Skype Hacks

Chapter 7. Skype Fun and Play

Hacks 65–69: Introduction

“Have fun and play with your landline phone!” That sentence doesn’t quite ring true, does it? Perhaps the reason why is that your regular landline phone has been in stasis for decades, as it’s based on a boring technology that appears to be dead and unmoving. That’s most definitely not the case with Skype.

Skype is based on new technologies and a new mindset. It is a telephony tool that is evolving rapidly and encourages—indeed, almost begs—you to experiment and hack with it. So have fun and play around with these hacks. I hope they are a stimulus to the creative and fun side of your imagination. Don’t be afraid to experiment and have fun on your own!

Fun with Ringtones

Are you tired of that boring, old “ring-ring” sound Skype makes? Change it to something new and funky!

Works with: Windows version of Skype.

Now you can buy ringtones directly through Skype as part of its Personalise Skype service: http://personal.skype.com/wnf/t74us/0/m. But at $1.20 for each ringtone you purchase, it’s a form of customization that can get expensive quickly.

The good news is that you can very easily make your own ringtones, and this hack shows you how.

Warning

Skype uses .wav files (that is, files with a .wav extension, which denotes a Windows audio file format) for ringtones. But there are a couple of restrictions: they must be mono and not stereo, they must be of short duration (seconds, not minutes), and the recordings must be made at relatively ...