PPC Questions, *noob alert*

[mebeatyouup]

Whats up ppl im new here. I got a hp 2215 ppc with a 256 sd card cause i love tech geek junk. *hardcore tech junkie* And i was wondering what programs you guys use for entertainment. (I have it solely for entertainment) Some help from you guys would be great: I would like to know.

1.) Any Free games or programs that a person should know about, or any essential utilities
2.)How do I watch movies on it? I got a bunch of movies on my comp but they need to be made a smaller size. Is there a good way to do this?
3.) uh... any disclaimers or things I should be careful with a PPC. (I already know i shouldnt drop it =P heheh)
4.) What are some cool things that I can impress my friends with? (I already used NEVO in school to turn on the TV to the teachers dismay, hahah. I would turn it on when she would start talking and turn it off again it was hillarious, haha. That was worth the $$ alone)
5.) Any Accesories that might be essential? I got a carry case and screen protectors, but I was wondering if anything like another memory card or maybe a wireless internet thingy would be cool. (I only have access to a wireless network at home)
6.) AND lastly.... My friend has a palm, are there any games or messenger type programs that can beam to each other across platform? (Im thinking this could be very usefull on tests, or when we are bored and wanna play games)

I know thats a ton lol, but i would be REALY thankful if u respond to any of these.

COOL, peace out.
(Im loving the 2115 right now, i filled it up with mp3's to rock to, the speaker is surprisingly loud!)

[Chucky]

I don't have a big enough memory card atm so I can't give too much advice with movies. But having watched some trailers etc I can certainly say it is possible and looks good :D

I use Pocket TV, its freeware and available at: http://www.pockettv.com/

You will also find there guides to compressing movies for viewing on your Pocket PC. I personally wouldn't think a full movie would fit on a 256mb card at decent quality, but don't listen to me because there are certainly people that do it. But yeah 512mb SD cards are cheap, 512mb CF cards are even cheaper and that would be enough for a full movie with space left over for apps/music/etc.

[doughboy]

If you don't mind spending a little money and have a fast desktop, check out
DVD to Pocket PC 1.2.3
http://www.pocketgear.com/software_detail.asp?id=13285

The reviews are top notch.

[tanalasta]

1.) Any Free games or programs that a person should know about, or any essential utilities

Heaps of good quality games for a small price... not too sure about the quality of 'free' games though. Do a search of the forums. Essential programs often include: a today-plugin (e.g. SPB plus/batterypack), PIM (pocketinformant / agenda fusion), your favourite ebook reader, money accounts manager and Sprite's Backup.

2.)How do I watch movies on it? I got a bunch of movies on my comp but they need to be made a smaller size. Is there a good way to do this?
256MB is barely cutting it :P You can either purchase a program like Pocket-DVD that does the converting for you. Or you can manually re-encode PocketPC compatible wmv files using Windows media encoder. Jason Dunn wrote an article on how to do it not too long ago on these forums.

Accessories: A bigger storage card ;) Wi-fi if you have it at home is expensive but a nice gadget - especially if you can get it working. You can buy yourself a nicer stylus at http://www.pdapanache.com/

No, programs between palm and PocketPC are generally not-compatible. Though if you have the iSilo reader, the texts/ebooks for this format work on both devices.

[Janak Parekh]

3.) uh... any disclaimers or things I should be careful with a PPC. (I already know i shouldnt drop it =P heheh)
Make sure to sync and/or backup regularly so you don't lose data when you least expect it. That's probably the most important one.

4.) What are some cool things that I can impress my friends with? (I already used NEVO in school to turn on the TV to the teachers dismay, hahah. I would turn it on when she would start talking and turn it off again it was hillarious, haha. That was worth the $$ alone)
Games/video? You can even download things like NES emulators (try a search).

--janak

[kosmicki]

4.) What are some cool things that I can impress my friends with? (I already used NEVO in school to turn on the TV to the teachers dismay, hahah.

Just got my 2215 a few weeks ago, most unique thing about it I feel, built in Nevo.

Can't wait to mess with Nevo in the field, see what trouble I can get into :P

[Darius Wey]

1.) Any Free games or programs that a person should know about, or any essential utilities

There's plenty of them out there. A good place to start is a centralised source such as Handango. And you can also search around on these forums to find out what other PPCT forum members use.

