I ordered an InvisibleSHIELD a week ago and it has finally arrived.  Prior to installing the skin, I swapped out my chrome defective phone with a brand new replacement so that I would have a clean phone with no scratches. 

The InvisibleSHIELD comes nicely packaged and includes the plastic protective skin, a plastic squeegee, and a bottle of “Shield Spray”, which is mostly water.  A perforated plastic sheet holds the many individual skin pieces in place.  Unfortunately, Zagg did not include a legend, so you’re left to figure out what goes where.  Therefore, it would be a good idea to tear out the individual skin pieces and compare them to your phone before you begin so you’ll know what piece goes where. 

Installation is easy, but takes time and patience.  If you rush this process, you will have poor results.  Total time from start to finish was about an hour and 15 minutes to install.  First, you must remove your battery to avoid any shorts due to the water used in the installation.  Then, find which skin piece matches the phone, peel it off the sheet, and spray the Shield Solution on both sides of the skin.  The water in the Shield Solution prevents the skin from sticking to your phone on contact.  That way, you have some time to slide the skin into place.  Apply the skin to the phone and use the squeegee to drive the air bubbles out. 

Be patient with the air bubbles

Once you’re finished, let the phone dry out for at least a few hours before inserting the battery.  That way, the adhesive has time to set in.  Once cured, the InvisibleSHIELD stays firmly attached to the phone.  No edges are peeling up and I don’t for see that happening anytime soon.  If you have air bubbles, which you are bound to have, don’t worry, just let time do its work.  It typically takes 1-2 days for the bubbles to clear up on their own.  I’m about 20 hours into my new skin and I still can see air bubbles.  However, they are gradually clearing up and it doesn’t look half as bad compared to immediately after the installation. 

The main tip I have is to work slowly.  Make sure the edges line up correctly to avoid overhang.  Also be sure not to stretch the plastic out too much; the skin is manufactured to pretty tight tolerances.  If you stretch the skin, especially while applying it to the chrome siding, you may have to trim a small amount of over hang. 

The skin itself is slightly textured and feels almost tacky because of the soft plastic.  Some people don’t like this tacky feel, but I do because it gives you a nice firm grip on the phone.  Phones like the HTC Touch Pro tend to be a little slick and slip out of your hand easily as a result.  The tacky feel of the skin also helps keep the phone from sliding around, making it much harder to knock off a table.  Touch screen sensitivity remains the same as far as I can tell.  I like the screen protector because it is slightly tacky and makes my finger “stick” to the screen instead of sliding around.  One of the huge annoyances I had with the phone were all of the fingerprints and grease streaks over the screen and chrome.  With the InvisibleSHIELD, fingerprints and grease are almost completely eliminated!

I was impressed by how much surface area the skin covered.  I’d say at least 90% of the phone is covered by the InvisibleSHIELD with the exception of items like the power button, volume controls, USB port, microphone, speaker, reset button, and stylus opening.  The major impact points, like the sides and edges, are completely protected and I’m pretty confident that the phone will survive a fall no ugly scratches or dents.

Finally, here are some pictures of the Touch Pro with the InvisibleSHIELD installed.  These pictures were taken shortly after the installation so you will notice some air bubbles.  Be patient and the air bubbles will clear themselves up.

Update:  If you are looking at getting a set for your device, Zagg is running a site wide 30% off promotion on all their InvisibleSHIELD products until December 31, 2008.  Use the code “sitewide30″ during checkout on their site at http://www.zagg.com .

To follow up to my prior post regarding defective chrome in the HTC Touch Pro, I visited a Sprint store to obtain a replacement. As expected, the employees were fully aware of the issue and promptly began to switch my phone out with a brand new replacement. I knew that the replacement was new since the Sprint employee took my replacement out of a retail package.

However, we ran into a little snag when I had to tell the salesperson that the phone was originally purchased from Best Buy. She informed me that typically with third party sellers, any issues would have to be taken up with that seller. I’m assuming this applies only during the intial 30 days from the purchase date because when she asked me how long ago the phone was purchased, I said about a month.  She went to speak with her manager for approval and then promptly swapped my defective Touch Pro with a brand new replacement.

Comparison of HTC Touch Pro with Good and Bad Chrome

It appears that there is a manufacturing defect in some of the Sprint HTC Touch Pro handsets.  Good news for you and many other people, Sprint is well aware of this issue dealing with the cracks in the corners of the HTC Touch Pro.  The problem with the chrome involves very small cracks which are appearing on the edges of the phone.  You won’t notice the cracks unless you look very hard.  However, Sprint is well aware of this issue and are swapping out defective Touch Pro handsets with replacements.

