Think Your iPhone is a Device From the Future? Make it So…

With the release of iOS5, ringtones now have their own place in the iTunes store. Star Wars tones are getting plenty of iTunes love with R2-D2 chirps and Chewbacca roars available for purchase. Well to balance the yin of The Dark Side, we present some yang from the Star Trek universe for balance.

Follow the instructions below for some terrific sound bites courtesy of GuiM.fr from the Star Trek series including The Original Series, The Next Generation, and Voyager. While these ringtones have been around the Internet since 2008 (and some of the actual sound effects have been around 45 years), it seems fitting to bring them back as our iPhones begin speaking to us à la the ship’s computer of the Enterprise.

You may not want to import all 111 sounds into your iTunes library and then on to your phone. So deciding what sound you want for what purpose before you begin could be a good idea. But of course, once they’re on your iPhone, they’re available for use in a number of places including the Sounds section of the Settings menu.

Instructions for setting a custom ringtone for a contact:

  1. Download the Star Trek themed ringtones.



  2. Unzip the ringtones (probably happened automatically).



  3. Play incessantly with all 111 choices, finally deciding which ones you want to import to iTunes.

  4. Go to iTunes (10.5). In the File menu, select Add To Library.



  5. Locate and open the files you want to import.



  6. Files should now be in your Ringtones library in iTunes.



  7. Sync your iPhone with iTunes.

  8. On your iPhone, open the Contacts app and locate the person.

  9. Tap on the edit button, and just under the email info, you should see options for “ringtone” or “text tone” (probably set to Default currently).



  10. Choose either “ringtone” or “text tone” and scroll (past the standard alert tones if you’re setting a “text tone”) down through the Ringtones and select the one you loaded that you wish to have associated with this person.



  11. Enjoy!