new owner of HP 2215 - several questions

[gulo]

Hi
I just bought Ipaq 2215 last week and I've been playing a lot with it. After spending one week with it I have many questions I want to ask. I know that there are answers to most of them somewhere here on this forum and I already found many great tips but I'd like to write them down here and if anyone knows answer to any question just please write it down for me :)

OK, here we go (in random order):

-what is the easiest way to close application. I found out about ctrl+q, and I know about iTask but isnt there some simple program that would make it even easier ?

-why doesnt my ipaq remember my login information for hotmail email ? I have to type in manually my login and password every time. It remembers yahoo or even msn messanger, which actually uses same l/p but not hotmail. Is that some bug or is there way around it ?

-can I chose to install programs on SD card ? When I install app on my PC it will then install it through sync into main memory. Are most applications just 1 file that I can manually copy over to SD or can I somehow specify where I want them.

-is it bad for iPAQ to be often turned on and off for a short period of time ?

-I have big problem with bluetooth connection. I share my internet through BT and it works great only it keeps dropping all the time. Would that be problem of my BT USB adapter, the iPAQ, signal strength or is it just flaw of technology ? It shows great signal strength but everytime I start streaming video or listening to online radio it will drop connection every few minutes.

-will turning BT off when I am not using it save battery life a lot ?
is there any way to turn the WIFI CF card off when not in use ?

-any simple small app that will allow me to put shortcut for applications on desktop ?

-any video player that will blow up videos to full screen? When I watch anything under 320x240 both WM player and pocket TV will just show it as it is with black space aroud.

-and finally my main problem. Why is networking setup soooo complicated and confusing? When I click on little 2 arrows icon on top it will give me the option of connecting, but sometimes it offers BT and sometimes Wi-fi. But I can't really chose what I want and its really annoying and complicated. also when I click on settings - advanced - network card it will sometimes list network cards (L2tp ndiswan miniport, pptp ndiswan miniport...) but sometimes it lists available Wi-fi access points...why same options shows diff things ? I never even figured out what to do with Select networks option....

well that's all I can think for now :)
I really love my PPC and my fav thing to do is pulling divX movies into MS media encoder and watching them in bed on my PPC in the bed :) if only it didnt drop all the time :(

[Pat Logsdon]

-what is the easiest way to close application. I found out about ctrl+q, and I know about iTask but isnt there some simple program that would make it even easier ?
The easiest way to close applications is to use a taskbar skinning program, like wisbar (http://www.pelmarinc.com/html/pocket_pc.htm) or icbar (http://icbar.ictinus.com/icbarfaq.html). The "X" will then actually close programs, instead of just minimizing them.

-can I chose to install programs on SD card ? When I install app on my PC it will then install it through sync into main memory. Are most applications just 1 file that I can manually copy over to SD or can I somehow specify where I want them.
Yes. When it asks if you want to install to the default directory, just click "No", and then select the storage card you want to install to.

-is it bad for iPAQ to be often turned on and off for a short period of time ?
Nope. It'll handle that just fine.

-will turning BT off when I am not using it save battery life a lot ?
Yes! The BT radio uses power, so if you're not using it, turn it off.

is there any way to turn the WIFI CF card off when not in use ?
As far as I know, the only way to turn off the WiFi card is to remove it from the slot.

-any simple small app that will allow me to put shortcut for applications on desktop ?
Yes, there are quite a few. claunch (http://www.freewareppc.com/utilities/claunch.shtml) is one, and vxshortcut (http://www.cam.com/vxshortcut.html) is another. Personally, I use Dashboard (http://www.snoopsoft.com/dashboard/index.html), which has a mini-launcher component.

-any video player that will blow up videos to full screen? When I watch anything under 320x240 both WM player and pocket TV will just show it as it is with black space aroud.
You'll need to re-encode the source file to get rid of the black space. Check out the Multimedia forum for instructions on how to do this - there are quite a few ways to go about it.

-and finally my main problem. Why is networking setup soooo complicated and confusing? When I click on little 2 arrows icon on top it will give me the option of connecting, but sometimes it offers BT and sometimes Wi-fi. But I can't really chose what I want and its really annoying and complicated.
I've found that the best thing to do is to turn on the radio you want to use, and then wait for the connection bubble to pop up. The wireless sniffer in WM2003 will find all available networks. If there's just one available, it'll try to connect to it. If there's more than one, you'll get a pop-up asking you to choose which one you want to connect to.

also when I click on settings - advanced - network card it will sometimes list network cards (L2tp ndiswan miniport, pptp ndiswan miniport...) but sometimes it lists available Wi-fi access points...why same options shows diff things ? I never even figured out what to do with Select networks option....
If you're connected to a network (or if your radio is one and one is available), you should get a listing of available networks. If your radio is off, or no network is available, you'll get the listing of network cards. The only thing you should ever need to do with the network card list is change whether you want to connect to Work (for an ActiveSync connection) or The Internet.

I really love my PPC and my fav thing to do is pulling divX movies into MS media encoder and watching them in bed on my PPC in the bed :) if only it didnt drop all the time :(
Check out PocketMVP (http://corecodec.org/project/showfiles.php?group_id=20&release_id=123), and look into re-encoding your DivX movies with VirtualDub (http://www.virtualdub.org/). That way, you can watch your DivX movies from a storage card, without having to worry about streaming problems. 8)

[juni]

-what is the easiest way to close application. I found out about ctrl+q, and I know about iTask but isnt there some simple program that would make it even easier ?

Or WisbarAdvance: http://www.lakeridgesoftware.com/

:)

[gulo]

thanks for your answers
I can't believe I missed the option of clicking "no" on Install to default directory :)

I decided on using claunch for my shortcuts and it works really nice.
I am also getting grip on how to manage my network connections.

What I wanna do though, is to return my USB BT dongle and get 802.11b router instead. BT works great, I can send files, share internet and sync over it but it just keeps dropping connection all the time.
Is there anything that I can do with my IPAQ over BT that I won't be able to do over Wi-Fi ?

[Sven Johannsen]

Is there anything that I can do with my IPAQ over BT that I won't be able to do over Wi-Fi ?

Last. WiFi uses considerably more power than BT. It is a fact of physics that more bandwidth and more range costs you energy. WiFi is wider band (read faster) and will go farther.

[gulo]

hmm I wonder what would be the max time I can use my 2215 with Ambicom cf-wifi card.
If it's at least 3-4 hourse that's fine with me.

[Ripper014]

You could always plug it in while surfing... I have never timed my wireless time but I have yet to run out of power... but then maybe I am not the surfer you are either...

[gulo]

well mainly what I will do is take my PDA in the bedroom and stream a movie or mp3 from my PC + surf some web. So I won't be using it for more than few hours at most..
For any serious internet usage I'll just get on my PC of course