GeekFindr: Treo Sliding Lock
So, I was jealous of the cool sliding lock to be found on iPhones and also on this guy’s Win Mob device. I don’t know about you, but I keep my 650 in my pants pocket and I don’t have any sort of cover for it - so it happens a lot that I’ll take my phone out and it will have been in the midst of composing an email or worse it sometimes would erase the name of a contact or something. It turns out that that middle button is super easy to press. So when I saw that video with the slide lock (where you have to drag your finger across the screen) it seemed like a really good way to keep unlocking easy but have it be almost impossible to happen in a pocket.
Fortunately I found Butler for the treo. You set the keyguard to both “slide keyguard down to unlock” as well as “option+centre key unlock”. I wasn’t doing the option+centre key bit and so the center key would still unlock the phone. The option+centre option makes that the keypress needed to unlock which is also unlikely to happen by accident. I wish there was simply a no-keypress to unlock option, but it is what it is. It isn’t as pretty as it is on the iPhone, but it works.
Butler also does a bunch of other things, I like their remote lock feature where certain sms’s will lock your phone or even erase all the contents, although it does make me a little paranoid. I thought I would like their ability to remap the volume keys to scroll or switch apps, but it turns out that when I’m holding the phone not at my ear, it isn’t too comfortable using those buttons. So really, the only thing I use Butler for is the sliding keygaurd, but it is so completely worth it. If you’ve got a treo and keep it in your pocket, you know what I mean.
