There is an area with the Pre out of the box where it is relatively lacking.  Its not the video recording capability, well actually it is that, but even more urgent is the abysmal lack of ringtones.  The list of ringtones that come pre-installed on the Pre are about as short and boring as the ringtones that came with my first Treo years and years ago.

I’ve had my Pre for a little over a week (actually my 2nd Pre for about 4-5 days, my 1st Pre before that was acquired over a week ago).  Anyway due to the failure of the first Pre, I was a little delayed in customizing my second Pre for fear it might die too.

So I have been putting up with quiet boring ringtones for a week now.  I no longer work in the corporate world and so I can use what ever ringtone I feel like these days without having to worry about making an embarrassing interruption during a marathon series of meetings.

So I did a quick search on how to make a Palm Ringtone and found this ever so useful video on YouTube

It is also supported by a written tutorial, which I did not need to use myself because the video was so damned good and I had some of the fundamental knowledge and experience already. 

It requires the download and installation of Audacity, which is a free audio editing program and a very good one at that.  I already have audacity and so the tutorial was very easy to follow and repeat with almost no difficulties. 

So if you can’t stand your boring standard issue Palm Ringtones and are confused by the lack of places to download Palm Pre ringtones through the Palm marketplace, save yourself some money and just convert one of your MP3 songs into a ringtone!

I have an old Treo 600 and I’m just about ready to upgrade, but I haven’t figured out which carrier I’m going with and so I can’t make a final decision on the new Treo I’ll pack next.

About a month ago, I lost the stylus for the phone when I was chasing my lost dog through the woods.  Its hard enough to find a stylus for a new treo let alone find one for one of the oldest treo’s made by Palm.  I haven’t really tried too hard either.

Well, its been getting harder and harder to work the phone without a stylus, especially my alarm clock (using the Butler program).  So the other night when I was cleaning my ears out, enabling me to hear my phone a little better, I thought about hacking the Q-Tip.

So I used a plastic Q-Tip, removed the cotton from one end, and it works great as a stand in stylus.

Here’s some quick shots of the Q-Stylus in action:

It may not be super classy and it definitely won’t turn your treo into an accessory for your diamond rings or bling collection in general.  You might not impress a client for having a lot of style, but you might get the job done more effectively.  So if function over form is your requirement of the day, then hack at it!