2.)How do I watch movies on it? I got a bunch of movies on my comp but they need to be made a smaller size. Is there a good way to do this?

If you're looking along the lines of DivX, a good player to try out is BetaPlayer. At ~800K, you have a quality program that can play DivX files, OGG files, and a bunch of others too. You can get a program such as PocketDivXEncoder which will encode DivX files to a smaller, and more compact PPC size. You can definitely fit at least 1 movie, perhaps 2 at the most, on a 256MB SD card.

3.) uh... any disclaimers or things I should be careful with a PPC. (I already know i shouldnt drop it =P heheh)

Yep...don't drop it. I doubt you'd want to stick it in your back pants pocket and sit on it and crack the screen or anything. Don't leave it lying around unattended waiting for someone to "yoink" it.

4.) What are some cool things that I can impress my friends with? (I already used NEVO in school to turn on the TV to the teachers dismay, hahah. I would turn it on when she would start talking and turn it off again it was hillarious, haha. That was worth the $$ alone)

This depends on what you see as "cool". If you want to turn your device into a media powerhouse, you can fit it with heaps of media programs out there. If you want it to be a nice portable gaming device, there's always good games out there worth getting. If you want to bazooka a worm high into the sky, get Worms World Party. If you want to be the next pool champion, try Virtual Pool Mobile. The list goes on, but searching is always the best way to find out on your own.

5.) Any Accesories that might be essential? I got a carry case and screen protectors, but I was wondering if anything like another memory card or maybe a wireless internet thingy would be cool. (I only have access to a wireless network at home)

Memory cards are always handy for storage on-the-go. If you ever need to expand it, they're always a good accessory to buy. If you need a keyboard, there are a number of wireless keyboards out there you can get. If you want to have a wireless network, you can set your house up with Bluetooth since your 2215 already has inbuilt Bluetooth. Alternatively, if you have 802.11b at home, you can get a CF or SD 802.11b adapter for your PPC. The possibilities are endless.

6.) AND lastly.... My friend has a palm, are there any games or messenger type programs that can beam to each other across platform? (Im thinking this could be very usefull on tests, or when we are bored and wanna play games)

I'm not 100% sure on this one but there are some files on a Palm that are incompatible on a PPC, and vice versa. And don't expect a Palm installation file to run on a PPC, because I doubt it'd work unless you have a magic wand. But I'm not very familiar with the Palms because I always thought that PPCs were better so I stood clear from them. 8)

[Badandy]

4.) What are some cool things that I can impress my friends with? (I already used NEVO in school to turn on the TV to the teachers dismay, hahah. I would turn it on when she would start talking and turn it off again it was hillarious, haha. That was worth the $$ alone)



Just for reference, if you keep doing it, she will find out, and will probably not let you take notes in class on it or use it. Just for caution.

[Sven Johannsen]

Just for reference, if you keep doing it, she will find out, and will probably not let you take notes in class on it or use it. Just for caution.

And there's a chance she may ban them altogether for everyone, since it's nothing but a disruptive toy. :roll:

Since you have a 2215, you might consider going the CF memory route since you can get bigger storage for less $$. If you are thinking movies and such, you'll need it. You'll also want to invest in a USB card reader. A multifunction one that does both SD and CF is around $25. Once you get that movie encoded down to 240x320 at a frame rate you can use, you still need to get it onto the memory. Via AS that takes forever, putting the Matrix (260M, DVD to PPC, high quality) on an SD card with the reader was 5 min.

You can always go for SDIO peripherals, like WiFi and camera. It's sort of a decision you need to make up front, SD memory and CFperipherals, or SD peripherals and CF memory.

[mebeatyouup]

0X u guys rock thx for ur help, stay alien. 0X 0X 0X

[JimPAQ]

You should get PocketNES. For some reason it always impresses my family members that I can play Super Mario Bros on my PDA.

Secondly, you should invest in a GPS receiver. Nothing says I'm a "techno geek" like having your PDA/GPS mounted to your dash showing your turn by turn movements. And what's even better is it can actually be helpful at getting out of backups by finding alternate routs.


--Jim