This is no ordinary phone, this is A Super Smartphone and it has made me go from lugging a backpack to simply carrying a small purse. How? Easy, it’s eliminated me having to carry a phone & case, a large bulky 5½” by 8” calendar which contained: monthly and daily calendar pages, a snail/phone/email/web address book (limited to 100 entries), and sections for: project tracking/development, meeting notes, expenses/money tracking and all my To Do lists (home, personal, son’s, & work).

In that backpack I also usually carried a newsmagazine, a wallet calculator, a cd player, my 3 zone wristwatch, something spiritual to read, several pens and a micro device for my presentations. On weekends I would occasionally also throw in my old camera (which was too old and heavy) for me to use and cdÂ’s for my son to listen to and a large bottle of water for us to share.

Well, except for my water bottle, my Treo 650 has replaced all of those items and provided lots more! WOOOHOOOO! I now have unlimited storage space for each calendar entry and I can link them to the respective contacts listed in my work/personal Outlook contact files. I can set an endless number of alarms for a single or multiple events in my calendar.

If youÂ’re like me and forget names but always remembers faces, your contacts can now display a picture for each entry. If youÂ’re in sales or in the medical/legal profession this baby is worth more than itÂ’s weight in gold.

In addition to having a digital camera, it also has a camcorder (I used both as a back up eqpt. for my sonÂ’s graduation when the batteries on my ex-brother in lawÂ’s digital camera failed). It also works as an mp3 player, and has the ability to do text/instant messaging and surf the web, all wirelessly! I have downloaded documents, updated contacts and calendar entries from my work PC onto my Treo and then transferred them to my home pc via the infrared port in no time at all. Seamless syncronization!

I've begun subscribing to RSS feeds of all my favorite blogs. They're not that many popular blogs that have RSS feeds available to readers, so if you're looking to up your readership that's one way to do it. This device will also enable me to post updates on my blog, check my private email account, stay in touch w/all my favorite bloggers and BAD family members without violating my firmÂ’s strict technical equipment usage policies. Oh, and it came with a wireless blue tooth headset that looks like Lt. UhuruÂ’s headset on Star Trek. No wires to get tangled in!!!

I will be giving my old Treo 300 to my ex-sister in law, who is an international attorney, so she can hold all of the international commerce laws in Asia in a 5Gb memory card, and have her most valuable reference material with her at all times. This treo almost saved my son's life during a blackout sometime ago when he was extremely sick and required round the clock meds. At one point I got up in the middle of the night and was about to give him medication thinking I heard my alarm clock, when in fact all that had happened was that the power had restored. Just as I was about to give him the meds I decided to check my Treo to make sure the alarm in it had in fact gone off and I had not dreamed of it. I discovered by checking the Treo that I had already given him his meds only an hour before.

My pediatrician saw my Treo and itÂ’s functionality and when I told him of the PDR and Patient History file storage card that was compatible with his software he went out and got it the next day. He called me today to thank me as that device helped him give complete medical history to an ER doctor on a critically ill child. Since IÂ’m not using the MP3 player IÂ’ve only needed to charge the battery every 3rd day.

One warning though, the phone/data plans associated with this phone are expensive. I am not happy about the cost of mine. The reason I agreed to pay the $90 a month for the phone/data plan is to ensure that in case of an emergency I could call/text/email/send pics to any of my relatives, friends, business associates, or my sonÂ’s guardians who are located overseas and vice versa. Now if only everyone in my life would just get on the Verizon Wireless network my life would be complete.

YesÂ… it does take a high tech, high performance toy to make me happy!!! Don't give me jewelry, just give me software
: )

Posted by: Michele at 09:34 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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This little 5 Gb candy bar of power is more than an mp3 player; itsÂ’s a data storage device, a voice recorder, and an FM radio receiver. It has a Li-Ion polymer battery that last over 12 hrs and is easily recharged via your USB port while you listen to the device. It has a great little locking button for when I start dancing around like a mad woman as I'm cleaning so that I wonÂ’t lose my settings.

I really love this thing! Not only is it a great source for hours of entertainment, it also provides lots of capacity for ALL itÂ’s functions. Even though I have 4Gb of music in it (almost the equivalent of an entire music library of several thousand songs) it helps me store all of it in many ways, which is better than any smart stereo system you can have, plus, you won't wake up your neighbors, except if you dance. IÂ’ve stored all my sonÂ’s music (and carry a spare set of inexpensive earbuds) just in case we go out somewhere and get stuck on the train or delayed at an appointment.

In addition to his playlist, IÂ’ve created several of my own. One playlist for each of my moods and for different activities like working, exercising, cleaning, or relaxing. I have also transferred 2 books on tape so that when I want to listen to something interesting or literary during my commute home I can listen and ignore my sardine like environment during rush hour.

I still have enough room left over so that I can store/carry large amounts of data (like large databases) and exchange it between my home and work pc. Also, I can save battery life because the software has enabled me to transfer and hold the music in my work pc so while I'm there I can simply listen to the prearranged playlists via my pc. HOW COOL IS THAT!

This device and it's music has been a godsend for my noisy cubicle environment. I have a classical/instrumental playlist that has really helped me focus on my work this week. I was reading lots of legislation and it helped me stay awake and stress free while my noisy neighbors chatted away endlessly about their personal lives and the latest episodes of various reality tv show. I don't watch tv so I had no idea what they were talking about.

This device has enabled my music to truly become the soundtrack to my life.

Posted by: Michele at 09:17 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Many people are familiar with Phishing, but few know anything about Pharming. Phishing is when you receive an email from what seems to be a legitimate source but actually itÂ’s from someone trying to obtain your personal online information posing as either your bank, investment firm or credit card company. What they want is for you to email them your personal identification information, online banking information or other info such as your date of birth or social security number.

These emails are so well done that I almost fell victim to their scam. Luckily I decided to contact my bank via phone to make sure. It took them over 3 hrs for them to call me back and let me know it was fraudulent. They admitted that even they were almost fooled. A large number of Citibank customers were not so lucky and became victims to these scams last year. Citibank was forced to recently make changes to both their customer emails and to their online banking websites in order to prevent more victims of phishing expeditions.

Not heard of Pharming much? You will soon as the ISC reported that in February of this year over 1300 Internet domains were redirected to compromised web servers, where unsuspecting customers thought they were logging on to legitimate sites to conduct their electronic business. In March that number increased by 1.8%. HereÂ’s a list of a few sites which have suffered from Pharming hackers:

Banking: bankofamerica.com, bankone.com, chase.com, wachovia.com, and wellsfargo.com
Brokerage: sharebuilder.com
Email: msn.com, and yahoo.com
Travel: aa.com, continental.com, and united.com

Pharming is a relatively new and dangerous way for internet fraudsters to obtain all your personal information with your help. These fraudsters exploit peopleÂ’s natural curiosity via pop-up windows, planting crimeware onto your PC. They steal your credentials directly from you by using Trojan keylogger spyware that sends back to its creator information regarding where you visited and what information you typed to access that site. Hackers can also misdirect users to fraudulent sites or proxy servers, typically through DNS hijacking or poisoning to make you believe youÂ’re at a legitimate site, then steal enough personal identification or data from you to enable them to access your online banking and credit card accounts.

Tomorrow IÂ’ll post tips on how you can prevent from giving away the pharm!

Posted by: Michele at 12:51 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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