Trick Out Your Cell Phone, Halloween Style

It appears I'm not alone when I say Christmas and Halloween are my two favorite holidays. In a recent survey by Shop.com, the company found half of the adults interviewed said Halloween is one of their top three holidays. Since mobiles are the easiest to personalize, I thought I'd put together a few ideas for decorating your cell phone from the inside out. Want to get into the Halloween spirit early? Here's what to do:

Classic Ringtone Horror

Let's start with some Halloween ringtones. This week, the number one most downloaded ringtone over at Billboard.com was the movie theme for John Carpenter's Halloween. That's a great choice, but let's not forget the other equally scary ringtones out there. I still get chills when I hear the nursery rhyme from A Nightmare on Elm Street (One, two Freddy's coming for you). Remember that one? I'm sure you guys have some great suggestions too, but here are my top Halloween ringtones:

1. A Nightmare on Elm Street Nursery Theme
2. Psycho Theme (The Murder)
3. X-Files Theme
4. Twilight Zone Theme
5. The Exorcist Theme (Tubular Bells) Mike Oldfield
6. Addam's Family Theme
7. "Toccata and Fugee in D minor" by Bach
8. "Thriller" by Michael Jackson
9. "Ghostbusters" Ray Parker Jr.
10. "Don't Fear the Reaper" Blue Oyster Cult
11. "Highway to Hell" AC/DC
12. "War Pigs" Black Sabbath
13. "I Want Candy" Bow Wow Wow

Screen Haunting

There are thousands of Halloween phone wallpapers available online, but making your own is easier than ever. With free services like My Mobile Toy, and MoboPic, you can upload your pictures, select your phone's make and model, and download your new wallpaper to your phone. It works great if you don't have a cable to upload pictures to your phone.

The wallpaper selection for iPhones may be a little thin since it's only been out a few months. It only takes minutes to create your personal iPhone wallpapers, so make it a weekend project. Here's how to get started:

1. Create a folder and use it to save all the images you want to convert into iPhone wallpapers.
2. Create a second folder and name it something like "iPhone Wallpapers."
3. Open a graphic editing program like Photoshop or Photoshop Elements.*
4. Using the image editor, create a new file setting dimensions to 320 x 480.
5. Resize images from your first folder to these dimensions to create wallpapers. Make as many as you want.
6. Save them all to your "iPhone Wallpapers" folder.
7. Connect your iPhone to iTunes to sync your new photos. You can find further instructions here.
8. Now just click on your iPhone's settings icon, go to wallpapers, and select the image you want as a wallpaper.

*If you don't have an image editor, check out Hellaphone to resize the image, then save it to your computer.

Scary Gadget

Go one step further and dress up your phone with furry phone covers. Annie's Costumes has a variety of furry covers that fit both candybar and flip style cell phones. You can also look for scary stickers, or attach Halloween cell phone straps to your phone. Get creative!

Got other suggestions? Share them in the comments below.

Related:

The Best Halloween Songs to Download