. All that being said, it did not distract, nor detract, from my enjoyment of watching a movie;
  • The Viewer itself does not block all vision – okay I know I listed that above as a “Pro”, and it is, but if there is a lot of activity going on around you, you’ll be aware of it, which can be distracting, particularly if you suffer from Shiny Object Syndrome**

**Also known as Attention Deficit Disorder

Summary:
In my opinion, what’s good about the Myvu Personal Media Viewer outweighs the bad, so I give it three and a half paws.
Rating: ★★★½☆

Kitten
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posted in iPhone Tips, Reviews | 31 Comments

5th November 2007

How To: Create a Ringtone for your iPhone

Author’s Edit: 06/26/09 – If you’re looking for an easy and cheap way to get ringtones on your iPhone, I’ve just reviewed Ringer, a new application to create ringtones for your iPhone, and give it a rare “5-paw” rating. I strongly encourage you to read my review and give Ringer a try!

Author’s Edit: 01/02/09 – This page still gets more pageviews than any other post on my site, so please read carefully. For the most part these instructions are STILL good. PLEASE NOTE that I do NOT use a Windows computer and I don’t have a 3G phone (yet – the monthly data plan is still a bit too pricey for me). If you are using a Windows computer, I’m truly sorry but there is little I can do to help you. If you have followed all of the instructions EXACTLY and are still having problems, your best course of finding a solution is to post in the Apple Discussion Forums.

Author’s Edit: A lot of people are interested in how to create free ringtones for their iPhones, because this post gets more views than anything else on my site, so I’ve updated it to reflect both the current version of iTunes (as of this writing 7.6.1) and iPhone firmware (1.1.4).

Update – iTunes v.7.6.1 DOES support importing in your OWN .m4r files as Ringtones, and recognizes them as ringtones in your Ringtones Folder (and Ringtones Tab in the iPhone section when your iPhone is connected)……SO that means as long as you can create your ringtone as an ACC format and then change the extension from .m4a to .m4r, then open it with iTunes, you WILL be able to sync these ringtones to your iPhone using iTunes. iToner is not required (unless iTunes changes again – who knows?). Here’s the only caveat – the ringtones MUST be under 30 seconds in length.

SO to make a free custom ringtone for your iPhone, follow steps 1 and 2 below, choosing AAC as the format. You can skip step 3 if you don’t want any fade in/fade out effects, or try using GarageBand if you don’t want to spring for Fission or WireTap Studio. You’ll need WireTap Studio if you want to record the playback of “protected” music in order to get it into AAC format, but if you’re working with unprotected songs, you can get by without it. After step 2 you’ll have a new song that you can navigate to (should be in your iTunes Music Folder) and change the extension from .m4a to .m4r. Then open it in iTunes and it should open in your iTunes Ringtones Folder. That’s it! If you have trouble or questions leave a comment below and I’ll respond fairly quickly.

This past week I’ve received three emails from friends asking me to tell them exactly how to create a custom ringtone for their iPhones…… so for the sake of anyone else who could use a simple list of directions, here is how I make my iPhone ringtones:

My tools:

  • iTunes – any version will do, I use 7.4.2
  • WireTap Pro – only needed to record protected songs
  • Fission – to add a nice fade in/fade out effect
  • iToner – to sync my new ringtone (hack free) to my iPhone

Note: WireTap Pro has been replaced with WireTap Studio, which now includes the ability to modify music to add fade in/fade out and other effects, so if you’ve upgraded from WireTap Pro, you don’t need Fission. Also, I’m told that newer versions of GarageBand also allow adding fade in/fade out effects, but I’m not familiar with how to use GarageBand, so I’ll stick with how I do things.

1. Find the perfect snippet by listening to the song you want to use as a ringtone in iTunes, and make note of the start and end times in the display bar at the top. Try to keep the snippet to under 20 seconds (really, how long does it take you to answer your phone?), especially if you plan to put a lot of custom ringtones on your iPhone, to avoid taking up more space on your iPhone than is really needed – why record a 1 minute ringtone when you normally answer your phone in 10 seconds or less?

2. The next step depends on whether or not you’re making your ringtone from a Protected (purchased) song or not:

  • If it’s an unprotected song, simply right click and choose “Get Info”, then click on the “Options” tab, check the “Start Time” checkbox and enter the start time of the snippet you want to use, check the “Stop Time” checkbox and enter the end time of the snippet, then click on OK to save your changes. Then from the main Menu choose “Advanced” and “Convert song to ..”. It doesn’t matter if you convert it to AAC or MP3, as the file size difference for 10 or 20 seconds is neglible, and iToner can sync most music file formats to your iPhone. This will create a second instance of the song in your iTunes Music Library that is a much smaller file size, since it consists of only the snippet you chose. It doesn’t matter if you want to keep this short song in your Library or not, but if you choose not to, be sure to navigate in your Finder to the song, and copy it somewhere safe (maybe a new folder called Ringtones?) so that if you ever forget and delete it you won’t lose what you’ve created.
  • If the song you want to use for a custom ringtone is a protected song, open WireTap Pro (or the newer WireTap Studio), start playing your song snippet a couple of seconds before you want to record, then click on the Record button in WireTap Pro/Studio to start the recording. Click on the Stop button when you’ve reached the end of the snippet you want, and give your snippet a name to save it to your computer. Although WireTap allows you to choose a file type in the Preferences pane, which file type you save as (AAC or MP3) isn’t important since iToner can work with most music file types).

3. Open the song snippet you’ve created using either of the two methods just described, using either Fission or WireTap Studio, select the first 2 or 3 seconds and click “Fade In”, select the last 2 or 3 seconds and click “Fade Out”, then save your modified ringtone.
4. Connect your iPhone to your computer, then open iToner, and using the Finder to locate your modified ringtones, drag them to iToner’s main window, and when you’re done dragging your new ringtones to iToner, click on the Sync button at the bottom.
5. That’s it! You’re done! Your new custom ringtones will appear on your iPhone in its list of ringtones, and can be applied as you like – for your default ring, and/or for contacts in your contact list.

Very easy, no hacks, no problems!

Kitten
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posted in How To's | 35 Comments

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