01-04-2008, 11:35 AM
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Developer & Designer, News Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 12,959
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Redfly Mobile Companion for Windows Mobile Devices
"Smartphones have laptop power in a pocket-size design. But the pocket-size design has a natural limitation in the size of the keyboard and screen. Celio Corp extends the Smartphone with the most valuable features of a laptop. The REDFLY Mobile Companion is a sleek clamshell design that includes an 8" display, a full function keyboard, and a touchpad mouse. Measuring just 1x6x9 inches and only 2 pounds, the REDFLY Mobile Companion offers over 8 hours of battery life and boots instantly! It also adds three new features - instant VGA output, access to USB flash drives, and the ability to charge your smartphone via USB. REDFLY is very unique - it changes the resolution of your smartphone display so that applications, web sites, email, and attachments all have more room to play!"
With a keyboard, touchpad, display, USB, and VGA-out, it really doesn't take much to view the Redfly Mobile Companion as a compact laptop. But it's not. Think of it as an extender for your Windows Mobile device. It's a neat concept, although it's questionable as to whether it's a practical one. There's already a discussion brewing at our sister site, Smartphone Thoughts, where readers are questioning why consumers would settle for this $500 device over an actual laptop? Your thoughts on this one?
On a different note, our own Jason Dunn will be walking the floors of CES, so expect to hear more about this product over the coming days.
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01-04-2008, 01:18 PM
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Philosopher
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 541
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Too expensive for what it does.
If it would be cheaper then it could be a nice accessory for the phone, but for $500 one could duplicate the functionality with Asus EEE and even save some money...
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01-04-2008, 04:44 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 35
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Not for $500, sorry. Maybe if it was a $100 or $200 add-on, but considering that my Latitude D410 ultra-compact laptop cost me $493+shipping and included a next day repair plan and runs Vista Ultimate and has WiFi and Bluetooth and an 80GB hard disk etc, why would I spend that much on what amounts to a Windows Mobile Foleo that does maybe a tenth of that?
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01-04-2008, 07:28 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Jul 2002
Posts: 218
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Looks to me like another Foleo, too. And that one didn't do so well. I didn't much see the point of the first one. I have an Asus Eee that has more functionality, I think.
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01-04-2008, 09:32 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Aug 2002
Posts: 171
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This is completely the wrong direction for me. I'm expecting my PDA to get faster and more powerful and function exactly like a laptop. My expectations are that the PDA (phone/GPS/ etc) simply be my computer. I would then hook up a keyboard and/or monitor via wireless connection when I have large projects to work on. The last thing I want is a laptop that preforms like a current day PDA.
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01-04-2008, 10:40 PM
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Philosopher
Join Date: Oct 2006
Posts: 554
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You can have Asus EEE for less money, which is full featered umpc
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You create your opportunities by asking for them
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01-05-2008, 01:32 AM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 80
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Re: Redfly Mobile Companion for Windows Mobile Devices
I can't understand why these people think it should be worth that much. I can buy a 19" LCD display for $150, and an add-on keyboard for another $50, tops. Considering the small display size, I can't see why they couldn't sell something like this for $200. At that price, they might sell a few. At $500, they won't- and the idiots in their marketing department will attribute that to no demand, rather than their stupid pricing decision.
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01-07-2008, 03:41 AM
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Thinker
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 359
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Reminds me of the Palm Folio. An ok idea (not the Folio) but too expensive to just be an "extender" of sorts. I'd rather buy a fully functional mini-notebook for $200 more.
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01-07-2008, 03:42 AM
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Thinker
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 359
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by virain
You can have Asus EEE for less money, which is full featered umpc
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My thoughts exactly.
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01-07-2008, 04:53 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 197
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I think you guys might be missing some of the implications here. This isn't like a Folio. A Folio was a Palm device built with the form-factor of a laptop. With the Folio, you got all the carrying difficulties of a lap-top with all the program functionality limitations of a PDA -- the worst of both worlds. This is an add-on that wirelessly allows your existing PDA to use a large screen, keyboard, mouse, and USB devices and includes the capability to send the video to an external monitor or projector. You'll pay about $200 for a device that allows you to (sort-of) give a PowerPoint presentation from your handheld, but you have to upload the presentation to the device and you're limited in terms of transitions, backgrounds, and can't do embedded video at all. With the REDFLY, you could do any presentation on your handtop without a lot of limitations.
I can understand owning a UMPC when you want/need the power of desktop applications or the compatiblity to run a certain program, but if you don't, you can get 8 hours of use out of the REDFLY on battery. What's the battery use time on the EEE? If you go with the UMPC-Smartphone/PDA combination, you're still going to want a full-sized keyboard, a full-sized monitor, a mouse, and you're still going to have to do all that @$#%&@% synching.
Finally, I can see a possible next move of making a REDFLY module to which you could plug in your monitor, your mouse, your keyboard, and your USB devices and could conceivably cost about $200. I'd buy that.
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