iRingPro iPhone ringtones

· by · In-Depth Review

  • Are you sick of the handful of overused, cartoonish ringtones included with your iPhone? 
  • Does the miniscule selection of overpriced iPhone ringtones in the iTunes Store leave you cold? 
  • Are your GarageBand skills insufficient to create decent-sounding iPhone ringtones? 

 

If you answered yes to any or all of the questions above I implore you to take a look and listen to the iRingPro collection of sophisticated, high-quality, thoughtfully designed ringtones for your iPhone.  

These ringtones, which I’ve heard others call, “ringtones for adults” or “ringtones for sophisticated users,” are unique sounding, soothing to the ear, and designed to work beautifully as ringtones. But they’re also superb as iPhone alarms or timers.

There are three separate iRingPro collections —  Zen 2, Origin, and Tek —  and each includes at least 22 high-quality ringtones. You can hear samples of them here: 

 

In addition to sounding great, these tones have several unique features I’ve never seen or heard in other ringtones:

First, all of the tones fall into one of two grades: Meeting Grade or Active Grade. Meeting Grade tones are more subtle, lower pitched, and richer sounding and are designed for quiet or professional settings. Active Grade tones are stronger, and more resonant and present, engineered to be more audible in cars, social, and outdoor settings in spite of your iPhone’s tiny speaker.

Second, many of the tones are available with different lengths of silence between ring repeats. So you can choose a ringtone that repeats quickly, over and over, or one that gives you a few seconds of quiet before it sounds again. 

Finally, some of the tones, like Sunset from the Origin collection, have three different sounds with silence between them. This arrangement, known as Multi-Tone, helps you determine how much time you have before the call is sent to voicemail.     

Of course I have a couple of little gripes. First and foremost, I wish that every tone was available in the Multi-Tone format. In fact, I wanted it so badly I tried (unsuccessfully, I might add) to create one in GarageBand based on my favorite short ringtone (Meeting Grade Tokyo_Lo_short from the Zen 2 collection if you must know). And I wish there were a few more tones to choose from in each of the collections, particularly my favorite (Zen 2), which has 27. In all fairness I must note that most of the ringtones come in more than one variant (i.e. high and lo; short and long; multi-tone and single tone), so, for example, there are actually 54 audio files in the Zen 2 collection. Even so I found myself wishing for even more choices.  

The Bottom Line

Give the samples a listen and I think you’ll agree that these ringtones are unique, ear-pleasing, and thoughtfully designed. At $9.95 per collection (and $5 off if you buy all three), they’re less expensive and better sounding than most other purchasable ringtones.

Product: iRingPro

Company: Hladecek

List Price: US$9.95 per pack

Pros:

Variable length pauses between rings, two “grades” of ringtones, useful multi-tone variants.

Cons:

Not enough multi-tone variants, would have liked even more choices in each collection.

Bob LeVitus

Bob LeVitus, often referred to as ?Dr. Mac,? is considered one of the world?s leading authorities on the Macintosh and Mac OS X and has been one of the Mac community?s most trusted gurus for almost twenty years. He?s known for his trademark humorous style and unerring ability to translate ?techie? jargon into usable and fun advice for regular folks. A prolific author, LeVitus has written or co-written over 60 popular computer books and has sold more than two million copies worldwide in at least a dozen languages. His recent titles include: iPhone For Dummies 2nd Edition, Mac OS X Leopard For Dummies, and Microsoft Office 2008 For Mac For Dummies, all for Wiley Publishing. LeVitus is currently a columnist for the Mac Observer and the reviews editor for the iPod Observer. He's also a columnist for the Houston Chronicle and has been since 1996, penning the popular Dr. Mac column every Tuesday. While LeVitus has seen his work published in more than a dozen computer magazines over the past eighteen years, including: a three- year stint as Editor-in-Chief of the irreverent and unpredictable MACazine; four different columns in MacUser magazine?Beating the System, Personal Best, Game Room, and the Help Folder (with Andy Ihnatko, and later, Chris Breen). Though best known for his writing, he?s also dabbled in broadcasting with a radio show (Inside Mac Radio, CNET Radio, 2001-2002) and a television series (Mac Today, Syndicated, 1992?1993). In addition to his writing, LeVitus runs a consulting business that provides expert technical help and training to Mac users anywhere in the world, in real time and at reasonable prices, via telephone, e-mail, and/or its own unique Internet-enabled remote control software. If you?re having a problem with your Mac or want to learn how to do almost anything with it, point your browser at: http://www.boblevitus.com. Always a popular speaker at Mac user groups and trade shows, LeVitus has presented more than 200 seminars, workshops, conference, and training sessions in the U.S. and abroad, including keynote addresses in three countries. (He also won the Macworld Expo MacJeopardy World Championship three times before retiring.) His most recent foray is a blog for the nice folks at Wiley Publishing/Dummies Press. You'll find it here: http://blogs.dummies.com/drmac/. Prior to giving his life over to computers, Bob worked in advertising producing television commercials, radio spots, and print ads at Kresser & Robbins and SelecTV. He holds a B.S. in Marketing from California State University and currently lives in central Texas with his wife, kids, and a plethora of pets.

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