If you have these cracks on your phone, and you bought your phone from a Sprint store, to go to your nearest Sprint store and ask them to swap it out.  If they try and give you the run around and act like nothing is wrong, tell them to look at their known issues log, which should note the defect with the chrome.

Crack in the chrome. Click to enlarge

My friend, who works for Sprint and other providers, tells me that you should seek a replacement phone at the original place of purchase if A) you purchased the phone from a reseller and B) you are within 30 days of the initial purchase date.  For example, if you bought your Touch Pro 2 weeks ago at a Best Buy, go to the same Best Buy for a replacement.  After those 30 days, you should seek replacement at a Sprint store.

Luckily for me, I can get a new and shiny replacement.  If you dropped your phone (like I did) and have some nasty dents and scratches, you can easily get a replacement if your chrome has cracks.  I plan to get a replacement after my InvisibleSHIELD comes in, that way I can pick up a brand new phone with zero scratches and protect it right away.  I strongly urge anybody with an HTC Touch Pro to look into full body protection because the phone is extremely prone to hairline scratches and dents.

Sorry guys, earlier today around 12:00PM EST, the site went down for about 2 hours.  Due to that incident, along with other incidents in the past year, I decided to move the site and change providers.  This site used to be hosted by CookieHost, but now I’ve moved it to Hostmonster.

I chose to host this site with Hostmonster because of their great hosting package along with the fact that I also have other sites hosted with Hostmonster.  I can’t remember a time when any of those websites went down and my experience with their customer service was top notch.  Some other benefits include:

• Unlimited hosting space
• Unlimited bandwidth
• Unlimited domains
• Unlimited email accounts
• SSH access

Due to this site getting larger and growing in traffic day-by-day, I found it very important to ensure up time and availability.  Hopefully, this shouldn’t happen again.

The move is already done and hopefully everything is working.  If anybody finds anything wrong, please leave a comment!

In the past decade, firewall, anti-virus, and anti-spyware companies ramped up their marketing and made the dangers of the internet known to the public.  Their marketing, along with a large portion of the media, made it seem like firewall, anti-virus and anti-spyware programs are mandatory and that no computer will ever be safe without them.

If you’re an above average user, the truth is, you don’t really need any of the three.  Of course, there’s a catch: you must be aware of your actions.  Computers do not get infected on their own, it is usually the fault of the user.  Clicking on an unknown link, opening email attachments from someone you don’t know, and downloading files (hint hint: warez and keygens) via P2P (peer to peer) file sharing programs are all very common examples of how an infection starts.

My point is: Be smart about what you do.  Use common sense! If you don’t know where a file came from, don’t open it.  If you don’t know where a link points to, don’t click on it.  In other words, if in doubt, don’t do it!  By practicing safe computer usage habits, you leave yourself less vulnerable to spyware and viruses.

One thing I hate about anti-virus and anti-spyware programs are their “Real-Time” scanners which scan files and processes as they execute in real-time.  This can cause considerable lag depending on your system configuration.  Even on a high-end system, I can still notice the slow down caused by real-time scanning.  Because of that, I disable the real-time scanning feature with every anti-virus program I come across.  Doing so speeds up the PC slightly and you can always manually scan a file if you think it may contain malicious code.

In my opinion, the days of spyware ended as soon as Mozilla Firefox was released.  Before then, I used Internet Explorer 6 and I always found myself with some sort of adware.  Back in those days, I’ll admit I wasn’t as smart as I should have been, but the end result was still unacceptable.  As soon as I switched to Mozilla Firefox, I never had spyware problems again.  From that day forward, combined with good browsing habits, I never had a need to install anti-spyware programs onto my PC.

Firewalls are another story that make me laugh.  More than likely, you’ve probably seen a company which claimed your computer isn’t safe from hackers unless you have their firewall product.  First off, ask yourself this, “Why would any hacker waste time in trying to hack into my computer?” Most, if not all, self respecting hackers target corporations and organizations for some sort of gain.  Will hackers really gain anything by gaining access to pictures you took last summer?  Why would anybody target you in the first place? More than likely, the average user will not need a firewall to keep him/herself safe.  If you have a router (which lots of us do), you probably have a hardware firewall built into the router, thus, you do not need a software firewall product.  Second, if you’re running Windows XP or later, you already have a software firewall.  The Windows Firewall may not be as flexible as a mainstream firewall company’s product, but it works the same way by keeping unneeded ports closed.

