Have you ever rebuilt a computer using OEM operating system discs only to be left with a dozen unknown devices in the device manager? - load Device Manager
- Right click on the device in question
- click properties
- navigate to the Details tab.
On that tab you should see a drop down box listing all the property’s of the card, select Hardware ID’s from the list and note down the ‘VEN_’ and ‘Dev_’ numbers.
Back in December 2008 I posted a link to a tutorial on how to create iPhone ringtones. Which worked well, as long as you had the patience to pin point the timings of a track. Well since then I have had to get a little bit more ‘technical’ with my ringtone creation. Mainly because of the music I was trying to clip.. So I thought it was about time I put another tutorial together, but this time a little bit more in depth, covering all the aspects of clipping using the wave display.

Now, all you need to do is locate your MP3WavSound file through the built in menu system, or drag and drop it into the dark area in between the menu bar and status bar. Once it’s done loading the music file you should be presented with a window which looks like this (obviously this will differ for each sound file)

Using the built in menu bar you can play the track, and locate the section you want to clip. Remembering that most devices using 30 seconds of the clip for the tone. Once you have found the section you want click on the wave table where it starts, and drag you mouse whilst keeping an eye on the field under the ‘Length’ radio button until you have grabbed 30 seconds worth. You should notice the highlighted section will turn a slightly darker grey colour:

With the section highlighted, if you press the ‘Play’ button Audacity will play the section you have selected. If you are not happy with it you can move the highlighted section back and forth with your mouse until you find a section you like.
Once done simply click Edit > Cut in the menu bar, or ctrl + x on your windows keyboard (cmd + x on Mac) to cut out the section of track. Now click File > New to open a fresh project window and paste in your clipping. (Edit > Paste etc)
Check you have clipped the correct part using the play button, and once you are happy click File > Export. Give it a meaningful name and select a location for the file, in the format drop down box select “M4A (AAC) Files (FFmpeg)” and click ok.
Once the export has completed, locate the file and rename the extension from .m4a to .m4r.
Now open iTunes, select the ‘Ringtones’ sections and drag in your newly created .m4r file. All that’s left to do now is sync you iPhone, select the new file in the settings menu and your done.
So hopefully, you will never pay for a ringtone again

Transcend USA have recently released an additional application for use with their JetFlash 220 secure storage devices. The JetFlash 220 is just like any normal USB memory stick, however – it has one extra little facility.. Built into the housing of the device is a biometric fingerprint scanner. The scanner protects a ‘private’ partition on the device which can only be unlocked with a swipe of the owners fingerprint.
If like me, you are an avid laptop user who’s laptop travels with them everywhere, then carrying a collection of DVD’s with you is essential for those times when you exhaust the internet. However, carrying a large collection of discs everywhere you go is so last year! Especially now with the price of terabyte drives dropping at the rate they are.







