Celio Mobile Viewer: REDFLY Without the REDFLY
The Celio REDFLY has been an interesting device since we first got hold of it. There is a lot to be said for the ability to use a small laptop as an extended display and keyboard for a smartphone. Today’s smartphones are powerful enough to be used as mobile computing devices once you get past the limitations of the screen and tiny keyboard, and that’s what the folks at Celio delivered in the REDFLY. We got word from the folks at Slashgear that Celio’s new software solution, the Mobile Viewer, is entering a public beta.
Mobile Viewer takes the REDFLY concept and extends it to any netbook or notebook that you already own. Celio recognizes that you don’t need to buy a REDFLY device if you already have a netbook or equivalent and thus have developed the Mobile Viewer. The programs allows you to connect any Windows XP/ Vista notebook to a supported Windows Mobile smartphone and use the bigger screen, keyboard and trackpad to run the phone. This makes it possible to work on documents, longer emails and similar tasks that you might forgo given the phone alone.
According to the folks at Celio, the Mobile Viewer program will handle any display resolution up to 1024 x 768, making a full working environment for document handling. The connection between the phone and the notebook is handled using Activesync (WinXP) or the Mobile Device Center (Vista) and USB connection is supported. To see how useful this type of utility can be check out our video of the REDFLY from last year:
While this seems like it might be fun to play with, I’m having a hard time seeing how this would be overly useful. It seems to me that there isn’t much you could do with this that you couldn’t do using the Netbook or Laptop itself.
I’m sorry… how is this in any way different from Raspberry Software’s TrueConnect program that I’ve been using for over 2 years?
In fact it appears to have less features as you can’t set it up as an “extended monitor” for that real *WOW!* factor – running my mouse pointer from my desktop over on to my (now 25-month old) HTC x7500’s screen and then typing an SMS using my PC’s keyboard, or even just copy-and-pasting a phone number from my laptop to the phone, usually has iPhone owners weeping into their look-you-can-zoom-in-on-photos-using-multitouch “innovative” devices.
The only thing I can see which might be an improvement: are they suggesting that they can get the device to output at a resolution *higher* than the device native one? How does that work?
This is indeed what Celio has accomplished. The phone displays on the laptop at a native resolution much higher. Look at my REDFLY video and you’ll see how much of a spreadsheet can be displayed.
At first i saw this and thought I had found a use for that eee pc 701 sitting gathering dust but now I think about it, why would I want this.
One of the key things about Redfly is that it is almost instant on. If you load said software onto a Windows laptop then you have to wait the minute or so for that thing to boot. At which point you have a full OS in front of you.
So I suspect the appeal of this software will be very limited.
I too was having trouble figuring out why you would want this, and then it hit me — free tethering. While you would be limited to using your phone’s web browser, you would be able to go online outside of a wifi hotspot without paying for a cellular modem or a $60/month data plan. And, as far as your cellphone provider is concerned, you are just browsing the web on your phone. Now, if only I had a Windows Mobile phone, I’d be in business…