Welcome to the Flyspots blog
Written by: Kirt Bailey
Welcome to the Flyspots blog where we discuss everything related to the REDFLY Mobile Companion. Check back often or subscribe to the RSS feed and stay in the loop on product info, firmware updates, news, announcements, industry insight, and general musings from the REDFLY team on mobile enterprise computing.
This is an exciting time for me personally at Celio Corp. In the short time since we officially released REDFLY, enterprise orders for evaluation units and REDFLY pilot programs have far surpassed expectations. We’re currently ramping up production to meet REDFLY demand.
I’m particularly grateful for the entire REDFLY team and all of the long hours and hard work that went into getting REDFLY to market. Not content to just sit and savor our accomplishment, we’re now hard at work testing REDFLY compatible smartphones and applications; improving drivers and firmware; and adding functionality.
We truly believe the smartphone will one day be your only computing device. We’re working towards that day knowing there’ll be a need to access your smartphone at home, at work and on the road with larger screens and keyboards in an inexpensive, secure and efficient fashion.
We’ve got some really great stuff in the works and I can’t wait to share the news with you through this blog as we progress.
We’re just getting the Flyspots blog started and would appreciate any input or feedback you may have for us. Feel free to post questions in the comments or drop us a line using the main contact form located here.
Kirt Bailey
President and CEO
Celio Corp
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:45 am
Congratulations on your product launch.
The Redfly, and with luck - a bigger brother to come? - do promise to open the gate for the vision of true ubiquitous portable computing.
Opening your product across other OS’s anytime soon?
I have a personal purchase decision coming up in the next couple of months and any additional information you will be able to offer through this venue will be followed closely.
Take care and best wishes for your business.
Brian
July 4th, 2008 at 7:58 pm
Can’t wait for the Touch drivers to come out!
July 7th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
Using the product (and showing it to customers), and it’s fantastic! People see the value right away, and it has made my mobile computing tasks much more effective and productive. Thanks for the great product!
July 8th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
Any possibility this device could be used with a bluetooth enabled windows workstation as well as the smartphone? Your product looks promising!
July 9th, 2008 at 10:09 pm
Hi,
I know this product the concept is not same with EeePC, but I know you-all want to know your Price is not reasonable, sure I don’t want to compare your product with EeePC, but full version PC of EeePC 900/901 is just US$499.00 (or under) only…
How much I will consider to buy it, maybe around US$255.00. (I really accept your concept and buy your product, I hope that price is coming soon…)
Regards,
Gary Chiu
July 10th, 2008 at 11:57 am
Anyone had tested it with a iMate Ultimate x150 ?
TIA,
Felicio Santos.
July 11th, 2008 at 4:42 am
I am curious why the .cab files are device specific but if you install from your computer there is only one .exe file to download?
July 11th, 2008 at 1:28 pm
One question:
iPhone support. Can it be done?
July 15th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
Thanks for your interest and questions.
James,
We hope to be beta testing HTC Touch drivers very soon. As to your other question, .cab files are offered separately for each supported phone to minimize over-the-air file size transfers. When you run the .exe on your PC, it discovers your phone model and installs the appropriate driver.
Brian and Will,
We can’t talk much about unannounced products or features, but we are exploring other operating systems and have had many requests for REDFLY support.
Terry,
REDFLY can’t currently connect to a Windows-based PC, for now only certain supported Windows Mobile phones.
Gary,
As with any manufacturing process over time involving scale and efficiencies, we expect the price to come down a bit. When you factor in the Total Cost of Ownership including imaging, deploying and managing other devices, REDFLY’s current price point is more comparable. No OS, CPU syncing or storage means no ongoing IT management or hassle.
Felicio,
We are testing i-mate compatibility but we don’t have any solid information yet to offer.
Thanks,
Colin Kelly
July 16th, 2008 at 10:51 am
I have to say that the Redfly is everything I could have hoped and then some. While I see colleagues and others struggling with security, slowness, power loss, and other headaches with their laptops, I am zipping around with complete ease generating documents, e-mails, etc. — all without the slightest concern for battery drain.
I am more than a little embarrassed to admit that I may be the first to lose a Redfly (left it on a train last week). Fortunately, the mishap has left me only with egg on my face since I still have all of my data on my Treo 700w/x. Had it been a laptop, I’d be looking for a new job.
I have ordered another Redfly so I can get back to firing on all cylinders. I LOVE THE REDFLY!
July 19th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
We bought a redfly and thinks it’s great. We where wondering which wireless mice work with the redfly.
