.KEYWORD velcro
.FLYINGHEAD REAL-WORLD SOLUTIONS
.TITLE The best ways to use Velcro to keep your Palm device safely anchored in your shirt pocket
.FEATURE
.SUMMARY Sometimes the coolest technology leads to very real, but silly-sounding problems. Karl Bunker had one such problem. He insisted on keeping his Palm III in his shirt pocket. After bending over one day and smashing his organizer on the floor, he decided to carefully engineer a precision solution: Velcro strips. You might think there’s no art to sticking some Velcro inside your shirt pocket, but you’d be wrong. Read this article and you’ll learn some of the tricks, tips, and hidden pitfalls in using Velcro in your shirt pocket. And, remember, you get all the juicy fashion tips right here in PalmPower Magazine.
.AUTHOR Karl Bunker
The very real issues of sexism notwithstanding, there are a few areas where society has given a definite advantage to women. One of those is the pocketbook. No, I didn’t say "PowerBook". I’m talking about the always-handy handbag. In these days of an increasing array of personal accouterments — pagers, cell phones, and of course Palm devices, there’s something we all need, and only women who carry purses are privileged to have: a good place to carry all this stuff.
Admittedly, there are some options for folks who don’t carry handbags, of course. Some are:
.BEGIN_LIST
.BULLET Belt clips (for those who still think that Batman’s utility belt is really cool);
.BULLET Fanny packs (for those who are happy with the notion of drawing attention to their fannies);
.BULLET More traditional cases or "packs" that (although most of us won’t admit it) will serve generally the same purpose as a purse;
.BULLET The inside jacket pocket for those who wear a — gasp! — suit (this also works when you’re wearing a winter jacket).
.END_LIST
Unfortunately, if you’re in the suit-and-tie, dress-for-success corporate world, a cool case just won’t cut it. Sometimes, you just gotta stick your Palm device in your shirt breast pocket.
Call me rigid, but the last of these was the only acceptable option for me. Happily, the Palm device is deliberately designed to slip easily into a shirt pocket. Unhappily, it is also designed to slip out of a shirt pocket. I learned this fact a few days after I bought my first Palm III.
Like most of us, I don’t always follow the advice of mothers and gym teachers everywhere: "Bend at the knees, not at the waist." When I have to pick something up from the floor, my tendency is to bend over at the waist. This action has a predictable effect upon the contents of my average man’s breast pocket: everything falls out — sometimes landing on unyielding concrete surfaces.
A few of days (and $100) later, my Palm III had a new screen and I was a poorer but wiser man. I realized that I had to find a solution for this hazard to my Palm III, one that was a little more certain than attempting to instantly correct a lifetime of bad bending-over habits (sorry, Mom).
Current fashions in men’s shirts are such that few of them have pockets with button closures, and few of those that do are deep enough to button closed over a Palm unit. I determined that Velcro — the venerable "hook and loop" fastener — was the solution to my problem. This, in itself, may seem a trivial piece of deduction but, in fact, there are several points about the use of Velcro in this application that aren’t so obvious. My purpose in this article is to convey to you what I’ve learned about the best ways to use Velcro to keep your Palm device safely anchored in your shirt pocket.
.H1 Your velcro options
Looking through your wardrobe, you’ll probably find that the size of your shirt pockets varies somewhat. Some may be deep enough that you can close the pocket over a Palm device, using two tabs of Velcro to take the place of the button that your shirt-maker decided was an unneeded extravagance. Most shirts have pockets too shallow for this, however; either the pocket won’t close over the Palm unit at all, or forcing it to do so will give your pocket a "stuffed" look that isn’t attractive. The solution in this case is to use Velcro to stick the Palm unit to the inside of your pocket, rather than to stick velcro between the pocket material and the shirt material. This is done by attaching a small (about 1/2 inch by 3/4 inch) tab of self-stick Velcro to the back of your Palm unit, and a corresponding tab to the inside of your pocket.
.CALLOUT Self-stick Velcro should not be used on your shirt; it won’t last through more than one or two launderings.
This brings us to the issue of how best to attach Velcro to the fabric of your shirt. Self-stick Velcro should not be used for this; it won’t last through more than one or two launderings. Sewing the Velcro onto the shirt is an option, but this is time consuming and requires a bit of skill.
The ideal solution is an iron-on hook and loop fastener. You just cut a tab of this product, put it in place, and run a hot clothes iron over it to bond it to the fabric. You must have fabric between the iron and the hook and loop fastener; if you place the iron directly on the fastener it may melt, ruining the fastener, and perhaps your shirt and your iron as well.
The only other problem with the iron-on variety of hook and loop fastener is that you may not be able to find any. It doesn’t seem to be a widely available product, the Velcro company doesn’t seem to make one. Perhaps this is because of the just-noted risks involved in using it. Apparently, the iron-on product isn’t even made by the Velcro company; only some of the "non-Velcro brand" hook and loop fastener manufacturers carry it.
A good alternative is to use "sew-on" Velcro (as distinguished from the self-stick variety) with fabric glue. Fabric glue can be found at any store that carries sewing supplies. The brand I’ve tried is Aleene’s, and it worked very well for adhering Velcro to fabric. Apply a small amount of glue to the pressure sensitive Velcro and put it in place inside your pocket. Then put a book or similar weight over the shirt to hold the assembly together for a few hours while the glue dries.
.H1 Some other points to note
Velcro has a limited life span, and loses its stickiness over time. However, it is the fuzzier "loop" material that wears out, while the "hook" side lasts indefinitely. With this in mind, you will probably want to attach a tab of hook Velcro to your Palm unit, and use the tabs of loop Velcro on your shirts. (This is assuming you change your shirts more often than you change your Palm unit.) It’s also possible to buy hook and loop closures in different colors, should you want to go all out and coordinate the colors of the fasteners to the colors of your shirts.
You may want to attach the tab of Velcro to the inside surface of your pocket — that is, the side closest to your body, rather than the to outer flap of the pocket. If you attach it to the outer layer of fabric, there will be a slight imprint of the Velcro tab on the outside of your shirt. However, with the Velcro placed this way, it will be a little more difficult to make sure the tab on your Palm device is contacting the tab on your shirt. Therefore you should use a longer strip of Velcro, perhaps 1/2 inch by 2 inches, on the inside of your shirt.
There you have it: a combination fashion tip and safe-computing (Palm device style) tip for Palm Connected Organizer users that may be the most important and money-saving safety tip you’ll read anywhere!
.BEGIN_SIDEBAR
.H1 Product availability and resources
For information on Velcro brand products visit http://www.velcro.com/velcro.htm and http://www.fastech-velcro.com.
For color Rip’N Grip hook and loop fasteners, visit http://www.ripngrip.com.
For Aleene’s glue, visit http://www.aleene.com.
.END_SIDEBAR
.BIO Karl Bunker is a Macintosh software developer living in Brookline, MA, with a dog, a cat, a wife and a securely Velcroed Palm III that regularly beats him at PocketChess. You can visit his Web site at http://www.IronSoftware.com. There’s no software for Palm devices there yet, but Mr. Bunker promises that he’s studying his PalmOS programming manuals, and hopes to move into Palm development soon.
.DISCUSS http://powerboards.zatz.com/cgi-bin/webx?13@@.ee6cf85
