Expert: Werner "Menneisyys" Ruotsalainen

Without doubt, during its almost four-year lifespan, the HP iPAQ hx4700 has turned out to be the best "traditional" (phone-less) high-resolution (640 * 480, also known as VGA) Pocket PC ever released certainly filling in a very important market segment: that of the comparatively (but not too) large VGA screens. The reasons for this are well-known when you compare it to the alternatives:

1. Compared to the Fujitsu-Siemens Pocket Loox 718 / 720, the major advantage of the hx4700 is the sheer existence of a WM5 / WM6 / WM6.1 upgrade. On top of that, the larger screen, the quality magnesium casing and the faster CPU with a graphics co-processor greatly helping in playing back MPEG4 Part 2 (a.k.a. ASP / DivX / XviD) videos, on the long run, made it the winner (while this wasn't certain back in 2004-2005; the author of this article has also chosen, back then, the Loox 720 over the hx4700). Of course, it has had major problems compared to the Loox: the touchpad, initially, the higher price, the very low speaker volume (while the Loox has been one of the loudest ever PDA’s around), the lack of a camera (even if the one in the 720 isn’t anything to write home about, quality-wise) and the lack of USB host support. These problems, however, are easily mitigated by the really excellent WM6.1 upgrades released in the last few months. As the Loox isn’t upgradable to WM5, several current software titles (like Esmertec Jbed to run MIDlets like Opera Mini) just can’t be run on it.

2. It’s too better than the Dell Axim x50v/x51v. The Dell has vastly inferior battery life, much-much worse screen almost useless in Landscape for many users because of the major polarization issues, the plastic, thick body and the x50v WM5 upgrade having major compaction issues (as was the case with pre-WM6.1 hx4700 upgrades, though). The only real advantage, in addition to the louder buzzer, th emore gaming-friendly D-pad controller and (at least in the U.S.) lower price of the Dell is the Intel 2700G support, offering both excellent 3D hardware acceleration and great help in playing back ASP videos.

Note that I don’t even list for example the Asus 730(w) and the Toshiba e830, which all had major problems (for example, the laughable battery life of the Asus, the washed-out screen of the Toshi and the lack of WM5+ upgrades for both models) compared to the hx4700 and are now completely forgotten.

Over the years, because of HTC’s (the major Windows Mobile manufacturer of today) reluctance to produce anything similar to the hx4700, Windows Mobile users preferring a large (and quality) VGA screen had to stick with the hx4700. That is, if you wanted a 4" VGA screen but not significantly bigger (adding serious bulk: see the HTC Advantage / x7500/x7510 or even the even bigger and really expensive, SVGA [800*600] HTC Shift) and nothing less (4" is far better on a VGA device than 3.6", particularly when used in native VGA mode or an app not supporting large characters – for example, Opera Mini run under the MIDlet managers of Esmertec like the Jbed), your only choice has been the hx4700.

Fortunately, the (software) bugs of the hx4700 have all been fixed during these years; the author of this having been one of the most widely-known "hackers" having discovered several ways of fixing the issues with the official WM5 upgrades. The major problem of compaction slowdown has also been fixed in the WM 6.1 upgrade released some months ago. Yes, you will no longer see lengthy compactions if you upgrade to WM6.1.

The huge advantages and seamless operation of the WM6.1 upgrade(s) clearly make the HP iPAQ hx4700 one of the most recommended handsets for users opting for sufficiently, but not too large (4") VGA screens. Let’s see how its successor, the brand new HP iPAQ 210 compares to it. This comparison is of extreme importance because several ex-hx4700 users consider upgrading to the new device. The - without doubt - tempting price (around $400-$450 but, if you live in Canada or don't mind buying from there, you can get it for as low as $350) of the new model (which is almost half of the, originally, really overpriced hx4700) is also very hard to resist.

Thanks to Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine publisher Hal Goldstein, I’ve been given a HP iPAQ 210. I wouldn’t have myself bought it because I already have the hx4700 – also from Hal – and just couldn’t justify the expense for such a not-that-major upgrade (I better save money for the S-E Xperia X1, the Acer/E-TEN v900 or the Gigabyte MS808 with their goodies like WVGA screen (X1) or TV receiver (the latter two models)). I never sell my past PDA’s and phones (because I want to be able to provide first-hand info on even past models), unlike most other people. This means I don’t "upgrade" but pay full price for another toy to play with. That is, you need to thank Hal for this article (and my past articles on the hx4700)

Of course, immediately after receiving the new iPAQ, I’ve started testing it. In this article, I elaborate on my experiences with my new toy. Note that this article is in no way a full review of all features of the new device. Should you want to have a more gentle introduction to the new iPAQ, read for example Brighthand’s or Smartphone & Pocket PC Magazine’s review. This article mostly targets past hx4700 users who would like to know whether it’s worth selling the old iPAQ and upgrading to the new.

