Jornada questions

Post by **CronoTriggerfan** » Sun Jan 07, 2007 1:09 pm

Okay, I've finally given in; I've been taking my laptop to school for note-taking and homework after school, but this Friday at musical practice, 3 kids got their cell phones stolen. So as you can tell, I REALLY don't want my laptop in that kind of situation!

I want to invest in a Jornada 720 or 728, but I've got a few questions. For one, is there any real reason to lay down the extra $80 or so for the 728 over the 720? I mean, besides memory space and such; they both have the PC card slot for my Wifi, and each have a CF slot as well.

Speaking of Wifi, anyone used it on these pocket PCs? I'm not expecting much at all in terms of web browsing, but how is it?

Also, what's the save format for word files in Windows CE? And if it's not compatible with normal Windows word processors, how do you convert it? Thanks!

CTFan

Post by **marshallh** » Sun Jan 07, 2007 3:03 pm

The 720 is cheaper and works fine, I've yet to run out of memory. (Using a CF card alleviates that problem)

Wifi works great, you have to find a card that specifically states it has CE drivers. You can't just grab any old Wifi card. Internet browsing works fine for most sites, IE 4.01 is built in and you can't upgrade it. It has a bad CSS implementation so some sites like Digg are just plain text. Browsing this forum works great

Pocket Word saves in a format that automatically converts to Word 2000 when you transfer it to a PC. I've used it in emergencies to write short assignments. Don't expect to write anything longer than two or three pages, the keyboard is just too small.

Expect to pay $100-120 for a Jornada 720 in good condition, and $30-40 for a compatible wireless card.

ganonbanned · Post by **ganonbanned** » Sun Jan 07, 2007 3:16 pm

If your so worry about getting it stolen, do what I do: carry it around in a back pack where ever (AND I MEAN WHERE EVER) you go.

Post by **CronoTriggerfan** » Sun Jan 07, 2007 3:37 pm

marshallh wrote:The 720 is cheaper and works fine, I've yet to run out of memory. (Using a CF card alleviates that problem)

Wifi works great, you have to find a card that specifically states it has CE drivers. You can't just grab any old Wifi card. Internet browsing works fine for most sites, IE 4.01 is built in and you can't upgrade it. It has a bad CSS implementation so some sites like Digg are just plain text. Browsing this forum works great

Pocket Word saves in a format that automatically converts to Word 2000 when you transfer it to a PC. I've used it in emergencies to write short assignments. Don't expect to write anything longer than two or three pages, the keyboard is just too small.

Expect to pay $100-120 for a Jornada 720 in good condition, and $30-40 for a compatible wireless card.

Thanks for the info, marshall! Although still one question; I use USB flash mem and SD cards, so I don't own a CF card reader. Will the serial/usb dock connection serve as a CF card reader when I have one in, or do I need a separate CF card reader to get the saved files off the Jornada CF card and onto the PC?

ganonbanned wrote:If your so worry about getting it stolen, do what I do: carry it around in a back pack where ever (AND I MEAN WHERE EVER) you go.

Well, that's what I already do. But I'm in the school musical, and practices run late (normally 5-7 o'clock) but there's a lot of down time to work on my laptop. However, I of course can't have my laptop with me in my pocket on stage, and the storage area for the backpacks is out of my sight.

CTFan

Harshboy · Post by **Harshboy** » Sun Jan 07, 2007 4:16 pm

I know what its like to carry your Laptop around in school. I constantly get assigned projects, and thus am always chosen to be in someones group due to my movie making skillz (Which arn't great, but better than most of the school)

You always have to constantly worry about it. A Jornada sounds like a good idea.

I'm not sure, but there might be a SD to CF adapter that you could buy.

Post by **CronoTriggerfan** » Sun Jan 07, 2007 4:33 pm

Harshboy wrote:I know what its like to carry your Laptop around in school. I constantly get assigned projects, and thus am always chosen to be in someones group due to my movie making skillz (Which arn't great, but better than most of the school)

You always have to constantly worry about it. A Jornada sounds like a good idea.

I'm not sure, but there might be a SD to CF adapter that you could buy.

Yeah, it is kinda unsettling, seeing my backpack getting banged around, dinged up, etc. Always so scared!

Anyways, I was looking into an SD to CF adapter, and all of them seem to be type 2 CF cards.

The Jornada 720 I just bought (yay!) only supports type 1, and the CF card slot is more of a CF tray, so I doubt one would fit anyways.

Does anyone know a good 2gb CF (type 1) card for under $40?

CTFan

Post by **Sparkfist** » Sun Jan 07, 2007 4:46 pm

I would suggest doing what I did. I have an old (I can't stress enough) laptop that I've used for taking notes in classes. The poor thing is a Toshiba Satellite Pro 430cdt, circa '97. The thing isn't really work more then $50 if that and so I take that to school. It a much less attractive target to steal then say my HP which is worth something like $800+. So if you have a pawn shop, flea market or a computer store that sell old computer invest the money in buying one of them.

After that I would suggest if you want a fast system go with a striped down Linux distro. I've heard of people getting them to boot in something like 7 seconds, with little functionality. Considering the fact that it's for note, you'd only need something like vi or gedit or emacs. That way you get it started, running and then take notes ASAP.

