EDN Senior Technical Editor Brian Dipert Dives Into the Celio Redfly

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.edn.com/blog/400000040/post/1630034763.html?nid=2679' target='_blank'>http://www.edn.com/blog/400000040/p...3.html?nid=2679</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"My experiences using Redfly have so far have been generally problem-free and impressive. Connections and disconnections over both USB and Bluetooth are rapid and uneventful, that is to say 100% reliable. I was happily surprised to see that most applications automatically up-scaled from the phone's 320x240 pixel screen to Redfly's native 800x480 pixel widescreen resolution; those that remained QVGA also remained usable, although they didn't take full advantage of the newly available display real estate. Bluetooth bandwidth is sufficient to deliver adequate display refresh rates for mostly-static applications, but rapid screen update operations (web browsing, Google map navigation, etc) beg for USB2's speedier and lower-latency connection."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/ppct/auto/1224626093.usr1.jpg" /></p><p>Unsurprisingly, now that the Celio Redfly is <a href="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/news/show/90758/redfly-mobile-companion-for-199.html" target="_blank">selling for $199 USD</a>, there's a great deal more interest in it than there was at the $499 price point. Dipert's review of the Redfly covers a fair bit of ground. I thought the Redfly was intriguing when I saw it at CES in January of this year, but I wasn't offered a review unit until last month, so I never got any hands-on time with it. At $499, it didn't seem overly compelling, at least for my purposes. I can easily see why someone with a commute might find this to be the perfect companion though - and at $199, it's pretty darn compelling. Are any of you Redfly owners because of this new, low price? What's your experience like so far with it?</p>

[SteveHoward999]

Don't have one. Haven't laid a finger on one. But I want to. I've said for a long time that mobile devices will ultimately replace laptops and PCs, and this is one small step on the way to prove me right.

I look forward with interest to seeing the evolution of RedFly and similar devices.

[Reid Kistler]

It is a nice looking unit, & guess price is fairly attractive, but beyond that don't see a huge appeal: if am going to be stuck carrying around something (even) That Large, would much rather have a small notebook with own connectivity abilities.

As soon as it no longer fits into a pocket, relatively small differences in size / weight become inconsequential - so a "sub-notebook," like my old NEC Versa, would still win the day....

[SteveHoward999]

I hear you ... but:

- no software costs
- no hardware maintenance
- lose it and you don't lose your data, passwords and more
- if it breaks you still have your phone
- no synching

I'd love it with a projector built-in - www.microvision.com :-)

[mm]

Try it.

I can have my phone (Tilt) in my pocket or briefcase.

I pull this out, turn it on, press the BT connection key, watch a connection message for a few seconds and then I am doing just about anyhting that I can do on my phone with this Redfly.

The brains are in my pocket or briefcase.

It just works.

I kind of wish that it was a little narrower to fit in my scrub pants back pocket.

It recharges the phone with a USB connection.

It takes the place of a secondary BT keyboard with the advantage of having a bigger display than the Tilt.

MM

[alese]

I would like to try it, but even at that price (a bit higher in Europe) I can't afford it at the moment.
I have spent too much on new gadgets in last couple of months as it is, so even if I would have the money the WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor) is pretty much 0...

[RonnyGydar]

I bought an RedFly after the price reduction, and love the thing. All this talk about "it's not as good as an laptop", or "for that price/size you might as well get an laptop"...sure, if that is what you need.

But for ME, the looong batterylife, not having to configure one more PC, superfast starttime (2-3 seconds after pressing connect I am working), not getting hot so it is not uncomfortable to have in the lap for long periods, no noise due to no fan.

BUT I truly miss drivers for HTC Touch Pro/HTC Diamond, it works with my TouchPro, but everything way to big on the screen due to some display mismatch...but from what I have heard, Celio is working on this, and drivers will be available soon.

I also hope LogMeIn will work flawlessly in the future (that is not RedFly's problem, it is an issue with TouchPro and LogMeIn), since the TouchPro's hardware keyboad (and thereby RedFly's too) does not work with LogMeIn. I hope LogMeIn will fix this soon, since RedFly + LogMeIn...will make it possible for me to do practically everything with the RedFly.

[emuelle1]

Since my wife and I recently got BlackJack II's, I decided to get one. For $199, I figured it was a bargain and I promised to sell some of my old gadgets to pay for it. I just have to get pictures of my hx4705, 6945, iMac, and iBook posted on Craig's List with ads.

So far, I love it. I would classify it as a "luxury item", but it is highly useful though you can live without it. A full size keyboard and larger screen make my BlackJack a heck of a lot more useful. The BlackJack itself is a lot more stable than any Windows Mobile device I've ever had so giving it near-laptop capabilities is a good thing.

