ringer

Our Windows Phones are great devices to keep you in touch. Either through actually using it as a wireless telephone, checking your email, chatting through text messages, surfing the web or accessing your favorite app or game. But there are some occasions where your Windows Phone, or any other smartphone for that matter, can be rather annoying.

Occasions such as a movie theater when someone pulls out there Windows Phone to check a missed call and the screen lights up the room. Or when you're in a meeting and the chime sounds for an incoming text that interrupts your bosses in mid-speech.

Early this morning we reported on the mini song "Metro" by Matt Oglesby created on nothing but free Windows Phones apps. The tune has a chill yet vibrant feel to it and as a few of you noticed in comments, it would make a solid ringtone on your device.

While there are browser plugins that will easily rip YouTube audio and convert it to an MP3, there is a much easier way to do it directly on Windows Phone. The free app YouRang by Red Pegasus Media allows you to search YouTube, bring up the video in a small window and then by using pre-selected arrows, you can edit the section you want for a ringtone on your phone.

The app is free, beautiful and super simple to use. It maintains the full audio quality, volume and lets you "max out" the length of the ringtone according to Microsoft's specifications. In short, there's no reason not to get it even if you just want "Metro" for your ringer (just search for 'Metro' - Track Created...).

Pick up YouRang for free here in the Windows Phone Marketplace. [Edit: For those outside certain regions, stay tuned. The developer has submitted an update for other regions and it should be available soon]

We noticed the other day on the HTC Radar and Titan that HTC moved their Attentive Phone from an app to within Settings--something that Samsung recently did with their GPS enhancer.

Now that same Attentive Phone is available for current HTC users as well (Mango only) by simply heading to the Marketplace. Interestingly, HTC now has two versions of Attentive Phone--the app and the settings version. The settings are the exact same as the app--so in that sense all this buys you is one less thing to clutter up your programs. We like the idea, so why not? Pick it up here in the Marketplace--but only for Mango HTC devices.

Thanks, @ogracia, for the tip!

In the later "Leo" builds of HTC Sense (version 2.5) found on the HTC HD2, there are some neat advanced ringer functionality available under the Settings tab.

One of those is called "Be Polite" and in essence uses the built in accelerometer to detect when you are moving the phone to answer it.  In turn, since you are already on the way to answer or ignore the call, the device can significantly lower the ringer for you--hence the "Be Polite" part.

(By the way, Microsoft? You may want to start doing those sorts of things too--they are after all what makes smartphones "smart".)

Anywho, many of us don't like using Sense 2.5 because it was not build for the Touch Pro 2/Diamond 2, therefore does not do landscape and lags on our wee processors. However, Apristel has found that a lot of the Sense 2.1 builds in fact have "Be Polite" built in, but not activated. Installing his cab will un-hide this feature for you to use.

Now the catch: On some ROMs this works and on others it does nothing. So your mileage may vary.  Good luck!