Dreamsmademe Blog

Even after having my Treo for nearly three months, my fun with it doesn't seem to fade away yet. With this tiny in hand computer I always find something interesting.

Here's my last weekend with the Treo

I was into Kandy last week for a vacation. And I found the Treo can be an indispensable partner for the occasion.

No net, no TV (I am not a TV fan at all)  means you will spend your time what it supposed to be, on vacation mood. So generally after all the family chit chat and stuff are over there you still get aplenty of time to spare, One can have 1-2 hours in the bed for oneself. I normally either listen to the radio/ my iPod or sometimes read something in those times.

Our distant corner room where I stayed got nothing but a basic room. So I was free to play with the Treo. I knew this moment would come so I had kept my things ready. I had configured and tested the Treo with Mobitel's GPRS. I had shrinked down, copied the full Robots movie in Divx format to the Treo SD card. I always have nearly 100 songs in it in MP3 format in it. So I was more than ready for a solitary adventure with my Treo which I don't get much when I am in the city.

This was the test time to check how my Treo fair on this "all in one" device category.

I connected to the net easily. Checked my gMail account, browsed my normal reading sites like LBO. MyTreo Net and CNET News sites, checked my bank whether the salary has been updated and the credit accounts. Then ckecked the last mobile  bill payment I have made. All went flawless. I even download a couple of ringtones and small applications for the Treo to test. Connection is steady and experience is good.

Browsing wasn't on far with a desktop due to the tiny screen, means a lot of scrolling but I still could managed to get pretty much the same things I do in daily basis on a desktop. cool.

And thereafter with TCPMP Divx Player I watched the whole Robots movie in my bed and finally fall into sleep.

Umm... sounds not bad for what a phone can do nowadays... hugh?

I know this idea is very debatable.

Say how much would you care about a regular used day to day perfume?



The pictures here and below shows two things I've got recently. Gifts. In the face value they may be worlds apart, for the sake of giving I value the both alike, and what they mean to me is a whole lot different story. Here I am not trying to count the teeth of a free given horse. But this gives me the seeds to talk about something I like, gifts, and how they value in the society we live in.

People use various measures to give themselves a class and a status in the hope of prestige. For me the value of something like this depends on just the idea of giving and the person who is in the question. Other than that I don’t really care about the brand, the price or the class it comes with. Honestly I don’t see a difference on whole lot things as long as they do the job it suppose to do. Gifted, given or brought it, whatever.

Say for an example how many people around you could tell you that what kind of perfume you are wearing? The best they can get, Huh! you have changed/ wearing a new perfume like mere something.

This sounds just the same in bigger scale say whether you own a Toyota or a BMW. At least those are seemingly distinguishable by the general people or so I hope, means generally anyone would look at and say, Aha.. it's a BM. But even my argument about that generic notion of cars goes wrong when I think of my best friend. If we excuse her for being a girl and not interested about automobiles, still this clashes with the guys' general notion that you can win any if you drive a one. With my friend I know it wouldn't be the case. She would only see it as just another car which takes you from A to B.

So asking to differentiate something form someone, say a perfume, serves no purpose unless he/she in the trade. Nobody is in our office out of 40 people would ever be able to name the perfume I've wearing even if I ask. Noone would ever give a damn. It’s just a refreshment. For that anything that smell nice would do. So what’s the point adding a fortune to the thin air is the question I ask myself.

For me (for most who parallel to my thinking) spending a such amount over something that goes nowhere looks plain darn stupid.

There are still isolated sections in society that still gives a big deal over where your are from, what you wear, the brands and so on. And they take it as the class or the status. But what most don’t know is those things, the prestige, can not be brought from, unless one really earns it. Still in general globalization and busy lifestyles even these “can be brought by status simbols” have played havocs. So many look alike brands, products have lost their status in the vast taste of consumer preferences. There are names which still holds the crown for prestige but not like the good old days I remember.

There was a time that my household was truly 'It's a SONY' story. The TVs, the VCRs, Cassettes, Walkmans you name it. Now not a single bears the Sony name. But in fact out user experience has never gone down but improved. So I don’t care if it is an Apple iPod or a cheap Taiwan product or some designer wear which bears big name as long as they do what they suppose to.

So back to the gift story, when you think of presents I (most guys I hope) prefer tangible things than intangibles, the person than the brand and the use than its price.

And still gifts should be untouchables which just lie in your memory.

If you do speak the language, then the Custom ROM may sounds familiar. Technically speaking, one of the most powerful but dreaded feature of the Palm OS is Custom ROMs.

It used to be a thing in the past. Tools like JackFlash might have gone to extinction. Because none of the recent SONY CLIE or PalmOne devices had the ROM update capability for a casual user. Things did changed when they released my lovely Treo 650 and it’s updates.

A smart guy comes as Shadowmite figured how they do it in the Treo factory and shared the knowledge. So we can all do it in house. The story is a long one.

All I want to say is today I myself took the plunge with my newly brought Treo Beauty. Whoa! Now it still runs Palm OS plus my favourite applications without installing any! He he heeeeeeeeee!

The term Custom ROM derives from the ability to include whatever the software applications you want to have in your device, rather than having them installed later, just as the factory fitted way. Cool but the process ain’t for the faint hearted. Should something go wrong, your most precious tool will end up just being a paper weight.

This whole month I had been hectically busy with office stuff. No chance even to play with my new Treo beauty. My eyes strain staring at the screen, lack of sleep all that adds to the fun. Oh.. Boy, I am really having a time.

So no blog post until I finish with my projects. Have fun :-)

Getting videos on the Treo is much much easier than you originally thought. Watching movies on the move is fun to kill the time.

