Fantastic Price ($245 Incl S&H)) for The Great "Hackable" HP iPAQ 310
I was intrigued with the iPAQ 310, which is a Windows CE based GPS device. First, the screenshot caught my eye with the 3D maps provided by TeleAtlas2007.07 full US and Canada (3D terrain, landmarks, 2D buildings) But looking in to more details, I find the core of the OS is Windows CE embedded running on Centrality (SiRF) Titan dual core 600 MHz with 3D graphics with 128MB fast DDR memory and 2GB flash storage. The high definition image displayed on a gorgeous 4.3-inch WVGA TFT (800 x 480) with touch screen, antiglare. Windows Media player 10 is capable streaming in A2DP with Bluetooth 2.0 EDR. The extraordinary specs are worth a close look and I was wondering if third party apps could be actually installed on this wonderful device.
Further reading about Windows CE, I found Windows CE is the basically “naked” underlying operating system for all the Windows Mobile devices, but Windows Mobile provides an additional layer on top of CE. You see that in the User Interface differences, but under the hood there are also quite a few additional modules, drivers and programs in Windows Mobile that are absent in the core Windows CE.
Windows CE devices are designed to run as embedded OS for “appliance”. The operating system is compiled only with the modules required to accomplish a particular task. In this case it is a GPS application device.
Therefore, don’t expect to run Windows Mobile programs under Windows CE due to missing components, unless few of them. Fortunately TCPMP (the older version of the Core Player) – that one runs fine under both CE and Windows Mobile.
On the iPAQ 310. HP have added their own user interface layer (code named Oasis) onto the Windows CE core. From Oasis you can run the navigation program, view movies, listen to music, start a basic calculator or play one of two games provided courtesy of PDAMill
Beyond that there’s not much you can do with the device. There is no direct access to the underlying Windows CE system. Not that that has ever deterred the curious minds form tinkering with the device.
Luckily Lutz Bendlin at PocketGPSWorld shares with us that the iPAQ 310 customizing is actually very easy. (Read the full review HERE! )
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The Games menu will automatically list new games that you might install into a particular folder, and it does not discriminate between real games and other programs. So all you need is to masquerade your programs as a game. Obviously the first thing you will want to install is some form of shell. Either the native explorer or something much better – TotalCommander for CE (seen below as “CECMD” – this is the name of the Executable). |
Once install the TotalComander, you see this menu in the Game Section
Launch CECMD will let you access to this familiar File management. Now the fun begins
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User Sancho1234 over at the gpspassion forums has found a very nice alternative way to get to the Windows CE shell. All you need to do is put an executable file (for example the aforementioned CECMD.exe) onto the SD card and name it CELauncher.exe . After a soft reset with the SD card inserted the device will boot into plain Windows CE and run your executable. |
Lutz mentions that TCPMP works nicely on the iPAQ ( he use the standard Pocket PC version 0.72rc1) and plays a lot of different video formats, especially when the true potential of the screen is revealed when you use the native NTSC resolution (720×480) when you create your movies.
The scroll wheel is fully supported by TCPMP, up/down controls the volume while the action key pauses and restarts the video.
And do not forget to enjoy all the audio/video Podcasts with TCPMP as I explained HERE!
The picture above shows he use the glass roof to put suction holder and pointed the device towards the passenger seats. Since the device support BT A2DP, use the wireless BT stereo headphones is a must!
Due to its easy hackability the iPAQ is also a very nice toy for tinkerers to exploit more potential of this device, especially at the “After Chrismas Sale” $249.99, there is no excuse! Available HERE!
Video Review Courtesy Notebook.com
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