How to create a custom ringtone and add it to your iPhone

The iPhone is a great smartphone with the world's share of features and virtues, but one complaint that is levelled against the device from time to time is the lack of customisation options for non jailbroken devices.

With that in mind we thought we'd walk you through a few simple steps which will allow you to create a ringtone in iTunes, and sync it with your device to give your iPhone that personal touch.

So if you're interested in adding some new sounds to your device just follow these simple steps:

• Open iTunes
• Locate the song you want to use within your library
• Right click on the track you've chosen and select 'Get Info'
• Choose 'Options' from the tab menu at the top of the box
• Set the timings to Start Time 0:00 & End Time 0:30 (if you want to get a little more in depth you can tailor these timings to fit a section of your track)
• Hit 'Ok'
• Right click on the track again and choose 'Create AAC Version'
• Once the new .AAC version appears in your library right click on it and choose 'Show in Windows Explorer/Finder'
• Drag the file to somewhere easy to locate such as your desktop
• Rename it, changing the suffix from .m4a to .m4r*
• Go back into iTunes and remove the .AAC version you created from your library
• Back on your desktop double click the .m4r file and it will automatically be added to iTunes as a ringtone
• Sync your iPhone with iTunes (making sure you've set your tones to sync), or manually drag the tone from your Library>Tones to your device
• Eject and unplug your iPhone
• Tap 'Settings'
• Tap 'Sounds'
• Tap 'Ringtone' and select your new tone
• Enjoy your new custom ringtone every time someone calls you (or until you become suicidally bored with it)

*(If you're a Windows user and your file extensions aren't visible open your Music folder, click the 'Organize' tab in the top left hand corner, choose Folder and search options, click the 'View' tab and unclick the box which says 'Hide extensions for known file types')