The process of getting DVD content:

1. Step one would be ripping a DVD movie to your PC as VOB files that is easy and straight forward.

I use DVD Shrink for that and it will take 15/25 mins depending on the movie length.

2. Then resize it to Treo's 320X320 screen as AVI/ MPEG4 movies.

Using PocketDivxEncoder this will take another 20-40 mins

The resize process gives you an additional bonus of a full DVD movie being shrunken roughly to 250MB in size. So you can put a full movie even on a 256MB SD Card.

Then copy the movie to your SD Card, if you have a fast card reader that will help.

Bingo! now you are all set to watch your favorite movie, documentary in a cab or a train or a plane or in your favorite weekend hideout.

I use TCPMP Player to play movies on the Treo.

This is awesome. Actually getting a VCD done from a DVD to watch in a VCD player is more of a tedious process than this.

With merely just over two days of use I realized my lovely new Treo is more than what I bargained for. Cool!

With the exuberant exotic number of software titles from basic memo to barcode reader utilities available for Palm OS, such a compact device which is combined more processor power than my early old Celeron 300MHz Windows PC. It is truly an engineering feat.

Here's that best extracted from my Treo experience!

SMS has come to age! Email too!


SMS Chat Just like Yahoo! Chat.

MP3s,WMA and OGG playback is a whisk just like in Winamp.


Or if you prefer iTunes flavour instead.

Full length movies MPEG4, AVI or 3GP and H.263(HDTV) at your disposal.

(OK I agree it’s a shame to play DVDs in this tiny screen)
Still I can hype and wow my friends regardless. The screen’s physical size (4.5X4.5cm) is roughly the size of these images appear in a Windows 96DPI monitor but has double the resolution (320X320) where as these images are 160X160. So it is one of the crispiest, if not the best, LCD screens you can find these days.

Famous Palm PIM applications and a thousand add-ons.


Palm OS applications glore!

(With of cause additional Treo only utilities for a mobile.)

See the things that I can do with that tiny little blinking LED!


Basic but always ready digital still/ video camera, audio recorder and imaging apps.


Upto 2GB(yet) tiny-winy SD storage cards.


Tiny but very usable full function keyboard.


With full keyboard 70 combinations. QuickLaunch an application or number is snap.

Hot swappable battery just like any other mobile phone. But to your knowledge until this day Palm OS needed continuous flow of power to retain its memory, even on general computers as you know it, unless you save and shutdown after what you do. Palm users know a Palm OS is just like your ordinary TV set that you never have to wait until it boots-up or save anything. You always can pick up from where you left off. Plus, if you may, now you don't even have to HOTSYNC it. Its called some geek NVFS (None-Volatile File System) which retains wahtever you do even the power goes off. I am sure Windows will be made this way someday.

GPRS/EDGE enabled quad band global GSM phone plus a PDA. No more carrying two devices and their chargers and connectors along with you. Single beautiful solid unit. More over you can switch the GSM Radio ON/OFF regardless the PDA so it can easily be used in flights or near sensitive electronics.

So I am having fun with may new Handspring PalmOne Treo 650
Wow! Just as its long name Treo looks like the ultimate digital Nirvana I've been waiting for.

Excited? Want to have one? Yeah, I was once too :-)

Last week I truly felt like I was being upgraded.

I was upgraded from one time all the wonderful Sony CLIE-SJ33 PDA, Nokia 6610 mobile phone and Apple iPod to Palm Treo 650 Smartphone.

I have been waiting this baby to come for nearly 6 months. First I tried to get it down from US but various issues popped up. So I ordered it through the local vendor (more expensive though) then he too got stuck with his consignment for nearly over a month at the customs for it's being a communication device which never heard of by Sri Lankan customs.

Finally the long wait is over. Now the cool new Treo 650 is in my proud  possession.

Once its in my hand it almost felt like a phone, not a PDA or a mini computer which is more likely. The form factor is just right. Built for solidity, the capacities of the Palm OS, combined global GSM phone, it is practically an extension to the hand. A miniature laptop on the go.

From basic phone call functions to SMS,MMS,GPRS,EDGE to the Net, MP3,AVI,MPEG4 to all the capabilities of Palm OS software titles available to date.

I am truly wowed! Kudos to Palm Inc. for making such a wonderful piece of electronics brain when Nokia dominates for the smartphone throne.

Well, This is surely gonna keep me busy for the weeks to come. Learning and playing with it will surely distract my schedules. Yes! I love gadgets and this experience is heaven given.

Read more about Treo here. I've gotta go to play with it!

PC World magazine has published an article about the best technology stuff in year 2005. I am happy the choice 1 and 2 have been my choice too. Glad that Plam’s Treo 650 made it up to 10. Gmail and Firefox is one of the best things that happened to improve my web experience.

Read the article here.

Two years back when I got my DVD home theater system no wonder I got totally addicted to the quality of the movies which I get the chance to watch in DVD format. Crystal clear sound and near perfect picture leaves VHS and VCDs were a thing in the past.

But for a while good DVD titles were scarce here in this part of the world. Then later I got introduced to one of the video parlors in Nugegoda area which had some decent collection of DVD movies for rent. He too had run out of movies or rather I watched all he's got over the last year or so.

Then lately my player was just lying idle most of the time.

So this is a very timely thing that our office guys have come up with a office DVD Club. We've got nearly 100 good movies at the moment. We collect some membership fees and out of per rental basis we can increase the collection over the time.

The good thing is now I can cut down my trip to the video parlor and keep the movies I borrow for a while to leisurely watch them. Bingo!

So here are the few good movies I recently watched from our collection.
 
The Flight of the Pheonix
The Notebook
Paparazzi
Biotechnical Man

I wish you all a peaceful suba Wesak season!