So I bought a iPAQ 314...

Therefore, I started searching the web for tweaks and tricks and I stumbled into a topic on GpsPassion about customizing the iPAQ 310 (the USA version), which is pretty much the same device with a few differences.

After reading a lot of posts from a great deal of great people, I've decided to make my own contribution.

One the most boring things I had to handle was creating custom images for this device's interface (OASIS).
Some of the main interface buttons can handle regular bitmaps with or without alpha channel (transparency), but the 95% of the interface's images are not in a standard BMP format.
To handle this "special" image format, FredLynx developed the MioMap-IGO BMP Tool that loads standard BMPs with alpha channel and compresses them to the special format.
So, to create a semi-transparent image I had to:
1) create the image as a standard PNG with transparency using my favorite image editor
2) open it with GIMP and save it as a BMP with alpha channel
3) use MioMap-IGO BMP Tool to convert it to the "special" format

Soon enough I started to get tired of all this steps and latter on I found out that MioMap-IGO BMP Tool had some limitations, as it couldn't read all of those "special" image files. Also, It wouldn't convert some complex bitmaps I've created and it didn't handle transparency correctly.
I then decided to try to develop a tool to handle this issues. Don't get me wrong! MioMap-IGO is a great tool!

After a lot of trial and error (there's no documentation mapping the "special" image file format) I finally created iPIE which stands for iPAQ Image Explorer.

Load: BMP, PNG, GIF
Save: BMP (24bit-RGB, 32bit-ARGB, 16bit-Palleted-RLE-iPAQ), PNG, JPG
Batch conversion

This is a screen-shot of iPIE displaying an image from the iPAQ's NAV\data.zip\ui_hp_sagan\800_480 folder.
I believe these are some photos iPAQ's developer team members... if not... I really don't have a clue...
This file is one of those than MioMap-IGO couldn't open.


To get it, please visit the downloads section.

SoundXplorer is a windows application for audio-file management and organization.
It helps you build, organize and play your audio collection the easy way. It also allows you to publish your files to the web or to other web-browsing capable devices on your home network.

Audio file search and collect
Build your music library the easy way. Just set the root folder(s) where you know your files are in and SoundXplorer will automatically search, index and catalog them.
For all features, SoundXplorer handles MP3, WMA and WAV files.

Metadata smart editing (ID3/WMA-Tag)
It can't get more simple than this. Edit metadata information by the good old drag and drop system. Drag one file onto an Artist folder and the ID3 information will be automatically updated. More so, you can edit metadata on multiple files at the same time. And even more so, you can set a group of files in it's original order (track order, as in the original CD) and a simple button click will query the web and set the song's Title, Album, Artist, etc. all at once.

CD-Rip with Internet search integration
The old and useful CD-Rip feature is also present in SoundXplorer in a very discreet way.
The Audio CD appears as a branch on the main explorer tree, but only when a Audio CD is present on the computer's drive.
When selected, you can manually select the tracks for ripping and set it's metadata information. But you can make it all happen with just on click, allowing SoundXplorer to query the web and automatically set the appropriate metadata.

Cross-format converting
SoundXplorer fully supports MP3, WMA and WAV files. You can convert between these formats any way you like.
This feature is available in the 'Send To' pop menu. Right-click a file or file group, choose 'Send To►New Format'. This way you can choose to replace the original file or choose another destination (like a Pen Drive, for example).

Media Server with built-in search engine
This is a optional feature of SoundXplorer named SoundXplorer Server.
By optional, does not mean it's less powerful. It's main purpose is to publish you music library rather than build or manage it.
It uses the same library engine as SoundXplorer, so you'll need to use SoundXplorer first to build your library so that the Server can publish it.
For detailed information see the Media Server section bellow.

Another (optional) feature of SoundXplorer is it's HTTP Media Server named SoundXplorer Server.
It's main goal is to make your music collection available to you no matter where your are, as long as you have a Internet connection and a web browsing capable device.
Nowadays, there's lot of devices (other than a standard PC) that support web browsing like PDA's, Cell Phones, Game Consoles, network DVD-Players, etc. SoundXplorer Server has been successfully tested on Nokia N70/N80 (running Opera browser) and Sony PSP.
SoundXplorer Server also have built-in security features that you can use to restrict the access to your music files to your home network connected devices and/or to authorized users.

Browsing your collection is now as intuitive and easy as surfing the web. It even has a web-like search engine!

For you to run SoundXplorer it's recommended you meet the following requirements:

   CPU Speed: 1GHz or higher
   RAM: 512 MB or more
   HDD: 20 MB of free disk space
   Windows 2000/XP/Vista/Seven (Windows 98: can experience some limitations)
   Windows Media Player 9 or higher (WMP9 is the recommended version)
   Network/Internet Connection

To download SoudXplorer please visit the downloads section.