July 21st, 2008 at 4:30 am
I am anxiously awaiting the Touch drivers on the device, but am curious to see the compatibility with the Verizon XV6900 Touch since you have listed the Sprint Touch only? I currently carry a Q9m also, but would prefer the use of my XV6900 due to its enhanced capabilities & speed. I think that this is a phenominal product & the future of computing. As a Data Sales Manager at Verizon Wireless, I can see my customers using a Redfly with WM6.1 and Domain Enrollment…Why even use a laptop? I am looking forward to the additional supported devices & may even spring for one if it includes the Verizon XV6900! Thanks for such an innovative product.
Chris B
July 21st, 2008 at 4:39 am
I use the Logitech Nano because the USB dongle is so small, when it is attached to the Redfly does not stick out past the case.
July 21st, 2008 at 3:07 pm
John, we’ve tested 3 other Logitech mice too - LX 710 Laser (comes with a keyboard), MX 620, and MX Revolution. The Gear Head Optical Wireless Mouse also has been tested to work.
Thanks,
Colin Kelly
July 21st, 2008 at 7:57 pm
Another thing to think about is this. How many of your less than tech savvy friends still use USB Jump Drives? I haven’t used one in years since I got my first SD card. Just today I had someone who had a file on a jump drive that I needed. So I plugged their drive into the Redfly and transferred it to my phone. That is nice.
July 28th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
Just received mine about 10 days ago, and have to say what a great product this is. It does seem that it’s very polarizing, though: People either “get it” right away, or they just don’t, and no amount of explanation or demonstration can sway some people as to the value. The usual comeback is, “I can’t believe you paid $500 for something that’s not even a real laptop.” They *just don’t get it*, clearly. Anyway, I can’t find many discussion threads on the Web dedicated to Redfly, so I don’t really know where to post these two tips except here, so for what it’s worth:
(1) I discovered that the Redfly paired perfectly with my Mogul, *except* that the bottom bar (soft menu keys) was really “washed out” compared to the correct color. (I am using the Windows Mobile 6.1 theme, but saw this behavior regardless of which theme I chose.) I did some searching on the Web and found others, including some of the bloggers and journalists reviewing eval devices, who reported this same problem. I should point out that my company’s security policy with Exchange ActiveSync requires a device password be set, which could be part of the problem – is anyone experiencing this problem who does *NOT* have a device password or PIN set? In any case, while I’m sure there is a potential fix that will come our way eventually, but for now I did discover a weird workaround that seems to solve the problem for me. From the Windows Mobile Start menu, go to Settings, then to the Lock applet (which Locks the device if you have a PIN/password set). Enter your PIN or password, then use the mouse to press the Unlock button at lower left. (If you just hit the Enter key, it does not seem to fully render the shaded lower buttons.) This seems to work about 7 out of 10 times, or 10 out of 10 if I have just done a soft reset. The “fix” will last until the next soft reset of the phone, at which time you’ll have to repeat it. I’ve gotten into the habit of doing this first thing every time I soft reset the phone.
(2) This is more of a personal preference than a fix, but I thought the way the Redfly “tiles” your Today screen wallpaper across the screen to be a little inelegant. First I experimented with using a wallpaper image of a single color (no gradient) so that the “tiling” effect wouldn’t show. That worked, but was a little plain. Then I discovered through some research that you can create custom backgrounds for any screen resolution and Windows Mobile will automatically load them when the screen resolution changes — provided they are named according to a certain convention. So the trick is, create a JPG image file that’s exactly 800 x 480 pixels and name it: stwater_800_480.jpg. (For those who care, the weird naming convention is short for “STart menu WATERmark . . .”) Using the method of your choice, copy that file to the \WINDOWS folder on your Windows Mobile device. The device should continue to use your existing wallpaper for the normal screen resolutions (320×240 or whatever your devices uses), but when you link to the Redfly, Windows Mobile “senses” the 800×480 resolution and loads the file you’ve created. I didn’t get too fancy with mine – just stretched the existing Windows Mobile 6.1 background to the new size and added a cool “Redfly” watermark to the lower right-hand corner. If anyone wants the file, I’ve posted it here: http://www.mediafire.com/imageview.php?quickkey=izhunncdbdc&thumb=4
Again, great device – am really loving it. Hope to see a much more robust user community grow up around the Redfly!
July 29th, 2008 at 5:17 am
John
I use a i760 and get the same washed look at the bottom too.
That is a great idea for the for the wallpaper! I have downloaded it and it looks great.
I am on vacation this week and of course brought the Redfly with me.
A user discussion forum would be awesome. I really have been wishing to talk to other Redfly users. It would definitely need to be moderated or else it would just clog up with the “It’s a Foleo and/or a waste of money” crowd.
July 29th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
James and John, thanks for your comments.
