rational human being

There is only one truly "atheist" app on iTunes (at least that I found) and it is called "mAtheist". It's described as...

An unbeliever, agnostic, atheist, rationalist, or not quite sure; but looking for rational inspiration? mAtheist is a database of over 700 quotes from most of the world's best known freethinkers through the centuries. Dawkins, Ingersoll, Voltaire ... authors, scientists and rationalists who challenged the status quo.

You'll find a random quote at every launch; but for more in-depth study, you can browse through the quotes categorized by author, source, or year.

With mAtheist, you can also manage your own list of favorite quotes for ready reference.

I have not downloaded it because I'm not that big on atheist quotes.

I did download another interesting app called "iBeleive" in which you can choose a religion, including "religions" in the category of "Nothing". Choices are Nothing, Nothing-Agnostic, Nothing-Atheist, Nothing-Money, and Nothing-Sports. (I have no idea what those last two are supposed to mean.) Anyway, it supposedly uses the GPS in your phone and other people's phones and points people who have picked that as their "religion" on a global map. It is totally useless, yet an interesting waste of time. But...HEY! It's FREE!

My birthday is coming up and my wonderful husband got me an iPhone which I've always wanted. So now, I'm saying good-bye to my BlackBerry, which I'm keeping...just in case. I know, that sounds odd coming from a former Apple employee and total Apple "fan gal", but I'm just not sure about the iPhone yet. So far, I'm disappointed with the ringtone scenario, but I'm going to crack that, real quick. (As I did whilst writing this!)


NOTE: I did this on an Apple using QuickTime Pro. This "work around" requires a full working version of QuickTime Pro. Buy a license from Apple...it's well worth the $30!

I read a more complex/difficult "work around" (call it a crack or hack...I'm going to call it a "work around") for this on the internet about using iTunes to change your music file into an AAC, then somehow back to the M4R that you have to have to make it a "ringtone". Well, that might be all well and good for some PC user, but there's an easier and better solution for Apple people who have QuickTime Pro.

It goes like this...

1.) Find the audio file you want to make into a ringtone in the iTunes music library. (HINT: You can use the "info" feature in iTunes to track down the path and file name to the audio file you want to use.)

2.) Do not open it with iTunes, open the file with QuickTime (Pro licensed).

3.) Use the sliders to find the segment of music you want for ringtone and designate the starting and stopping points. (HINT: If you want, listen to it in iTunes and make a note of the seconds/minutes and drag your sliders in QT to the same points.)

4.) Crop it! Go to edit and choose "trim to selection", and save it as an "MOV" file. (Be patient! The best part is coming up!)

5.) Export the file as an "M4V" file....I know! I know! It's supposed to be a M4R file...Just do it!

6.) Now change the file extension to "M4R" (Apple's extension for ringtone files). When it asks if you are sure you want to keep the extension, click YES.

7.) Open iTunes and drag you're new M4R file into the part of the Library called Ringtones.

8.) Sync up your iPhone and...TA DAH! You have your ringtone! (Without paying the ninety-nine cents...OR, as was my problem...They didn't provide a ringtone version of the song I bought, so I had to make it myself!)

Hey! You paid for the tune either on iTunes or somewhere else, right? In my case, I bought a CD with this song on it years ago and then bought it again on iTunes, just so I could make a ringtone out of it. Then when I went to do it, found out I couldn't! (Apple needs to change the message "You can create iPhone ringtones only from songs purchased from the iTunes Store." because NOT ALL iTunes Store purchased songs can be made into ringtones! NOT through iTunes, at least!