General Qs on PocketPC

[cychow65]

Appreciate anybody could help. Thank you.

1) How to create an interval of 15min instead of 30min break in the address utility section? Better if it can be customized.
2) How can I setup password for notes I created?
3) How much time does it take to convert a 30min DVD or TV recorded movie to a watchable program in PocketPC? How much memory does it takes of such duration?
4) Does the speed of the processor (400, 520, and 624 Mhz) makes a big difference in normal PIM usages? If not, what else?
5) Has anybody tried to audio record a classroom lecture, or seminar session? Care to share the type of recording quality like. Take the case of an iPaq PPC unit.
6) Does it matter or help if one would buy a high speed external storage media for photos, video playback on the PPC? Any recommendation?
7) Why concern so much of the built-in memory when you can store it on an external memory?
8) What is the benefit of having iPaq file store?
9) Has anybody attempted to attach an external FM radio feature onto a PPC for listening?
10) Does it make a big different between a QVGA and VGA display other than display clarify? I believe the later display consumes more battery power too.
11) And lastly, why a PPC is almost twice the price of a Palm PDA?

[GSmith]

4) Does the speed of the processor (400, 520, and 624 Mhz) makes a big difference in normal PIM usages? If not, what else?

No. With reasonable size PIM database, there will not be significant difference from 400-624MHz. It might be noticable, but I don't think it will be significant.

5) Has anybody tried to audio record a classroom lecture, or seminar session? Care to share the type of recording quality like. Take the case of an iPaq PPC unit.

Use search, there was a recent review of quality of three different recording programs. I think the conclusion was the best quality was the free program NoteM. But other programs might be good for producing smaller files. Not sure though. Menneissys is the resident expert here (and the author of the review).

6) Does it matter or help if one would buy a high speed external storage media for photos, video playback on the PPC? Any recommendation?

Depends on how you are accessing it. For external devices, I think you must have USB Host capability (or a CF to PCMCIA converter and PCMCIA Hard drive). Check the firstloox.org forums for references to speeds of USB storage media. I think people are getting 200-300Kbytes (or is it bits?) per second. Either way, its either *barely* enough or *plenty* fast enough for decent media playback.

7) Why concern so much of the built-in memory when you can store it on an external memory?

Built-in memory is not that big of a deal to me because generally its much smaller (64Meg) than available in extra cards (1Gig).

What is the benefit of having iPaq file store?

The biggest advantage is that it does not get erased on a hard reset. Hard resets should be VERY rare. On my iPAQ 2215, the file store is 3MB--to me, this is almost worthless.

[smileyguy]

11) And lastly, why a PPC is almost twice the price of a Palm PDA?

I am cheap. I bought a Dell Axim X3. only $200. That is not very expensive. I may be more than the low end Zire, but you can do so much more with it.

[Menneisyys]

5) Has anybody tried to audio record a classroom lecture, or seminar session? Care to share the type of recording quality like. Take the case of an iPaq PPC unit.

Use search, there was a recent review of quality of three different recording programs. I think the conclusion was the best quality was the free program NoteM. But other programs might be good for producing smaller files. Not sure though. Menneissys is the resident expert here (and the author of the review).


Thanks :)

See http://www.pocketpcmag.com/newsl_jkwg/JKWG_02-22-05.htm or http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/index.php?action=expand,37799 on the subject.

[Menneisyys]

7) Why concern so much of the built-in memory when you can store it on an external memory?

Because built-in memory is

1, orders of magnitude faster than any external memory / the iPAQ file store
2, you can only install certain types of files/programs in the main memory

You may want to read http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=36674 on this subject.

What is the benefit of having iPaq file store?

It's always with yoiu, even if you take out your storage cards. This is why I put my (not very large) backup files on all my PDA's that have some kind of built-in flash ROM storage in there. If a hard reset comes (which comes quite often with my iPAQ 2210 becauee of the unreliable HardCE additional battery), I just restore the backup in a few seconds and, after setting the date/time, continue working.

9) Has anybody attempted to attach an external FM radio feature onto a PPC for listening?

Yes, there're quite a few CF cards like that none of them are able to route their sound through the PDA, so you have to use a wired headphone to listen to them.

10) Does it make a big different between a QVGA and VGA display other than display clarify?

Yes, a lot.

I believe the later display consumes more battery power too.

Not necessarily. Some current VGA PDA's (the iPAQ hx4700 and the Pocket Loox 720; the e830 is also said to have quite decent battery life, but I haven't seen any numeric results of it, especially not compared to other VGA devices) don't have very bad battery life. Not as stellar as the rx3715, which is one of the best current PDA's battery life-wise, though. But, again, VGA doesn't necessarily mean bad battery life.

