There's an unavoidable trade-off when you buy the first PDA, the first smartphone, the first Treo off the assembly line. If you've been an early adopter before, you likely had to endure the first couple weeks without accessories specifically made for your new baby. I learned early on that sometimes my cache of old accessories contained a few useful items for my new device.

My new Treo Pro just arrived yesterday and after the Christmas-like excitement of unpacking subsided, I soberly considered my options for protecting my new Treo Pro's screen and shiny black exterior. This week's Tip will provide you with a couple suggestions that could save you some money and protect your Treo Pro until proper accessories are available for purchase in the TreoCentral Store. This Tip also includes a warning, so if you are one of the lucky ones to have a brand new Treo Pro or are about to get one, this Tip may be helpful.

1. How can you protect the screen? I ALWAYS recommend screen protectors, and the flush screen of the Treo Pro means it's easier to use existing screen protectors you may already have. You don't have to be as precise when cutting the screen protector to fit due to the flush screen! Yay! Just take a look at the two pictures I included of my own "customized" screen protector.

2. What cases are available? No cases are in the TreoCentral Store yet that are SPECIFICALLY for the Treo Pro, but either use a pouch case you already have or pick up one of the nifty pouch cases or other cases from TreoCentral that would fit, say, a similar-sized phone. My Golla case I originally got for my Centro is handling my Treo Pro just fine. Check out the pics!

3. Update: The Treo Pro FINALLY has a USB-IF standard micro-USB recepticle or "micro-AB". This is the word in our forums. You may be tempted to use a mini-USB car charger that you have laying around, but don't! Take a close look. The connector for the Treo Pro is a micro-AB and you will damage your Treo Pro's connector if you try to use it. Wait for Palm (or a generic equivalent that meets specifications) to provide a compatible charger - keep checking the TreoCentral Store! Check out the pics comparing a standard micro-USB connector and the smaller micro-USB provided with your Treo Pro. Here is another thread in the forums in which Treo Pro owners are experiencing problems charging their device with some of their USB chargers.

That's it for this week's Tip. If you are a developer with some helpful and/or fun software or if you have a Tip that you wish to pass on to the rest of the community, just email me at: [email protected]. Tune in next week for another Tip!

Disclaimer: Tip o' the Week makes no guarantee, express or implied, that any tip found herein will be new or particularly useful to the reader (but if you don't take my advice, don't blame me when you get that first nick or scratch on your beautiful Treo Pro; like that first door ding. Yikes.).

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Read Merciful by Casey Adolfsson