Apple Fans rejoice… the most mundane feature to all modern day mobile phones is now… finally, available to you. Yes, we’re talking about Custom Message Alert Tones.
The release of the new iOS 5 beta 3 testing platform has unveiled many new features for the iPhone, iPad and iPod operating systems (see the information on Apples new Gesture Controls here) but one of the biggest and possibly most annoying “Why haven’t they done this yet” features is the ability to set your own Message and Alert tones.
But yes, it’s finally here, a mere 11 years after Nokia first released the feature on its Nokia 3310 handset.
The third beta phase of iOS 5 has featured a few secrets and Easter Eggs for developers but the change in the iPhone’s most basic of niggles will be a great relief to all Apple iOS fans, especially those who see people with a Jailbroken handset who can do this basic feature, whereas their perfectly legit un-hacked iPhone can’t.
Apple have done a bit of clever branding and awareness by restricting the message change for all of these years with keeping the message tones limited to its own pre-installed options, with the Apple tri-tone now becoming synonymous with the device, much like the Nokia Message beeps from the late 90’s, the tone has become a calling card of the phones.
However, upon the new iOS release this will all change as users will be able to change any of their alerts and set custom sounds for all the alerts in the handset including voicemails, e-mail, Facebook notifications, Twitter notifications, sent email, sent tweets, calendar alerts, and reminder alerts.
The iOS 5 is in a final testing stage now but there is no official release date for the new software, though all signals point towards August/September time so keep an eye out on the Gadget helpline via our @Gadget_Helpline twitter or RSS feeds.