Once upon a time I counted on my Treo to alert me when I'd missed a call or text message. All I had to do was glance down, and the flashing led was all I needed. And then Palm decided that the only reason we needed the led was so we would know if we were charging. I understand the need to conserve the battery, but taking away the led was a big disappointment. There are a few (mostly unsuccessful) workarounds on the pos Treo/Centro. So a major joy when I switched to the Windows Mobile Treo 800w was Hannip's Treo Alert Manager.
Treo Alert Manager is currently up to beta version 13, and while there may be a few slight imperfections, it's definitely ready for prime time. While Hannip is still adding features, tweaking settings, and generally beautifying the interface, the basic features are in place, and it's working well.
The history of TAM is an example of how a user base comes together to help one another with a common need. It all started when T|C forum member "slingbox" wanted a way to make his Treo 700wx's led to blink for email, sms, missed calls and voicemail. Hannip, who is a software engineer by trade, decided to investigate and see if he could help. And when Hannip discovered MortScript, he also discovered a new hobby in helping out the Treo community.
Hannip told me
So what can Treo Alert Manager do? Besides the obvious answer, my personal favorite feature is giving you control over the 800w's puny vibrate. Finally my 800w vibrates more than once, so I'll actually know it wants my attention! Kudos to Hannip for that feature alone. Let's take a look at some of the other options.
- Highly configurable program that adds reminders and alerts for various system events such as pending Voice Mail, Missed Calls, SMS, Email and other reminders such as Calendar reminders and Alarms.
- Can be configured to blink led when any of the above listed events occur.
- Can be configured to vibrate when any of the above listed events occur.
- Multi-color/blink rate LED settings (not yet supported on the 800w)
- Unlimited number of vibe styles that can be configured for each type of event.
- Rotating text display for notification counts, date, battery and signal percentage, available memory and Xcast weather.
- Several Xcast weather display options. Weather can be configured for any zip code or country code worldwide.
- Timer to control when events are monitored so you can have it automatically disable alerts at night.
- Each type of alert can be disabled/enabled individually so if you don't want to be notified for Email's for example you can disable it.
- Display rotation intervals and Reminder alert intervals are configurable.
- Multiple today plugins are supported and can be switched at will.
- Voice announce of pending alerts and last missed call
I honestly don't know of anything that adds as much immediate value to a Treo, and highly recommend this application to every Windows Mobile Treo owner.
You can download it here, and join in on the ongoing discussion/development here
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