I had a little tech tip I wanted to share. I have an average Nokia cell phone, and use it mostly for talking, but occationally like to play a game on it to pass the time, especially when I’m waiting in the car for a woman (my mom or wife) to run into the store to grab something (5 minutes almost always turns into 30).

I’m not a huge ring-tone junky, but don’t mind changing it up a little from time to time.

I don’t like paying $2 for a ring tone though.

Well, last night I downloaded a program from Nokia that allows me to create my own ring tones from midi files, install software, and transfer picture files to my phone (for wallpapers). I found some games on the internet, including Pacman, mostly from British sites.

The kicker is that you have to get the files to your phone. I went way out of my way when I bought my phone to get one with an infrared port on it, which most phones no longer have. The other way to do it is to buy a cable that plugs into the serial or USB port. I took advantage of the fact that my wife’s laptop also has an infrared port, so file transfer is a snap.

If you like to collect various ringtones, and take advantage of other features of your particular phone, check the manufacturers website (nokia.com in my case) for a program to do it. It beats paying $2 for a ringtone or $5 for a game. And next time you buy a phone, get one with an infrared port. If enough people demand it, the phone makers will put them back in the phones.

I should also mention WHY I demanded an infrared port. My last phone had one, which came in really handy. I hate pecking out letters in order to add a name to my phonebook on my phone. I find it much easier to put in into my Palm handheld and beam it to my phone. It also comes in handy if you come across someone else with an IR port on their phone. Rather than making them peck out your name, you can keep you own number in your own phone and beam it to them in about a second.