TamsWMS - the Windows Mobile Smartphone Blog

For literally ages, MP3 files could be used as ring tones on various phones running different operating systems. However, one crucial weakness has so far remained - while a ring tone should be loud right from the start, most MP3’s(even radio mixes) start with 10-15 seconds of introductory beat. Vito Software’s RingtoneEditor promises to fix this - can it stack up?

Starting the program presents you the following, rather simple user interface:

Click on a file, and the program starts to play it back at full volume. Press Start to mark the beginning of your ring tone:

After having pressed start, the program allows you to move the exact starting point forward a bit:

The same thing is then done for the end point:

Once the ringtone is complete, you can either save it to your phone or start using it immediately:

This review looked at version 1.2 of RingtoneEditor on a QTek 8500 running its stock Windows Mobile 5 OS. The program needs about 2MB of storage memory and can be installed onto an external memory card without any issues.

In the end, Vito’s RingtoneEditor does exactly what it promises to do - it allows you to take snippets from MP3 and ogg files and use them as ring tones. People who feel like changing their ringtone a lot, will definitely be able to redeem the purchase price of 10$….

After having unboxed the Palm Treo 500 and looked at it from various angles, let’s look how big the machine is compared to some other devices laying around:

Our first contestant comes from Palm itself - it’s the evergreen Treo 680(same size as the 750). The Treo 500 is as wide, but a nice bit thinner:

An almost-vintage Palm TX is significantly larger, but a bit thinner:

HP’s small rx4240 and HTC’s teeny-tiny QTEK 8500 truly show the Treo 500 who the fat kid on the block is:

Nokia’s evergreen N71 is a bit thicker:

Last but not least, Apple’s iPod touch is approximately as big as the 500 when looked at from the front - but a single look from the side redefines the meaning of thin(the iPhone is significantly thicker):

In the end, the Treo 500 definitely isn’t a small device by any means - in fact, I would dare to say that it is rather fat(for a Windows Mobile Smartphone). But is it worth buying? Stay tuned - the final verdict is coming soon!