We cannot respond to all letters or e-mail (but we read them all). Please send us questions, suggestions for improvements in the magazine, ideas for new software, or general comments. All responses, unless otherwise indicated, are from Rich Hall, Editor of Pocket PC. You can reach Rich at rich@PocketPCmag.com.
COMPOSING MUSIC ON THE POCKET PC
I read an article in the inbox section of the November 2001 issue of the Pocket PC magazine about a man asking if there were some sort of sequencer for composing music on a Pocket PC. You said you couldn't find one, but I found a very useful one. It's called Jaytrax
(www.jatown.com/jaytrax/). There is a version for both desktop PC and Pocket PC and they both use the same file type, so you can edit the same music files on both.
Jason Behm
CAN MUTE VOLUME AND MORE ON HP JORNADA 720
Nice to see Hal Goldstein writing reviews! I am extremely pleased to see another Handheld PC 2000 on the market. I carry a Jornada 720 with me every day. I did notice something that you mentioned in the article that might need a little correction. In your review of the new NEC MobilePro 790 (www.pocketpcmag.com/Nov01/NEC790.asp) you talked about not being able to mute from the keyboard from any Handheld PC 2000 device. On the HP Jornada 720 there are three little blue icons above the IE key, the mail key, and the voice recorder key (top row of keys, left side). By using the ALT key in combination with the above keys you get the following actions:
ALT + Recorder: Pops up a menu that let you adjust or mute volume.
ALT + IE: Opens IE and takes you to the Jornada home page
ALT + E-mail: Pops up a menu that lets you change screen brightness settings.
Bob Fairbairn
DOES THE CMS FIRE & FORGET WORK WITH THE HP JORNADA 720?
Have you tested the new CMS Fire & Forget 5.0 GB PC Card Drive? Does using it drain batteries?
Alfredo Rodrich
Alfredo, I have not seen the 5 Gb Fire and Forget, but the 2 Gb version works with my Jornada 720 Handheld PC, the Compaq iPAQ Pocket PC via it's PC Card Expansion Pack, and the UR There @migo Pocket PC. The 5 Gb card is the same technology, but with higher capacity. It should work with the 720.
Because it is a rotating disk hard drive, it will drain more power than a Flash card, but it doesn't seem to spin the disk unless it is accessing data. At least that's what it sounded like when I tested the 2 Gb version. The drain on batteries would depend on how much you accessed it. You could probably minimize this by storing your most-used files in internal memory, or, because the 720 has two card slots, on a smaller CF Card.
If you sit and view videos or listen to MP3s all the time, your battery life will be noticeably shorter. That's true wherever you store the files, but more so with rotating-disk technology. If you only occasionally access data on the Fire and Forget card, you probably won't notice the difference.
Rich Hall, Editor, Pocket PC magazine
CAN I SYNCHRONIZE WITH TWO COMPUTERS, WITHOUT GETTING CONFUSED?
I have a Cassiopeia E-125. I do most of my work at my office during the day when changes made on my desktop PC are automatically synchronized with the E-125. Is there a way to also synchronize with my home PC? Is there a way to only make changes from the E-125 to the home PC so that I don't get confused? FYI, I use MS Outlook for my planner and have an extra cradle for the home PC if I can figure out how to use it. I am just knowledgeable enough about computers to be really dangerous!!
Rex Griffiths
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