Many questions from a newbee who just bought an Ipaq 5550

[Racerke]

Hello, I'm new and wondering arround in a whole new world... who can help me? I just bought an HP Ipaq 5550 with Alturion BT software.

Here are some of the main questions I've got:

- where can I buy, a decent, holder for it wich I can click into my radiator fans in the car?

- The sound is terrible, how can I inprove this (instead of these dreadfull walkman-ears to hear the voice saying "turn left" ...)

- Where can I find an Azerty instead of a Qwerty (standard) typing machine?

- Is Alturion the best or did I had to buy TomTom?

- How can I get information on my Alturion device of the speed traps on the road?

- How can I mark places in my GPS to mark places of intrest where the police stands a lot.

- Is it normal that if I don't shut down Alturion when I turn of the Ipaq that the next time I want to restart it the power button doesn't work, so that I've got to do a "soft reboot'.

- How can I play "mpeg" clips on my Ipaq?

- Yesterday my Ipaq fell without power while driving (in Alturion). When I started today it seems that the shortcut in the menu is "broken", no logo next to it. However, when I go to the software in the program files then it works. Can I rejustify the shortcut or do have to deinstall and install the software again?

- There is a connection on it from a newssite... but can I find european or British info also?

- Can I use it as a remote for tv, video, etc... ?

- The software doesn't synchronises with my mail and calendar. I've been told that it's due to the fact that I've got Outlook Express 6.0 on my desktop and that the Ipaq only works with normal outlook. Do I really have to throw the Express software away and install the normal Outlook?

Hope you all can help me a bit...

Greetzzz

Racerke

[AnswerDude]

- where can I buy, a decent, holder for it wich I can click into my radiator fans in the car?

http://www.arkon.com/CM505.html
http://www.gomadic.com/pdamoauho.html
I see that you are in the UK, http://www.expansys.com/ also carries Akron product.

- The sound is terrible, how can I inprove this (instead of these dreadfull walkman-ears to hear the voice saying "turn left" ...)

Try external, mini battery speakers or an adapter that broadcasts sound to your car radio fm station.

- Is it normal that if I don't shut down Alturion when I turn of the Ipaq that the next time I want to restart it the power button doesn't work, so that I've got to do a "soft reboot'.

There are several freewares that can close applications, search this board, you should find lots of information. You can bring up keyboard and click ctrl-q to close application. Or go to Start-Settings-System-Memory-Running Programs and close it there.

- How can I play "mpeg" clips on my Ipaq?

PocketTV;
http://www.pockettv.com
PocketMVP;
http://home.adelphia.net/~mdukette/index.htm

- Can I use it as a remote for tv, video, etc... ?

Ipaq 5550 does not have consumer grade ir which make the range rather short, there are 3rd party remote control program and ir extender.
http://www.griffintechnology.com/griffinmobile/totalremote/
http://www.pdawin.com/

- The software doesn't synchronises with my mail and calendar. I've been told that it's due to the fact that I've got Outlook Express 6.0 on my desktop and that the Ipaq only works with normal outlook. Do I really have to throw the Express software away and install the normal Outlook?

You can sync with outlook express with purchase of addtional 3rd party software. You should have full version of outlook on the cd that came with the ipaq, you can transfer and migrate data from outlook express to outlook.