I, personally, do not like anything other than a hardware firewall.  Having a software firewall causes too many interruptions because there’s always a pop-up notification asking you to block or unblock a program from reaching the internet and such.  On the other hand, a hardware firewall is configured once and stays that way until you manually need to make a change.  A typical user will not have to mess around with hardware firewall settings because the router is usually smart enough to recognize the traffic and route it appropriately.

I’m not trying to say that all firewall, anti-virus, and anti-spyware products are worthless.  I’m really trying to say that good browsing habits along with some common sense can mitigate 99% of all your risks regarding the latter.  Being aware is your number one defense against malicious code.

Remote Desktop is a great feature of Windows which lets you remotely control your desktop from a remote location.  Many IT professionals and users utilize this free feature in Windows 2000/XP/Vista.  Remote desktop is a huge time saver because you do not have to physically be at the computer workstation to control the computer.  Basically, this post will go over how to enable Remote Desktop as well as how to use DynDNS.com’s services to automatically update a chosen host name with the remote PC’s IP address.  The end result: you’ll never have to remember the IP address again.

Enabling Remote Desktop on a Windows PC is fairly straightforward.

For Windows 2000/XP:

1. Right click on “My Computer” and choose “Properties”
2. Go to the “Remote” tab
3. Check the box that says “Allow users to connect remotely to this computer”
4. Click “OK” at the bottom of the window.

For Windows Vista:

1. Right click on “My Computer” and choose “Properties”
2. Click on “Remote settings” in the left “Tasks” menu
3. Choose the radio button which says “Allow connections from computers running any version of Remote Desktop (less secure)”
4. Click “OK” at the bottom of the window.

The last step is to figure out what IP address the remote PC has.  If you’re connected directly to your modem and not using a router, you can view your IP address by going to http://www.whatismyip.com.  If you have a router, you will have to log in to your router to view the IP address.  You will also have to forward port 3389 to the PC you wish to remotely connect to.  Since there are many, many routers out there, you will have to consult your router’s manual or website for instructions on how to do the latter.

To connect to your remote PC, you will need to use the Remote Desktop Connection program.  This is typically found in Start -> Programs -> Accessories.  Once the program has opened, enter in the IP address of the remote PC which was described in the paragraph above.  Click on “Connect” and it should connect you to your remote desktop enabled PC.  If it asks you for a user name and password, use the credentials you usually use when you log on to your PC.

However, the problem that most residential users run into is with their dynamic IP address.  Most residential internet connections are assigned a dynamic IP address which can change over time.  This means that everytime your IP address changes, you will have to use that new IP address to access your remote computer.

Why is that bad?  Well, if you have your old IP address and are unaware of the new IP address, connecting to your remote PC would be impossible.

DynDNS.com solves this problem by letting you choose a free host name to use and associate with your dynamic IP address.  Using DynDNS.com, you can create a host name, such as “myipaddress.home-ip.net” and assign that name to point to your IP address.   Now you only have to enter “myipaddress.home-ip.net” in the Remote Desktop Connection program instead of the IP address.

Then, using the DynDNS updater utility, you can automatically update DynDNS.com with your new IP address (if it changes).  Therefore, you only have to remember the “myipaddress.home-ip.net” address instead of the numerical IP address (e.g. 74.123.124.83).  You also will never have to worry about your IP address changing because the dyn-dns updater utility will automatically update your host name with your new IP address.  The updater utility is available on DynDNS.com and I would highly recommend to use the utility to update your host name with IP address changes.

If you setup a host name with DynDNS, you will never have to remember your home IP address again.  The updater utility takes care of the times when your IP address changes and updates your host name with the new address.  Therefore, using only your host name such as “myipaddress.home-ip.net”, you can connect to a Remote Desktop enabled PC even if you don’t know the IP address.  This process has been working for me for over a year with no problems at all.

Let’s face it, the stock screen protector supplied with the HTC Touch Pro sucks.  It’s too difficult to install since it leaves very little room for error.  If you are off by 1mm, the screen protector will hang of the side just a little.  Over time, the edge of the screen protector will pull up and  all the dust and lint inside your pocket will dig into the screen protector.  Eventually, the whole screen protector will come right off the screen, leaving it naked and prone to scratches.  This is exactly what happened to me after 2 weeks of using the stock screen protector.

Scratches along the top (click to enlarge)

When I first got my HTC Touch Pro, I immediately looked at an InvisibleSHIELD product to protect my device.  However, they didnot have one developed at the time the HTC Touch Pro was released.  I just checked their website recently, and to my surprise, they finally have them in stock.  HURRAY!

