Jason Dunn

kaiden.1

Pony99CA

Well, this is disappointing. I don't care much about inside brightness -- the iPAQ is plenty bright indoors. Yes, being brighter indoors allows you to turn the brightness down and save on battery life, but visibility outdoors is more important to me.

I use my iPAQ 3870 as a GPS device (with the Pocket CoPilot 3.0 Jacket Edition), so visibility in the sun is an issue. Also, I recently tried to read the CNet AvantGo channel outdoors while waiting for a parade. It was so difficult that I gave up, even on maximum brightness.

I had hoped that the new transflective screen would be brighter outdoors. Some people may appreciate the battery-saving capability, but I tend to run at full brightness all the time (not such a big deal, as I almost always keep my dual PCMCIA sleeve attached, which has an extra battery).

Steve

Dave Conger

Dale likes his iPAQ...Jason likes his Jornada. These are just thinks to know when viewing there sites. Every site owner, moderator, and poster has some bias. That is why do don't just go read one review on a product and make a decision...

Marc Zimmermann

Actually, I never thought that the current iPAQ displays were considered bad... I don't get all the hoopla about improvements. The iPAQ already had a very pretty display.

And here we go for a MAJOR minus. Outdoor visibility was the actual argument for reflective screens and going backwards here is very bad.

The backup app from spritesoftware.com looks great, though.

Jason Dunn

If you had ever compared the iPAQ screen to a Sony screen, you'd know that it wasn't nearly as nice. And if you see the new 3900 series screen compared to the 3800 series, you'll see there's a huge difference. It's not something that can be captured in a photo - you have to see one in person. Just much more clear, less reflection, lit much smoother.

Jonathan1

Speak for yourself. I bash everyone on pocketpcpassion!!!! (Being a moderator over there.) Compaq, HP, Toshiba, Casio, Palm!!! They don't hold a candle to my Newton Messagepad 2100!! :lol:

It should be interesting to see how well the Loox fares when dale gets it hands on it. Since the Loox and the 3970 have virtually the same specs.

dcharles18

Pony99CA

The good news is that, on my 3870, I found a way to enable a Contrast settings applet. The bad news is that it didn't seem to work.

If you want to try this on the 39xx, here's the process:

1. In a Registry editor, expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE key.
2. Expand the Control Panel key.
3. Select the Contrast key.
4. Rename the Redirect value to Redirectx (or anything else).
5. Soft reset your device.
6. Open Settings.
7. Select the System tab.
8. Click on the Contrast applet.

You'll see a monochrome color bar at the top with a slider below it. Slide the slider to adjust the contrast.

If Contrast doesn't work on the 39xx, here's the process to hide it again:

1. In a Registry editor, expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE key.
2. Expand the Control Panel key.
3. Select the Contrast key.
4. Rename the Redirectx (or whatever) value back to Redirect.
5. Soft reset your device.
6. Open Settings.
7. Select the System tab.

The Contrast applet should be gone.

If you look deeper into the Control Panel key, you'll other other hidden applets (AdminPassword, Desktop, Dial, Phone and Updates on mine).

The only one that seemed to work for me was AdminPassword, which enables the Policy applet. This allows you to disable installing programs on the Pocket PC, useful if you share your Pocket PC or are in a corporate setting.

Phone puts a Phone applet in the Personal tab, but it doesn't even open (maybe it's used in Pocket PC 2002 Phone Edition; I know there are some SMS settings on my 3870).

Updates puts an Updates applet on the Connections tab, which lists non-existent updates.

Steve