Seduced by the dark side.....

A few months back I picked up a Celio Redfly C8 and have been spending more time with it recently, connected to an iPaq 110 running WM 6 Classic (CE 5.2). The interface is certainly clunky compared to an HPC (both hardware and software), but it definitely has appeal. Pocket IE isn't too bad; I'm even able to log in to my work email securely, though it has trouble with attachments. I've tried Opera, but it uses a lot of resources and the ipaq always seems to be short on ram. Sometimes if I have 2 or 3 programs running, the ipaq will close one (without warning). Pocket Word seems roughly comparable to TextMaker 2002. It keeps headers/footers and tables, though it doesn't show page breaks. The picture shows Pocket Informant 9 in the Month view. PI 9 is nice, though it's somewhat hobbled by the interface and slow speeds from the low memory.

The trackpad on the Redfly is bad......it's hard to put the cursor right where I want it, and taps on the pad don't always register (I prefer tapping on the pad to using the trackpad buttons). It would be much better with a touchscreen. The keyboard is OK - sizewise it's between the Jornada and MobilePro keyboards. It has a good row of shortcut keys at the top.

Despite the drawbacks, there are enough benefits that I've shelved my MP 890 for now and am giving the ipaq/Redfly an extended test as my everyday device. I like being able to carry my organizer in my pocket when I'm traveling light, then connect it to the Redfly when I need the bigger screen. Oh, and the Redfly has 2 usb ports - one is used to connect to the ipaq, and the other is available for flash drives, mice, etc. The Redfly works with WM 6.0 and 6.1 devices, both PDAs and phones.





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Very Cool! I've seen those before, but never seen anybody use it.

There was mention of this device in another thread a long time ago. I've been tempted but haven't picked one up thus far. I have to admit it's kinda cool using Windows Mobile on the full screen. At least you get one of the advantages of an H/PC.

There are a few advantages.....the screen is much brighter, though I think the resolution is about the same. And Pocket Word and IE are better in WM6 than in the CE 3.0 HPCs I have.

But HPCs are much simpler for certain types of uses. If I'm on the train or out and about and I need to enter a meeting or to-do item, I can just pull out my HPC, open it, enter the item, close it, and put it away. With the Redfly, I have to decide whether I want to enter it on the iPaq with the stylus and letter recognition (ugh), or pull out the iPaq and the Redfly, connect them with the usb cable, enter the item, then disconnect the Redfly and put them both away (ugh again). The Redfly shows its value when I'm stationary and don't have to fiddle with the setup.

My thinking as well. I've thought about the Redfly more as a toy - and I really don't have enough toys.

I'm sure most of us have looked at the Redfly as the laptop that runs one of the latest CE-based OS. But IIRC it does not have a touch-screen and that turned me off.

A standard tip about Windows Mobile: disable cookies in Pocket IE. It has unlimited storage for cookies, which is in RAM. It wasn't an issue back in early 00's, but soon afterwards cookies size have increased so much that it became very easy to eat up any Windows Mobile device RAM with PIE usage. Stop using cookies and delete your existing ones now in PIE, and then use Opera.

Good tip on the cookies - thanks!

And you're right - it isn't a touch screen, and I don't like the track pad all that well. But the screen is very bright, especially next to one of my HPC's screens.

I understand this does require a driver be installed on the Windows Mobile device; however, the Celio Web site doesn't appear to have a download link.

The hinge makes me nervous.

You're right, CE Geek - it does require a driver and the Celio website isn't very helpful. I was able to download the driver initially from Celio, then I found out about a newer release. Sometime after that I had to re-install the driver and couldn't find it on the website anymore. I did a lot of searching and finally found a link in a developer forum that led me to it. I made multiple copies of the newer version. If anyone has a redfly and needs the driver, let me know.

I haven't had any problems with the hinges yet. They're definitely tight - I can position the screen anywhere in its range of motion and it holds that position just fine.

There's a crapload bunch of them for sale on eBay...what can you do with them without using a smartphone...I mean do they act like a 7" CE6 netbook?

The Redfly doesn't do anything useful without a WM 6.X device tethered to it. It turns on and you can access a few settings, but that's it.

Back when they came out I heard rumblings about putting a version of linux on it, but I don't think anything ever came about.