11) And lastly, why a PPC is almost twice the price of a Palm PDA?

Some 4-5 years ago, yes. I remember how eagerly I waited for the stripped-down version of the h545, the Jornada 525 (much as I already had the E-125) because it was "only" 350 US$ and not 500 US$ (the price of other PPC PDA's at that time). Fortunately, times have changed – now, PPC's aren't at all more expensive than decent (Palm Zire 72, T|3, T|5 etc) Palm devices.

[Menneisyys]

For external devices, I think you must have USB Host capability (or a CF to PCMCIA converter and PCMCIA Hard drive). Check the firstloox.org forums for references to speeds of USB storage media. I think people are getting 200-300Kbytes (or is it bits?) per second. Either way, its either *barely* enough or *plenty* fast enough for decent media playback.

It all depends on if accessing the external HDD is done in a foreground or a background thread.

- in a foreground thread, the speed is around 300-400 kbytes/s. That is, if you copy/move stuff locally between your external hard disk and built-in memory/cards with Total Commander or Resco Explorer (NOT the dog-slow File Explorer!), you'll achieve constant 300-400 kbytes/s speeds, which is pretty good.

- Under, for example, BetaPlayer (which loads the stuff in a background thread), it's only possible to play videos of 700-900 kbps, however. Videos over 1.1-1.2 Mbps have constant buffering problems.

[uzetaab]

1) How to create an interval of 15min instead of 30min break in the address utility section? Better if it can be customized.

I have no idea what that is. Is it HP software?


3) How much time does it take to convert a 30min DVD or TV recorded movie to a watchable program in PocketPC? How much memory does it takes of such duration?

here's a review from january:

http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/articles.php?action=expand%2C23403%3Adont_paginate%2C1&sid=f8f3c8e7ed36ef81e35f4d9cabfef529

4) Does the speed of the processor (400, 520, and 624 Mhz) makes a big difference in normal PIM usages? If not, what else?

Not likely. Unless you have a massive database for your PIM stuff. The most notable difference woud be with load times to start a program. The more advanced games would also run better.

7) Why concern so much of the built-in memory when you can store it on an external memory?

Because the built in memory is where your programs go when they are running, like the ram/swap file on a normal PC. The more internal memory you have available, the more programs you can run at once, faster too.

9) Has anybody attempted to attach an external FM radio feature onto a PPC for listening?

Personally, I wouldn't bother because I have 12 hours of music on my SD card.

10) Does it make a big different between a QVGA and VGA display other than display clarify? I believe the later display consumes more battery power too.

Other people here can answer this better, but I believe that the big difference is that a true VGA has more pixels on the screen, therefore you can either have higher res graphics, or see more at once in lower res.

11) And lastly, why a PPC is almost twice the price of a Palm PDA?

I really don't know. I bought mine because palm don't have a device with built in GPS. Pocket PC have a couple of choices.
Another reason that would make me lean towards PPC is because of the fact that i'm familiar with the use of windows. learning to use PPC properly was hard enough. I'd rather not have to learn a completely new operating system. Although I imagine that the general use would be similar.
Another thought, if your getting a top of the line PDA. The PPCs out-perform the Palms.
Also I don't think Palm have VGA yet.

I assume you haven't bought a device yet, so good luck in choosing.

[Menneisyys]

6) Does it matter or help if one would buy a high speed external storage media for photos, video playback on the PPC? Any recommendation?

Not necessarily - the difference, in general, isn't as big as in a decent digicam and/or a desktop USB2 reader. There're even cases when using a hi-speed card actually resulted in much lower speeds in a PDA. You may want to check out for example http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=36376 on the subject.

[cychow65]

To all,

I really appreciate all your advises.

Likely I will be gettig HP iPaQ hx2750 i.e., higher processor speed and more internal memory. Last week, managed to test the PPC of 2 different processor speed - 400 and 626Mhz. Can really feel the instantaneous response when opening up program using a higher processor speed.
I was shocked to read that it takes about 4-5 hrs to rip an 1.5 hours of DVD moive. I will probably watch it directly from the disc.

Thanks,
Chow

[Menneisyys]

- Under, for example, BetaPlayer (which loads the stuff in a background thread), it's only possible to play videos of 700-900 kbps, however. Videos over 1.1-1.2 Mbps have constant buffering problems.

Please also see the post http://www.firstloox.org//forums/showpost.php?p=17840&postcount=14 at http://www.firstloox.org//forums/showthread.php?t=2621 on this.