Ok, I think MS have got it all wrong with their sound settings. I have some ideas for improvement. It would be great if I could implement someithing like this as a develper, by extending the OS.

1) The sound level of an alarm is set by the sound level of the iPAQ at the time. This seems to me to be the wrong way to do it. I set an alarm to go off in a couple of weeks. I then forget about the appointment, turn off my sound because I am in a meeting, or whatever. After the meeting, I forget to turn up the sound, and I miss the appointment because I do not hear the alarm. I would rather set the volume level of the alarm when setting the alarm.

2) I am listening to an audio tape on my iPAQ. I am walking alongside a busy road, and the sound level of the original is pretty low, so I have the iPAQ on the highest setting. Next thing an alarm goes off, and I am deafened by the loud piercing sound of an alarm. Scares the cr@p out of me. Happens all the time! So why is it that the iPAQ is not smart enough to detect that I have the headphones plugged in, and just play the alarm sound at a reasonable level, no matter what the original setting of the alarm level. Either I have the headphones on, and will hear it, or I have left the unit vacant with the headphones still plugged in, and nothing will help me there. But you could have the software play the sound on BOTH the headphones and the speaker...

David

If it were a perfect world
Great ideas there, and would definately be an improvement.
I've had the same issues as you, and it is indeed irritating.
Something like the "Sound Logic" that my television has would be nice.

New Horizon H.I.

Realistically, I can deal with missed "appointments" because I did not hear the iPAQ alarm. I have grown used to the fact that the iPAQ is not reliable as an appointment reminder. Pitty!

The biggest problem I have is with the volume of the alarm when I am listening to the audio tapes. I swar, one day I am going to drop-kick this iPAQ into the busy street when I get one too many "Ding Dongs" at 110 decibels while listening to someone speak on an audio file.

I have already turned off as many system sounds as I can. like the start menu clicks that used to drive me crazy.

I just think about the power in iPAQ, but yet the implementation has just missed the mark. I say bring on the days when the OS is as extensible and overridable as they have made the .Net Framework. I am a .Net developer, and think it would be so easy to overcome these problems, if only there were a little bit of thought at the start.

I am not sure if WMobile 5 fixes these issues, but I suspect not.

Thanks
David

I knew I forgot another point. How about a program to mute the volume for x minutes/hours. If you know you are going to be in a meeting for 2 hours, and need the volume muted or turned right down, you can set the amount of time on that volume before it returns to the previous setting. This saves you from forgetting to turn it up later and therefore missing an appointment reminder.

I would also suggest that there be an override setting on this so that you turn it down for all but the highest priority appointments, or just all appointments.

Now that I think about it, how about a "Meeting" setting. It turns down or off the sound altogether for your specified time, and immediately shows you a list of the warnings that are due to go off during that period. That way you are not interrupted with PDA beeps, you do not miss any appointment reminders during the event, and you get the louder volume immediatly after the meeting.

Just thinking out loud. I would like to try to make an app to solve as much of the sound problems as I can. Not sure if it all will be possible, but some is.

If anyone else has any thoughts, feel free to suggest.

David

Maybe that app could even interface with pocket outlook, so if outlook says you have a meeting on Wednesday from 1:00- 4:00 it will automatically activate "Meeting Mode"?

Hi,

An application which does most of those things exists, it is called MeetingMute by PocketConcepts (www.pocketconcepts.com). You can download a fully functional trial. It seems quite complete and not everything is clear to me yet, but I think I will buy the licensed version (8.95$) as it works for me.

Best regards from Belgium,
Frank