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You’ll almost surely encounter problems with the Wireless tab after some (NOT all!) resets: it simply doesn’t display the Bluetooth tab:

Fixing this is fairly easy if you already have SKTools on your PDA (if you don’t, consider purchasing it – it’s really worth it!), click Category (left softkey) and select Maintenance (this isn’t needed; just helps to find the menu easier); then, select Windows Startup:

You’ll see a list of the programs started; one of them we need will be BTTrayCE.lnk:

and the other is iPAQWireless.lnk:

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As promised in my previous article, I’ve taken a deep look at the latest Windows Mobile 6.1 upgrades for the Dell Axim x51v, HP iPAQ hx4700, HTC Universal and HTC Wizard. All the reviewed ROM versions are based on Windows Mobile 5.2.19209 (Build 19209.1.0.2). I run some VERY thorough SDHC conformance tests because, unfortunately, most (as far as the reviewed models are concerned, all – note that, in this regard, I haven’t tested the Universal) plain WM5 / WM6 devices can NOT be easily made SDHC-compliant. This means you MUST upgrade these devices to some of the newer ROMs (including the ones I’ve reviewed) in order to gain SDHC support. Note that I’ve devoted a separate section (at the end) to my test results showing the results of my trying to “hack” the non-WM6.1 ROM-based devices to accept SDHC cards with the latest hacks available.

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After publishing my tutorial on the, then-current version 0.04 of Kokak’s excellent Pocket PC port of Doom offering 2700G (3D acceleration) support, DoomGLES/PPC, a lot has happened. The 0.5 series of DoomGLES offers a lot of goodies you MUST check out if and only if you have a Dell Axim x50v or x51v equipped with an Intel 2700G 3D accelerator by default. (Unfortunately, the brand new O2 XDA Flame, the, currently, only other Pocket PC to sport a 3D accelerator, doesn't run DoomGLES.)

Note that the changes & new features are NO longer implemented in the version meant to play the shareware version of Doom I. This means the latter can’t play back music and doesn’t offer for example Portrait screen orientation support.

(Doom 2 main screen in Portrait mode on my Dell Axim x51v)

Unfortunately, unlike with the shareware version (which comes with a pre-converted WAD file), you must manually convert your WAD files to both get a playable version and also to extract music. As this question generally causes a LOT of headache to Pocket PC users (some PocketGamer.org forum members even use the line “trying to convert wads for DoomGL” as their “favorite game”), I’ve decided to devote a full tutorial to the question. In the following two sections, I elaborate on this.

The first step is essential – without this, you won’t be able to make anything run. The second is optional and will only be needed if you would also like to listen to the original music while playing.

Converting WAD files

To convert the WAD files of your games, extract the main DoomGL ES file (with the current, 0.56 version, it’s DoomGLESB056.zip) and go to the Converter subdirectory of it. Copy doom.wad (and/or doom2.wad) in the same directory and start either DoomConvert.bat or Doom2Convert.bat, depending on whether you want to convert Doom I or Doom II. After some dozens of minutes (on my 3.2 GHz P4, it took almost an hour to convert Doom I and almost 1.5 hours to convert Doom II) of converting (during which the converter application will open a LOT of DOS batch windows), a newly created, OpenGLES directory will contain the converted data. You will need to copy the contents of this directory to your Pocket PC.

Converting music

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It seems Russia can’t be beaten when it comes to hobbyist programmers & hackers (in the good meaning of the word, of course). It was just a few days ago that I’ve reviewed the best Sinclair Spectrum emulator ever written, UnrealSpeccyPPC, of Russian origin, and, now, a brand new ROM version has been released for the HP iPAQ hx4700, with all the additional goodies WM5 AKU 3.5 has (much faster IEM, Messaging no longer having IMAP outbox storage issues etc.) - and, of course, GREATLY enhanced performance.

The previous, official hx4700 WM5 upgrades are both slow (because of REALLY lengthy compaction sessions), unreliable (in many occasions, they require a lengthy soft reset to resume) and outdated (being the heavily outdated AKU1.1 only). Fortunately, some Russian coders / hackers have saved us and given us a REALLY good, fast and up-to-date (AKU3.5) upgrade.

Indeed this ROM version is a BIG step ahead of the original AKU 1.1 coming with the last (and, unfortunately, final), 2.01 (2.03) ROM upgrade officially released by HP.

I’ve dedicated SEVERAL, well-known articles to the WM5 upgrade of the HP iPAQ hx4700 (see for example THIS) and I know pretty much everything about WM5 running on the model. Therefore, I was anxious to flash my hx4700 (for which I’d like to thank Hal Goldstein of Smartphone & PPC Mag again) to start testing.

First, let me elaborate on the (dis)advantages of the new version compared to the official (2.01/03) one. Note that the current, tested upgrade version is dated at 24-06-2007. If you have an older version, you WILL want to upgrade.

Advantages

The new version just can’t be compared to the old, 2.01 (2.03) ROM version. It’s far superior in EVERY respect:

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