Toshiba e830 Newbie

[grimzo]

Hi everyone,
I just bought my first Pocket PC (my previous PDA was a Palm IIIxe)

I use it mostly to synchronize with outlook for my calendar and mail. I play the occasional game or two, and i've installed beta player (SOO much better than windows media player). I have a few basic questions:

1) is there a way that I can output my screen data onto a monitor or a TV? Is there some hardware/software that will let me do this?

2) Battery life seems pretty poor on this device (especially compared to the Palm devices). Is there something I can do to increase this?

3) I read here about a USB host cable? Can I connect external devices such as a thumb drive or iPod to it? Where can I get this USB host cable?

4) I've tried installing some remote control software (by griffin i believe) does the iDRa on the e830 work well enough to serve as a remote control?

5) What are the essential applications that I MUST have for multimedia? (I'm using OzVGA for running at hi-res)

6) Is there an update for MSN Messsenger - the version that comes with it doesn't let me sort my contacts by groups or even decide what I want to have pop-up when people log on or when they message me.

That's all I can think of for now. Thanks in advace!

[equlizer]

Guess ill jump in and help out :)

1. no you can not. you could on the older toshiba E800/805 i believe cause it had its own grfx chip

2. There are a few things you can do to increase battery life. Turn down the brightness (i have mine to the 2nd last level), turn down the volume or use headphones/stereo, turn off the alarms if your using them, turn off the wifi switch on the bottom if not using it, turn off button beeps (makes a noise everytime you hit the screen)

3. Yes you can purchase the USB host cable from a few places on the net. YEs you can connect many things to the E830 but its kind of a hit and miss right now. IF you do a search for that, you will find many people have come up with lists of things that do work (i even have a gamepad and a ps2 keyboard working with it at the moment on a hub)

4. There are a few remote control programs that work wonderfully. You shouldnt be any further away than say 20ft from the tv or whatever you want to control for best results.

5. This is totally a matter of opinion. I dont use any ozvga or anything like that cause it makes the screen way too damn small and unreadable and you hit screen buttons you dont want to. (just my 2c) There are many 3rd party softwares you can read and try. Just make sure to backup your E830 before trying anything different or unsure about.

6. Yes there is an update for MSN, I have installed it but not noticed much difference. I believe the update does what you ask of it.

IF you have any other questions, just ask :)