Size matters: my PalmOS smartphone locked up and my stupid stylus isn't long enough to hit "RESET"
I had a minor scare this morning (4:34AM to be exact), in which I fired up my Handspring Treo 600 to check my e-mail wirelessly. Now fully charged, I removed it from the cradle and fired up the e-mail client, but for some strange reason the unnit lockled up totally, with the backlight and keyboard shining in all their glory. This is the first time this happened since I got it last week, and having owned previous PalmOS devices, I'm sure it won't be the last.
Anyway, I whipped out the stylus and unscrewed the back end to expose the reset tool (a nice little touch I've always appreciated) and try and press the Reset button to do a soft reset...but the stylus that shipped with my unit curiously was either broken off or was a factory defect that was too short. I found another stylus from an old Palm III, but that too missed depressing the internal button by I assume a few millimeters.
The first thing that went through my mind was "oh, great...I can't reset the smartphone, so I'll just let the battery just die out", but being charged, it's got about 240 hours of standby time, which would mean the backlight would likely burn out before the battery did. Fantastic. I finally found an old, tiny paperclip and got it done.
You can bet your ass I'm keeping that paperclip in my carrying case. MacGyver would be proud.