We’re working to establish an official REDFLY user forum site soon. Also, wmexperts/treocentral I believe is planning on adding a REDFLY section to its forums sometime in the future.
The “washed out” soft key bottom menu bar is a known issue. As you’ve discovered, it’s a sporadic issue that often is helped by doing a soft reset on the phone.
I have a few other 800 x 480 Today Screen background images that I’ll post somewhere soon for you to add to your collections.
Thanks,
Colin Kelly
July 29th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
I cant seem to get that pic to work. I paste it into the /Windows folder but the Redfly is still tiling and after a soft reset the file disappears.
July 29th, 2008 at 7:51 pm
got it! needed Total Commander to paste it in. thanks!
July 30th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
hey i see the touch drivers are in beta testing. I have a touch and would be able to help out just shoot me an email.
August 4th, 2008 at 11:54 am
Has anyone used the Redfly Mobile Companion with the Ipaq 214 and if so what drivers did you download ??
Regards
John Welsby
August 5th, 2008 at 2:43 pm
An idea for a possible fantastic business opportunity for Celio Corp which leverages your expertise in efficient and secure over-Bluetooth display-remoting between Windows Mobile and your lightweight REDFLY terminal…
Opportunities:
1) Modern cars (eg. Toyota Prius) often have nice large color LCD touch-screens (driven by some form of computer) used for Bluetooth phoning, GPS navigation (usually using DVD drive under the driver’s seat), etc. - these could be also be used by increasingly prevalent PDAs/Smartphones as nice large displays (perhaps including on-screen soft keyboard) especially when the car is not driving.
Also, these car computers generally only provide the Bluetooth hands-free and car-kit profiles, and not the Bluetooth A2DP stereo profile that yound modern users would like so they can play stereo music thru their car speakers via Bluetooth (and not just physical 3.5mm stereo input socket as Toyota Prius has).
2) These car’s computer-driven LCD touch-screens have growing functionality akin to cell phones, including Bluetooth phoning and maintenance of contacts, GPS navigation and maintenance of navigational POI, and even calendar/appointment functionality, etc. For driving safety, much of this is disabled during driving, which increasingly forces car owners to have to sit in their stationary car for much time maintaining contacts, POIs, and generally trying to learn how to perform fairly comprehensive PDA-like functionality with a peculiar and often unintuitive user interface.
3) Provide further incentives for REDFLY terminals.
4) Car makers desperately want to differentiate their cars based on superior technology (as well as MPG, etc.) - anybody who has driven a Toyota Prius marvels at the sophistication and integration of its Bluetooth phoning, GPS navigation, climate-control, etc. computer/LCD as much as they appreciate its 50mpg hybrid-ness.
Solutions:
1) REDFLY ports as appropriate their REDFLY-terminal-based remote displaying software to also run on these car’s navigational/Bluetoothing/audio-ing/etc. computers - car owner’s PDA/Smartphone could then display via Bluetooth on the car’s nice large LCD touch-screen perhaps including on-screen soft keyboard.
This could possibly include the relaying of sound including stereo via REDFLY’s Bluetooth communication stream.
Car manufacturers could even add pull-out keyboards to their car computers, a little like pull-out keyboards on computer machine room racked blades.
2a) REDFLY ports as appropriate their Windows Mobile based remoting drivers to also run on the car’s navigational/Bluetoothing/audio-ing/etc. computers.
This would allow the car’s computer’s interface to be remoted to a REDFLY terminal or perhaps, as a marketing lower/no-cost taster, to a PDA/Smartphone.
This would allow car owner to maintain all the data on and learn how to use their car computer using their REDFLY in their home with the car parked outside on the driveway - via Bluetooth’s 30 foot radius.
2b) Further to 2a), this could lead to other opportunities including facilitating remote-starting the car via Bluetooth on your REDFLY or PDA/Smartphone, as well as perhaps REDFLY providing a more conventional and intuitive user interface alternative to those on the car’s computers.
3) REDFLY gets visibility from 1), and added incentive for REDFLY terminal from 2) for any (even non-PDA/Smartphone owning) buyer of cars computer-endowed like the Toyota Prius.
I even have a marketing plot for you! - in the James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) film Tomorrow Never Dies, Bond uses a PDA alone to drive his super-car to safety - your marketing could show a clip of that and say “We don’t do this yet, but we do allow you to manage all the computer functionality of your car from within the comfort of your home”!, as well as showing owner’s PDA/Smartphone displaying on a parked car’s computer screen.
August 8th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Hi Carl, great ideas! Thanks.
September 30th, 2008 at 6:31 pm
I’m ordering mine in the next few days.
Can you add the HTC Touch Pro to the “to do list”?. I bet that combo would be outstanding