I have previously discussed about the hidden Voice Memo capability in the Treo 650 here but since I previously reviewed the CallRec recorder program and mentioned that there is no direct integration of the voice memo sound file with the Datebook/Calendar program, well, here is a workaround that some of you may find helpful.

First of all, this workaround will only work on the default Palm Calendar/Datebook program and not on the third party datebook programs like Datebk5/6 or others. But if that is something you want, I guess it doesn’t matter whether it is set on the default Calendar app or third party Calendars.

Here are the programs you need:

- Your voice recorder program: (ie. CallRec, SoundRec, mVoice, Personal Audio Recorder, etc)

- miniTones

Considering that I am using the CallRec program, I will refer to that program. You can apply a similar workaround with any other voice recorder program like the freeware SoundRec, Personal Audio Recorder, mVoice, and others for example.

Here’s what you need to do. Go through the 3 steps and you now have your own voice reminder alarm! Cool!

1 - Create your voice memo reminder (eg. “Buy milk”)

First, obviously you need to have a voice memo recording. If it’s meant as a reminder such “Buy milk”, first, create your voice memo recording with your voice recording program.

Here are some screenshots of the creation of a “Buy milk” voice memo with CallRec.

Hover your mouse over the images for more details, especially for the later steps and procedures.

2 - Launch miniTones. Add voice memo to alarms

Next, run and launch miniTones. It will scan your SD card for all mp3, midi and wave files. Locate your voice memo wave file. It will likely be in a format that has the date and time and with the .wav extension at the end (eg. 08 01 26-11.54.wav for CallRec memos). Select that file and add it to your alarms database.

3 - Launch Datebook/Calendar. Select the voice memo alarm

Now, open and launch your default Palm Datebook/Calendar app. Go into the Options Menu and select Sound Preferences or simply go into your Sounds in the Palm launcher or go into the Prefs app and then go into Sounds & Alerts. They will all take you to the Sounds preferences.

Make sure you select Calendar in the Application. Tap on the Tones. Then, select the newly added voice memo alarm sound in the Alarm Sound. If you wish to have the alarm preset a certain number of minutes before the appointment, you can click on the box next to Alarm Preset: and specifiy the number of minutes or your desired time. Click Done. That’s it!

At the time specified or at the preset time before the appointment time, the voice memo recording you’ve made will play and you will hear yourself say the reminder. Wasn’t that cool?

Now, keep in mind that if the file is a WAV file it will likely take up valuable RAM space so unless you tend to use that voice memo a lot, you may want to delete it when you’re finished with it and clear up some RAM space. Here’s how to delete the sound files from your alarms list and free up some RAM!

Delete Alarm Sound Files from the Alarms list

In case you found the screenshots and procedures way too complicated, here’s a video I made that shows how it’s done.

Video demonstrating how it’s done

How to use your voice memo as an alarm on your Treo smartphone (on YouTube)

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