Starting with Android, two things I don't understand

1. Long press the text input area and it will bring up whatever keyboards you have installed. You can also set one as default by going into Settings - Language and Input.

2. There are a few apps in the Play store that will allow you to turn an mp3 into a ringtone. Zedge is a great one.

When you learn your way around the SD card, you’ll find SD\media\audio\ringtones, the default parking lot for ringtones. I just make them on my PC, dropbox them to that directory, then go to regular settings and choose it there.

Setting a song to ring tone can be done on most androids but there are a few that don't seem to have that option. I had one that could not and it bugged me to no end.
But how I go about it is I open either a file manager or a music player and long press the music file, a menu should come up and one of the options should be set as ring tone.
Also if you can select the file without playing the song, sometimes you can press the menu button on the phone (down where the back, home, search buttons are) and select from there.

Just out of curiosity, how large an MP3 file do you need for an alarm?

It works just as you think it should, which is VERY EASYILY, on my HTC Desire HD. Settings>Sound>Phone Ringtone>New Ringtone which brings up all my mp3 song files & I choose which one I want. So Android stock perhaps doesn't have the easy bells & whistles, whereas HTC (& other mfgs) installed their version of Android GUI & Apps? You don't mention your phone brand but perhaps their version of Android is lacking?

Same ease for setting a custom alarm. No moving or duplicating files, no need for a file manager, except maybe to initially import the mp3 songs.

Can also do the same thing via: Settings>Personalize>...... I can even make custom sound "sets", or download sounds from HTC. All super easy as you suggest it should work.

The same ease goes for language input. I have a language key that gives me many choices. I'd like to get rid of it personally as I can only speak Engish & sometimes I press it by mistake & bring up a language choice menu.

Perhaps check with your phone Mfg. & see if they have suggestions? But with my Android HTC DHD it's easy. Highly recommend this "old" phone too.

With Android, the customization is the beauty of the OS, but perhaps the stock or your Mfg. OS is lacking? But Android can do it. HTC Sense does.

antoniobrandao said:

Where do I get dictionaries?

Click to expand...

Dictionary by Farlex

FWIW my folder structure doesn't have a "Music" folder, though that may not matter. My music goes into an "MP3" folder. Perhaps it is a matter of pointing the menu to the correct folder? Not sure but I hope you can figure it out.

antoniobrandao said:

Hey guys, thanks for the quick reply.

1 - OK that's a nice way to select dictionaries. But I will have to get additional dictionaries, I'm sure I only have English right now. Where do I get dictionaries?

2 - So it seems the straight answer to this is the sdcard/ringtones folder, where I should palce my mp3 files that I wish to use as ringtones.

But I must say, I am very disappointed with Android on this, such a sophisticated OS that can do face recognition to unlock, doesn't even give me the option to choose an MP3 from my library as a ringtone ???

I mean, phones did that a decade ago!

The worst part for me, is that I will end up with DUPLICATE MP3 files in my phone, wasting precious space.

Even worst, I realized that for the Alarm ringtones there is another specific folder "Alarms" where I should place the mp3 files I wish to use as Alarm.

So basically I will have to be always managing my files directly to avoid wasting space !

I don't want to use an app for this, this absolutely should be handled by the OS.

I am a software developer myself and I can't understand why this is this way. If anyone has any idea why, please share with me, I'd really love to know.

Again thank you for your replies.

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On 2nd point, there is a simple way to do that and OS can do that for you without going to file manager or folders. When you open the default music player that comes in Android, just play or select the song which you want to set as ringtone and click on Menu (phone button) and you will get option to set is as your ringtone.

Cheers

Use any file manager app, navigate to your mp3, long press on it, select "set as" ringtone

Try Astro.... Although I am not sure if its the phone or the app if it doesn't give you that option....Since even the default stock samsung file manager has that option in my phone.

For a great English Dictionary try Dictionary.com
I enjoy the * Voice search *Daily content, including Word of the Day and the Hot Word blog * Phonetic and audio pronunciation*Thesaurus content

antoniobrandao said:

Conclusion:

Ice Cream Sandwich requires a third party app to select MP3 files as alarm and ringtones.... lol !

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Well, only if you don't want to put your custom ringtones & alarms in the ringtones/alarms folders. If you want to use existing MP3's or other audio files already on the phone and you don't want to duplicate them, then yes you will need a 3rd party app.

antoniobrandao said:

Conclusion:

Ice Cream Sandwich requires a third party app to select MP3 files as alarm and ringtones....

Click to expand...

Wrong conclusion - it does NOT. No file manager or other app is required. For ringtones go to:

Settings > Sound > Phone Ringtone > Menu > More ringtones > New ringtone

You can then choose from any music on the phone for a ringtone.

You cannot choose from MP3s for alarms or notifications, but you can access far more choices than the standard list. Go to:

Settings > Sound > Notification sound > Menu > More notification sounds

You can then choose from many, many sounds.

antoniobrandao said:

Which standard Android music player do you mean ?

I have only one in my Galaxy Nexus, called "Play Music", the icon is a pair of orange headphones, I think it's the stardard music player in Ice Cream Sandwich ?

This player doesn't offer me the possibility to set a track as ringtone

Click to expand...

I have default music player (below the icon it just says Music). It's on HTC Desire running Android 2.2.2.

I'll check my Transformer tablet which runs on ICS and see if I can find any options for you.