Hello Bernard,
You wrote:
Well I am truly amazed and disappointed. there is not much point of
having a wide variety of ring and other tones on your iphone.
You can select from all your tones for incoming calls. new text
messages they allow you to choose from 5 or 6 built in sounds.
You won't believe this the new mail, sent mail and calender alert
sounds can only be turned off and on and the default and only
sounds they use are just no good for someone hard of hearing.
what's more I can't believe apple have not been swamped under
complaints re this.
I think the clock can select between all your loaded tones as can
the incoming call ring tone selector.
apart from that the new sms or text message sound can select from
about 6
the new mail, sent mail and voicemail can only be turned on and off.
if the set sounds were loud it would be ok but most you would not
hear if you were in the city with traffic noise all round and you
were not waring headphones. I think some of these designers never
leave their high rise air conditioned office blocks.
has anyone else noticed how limited the sound settings were.
I'm cc'ing this to the macvisionaries list, since this may be of
general interest. If you have Growl running for notifications on your
PC, you might try the Prowl app ($2.99). I've only played with
this a
little, because I don't need these functions myself (I have a
MobileMe
account that updates mail notifications with push, and the regular
volume settings work fine for me on my iPod Touch). Growl is a
global
notification system for the Mac OS X and Windows. For the large
number of applications that support Growl, you can get notifications
when tasks are done. For example, if you are downloading a series of
files, you might want to have the download program send you a
notification when it's done, which you could assign to a particular
sound. Similarly, you can install a GrowlMail plugin (on the Mac)
that sends a Growl notification whenever a new mail message comes in.
What might be of interest to you and other iPhone/iPod Touch users is
that the Prowl app, which is a Growl client for the iPhone, can be
set
to play different and louder sounds than the default settings for
mail
on the iPhone, and also give you "push" notifications when new mail
arrives on your computer.
Here's a quote from a user comment posted on the iPhone Apps Plus
page
that reviewed Prowl:
"I love this application, have configured it to send me notification
from Apple Mail using Growl plugin so that i can get push
notification
and LOUDER mail sound (why Apple hasn't added sound customization for
mail is beyond me)."
Google "Growl" or "Growl for Windows" (in your case) to read about
the
Growl and to get the most recent download. Growl is free
(donationware), but does require some setting up. You may already
have it on your system, since a number of apps will come with the
ability to install Growl.
Prowl basically just displays the notifications that are sent from
Growl. You need to create a free account, which you can do from the
"Register" link on the Prowl web page even before you purchase the
app. When you launch the app the first time, you'll be in the text
box
for your login username and there is a second text box for your
password. There are also buttons for "Register" and "Log in", but I
had to read through the setup on the Prowl web page, anyway, so it
was
easier to set up the account there. There is a "Settings" button in
the upper left of the main screen that lets choose the sounds you
want
to use. By default, sounds will be turned on while Growl is open,
and
Quiet Hours (times when you don't want to allow any Growl
notifications) are turned off. Exit the "Settings" menu by double
tapping the "History" button in the upper left, that will take you to
the main Prowl screen with a list of your (historical) notifications
which you can "Edit" (button in the upper right) to delete, etc.
If you are using the Prowl web page to follow the installation and
setup instructions, and have logged in through the "Register" link,
there will be an "Add Notification" link to a page where you can try
typing and sending a notification. That notification should show up
on
your iPhone through the Prowl app when you press the "Add
Notification" button to send off the text. This should allow you to
test out your settings.
I haven't done much with this app, but you might check this out. You
need to have either Growl or Snarl running on Windows, and I assume
there will be a setup for mail notifications similar to the Mac
plugin
since this was an obvious early use for Growl. Setup has a number of
options, and there are probably a lot of people who know more about
using/configuring Growl than I do to ask for help.
Links mentioned:
• Prowl: Growl Client ($2.99) by Zachary West
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/prowl-growl-client/id320876271?mt=8
• The Prowl web page for installation, setup, and registration:
http://prowl.weks.net/
• Review of Prowl app at iPhone Apps Plus web site (source of comment
about louder mail sounds):
http://www.iphoneappsplus.com/utilities/prowl--growl-client/
HTH
Cheers,
Esther
