Clive & Nick's Kiwi Tech Blog

How To: Import A Custom Voicemail Greeting To Your iPhone

2009-12-06T10:14:00.000+13:00

How To: Import A Custom Voicemail Greeting To Your iPhone: "

A few years ago I made a custom voicemail greeting .mp3 file that I always wanted to import to my iPhone but never found a way to do it. Well today I discovered a slightly complicated way and made a step by step tutorial just for you! The first couple steps are pretty simple but the last step can get be tricky so just make sure you follow along and you should be fine.

Step 1: Convert your sound file to adaptive mult-rate (.amr)

Go to media convert in your web browser. This is a free media converting site that requires no software downloads.

Select chose file and upload your desired audio file for the voicemail greeting.

Change the input format to the same format as your uploaded sound file and the output format to adaptive multi-rate

Under advanced settings, change the bitrate to 12.2 kbps

Hit the I accept the terms button and your audio file will start converting

Once conversion is complete, upload the file to your hard drive. We will use it in a later step.

Step 2: Record a voicemail greeting

On your iPhone, launch your voicemail, tap greeting and record a custom greeting for a few seconds then tap stop. Do not hit save yet as we will be navigating to the voicemail file and replacing it first.

Step 3: Browse your iPhones files and replace the voicemail file with your audio file

Using iFuntastic or SFTP, navigate to thru your iPhones files to /var/root/Library/Voicemail or sometimes it will be in var/mobile/Library/Voicemail depending on your iPhones setup. There is a file in there called “greeting.amr” this is the voice recording you just made.

Delete the “greeting.amr” file and replace it with the .amr file you created earlier. Rename this file to “greeting.amr”

Tap save on your iPhone and you should be set! You may also want to tap play on your iPhone to verify that is the right file and then tap save.

Your iPhone now has a custom imported voicemail greeting! Pretty cool huh?

NZ Tech Site

2009-12-05T10:10:00.002+13:00

Here's a useful site I've just added to my Google Reader RSS Feed for local tech news.

Powermonkey

2009-12-03T15:45:00.002+13:00

The more I use the iPhone the more the battery drains (obvious I know but some apps are quite hungry and I do use the phone function quite abit - a shock I know. Have been thinking of getting a portable power source and these seem really good. Have you had any similar thoughts or looked at different models. I originally looked at the Solio fan model but soes not seem to be available here any more. Not sure when Expansys will have these in as they say to call for information but phone does not work

iPhone missing apps

2009-12-03T15:29:00.002+13:00

Things to keep an eye out for: a way of making ringtones out of music you already own. Cannot seem to do it despite following a number of recipes. I am sure this post could get long! Also I have not got map my ride yet - seems a bit clunky in that the blurb says you should have the app open at all times otherwise it forgets where it is

Can you make a new post from the page with the posts on or do you have to return to home blog page?

Recommended tech Podcasts

2009-12-03T09:13:00.001+13:00

Here are some free podcasts you might want to try out:

App Advice Daily (comes in various video formats): covers various iPhones apps daily in video podcast
BBC Focus magazine: monthly audio podcast with poor presenters but some interesting science articles
Daily App Show: daily video podcast; don't auto subscribe to them all and just download the ones that sound interesting
iPhone Alley: longish audio podcast; good for listening to in background
Leo Laporte podcasts: various weekly audio podcasts; about 60+ mins. This Week in Google one is best. Windows Weekly is interesting. The Tech Guy is background listening. They are a very good and easy way of keeping up to do with what is going on in the tech world, along with Google Reader.
MrExcel for 5 video podcasts per week of a few minutes each (for Excel geeks only!)
Radio NZ - This Way Up: items from Saturday radio show; just download the ones of interest

Using Gmail with screenshots

2009-12-03T08:43:00.000+13:00

It seems according to many sources that you can't yet paste screenshots into Gmail. I don't know if this is the best way around it, but using Outlook and I would suggest IMAP (where it mirrors your Gmail account) instead of the default POP3 (where it downloads messages) you can paste a screenshot into an email.
I'm using the free download of Office 2010 from Microsoft; they don't recommend installing this on any production machine - Outlook 2010 allows you to very easily set up your Gmail account in IMAP (now the default method).

Transfer Photos & Videos Between iPhones

2009-12-03T08:02:00.000+13:00

Use Bump (free) or Mover+ (free) to easily transfer data between iPhones, such as:

photos (up to 4 at a time)
video
contacts
other files

Flicks for iPhone

2009-12-03T07:55:00.002+13:00

Very useful programme (if you want to go to the cinema that is). Open it up and it searches for cinemas in your location. You can change the search area to track more distant venues or filter them out. Once there and you get a list of films at that cinema and you can download trailers, reviews and viewing times. There is also contact details but you cannot book over the net (yet).

RoomAtlas.com to find accommodation by location/price

2009-12-03T06:01:00.000+13:00

www.roomatlas.com shows accommodation prices on a Google map, as in the Auckland linked example above. It currently only allows to search by US$ or GBP prices.

Google Mobile app

2009-12-03T05:41:00.000+13:00

Google Mobile App for the iPhone (free) allows you to easily search by voice (setting turned off by default). Just hold the iPhone to your ear and it will automatically start listening. It seems to work best with common words.
Some features are:

Saves having to type search queries - just say what you'd normally type into Google
It is location aware so 'pizza' will find local pizza businesses
Once you say your search query, you can search by just e.g. images