There are a couple things you need to know before you can start loading your device with custom ringtones. First, the audio file must be 39 seconds long or less. So there’s no putting a 3 minute long clip as your ringtone. 39 seconds and then it will loop around and start over.

Next, the total size of this file must not be larger than 1MB in size. This is to ensure fast and responsive phone. If the file was too large, it could significantly slow the device as it loads when the phone rings and that’s not an experience that anyone is looking for.

Finally, the file needs to be in WMA or MP3 format, and can not have any DRM on it.

If you have a favorite song, but it’s too long, or you’re only looking for a certain part of the audio track, you can download a free tool like Audacity, and crop that song down to just the chunk you are looking for. Once you have everything the way you want it, you’re ready to copy it to the device. Here’s how you do that:

Add the audio file to your library of music and launch the Zune software. Find the track inside of the Zune client, right click the file and select edit. The only value that matters for sync’ing this to the device and making it a ringtone, is the Genre. So change the Genre to RINGTONE. Then right click the track and select Sync with device.

Basically, any audio file with a Genre of RINGTONE will be allowed to sync with the device, and it won’t show up in a playlist or while browsing the music on the device. The only place you will see this file is when you’re browsing the ringtones. To check that it sync’ed successfully to the device, you’ll want to browse to Settings / Ringtones + Sounds, and tap on Ringtone. The resulting list should be broken into 2 sections – Custom and Windows Phone. Any custom ringtones you have sync’ed to the phone will be listed under the custom section.

At this time, there is no support for custom alert or notification sounds. We’re all hopeful that this will be added in the next release. Also, there are app in the marketplace that allow you to download custom ringtones, in case you don’t want to go through the process of creating your own. Check out my review of Free Ringtones if you’re interested in going down that path instead. Or if you want to record something on the device and use that as your ringtone, check out Yivosoft Recorder.

At MIX 2011, Microsoft announced that there was a new API coming in Mango that would allow developers to access and set ringtones on the device. However there was nothing else shared about how this is done, or exactly what the end user experience would be on the device. Now, thanks to a blog post by Alice Luu, program manager for the sound experience on Windows Phone, we’ve learned a little more about what will be possible.

First off, to qualify as a ringtone the file must be 39 seconds long or less with a total file size less then 1MB. The file has to be in MP3 or WMA format and can not be DRM protected. The next thing you’ll need to do is add the file to your music collection in the Zune desktop software. Once you’ve done this, you’ll need to change the Genre to a special tag called “Ringtone”. Any files listed under the genre of Ringtone will not show up or play in your music collection. Now sync your phone with your computer and these files will be transferred to the phone. If you then go into Settings / ringtones & sounds, you’ll see your custom ringtones in the list of available ringtones on the device.

What I’m still looking to see is what the developers are going to do with access to ringtones. I’m hopefully that Zedge will bring a Windows Phone client to the marketplace allowing us to access their wealth of audio files directly from the device.

Alice also let us know that there are new sounds being included in Mango. You can read the full blog post over here.

In order to remove the existing case, you will need to start with taking off the battery cover. Then hold the phone with the screen down towards your fingers, and the bottom of the device up so your thumb can easily push up on the bottom part of the back. Push along one side of the phone and it should pop off. You will then be able to wiggle the bottom plate off of the phone.

Once the entire back is off, hold the device in both hands with your fingers on the screen and your thumbs on the back. Then start at the top of the device and carefully use your thumbs to press the edge of the front plate forward towards your fingers. Work your way down each side of the phone. The area around the bottom of the phone is the hardest to get off, but if you already have the top off, it should come pretty easily.

To apply your new skin, simply follow the same process in reverse. Again, around the bottom of the phone is the hardest part of putting the front back on. I’ve found that it always requires more pressure that expected to get that part to snap into place.

And that’s all there is to it. Enjoy!

The theme generator is for Windows Mobile 6.5 devices only.  First thing you need to do, is pick your device from the rotating images. Then you can select the color you want to use, followed by the wallpaper image. You can even upload your own image and zoom/crop the image as you see fit. Once you have it just the way you like it, you can save it as a CAB file to your computer and pass it around for everyone to enjoy. You can also send it directly to your phone using an SMS message. It’s free and it’s cool. It’s worth checking out. Build a theme and share it here with us! I would like to see what everyone is capable of creating with this tool.

Head over to Clinton’s web site and get all the details on how to get this setup.

Enter CHome Configurator from mind of tlogix over at Smartphone: Nuts & Bolts. This utility will ease the pain of customizing the new sliding panel home screen to your liking. CHome Configurator allows you to add new panels, and modify or delete existing panels without having to mess around with xml files and registry settings. Best of all, this utility is FREE! So you can easily and affordably customize your 6.1 home screen. Now, I would love to see a home screen theme that takes advantage of the sliding panel design. Who’s up to that challenge?

Once you’ve download the 2 CAB files (one for the application and another for the Icon Pack), copy them to your device and install them. Both of these CAB files are pretty small and I would recommend installing them to the device and not the storage card. I’m sure it might be possible to place them on the storage card, but you wouldn’t want to risk any problems using the home screen if the storage card becomes corrupt or is removed.

So, download CHome, customize your home screen and share with us the changes you made. I’ll be playing around with it over the course of the next couple days and I’ll post back with the additions and changes that I’ve made.

One thing to note; If you are running a Windows Mobile Professional device, this application will not work for you. The sliding panel home screen is available on Standard (non-touch screen) devices only. This is due to the fact that Pro devices do not use the same XML based configuration for the today screen.