[Maurice R. Kelly]

Rhonda wrote:
> Thanks to all who replied...have been doing some more looking into it 
> tonight, from the looks of it apparently the Motorola/Nextel i730 can do 
> midi or .wav files...thought I saw something on another site that after 
> some kind of software update that they can now do mp3 as well, but so no 
> reference to that anywhere else.
> 
> Looks like I need a USB cable to connect the phone to the computer, and 
> driver software that is Windows only....and I'm on a Mac.  Question #1 - 
> anyone know if I can get around that by using Virtual PC?

Not sure what you mean by a "Virtual PC" - is this a MacOS feature, or 
some 3rd-party software. It may be possible to utilise your USB ports 
while running a virtual PC, but chances are you won't know if it's 
possible till you try.

 > Question #2
> - if I can get a cable & get the thing connected, and *if* I can sneak 
> around the driver requirements by using a Windows program through 
> Virtual PC on my Mac (that's too many "if's"...), is there 
> Mac-compatible conversion software that I could use to turn, for 
> instance, any Oils mp3 into a MIDI or .WAV ringtone?

Can't imagine there's anything that converts MP3 to MIDI - MIDI is a 
representation of the actual notes and instruments and I imagine it's 
quite a task to break down an MP3 to  notes and instruments.

WAV on the other hand is easier. When you make MP3s it's generally a 
two-stage process - you rip the CD to make a WAV file, which is then 
converted to MP3. A lot of software hides this from the end user, but 
you can get programs which allow you to get just the WAV file (e.g. EAC 
on Windows, not sure about MacOS). If you already have the MP3s (which 
I'm sure you do) then get yourself a copy of Audacity - 
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/mac.php - It's a sound editor that can 
read in MP3s, converts them to WAV, you perform your edits (cause you 
don't want an entire song as a ringtone!), and then export it as a WAV 
again. Instant WAV ringtone! Just remember, WAVs are an raw, 
uncompressed) representation of the audio - they take a lot of space and 
you probably won't be able to fit many on your phone (especially if 
they're long). Best thing to do when making ringtones is get yourself a 
nice little riff and use it - e.g. the intro to Power & The Passion. Or 
the da-da-da from Beds would make a great alert notificiation! :-)

> How do I then load 
> it into the phone - when the data cable is plugged in, does the phone 
> appear as another drive on the computer that I would just drag & drop 
> the sound files onto? 

This sort of thing varies from phone to phone. It might appear as a 
drive. You might get a special piece of software that acts as a file 
manager for the phone.

> Sorry for all the dumb newbie questions, I'm feeling very 
> technologically challenged right now.  Very experienced with Mac OS9, 
> but an absolute neophyte with messing with the innards of cellphones.

I think your biggest problem here will be getting the Windows software 
to run on your Mac. Hopefully I'm wrong though. If you do, maybe a 
PC-owning friend will help out :-)

Hope it works out - personally I just love getting calls to the tune of 
"Danger! High Voltage" ;-)

-- 
Maurice R. Kelly
mkelly at deadheart.org.uk