I love this toy

[propcut]

I've been bugging my wife for an Ipaq so she bought me a 3835. I just love my new toy. I'll be honest it's just a pricy gameboy for me. I would however like to get as much out of it as I can. I would like to try to put music on it and a few pictures of my family. I have looked in so many places online and off for simple instructions on how to do it. Can someone recomend to me a place where I can find this kind of info. Thanks, Bruce

[AnswerDude]

I'll start with the obvious place, everyone else can join in:
http://www.microsoft.com/mobile/pocketpc/getstarted/tutorials/default.asp

[propcut]

I have gone to the site you recommended and am getting a lot of information from it. As I stated I am very new to the pocket PC. I really like having all my information in one carry around location. I have a lot of fun showing the thing to people. I know it's capable of doing so much more than I will ever use it for. I know I will have fun putting some music on it and am looking forward to learning how to show pictures. Thank you again for your help. Bruce

[christak]

http://discussion.brighthand.com/forumdisplay.php?forumid=73

http://www.pocketpcpassion.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=22

http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/

http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/CategoryHome/0,,273,00.html

Addictive, aren't they???:cool:

[AnswerDude]

Showing pictures on the Ipaq is not too difficult either, as long as the size of your pictures is not too big. Just activesync your ipaq, then copy your pictures to a folder on the ipaq, My Documents folder is always good to use. I believe 3800 series has a very basic picture viewer built in, look in Programs, open it and you should be able to open your pictures. You can also just tap it from FIle Explorer. If the pictures are large you may want to resize it. There are also many 3rd party viewers available. This one is pretty good
http://www.bitbanksoftware.com/PQView.html

Now are you ready for videos on your ipaq?;)

[kb244]

Funny you mentioned it's a lil gameboy because thats exactly what it can be, I have PocketGB with all the modules ( pocketgb.com ) , it can run Gameboy, Gameboy Color, Gameboy Advance ( experimental ), Nintendo, Game Gear, Sega Master System, and Turbo Graphix 16 roms, with full sound, and smooth framerate on my 3835.

[kb244]

What I use.

For Pictures I use Resco Picture Viewer, nice lil tool for multiple pictures especially those well beyound the size of the screen.

For Music I use Media Player 8.0 ( I think thats the right version, it updated my MediaPlayer when I installed the 3rd major update for the PocketPC2002 OS ), for which I play Mp3s and WMA files stored on my 256Meg PNY CompactFlash card.

For Videos (if wmv use media player) such as Mpeg1 files, I can use PocketTV, Mpeg2 is a tad high bandwidth to be use don a 3835, and they do have some DivX players, but again tad high on bitrate as well as actually trying to get the players to work with those other formats.

Far as Spicing up the looks.
you can grab DashBoard ( should come with your ipaq ) which is a very useful launcher/mail/etc program that sits on your today screen, so you dont have to use the start button and/or programs link all the time to find what you want.

you can also grab pelmar wisbar , which is a bar skinner often times bundled with a dashboard skin, one of the more popular ones out there on the net ( to find many themes and skins for wisbar, or dashboard, try wincustomize.com )

The third one I use when i dont use wisbar , is PocketBlinds, its a PocketPC version of windowsblinds, and you can find it at stardock.com for free. Its still a bit young as far as how long its been out, some nice skins exist for it, but there are some issues with some skins ( especially skins that show the time, thus you have to wait a sec after turning on the device for it to be responsive ) , The main advantage of PocketBlinds over wisbar, is that often times its faster, looks nicer, but it goes a step further by not only skinning the start bar, but also all the buttons, scrolls, popups, and so forth. My only gripe with PocketBlinds, it doesnt immediatly show what appz you have running, nor allow quick tap-and-hold close like wisbar does, but looks alot nicer.

if you want to expand to more possibilties you can easily pick up a CompactFlash sleeve for little as 20$ or so ( CF Plus sleeve which is the sleeve plus a screen like the one that came with your ipaq, runs on average bout 99$ , and also sports a removable external battery ) Such as putting in WiFi, Bluetooth, Camera, and other devices, or just a big fat compact flash memory card for all your emulator roms, or music.

[PowerPPC]

Very addictive. I got mine a week ago and the possibilities on this are endless. The color screen is really nice. I always wanted a handheld powered Windows CE for a while. Now that I got it, I can't put it down. I've been using it for a remote control for my tv, dvd, and vcr.

I downloaded a VoIP program and now I can talk to people online without my desktop. The built in microphone and speaker is great. Of course they need Netmeeting to talk to me or other H323 program.

I encode all of my video to Divx and show it off to people. Downloaded my pictures and do the same. I couldn't do this things with my Palm Vx. The backlight is great as well, and the expansion pack for this makes the ipaq well worth the money. Soon I'll be making this my GPS navigation PDA as well.

One of my favorite on the iPaq is the 2Gig PC Card hard drive.