I've barely had my Redfly for a week, but I've already used it to take notes in two meetings. During one meeting, my wife started texting me. With the Alt-Tab functionality, I could switch back and forth between Evernote Mobile and Pocket Outlook easily.

So far, the only program I've found that won't work with the Redfly is SkyFire. Also, Pocket Informant has some trouble rendering the keyboard encoding, at least in the Daily Notes function. I can't type parenthesis and apostrophes among a few other characters.

If you can spare $199 ($205 with shipping) I'd say go ahead and get one while it's on sale.

[Pete Paxton]

I admit that at $500 I thought this thing was priced to high. But for $199 I can see many cost effective benefits. To be able to use this in a hotel like a laptop but then go to a conference with just your PPC and yet you have everything you did on the Redfly, that's pretty cool. You don't have to worry about syncing or leaving something important behind on your laptop. And, even though you could carry an inexpensive ultra portable laptop, you probably won't find one for anywhere near $199.

[kdarling]

At $199, I got one for my step son who lives and dies by the files and comms of his Treo.

So far, he loves it, and many of his friends and coworkers are getting one as well.

He's thinking about using the video output for presentations.

He does wish that Slingbox would work across to it, but the speed's not there.

[Pony99CA]

I just got one yesterday for my Motorola Q9m. I've barely had time to use it, but my first impressions are OK. The problems I've seen include:


I've had trouble using the Today screen (and wonder why they switch my default scheme to their red one)
Pocket IE seems a bit slow loading something like IMDB
I haven't found Page Up/Page Down keys, so scrolling can still be slow
I haven't found any dedicated softkey buttons

Once I get more experience, I'll post more.

Steve

[Jason Lee]

I ordered mine just after it went on sale. I've had it for a few weeks and absolutely LOVE it!

I do most of my email and web browsing at home from my phone. It is always with me and always on. I don't have to boot my laptop to just check a website real quick. Or look a this forum. Or check Google Reader.

Now it is a dream on the Redfly. Opera Mobile is great!

On the work front the Redfly is a huge help. I use it to telnet in to network equipment (pocket Putty), remote desktop to servers, and manage devices though their web interface. While this was all doable before it is now super easy, and a much nicer experience, with the Redfly. Plus I don't kill the battery on my phone. If i carry my Lil' Sync cable from PPCTechs it will charge my phone too! Which allows me to use WiFi more.

I used my pocket pc as my primary computer before I had the Redfly. Now it is just soo much easier and so much nicer. It was totally worth wasting the $199 for me. hehehe

It is GREAT for travel. I took it with me on vacation 2 weeks ago. It is all I needed. I didn't really want a netbook or mini laptop because I could do everything I would use one of those for all from my phone. Now I have the best of both worlds. :D

[Jason Lee]

I just got one yesterday for my Motorola Q9m. I've barely had time to use it, but my first impressions are OK. The problems I've seen include:


I've had trouble using the Today screen (and wonder why they switch my default scheme to their red one)
Pocket IE seems a bit slow loading something like IMDB
I haven't found Page Up/Page Down keys, so scrolling can still be slow
I haven't found any dedicated softkey buttons

Once I get more experience, I'll post more.

Steve

The softkeys share the same buttons as F6 and F7. They also work when using an external USB keyboard.

Page up and down are on the FN of the up and down arrow keys.

[Pony99CA]

The softkeys share the same buttons as F6 and F7. They also work when using an external USB keyboard.

Page up and down are on the FN of the up and down arrow keys.
Awesome. Thanks for pointing those out. The printing is a bit small for me to read easily, but now that I know they're there, I'll use them.

I just hope the key legends don't wear off. They look like they might, which would be bad, especially for the function keys.

For getting a larger screen, better keyboard, trackpad, extended battery, VGA out and limited USB functionality (keyboard, mouse, flash drive), $200 isn't bad. If the USB worked with a memory card reader, not just a flash drive, that would make it even better. (I may have to try that later. I suspect it will work with my old SanDisk SD Cruzer, but not my multi-format card reader.)

Steve

[Snowmation]

It's kind of a meh for me, I mean the whole point of getting a smartphone in the first place was so I didn't need to carry around a laptop all the time. Then there is the price, with Asus now coming out with a $300 Eeepc it's really hard to justify a $200 machine that does nothing but connect to your smartphone.

In the end the Redfly seems like an answer to a question no one asked....at least to me.

[John Blasdell]

I ordered my Redfly this morning. I can do most of my daily computing on my Treo, but that small screen is a HUGE limiting factor. The Redfly should eliminate that problem and make typing easier.

Has anyone found a case that fits this? I want a small case that's just big enough for the Redfly and a mouse, not the AC adapter or other stuff.