Supposedly, the same material used in the screen and body protectors are also used in helicopter blades to protect them from debris.  The film is only .2mm thick (2 tenths of a millimeter) and is scratch-proof.  The video on their website is more than enough proof of the InvisibleSHIELD’s capabilities.

Scratches around the bottom and a dent from being dropped onto wood floor from 4ft high (click to enlarge)

Not only does the InvisibleSHIELD protect the screen, it also protects the entire body of the phone.  This is extremely important to me because I don’t use a belt clip or holster and I hate bulky silicone cases.  Bulky cases seem to defeat the purpose of having a small, portable phone.  However, with the InvisibleSHIELD installed, the phone won’t get any thicker and it becomes protected from drops.   I can’t count the number of times I’ve left my cell phone in my lap while driving, then eventually getting out of the car and having the phone fall from my lap onto the pavement.  With the InvisibleSHIELD, I can finally put my worries to ease.

I put my order for an InvisibleSHIELD in today.  It should be here sometime next week or the week afterwards.  Once I get it, I’ll write a review and post some pictures.  In the meantime, take a look at the pictures to see what I’m griping about.

Almost all of us have come to the point where we had to reinstall our operating system whether it be Windows, Linux, or MacOS.  Typically, it would take me about 2 hours on a good day to rebuild a machine by completely reinstalling Windows XP, all drivers, and standard software like Firefox, Office, etc.   However, restoring a system using imaging software such as Acronis True Image takes only 20 minutes.   While I don’t reinstall often, it is a pain when I have to.  This is where making an image of your PC can come in handy; you won’t have to manually restore everything because you will be able to restore an image.

Making an “image” basically means taking a snapshot (image) of all of the data on your hard drive and storing it in a file which can be restored at a later date.  The image contains your operating system (like Windows XP), all files which were on your computer when you made the image, and all configuration settings like your Windows product key, computer name, etc.

When an image is made, you can choose what to make an image of, whether it be a couple of folders or the whole hard drive.  Typically, the image is compressed to save space, and can then be stored anywhere you want.  It would be a good idea to store the image file on a separate hard drive, like an external hard drive, in the event that your main hard drive dies.  If that happens, you’ll still have your image in a safe place.

Once you have reinstalled the operating system on a computer, installed all the drivers, configured your settings, and installed your necessary software, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to make an image.  Making an image takes roughly 20-30 minutes (or longer depending on how much data) and then takes about the same time to restore.

The imaging software I recommend is the Acronis True Image series.  Because of the intuitive backup and restore wizards, the software is extremely easy to use with lots of customization.  Another thing I really like about the Acronis True Image products is that it lets you create a boot CD which contains all of the same backup and restore utilities found in the main program.  This means that you won’t have to load the software onto the PC being imaged; you can just pop in the boot CD and make an image.  The image can then be stored in a variety of places such as a hard drive in the PC, a network share, and USB drive.

When the time comes to restore your image because of say, a virus or corrupted system files, the boot CD can be used to restore the image.  Just boot from the CD and use the restore wizard to restore your image to your hard drive.  You’ll then have a fully functioning system ready to go, in a fraction of the time it would take you to manually reinstall all of the software!  This is a fairly common practice used by many IT companies to cut down on time spent

While the HTC Touch Pro comes with an array of applications loaded by default, there are a few good programs they left out, like Google Maps.  After sorting through tons of applications for Windows Mobile, I’ve come up with a list of useful programs to load onto your virgin Touch Pro.