Another thing is if you're using a small distro, and this is for school, invest in a Compactflash to Laptop HDD adapter. I used one for a term that had a 512MB Compactflash in it. Worked great, got about 2.5 to 3 hours out of the laptop's batteries. I can't stress enough that you need to not have a swap partition when using a flash media for the HDD, if you end up using swap/paging/VM you're going to have a broken computer faster then you can say "Shazbot".

Good luck.

teraflop122 · Post by **teraflop122** » Sun Jan 07, 2007 5:25 pm

You can avoid worrying about swap partitions and the comparatively limited life of flash memory by getting a microdrive. Months ago you could get a 4GB for just over 70 bucks, if memory serves. Of course they use more power than flash media, but much less than a 2.5 inch laptop drive.

Post by **marshallh** » Sun Jan 07, 2007 5:44 pm

You'll never use 2gb of space. Just get on ebay and spend $5 for a 256MB CF card. I have a 128mb card and it's not even close to full. Besides, it probably won't address more than 512mb anyway (they weren't out when the jornada was made).

Yes, you can use the jornada as a CF reader, but the serial port is butt slow. (Like dial-up speeds). Either get a CF reader for a few bucks, or do what I did and use your wireless card to connect to your PC, and it shows up in My Computer. 802.11b is faster than most internet connections.

Post by **CronoTriggerfan** » Sun Jan 07, 2007 6:04 pm

marshallh wrote:You'll never use 2gb of space. Just get on ebay and spend $5 for a 256MB CF card. I have a 128mb card and it's not even close to full. Besides, it probably won't address more than 512mb anyway (they weren't out when the jornada was made).

Yes, you can use the jornada as a CF reader, but the serial port is butt slow. (Like dial-up speeds). Either get a CF reader for a few bucks, or do what I did and use your wireless card to connect to your PC, and it shows up in My Computer. 802.11b is faster than most internet connections.

Okay, thanks. The only reason I want all the extra space is because I also wanna throw my mp3s and some small video files on the card as well, and as we all know, that space can be used up rather quickly!

Otherwise, a simple 256mb card would serve the purpose well. Or instead of 2 gigs, do you think 1gb would do fine just for music files and normal documents on the Jornada?

CTFan

Harshboy · Post by **Harshboy** » Sun Jan 07, 2007 6:36 pm

1 GB should be fine, but if you think you really need a 2 GB CF Card, go for it. I wont stop you from spending your money.

Post by **CronoTriggerfan** » Sun Jan 07, 2007 7:48 pm

Thanks for all the help, guys! I just bought a Jornada 720 with all the accessories that came with it (for just under $100 at that!), a new stylus, a wireless card specifically for the Jornada and Windows CE (although it supports all other Windows OS's too) as well as a 2gb type 1 CF card. I know 1 gig or even less would have probably gotten the job done, but I wanna be safe; I'm using it as more of a hard disk than interchangeable media, anyways!

The Jornada should be here by Tuesday or Wednesday, so I'll let you guys know what I think of it, or if I need help installing the drivers for this wireless card or getting apps on it. The accessories should be here soon after. Thanks!

CTFan

Post by **CronoTriggerfan** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 4:06 pm

marshallh wrote:You'll never use 2gb of space. Just get on ebay and spend $5 for a 256MB CF card. I have a 128mb card and it's not even close to full. Besides, it probably won't address more than 512mb anyway (they weren't out when the jornada was made).

Yes, you can use the jornada as a CF reader, but the serial port is butt slow. (Like dial-up speeds). Either get a CF reader for a few bucks, or do what I did and use your wireless card to connect to your PC, and it shows up in My Computer. 802.11b is faster than most internet connections.

Okay, my Jornada just arrived in the mail today, along with all the other little goodies I ordered with it!

I installed my wireless card, and it's working great (posting with it now!) However, I'm having some trouble getting files onto my CF card. The card is in the drive and shows up on the Jornada, but it's nowhere to be found on the PC using ActiveSync. Also, I want to try connecting via the wireless card as you suggested, marshall, but I have absolutely no idea how to do so. Help?

CTFan

Post by **marshallh** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 5:22 pm

Connect your Jornada with the serial cable, then open up ActiveSync and hit "Explore" - it lets you view the filesystem.
You should see a "Mobile Device" in My Computer.

If you want to sync wirelessly, on your Jornada, goto Start > Programs > Communication > ActiveSync and you should be able to sync over your network. While you're connected, you can get on your PC and read/write files from the Jornada much faster.

Post by **CronoTriggerfan** » Thu Jan 11, 2007 7:02 pm

marshallh wrote:Connect your Jornada with the serial cable, then open up ActiveSync and hit "Explore" - it lets you view the filesystem.
You should see a "Mobile Device" in My Computer.

If you want to sync wirelessly, on your Jornada, goto Start > Programs > Communication > ActiveSync and you should be able to sync over your network. While you're connected, you can get on your PC and read/write files from the Jornada much faster.

Thanks, marshall! Got it working.

Although now I'm having trouble with TCPMP. I found the file here, but every time I try to run an mpeg4 file, I get the following error:

Code: Select all

Player: MPEG4 AAC Audio decoder not included! It was removed from the official install package because of intellectual property considerations.

And then of course, no audio. How do I install the file they're talking about?

CTFan