Experts Online

Celio REDFLY: Your Phone Becomes a Laptop

Jim Karpen — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 11:29:44 -0600

Celio Extends Discount On Redfly

Frank McPherson — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 15:02:01 -0600

The Celio Redfly is a device that provides a netbook-sized keyboard and monitor for Windows Mobile Smartphones and Pocket PCs. Originally priced at as much as $500, Celio has had a discount promotion during the month of October during which they have been selling the Redfly for $199. Reports are that Celio has extended the promotion for a couple more weeks, and as of November 4, the discount is still available on their web site.

The RedFly - Extending the Possibilities

Jack Cook — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 01:07:19 -0500

So what is the RedFly?

Misc news: new Jbed / Jblend distros; PDA controller / Web browser news, Revival out

Werner Ruotsalainen — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 03:05:14 -0600

1. After publishing my review of VirtualCE 4, there have been some changes:

a new MyMobiler version has been released, implementing, for example, manual screen rotation and the ability to hide the Today screen icon
some of the bugs of VirtualCE 4 have been fixed (for example, BMP24 crashing). Hope the developer also finds a way to completely (even from the bottom taskbar) hide the main selector / controller screen as is asked in the above-linked HowardForums thread
Pocket Controller 6 has turned out to support LAN discovery and hiding the connection “bubble” upon TCP/IP connection (as opposed to the ActiveSync one).

2. I, after more than a week’s waiting (see my previous post HERE), still haven’t received any feedback from the Strategy Analytics Inc. folks regarding the lack of Opera Mini in their 5-Star Safari Leads Mobile Browsing Experience, which, in many Windows Mobile users’ (including me) opinion, is the most useful / quickest Web browser for the Windows Mobile platform. And, for other mobile platforms too – on my Symbian Nokia N95 and BlackBerry 8800, I almost exclusively use this browser to access the Web. Not including it in the test makes the entire report pretty hard to depend on – it’s like completely ignoring, for example, Ferrari (a top-performing car) when evaluating the cars of Formula-1.

And, of course, I’ve already elaborated on the bad ranking of Nokia Web (running on Symbian S60 3rd edition devices – that is, NOT on Windows Mobile) and, particularly, Opera Mobile (running on all major mobile platforms). Again and again, if you do learn the dialpad shortcuts and/or, with Opera Mobile running on a dialpad-less Pocket PC, use a third-party tool to assign its key functionalities (accessing favorites, current tabs, back etc.) to Pocket PC hardware buttons, they both become quicker and easier to operate than Internet Explorer. It’s clearly at this point (in addition to the lack of Opera Mini) that Strategy Analytics Inc.’s report severely lacks – it’s evident the test folks didn’t really make an attempt at learning the dialpad shortcuts / configure Opera Mobile for easy and much quicker access / use.

REVIEW: just-released VirtualCE 4 – another great PDA controller alternative!

Werner Ruotsalainen — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 05:29:32 -0600

Last Summer, upon the release of the brand-new, 6-series of SOTi Pocket Controller Pro and the free My Mobiler (click the links for a review!), I’ve already pointed out the “let’s control your Windows Mobile device from your desktop!” scene is really thriving.

Since the above reviews, here have been major upgrades. First, My Mobiler has been greatly enhanced (for example, TCP/IP connections have been added) and the bugs I’ve elaborated on in the review have all been fixed – while still maintaining its free status. In this article (and the accompanying chart), I also thoroughly elaborate on these changes.

Even more importantly, the, for long-time Windows Mobile users, known VirtualCE has been greatly upgraded and enhanced.

As VirtualCE has been written by the same developer as the well-known and very fast PQV and SmartGear – one of the best titles in their respective categories (picture viewers and pre-SNES home and handheld console emulators). I wasn’t disappointed: while there is indeed some missing functionality in the new version, its price, CPU usage and, at times, speed, speak for themselves. It’s evident it has been written by a Windows Mobile & C / assembly language guru that knows how to optimize code and, therefore, reduce the CPU (and memory) usage.

(The main interface screen and an example of remote controlling a HTC Vox / s710. The latter displays the VirtualCE client on the handset.)

