Protect Your Device Better Than Any Case Can

I wanted to take the time to tell you about a product that I’ve used more than once now and sincerely recommend.  With that said, your mileage my vary, but I’ve been very impressed.

The product I’m talking about today is the Invisible Shield.  I have one on my Creative Zen V Plus and now on my Motorola Q9H.  So what is this product that I would take up my valuable time to recommend?  Basically, its a clear plastic skin for your device.  Depending on the device, you can get it to cover just the front screen of the device or the whole thing.  It is barely noticeable on the device – it gives it a “wet look” but otherwise you hardly know its there.

So what does it DO? It protects your device from scratches, basically.  There are videos on their site that show the product in action.  Its really a great product.  I’ve had one on my Zen V Plus for about 9 months now and there is literally not a scratch on the device! Because this MP3 player is so small, I tend to throw it in my pocket with coins, keys, etc. and have dropped it to the pavement more than once.  Any other device would have been pretty scratched up by now.  Not this guy.  Could I get the same “protection” from a silicone “sleeve”?  Sure.  But that adds bulk.  This is a thin piece of plastic, although plastic doesn’t do it justice. So I can continue to use my belt clip, charging dock, whatever (depending on your device) and the Shield doesn’t interfere with the use of the device!

So when I ordered my Motorola Q9H after working with a demo unit for a week, I immediately ordered an Invisible Shield and applied it immediately upon its arrival.  Now my device is protected from the scratches it would be sure to get from my pocket, etc. had I not applied it.  Added bonus: it hides the fingerprints on the shiny parts of the device!  It was a complaint of mine that some of the buttons on the Q9H would show every little fingerprint and I was constantly wiping it down. Now I don’t need to!

If you know me at all, you know I’m not one to recommend a product this enthusiastically, but this is one product I recommend you get for your precious devices!

Don’t waste your money…

So, if you've read previous blogs, you know I am using a Cingular 2125 Windows Mobile 5 Smartphone.
But this morning, I had a problem, where the headset jack broke, making is so that the phone only made sound through a headset. Kinda sucked. But unfortunately for me, not too suprising, as I've had this happen to me a few times over the years with my iPAQs.

Upon realizing what has happened to my beloved phone, I plug my phone into my PC and run PocketBackup ( http://www.thbi.de/us/software/pock…ckup/index.html). It dutifuly backs up the contents of my phone and I then head-off to the Cingular store for a replacement. No drama there and I'm back in about 20 minutes with a new phone.

I power up the new phone, plug it into my PC and run Pocket Restore. There's my first clue that this software isn't what is cracked up to be. First, I can't find the backup file for the phone. Why? Because apparantly the backups are dependent on the phone name (each WM device has to have a name) and the factory-default name is different from what I HAD called my first phone.

So I was forced to load up Tweaks2K for my phone and change the name to what my first phone was named. OK, now it can find the file and does a restore. Now, I've done a fair amount of customizing on my phone, and one of the many change I've made is to Start Menu and how the programs are listed. All of my most frequently used programs are right on the first screen. So imagine my suprise when I see the factory-default Start Menu. What gives?

Well, apparently it doesn't copy anything in the Windows directory or its sub-directories. Nothing. AND not the registry. For those of you who don't know, the registry is where all kinds of info about your phone is stored and its important. So you need to RE-REGISTER all of you programs all over again, etc. THAT SUCKS!

But then, to put the icing on the cake, I realize that my Ring Profiles don't work. Will only do Normal. I tried everything to get them to work. Finally, I had to do a hard-reset. Profiles worked again. Turns out, that there are xml files that make up your profile settings on your phone, and Pocket Backup backs those up. Great? No. Because apparently copying over them does something to them and then the don't work. Had to do another hard-reset, but this time I realized it only about 10 minutes into the process.

So, short answer to this story is, save your money. These folks are asking for $24 for something you could do yourself. If it can't restore a phone from a hard-reset, then it shouldn't be called a backup program!