[stanip]

I have been using Redfly for a few days. Wish it were slimmer and lighter. But it gives me almost instant-on, good battery life and large keyboard/display. No complaint for $199.

[Jason Lee]

I've been looking at one of the eee pc cases at Target. It might be a little smaller than what you are looking for.
But that is where I would starg looking. Netbook cases.

[donc36]

I bought one from Amazon, and have been using it for a week or so. It works as described, and does it well.

It turns my tilt into a near laptop experience. I can easily reply to e-mails (via Flexmail), use PocketInformant for a near outlook experience, browse with Opera mobile 8.65, create / edit docs and spreadsheets with Textmaker / Planmaker.

It does NOT provide you with a multimedia platform. There aren't speakers, it isn't good for video, etc. However, it's not supposed to be a multimedia system.

At $200 - I justified the price by looking at what it provides:
- Bluetooth keyboard - ~$100
- Spare battery / charger ~$60 or so
- Larger display for my tilt - ???

I can now do most of my work anywhere I have an edge signal (naturally 3G is better). I don't have to lug my laptop everywhere, worry about it getting damaged or lost.

I highly recommend this to smartphone users who need more than causal use of their phones for e-mails / browsing / doc editing.

Don

[Pony99CA]

I've been using the Redfly for about a week now, so here's what I've found using my Motorola Q9m running WM 6 Standard.

The good points:


You get a much better keyboard and screen, obviously.
Battery life has been very good.
I can actually use the scroll bars on the Redfly with the on-screen pointer. (That means the Smartphone actually has scroll bars, not just scroll indicators, I think.)
I can read the print in IE Mobile more easily. (I'm very nearsighted, so that's a big deal.)
Not only can you connect flash drives, you can connect two of them -- and they can be card readers, like my old SanDisk Cruzer SD reader or my newer SanDisk MobileMate MicroSD reader.
My Logitech Cordless TrackMan trackball worked.
People I've shown it to generally think it's cool. :)

The bad points:


Windows Media doesn't play video well (but music seems to play fine).
Pocket IE seems a bit slow loading something like IMDB
The Page Up/Page Down keys don't work everywhere (like in E-mail).
Clicking on links doesn't work; you have to scroll to them and hit Enter. (Remember, my Q9m is not a touchscreen phone.)
Clicking on items on the Home screen also doesn't work. You can to scroll to them and hit Enter.
The Home screen can get messed up. After some connects and disconnects, I had my Home screen and scheme, but the softkeys were still using the Redfly colors.
The Start menu isn't sorted in any way I can discern, and one folder that I added to the Start menu somehow was displayed with the ActiveSync icon.
Gentimer (an alarm program) screens don't display at all (probably because of the way Gentimer implements skins). At least when an alarm triggers, though, you can see the alarm text in the title bar.
After installing the Redfly software, Sprite Backup stopped making my scheduled backups (for three days). Going into the schedule section and rescheduling the backup seems to have fixed that.
Garmin Mobile 10 GPS software was hard to use. I couldn't select the buttons because they displayed bigger than normal, which caused the highlighting to disappear (although I didn't try too much).

I disconnected, set my destination, then reconnected and maps did display. Howvever, the refresh time didn't appear to be real-time (it was hard to tell because I was driving and the Redfly was on the passenger seat).

I didn't think it would work at all, so it's a mixed bag.
My USB multi-card reader didn't work (but I didn't expect it to).
Using a Bluetooth headset and voice dialing gives distorted voice prompts from the Voice Recignition software.
The directional pad mode seems very fidgety. I find using the arrow keys for scrolling and the Enter key for OK to be much easier.

So far, I think it's been worth the $200. It's not something I can use everywhere, but I'll be carrying it around at work to meetings, I think. It should make note taking easier.

Steve

[Jason Lee]

Nice. Good information.
How you described having to scroll to links and stuff helps explain why the touch pad mouse has a "smartphone mode".

Try clicking both mouse buttons at the same time. This will turn the touchpad into up/down/left/right/center click. This will probably make it much easier and faster to scroll through links on a webpage. Click both buttons again to turn it off.

The feature didn't really make sense to me using a pocket pc. hehe.

[Pony99CA]

Nice. Good information.
How you described having to scroll to links and stuff helps explain why the touch pad mouse has a "smartphone mode".

Try clicking both mouse buttons at the same time. This will turn the touchpad into up/down/left/right/center click. This will probably make it much easier and faster to scroll through links on a webpage. Click both buttons again to turn it off.
Yeah, I knew about that, but it's too fidgety for me. It was very hard to control. Using the arrow keys for scrolling and the Enter key for OK works much better for me.

I've updated my list with that item and another about distorted voice prompts while using a Bluetooth handset.

Steve