VirtualCE is, feature-wise, somewhere between the free My Mobiler and the pretty expensive, albeit VERY capable and highly recommended SOTi Pocket Controller. In some respects, it’s definitely more capable than SOTi’s app (for example, see the parallel multicontrol feature, which is only present in the even more expensive Enterprise version of SOTi’s app; also, the much lower CPU usage should be mentioned); in other respects, it’s inferior to even My Mobiler (see for example the complete lack of handheld / handset -> desktop PC clipboard synchronization).

LogMeIn Rescue Mobile Preview Available!

Werner Ruotsalainen — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 09:30:17 -0500

Anyone having read my past, remote controlling-related articles knows there already are some remote control solutions to remotely access a Windows Mobile device from under desktop Windows (or, for that matter, with VNC, any other platform, even including another Windows Mobile device).

Solutions allowing this include SOTI's excellent and, if you don't mind the price tag, by far the most recommended Pocket Controller (review HERE).

REVIEW: MyMobiler, a brand new, pretty good, free (!) handheld controller tool

Werner Ruotsalainen — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 04:36:34 -0500

The handheld controller scene (a desktop Windows computer controlling a Windows Mobile device) is pretty lively. SOTi, the market leader, have just released a brand new and pretty nice series of their well-known, market leader Pocket Controller (see my SPT / PPCT-frontpaged review HERE). Other developers haven’t been lazy either: BitBank (developer of PQV and SmartGear, both kick-butt, highly optimized, assembly-based applications) have announced a brand new upgrade to their Virtual CE too, now, promising compatibility with all recent operating systems and, what is more, SPEED, pure SPEED (I hope it really turns out as good as promised!). Finally, the MTUX folks have recently released another, very promising and, despite its comparative sluggishness and severe lack of features, very useful remote controller tool, MyMobiler. In this tutorial & review, I review the latter – and also provide you with a tutorial.

(Current, tested version: 1.0 70626)

(controlling Call of Duty 2 on the 2700G-based WM5 Dell Axim x51v)

REVIEW: brand new SOTi Pocket Controller Professional 6.0

Werner Ruotsalainen — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 06:00:55 -0500

We all know the, without doubt, BEST “let’s control a Windows Mobile device from a desktop PC” solution, SOTi Pocket Controller Professional capable of controlling both Pocket PC's and Smartphones. Now that they have just released a brand new, 6.0 version, I’ve given it a very thorough test ride (current, tested version: 6.01 build 1256). Read on to find out whether it’s worth upgrading!

Note that the excellent Windows Mobile site Just Another Mobile Monday has already published an excellent review. Please make sure you read it. In the current article, I “only” show what has changed over the last, 5.07 build 966 version (and, for SP users, I give you some genuine registry hacks to hide the icon of the old Pocket Controller from the task bar). I also provide you with some benchmark so that you will know everything to decide whether the new version is worth upgrading. You may also want to read my all-in-one roundup of all the comparable solutions HERE.

Availability

It’s available HERE. A single-device license costs $35.95. If you have purchased Pocket Controller-Pro during the last 10 months, you are eligible for a free upgrade. Otherwise, you get a 20% discount if you've purchased Pocket Controller earlier.

Should you have more than one Windows Mobile devices, you need to purchase a license for each of them, should you want to access them via Pocket Controller. This isn't an issue with the vast majority of the Windows Mobile users out there, having only one handheld, "only" supergeeks and gadget fans having more than one device.

REVIEW: PDA Controller’s brand new PDA Controller 2.0

Werner Ruotsalainen — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 04:14:00 -0500

Controlling your Pocket PC from your desktop has always been a great feature offered by many applications. The PDA Controller folks have just updated their application, PDA Controller, to version 2.0. This is I have jumped at it right away to find out how it compares to the alternates and have accordingly updated my well-known “Do you want to access your (or, any) Pocket PC from another (desktop) computer?” all-in-one article.

Roundup of All PC -> Pocket PC Remote Controller Applications Updated

Werner Ruotsalainen — Sat, 02 Sep 2006 02:01:54 -0500

http://www.smartphonemag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=514&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1