• Advanced Configuration Tool - This program allows you to tweak all sorts of settings
• CorePlayer - Media player.  Plays almost all music/video formats and has better streaming capabilities than the stock Windows Media Player.  TCPMP is not working on the Touch Pro (yet), so this is the next best thing.
• Diamond TF3D Config - Although the program was made for the Touch Diamond, it will work on the Touch Pro.  If you’re using TouchFlo3D, this program will allow you re-arrange the tabs as well as remove unwanted tabs.
• GMobileSync - If you use Google Calendar, this program will allow you to sync your Google Calendar to your phone.  You may get an error after syncing, but don’t worry, the calendar entries will sync.
• Google Maps- Surprisingly, this wasn’t included in the list of stock programs.  Google Maps is almost a no-brainer; it lets you search maps, get directions, show traffic, etc.  Better yet, Google Maps even works with the Touch Pro’s built-in GPS.  Using GPS with Google Maps will let you create a route from your current location, but it does not automatically re-route in the event of a detour.
• Kevtris 2- Tetris for your phone, ’nuff said.
• PdaNet- A must have program if you plan to tether (use your phone as an internet connection).  You can connect via bluetooth or USB connection.  Supposedly, the program disguises your data usage so it looks like you’re browsing from the phone, not from your computer.  Most carriers have a tethering fee in addition to the standard data charges.  PdaNet basically lets you evade those tethering fees by disguising the traffic.  I’ve used PdaNet on and off for over a year and have had no tethering charges or additional fees.
• PHM RegEdit - Registry editor for Windows Mobile.  A must have if you plan on doing any advanced tweaks.
• Remote Desktop for Windows Mobile 6 - This is just what it sounds like, a remote desktop program for Windows Mobile which lets you access your remote desktop enabled PC while away from it.  Why they did not include this in the stock ROM is beyond me.  Remote Desktop comes in handy if you need to access a PC, but don’t have a computer available.
• SPB Mobile Shell- An alternative to TouchFlo3D.  Mobile Shell basically replaces your home screen with its own interface.  I use SPB Mobile Shell because I find TouchFlo3D to be laggy at times and cause overall sluggish performance.  Installing Mobile Shell helped performance overall and there’s also a ton of customization that can be applied to suit your liking.
• SPB Insight - An alternative to the default newsreader “RSS Hub”.  RSS Hub is pretty good, lightweight, and fast, but it lacks a few things.  One is the lack of images, the other is how RSS Hub only downloads part of an article, making you visit the site to read the rest of the article.  SPB Insight not only downloads images, but it also (most of the time) downloads the entire article for offline viewing.
• SPB Pocket Plus - A very powerful today screen plug-in.  Lets you add all sorts of plugins and shortcuts to your today screen with lots of other features.  I use Pocket Plus as one of the tabs in SPB Mobile Shell.
• Sprite Backup - This program backs up your phone, contacts, programs, etc.  Backups can be scheduled and only take about 5-6 minutes to run.  It is always a good idea to have backups!
• TorchButton - Lets you use the camera’s flash function as a flashlight.  The application is lightweight; you just run the program to turn on the light and run the program again to turn it off.  By default, the LED light will only stay on for 30 seconds to prevent burn out.
• Total Commander - A feature filled file explorer program with too many features to list.  This is a definite must have program because you will never know when you’ll need it.
• VNC Viewer - Exactly what you think it is.  Will let you connect and control the desktop of any VNC server.
• vxUtil- Network utilities such as ping, traceroute, whois, etc.  Network administrators may want to look into this program; it could come in handy and save you time.

My Touch Pro Today screen with SPB Mobile Shell and Pocket Plus	Recently used programs tab in SPB Mobile Shell
Weather Tab in SPB Mobile Shell	SPB Insight Tab with News Feeds

By itself, Firefox is a great browser, but what really sets it apart from all the rest are the addons available for Firefox.  Addons are basically widgets within Firefox.  There are many, many extensions out there that do all sorts of cool things, but I’m going to focus on my favorite and most useful addons.

Here is the list of addons I use the most:

1. ForecastFox - An addon which tells you the weather.  Displays information in the bottom status bar.
2. SearchStatus - Sits in the bottom status bar and reports the currently displayed page’s PageRank and Alexa Rank.  Very handy for webmasters to get a quick glimpse of where their pages are.
3. FoxMarks - Every person who has more than one computer should have this addon.  FoxMarks syncs your bookmarks across multiple computers to a central server.  Comes in handy when you use multiple PCs throughout the day.  If you bookmark something on one PC, it will not transfer to your main PC.  This is where FoxMarks comes in handy!
4. FasterFox - This plugin basically “turbo charges” your Firefox browser and can speed things up quite a bit.  It doesn’t speed up your internet connection, but it does prefetch links (load links in the background) and allow you to tweak Firefox network settings.  With FasterFox, you can grant Firefox more connections to use when connecting to a web server.  Do the web admins a favor and don’t turn this too high.  If you’re unsure of what to do, leave it at the default!
5. Web Developer Toolbar - A toolbar with lots and lots of functionality.  Mainly gives information, like CSS info, dimensions, etc about the page being viewed.  A must have for any web master because of the simplicity and huge functionality.
6. DownThemAll - The best download manager in my opinion.  This download manager will allow you to download anything at a very high speed.  It works by downloading multiple parts of the file simoultaneously, then reconstructing the file as a whole once all the parts are finished downloading.  DownThemAll also opens up multiple connections per download, similar to the way FasterFox speeds up web browsing.

Finally, here’s a screenshot of my browser.  At the top, you can see the Web Developer Toolbar.  At the bottom status bar (from left to right), you can see FasterFox, FoxMarks, SearchStatus, and ForecastFox.