Favorite Cases

Cases are really a matter of preference. But to me I have a couple important standards; Fit, Look, and Protection.

Since the days of my 1st Treo 600, I have felt that protecting (physically) from my clumsy ways was the most important. For that reason I went with a Rhinoskin aircraft aluminum case. It was the best purchase I have ever made. I tried knock offs of the same type of case and the best fit, looks, and protection has been the Rhinoskin. Along with that though is a great warranty for 1 yr. My biggest complaint with my 1st Rhinoskin case was the clips. The clips are crap and I wore out 3 in a couple months. I called the company and the sent my 2 brand new and newly designed clips for nothing. I should note that the 1st replacement clip I used 3 years ago is the one I am still using.

I have been using my current Rhinoskin for almost 2 years and it only now is starting to be in need of replacement. I need to replace it simply because I beat the crap out of it, it's scratched, worn, the padding inside slightly stretched out from my constant playing, and I have hit it so many times the clear plastic over the screen area is starting to push in.

If you are looking for a case that will REALLY protect your Treo Investment I have not found anything better than the Rhinoskin. At fist I thought 29.99 was a lot for just a case, not anymore soon I will go out and buy my 3rd and it's worth every penny. Good Luck.

Treo space loop

As if to reiterate my previous statement about BACKING UP...

Recently my wife and I went to Florida and took in the joy of Epcot. One of my favorite apps is Splashblog and I take A LOT of pics with it http://www.splashblog.com/mlumb. While at Epcot my SD Card got ejected inside my case (a rubber style skin type) and I didn't know. Well Splashblog started putting pictures in RAM since the SD Card wasn't present to the system and 6 MB later BOOM! Suddenly my Treo started to reset and reset and reset! WELL lesson 1 "don't fill up your RAM to the max ... space, space, space" lesson 2 "Always have a backup.

Well I keep a backup on my SD, so I pulled off the skin, did a Hard Reset and then restored my backup. Actually I keep 5 daily backups and 2 CLEAN INSTALL backups where I have all the default applications installed that I KNOW won't mess up my Treo. So I restored my morning backup and fortunately only lost about 10-20 of the 555 pics I took that day. UNFORTUNATELY you guys will never see the huge genetically altered vegetables I had pictures of. Sorry!

More on the 8Gb upgrade

More on the 8Gb upgrade

I have to say that I am loving the crazy amount of space this upgrade is giving me. I have LOADED it with music and movies and tv shows, as well as normal apps, maps and more and I still have 2.5 Gb left.

I have noticed speed issues on occasion and the Treo doesn't read the space correctly. It will read 3.5 Gb and then when you fill that up it will read the second half.

I am still experimenting and if I find that the speed issues are related to some formating issues, I'll let you know.

New Favorite Games.

New Favorite Games.

I have 2 new favorite games and they are from the same developer.

Toyspring

1. Arcade Reality
This game uses your camera to give backdrop to an alien invasion. As you move your treo around in 3d space you find enemies to kill. Its s great new way to look at such a classic video game style.

2 3d Mine
I have always wanted to play mine sweep, but never really cared to learn. Well this version got my attention. They took the regular mind sweep game and wrapped it around 3d objects. I AM HOOKED!
I absolutely love playing this game and the challenges of thinging in 3d.

So hopefully if you are looking for some new games and something a little different, you will check out one of these great options.

8Gb upgrade

8Gb upgrade

I added an 8 Gb SDHC card to my treo 650 this week. Of course this required hacking the rom to replace the old fatfs with the new fat32fs files. I ran into a few issues the first time I tried, but because I had backup up my rom first was able to replace and try again. After a second try everything works mostly fine.

a couple of issues I expected and have noticed. speed issues when accessing this much space. A programs seek function or loading a program from card can be significantly slower. Not sure if this is fixable yet, or if it will just be a cost of the added space?

I have noticed the access time a glitches when accessing music in ptunes and files from the card has gotten better. Music streams very very well.

I love the added space. I have jammed it with music, maps, movies, samples for music making. pics and I still have over half the space left.

For the less than $60 I spent this was a GREAT upgrade.

More info to come as I work out the kinks.

Favorite Apps

Favorite Apps

As a tweaker there are several VERY crucial apps that I need.

Resco Backup
- The key to tweaking is being able to FIX it when you DO ... and you WILL mess it up. I keep 5 days of full system backups on my SD card and have it auto backup before I even wake up. Most important I keep a working backup, which is a backup of a cleanly installed system with apps I know work and play well together (like the ones mentioned here). So if something happens and my system starts acting wierd I just restore one of my backups.

Uninstall Manager:
It takes a bit to get used to and for impatient tweakers like me it takes self control, but if used correctly it will save you a ton of time and frustration by removing everything installed and uncompressed by an application.

Rlock
I found this after using preference doctor, which later became reset dostor. It will lock up to 4MB worth of applications on your device. Why is this important? Simply because newer palm os systems with VSFS especially the treo 650's at highly susepible to resets from bad apps and then loose their system preferences. Rlock will help possibly problematic apps NOT reset your device. Since using this app I have had a lot fewer resets.

Reset Doctor
This used to be preference doctor and has several parts. I peronally found that the pref dr version caused most of my crashes. however it might be better now. It does however have a handy utility that will backup your system preferences in case you DO have a crash that causes the loss of your application preferences. VERY HANDY.

Basically the combination of these apps have made my Treo 650 98 percent crash free. IF I do screw it up and can quickly get back on track, without a computer!

today I start.

today I start.

Ok, so I named this blog Treo Tweaker because that is exactly what I do. I mess with my treo daily, adding and removing, backing up and restoring. So I hope I can share some of my thoughts, opinions, etc and make your treo life a little easier!

Next up: my favorite apps.