Alright, BlackBerry owners, don’t rush all at once. I know you probably wanna get in on the Redfly mobile companion game but we need to remember to act civilized. It’s understandable that you’re excited that Redfly can now kick it with BlackBerrys along with Winmo phones, but don’t flood the servers all at one time.

The latest Redfly update isn’t really a surprise. The company announced BlackBerry support was coming, but we just didn’t know when. But with the update, the Redfly C8N and C7 can now extend the desktop of the BlackBerry Bold 9000, Curve 8900, and Tour 9630 to the Redfly’s 800×480 resolution display. Oh, and the update is free. Just don’t push and shove to get it.

The company also expects to support upcoming RIM devices as they are released. But where is the love for the Blackberry Storm? The phone might not be the greatest, but it sold well. Maybe Redfly didn’t that that people that were suckered into buying the phone is its target customer base. But some support is better than none at all. The Redfly seems like a solid companion to a smartphone but so is a netbook and teathering…

Celio Announces BlackBerry Support for the REDFLY Mobile Companion

Mid-Q4, RIM customers will be able to use their BlackBerrys with a larger screen and keyboard; boosting productivity and efficiency

ShowStoppers for the Digital Holidays
SALT LAKE CITY–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Celio Corp, maker of the REDFLY Mobile Companion, has announced support for BlackBerry; giving RIM customers the ability to get the most out of their smartphones with a larger screen and keyboard. The BlackBerry solution will be available in mid-Q4 2009. The BlackBerry solution is offered free-of-charge for existing and new REDFLY Mobile Companion C8N and C7 owners.

At launch, the REDFLY will be compatible with the BlackBerry Bold 9000, BlackBerry Curve 8900 and BlackBerry Tour 9630, with plans to support additional phones as they are released by RIM.

“The trend in enterprise right now is for more people to carry their laptop less and their BlackBerry more,” said Andrew Seybold, CEO and Principal Analyst, Andrew Seybold, Inc. “What Celio is doing will give BlackBerry users a significant productivity boost and businesses a solution they can leverage for their employees. With the Celio REDFLY, you don’t have to carry a laptop at all. Given a choice between a netbook or the REDFLY, I would take the REDFLY hands down.”

The REDFLY Mobile Companion comes in two models – the C8N and C7 – and has a large screen, full QWERTY keyboard, touchpad, up to 8-hour battery, and USB, VGA and media ports, enabling people to get the most from their BlackBerry handhelds. The REDFLY is not a computer. It has no OS, storage or processor, but uses the smartphone’s computing power to give users the ability to interact with the smartphone’s familiar user interface on an 800×480 resolution display. The REDFLY is currently compatible with more than 70 Windows Mobile devices. As Celio adds BlackBerry compatibility, it demonstrates that the Celio REDFLY technology will be implemented on multiple platforms to the benefit of smartphone users.

“Adding BlackBerry support for REDFLY is a logical next step due to RIM’s overwhelming acceptance in the enterprise market. BlackBerry compatibility also answers the call from our community and customers to give them the REDFLY experience on RIM devices,” said Kirt Bailey, president and CEO of Celio Corp. “We’re confident BlackBerry users will enjoy having a larger screen and keyboard for typing e-mails and editing documents, and become more productive and efficient.”

Celio Corp will demonstrate its BlackBerry solution at the ShowStoppers for the Digital Holidays event in New York City on Wednesday, September 16, 2009.

For more information about the REDFLY Mobile Companion, visit www.celiocorp.com.

The REDFLY Mobile Companion embiggens even the smallest of compatible Windows Mobile smartphones and PDAs. In light of this, the Memphis police department just threw down for 1,200 of the devices and deployed them in their cruisers, saying, “The REDFLYs save hardware costs while increasing productivity and also improving the quality and accuracy of the officers’ field reports.”

The department had previously been doing everything by smartphone but the small screens and keyboards “limited the officers’ ability to effectively use the [Memphis PD] databases and applications to aid in their jobs.” And reports had a tendency to be much shorter than they should have been since they had to be typed using a thumb keyboard. Spelling errors were frequent as well. The REDFLYs make it much easier to type detailed reports from the field.

Here’s the full press release:

Celio Corp today announced that the Memphis, Tennessee, Police Department (MPD) has purchased and deployed 1,200 REDFLY Mobile Companions to officers in the field as an alternative to in-car laptops. The REDFLY is a smartphone terminal with a large screen and full keyboard that lets officers use their Windows Mobile-compatible smartphones as if they were full-blown PCs. The REDFLYs save hardware costs while increasing productivity and also improving the quality and the accuracy of the officers’ field reports.

The REDFLY links to the smartphone via a USB cable or wireless Bluetooth connection. REDFLY enables users to comfortably use email, read attachments, view Web sites, and use applications that reside on their smartphones for greater mobile productivity.

Prior to the REDFLYs, the Memphis PD was using smartphones to gain access to sites and applications such as the Watson Field Reporting Suite and the MPD’s own web database. However, it quickly became apparent that working and typing on the smartphone’s small screen and keyboard limited the officers’ ability to effectively use the databases and applications to aid in their jobs.

“We noticed that when officers use only their smartphones, reports had typos and the quality of the narratives were not as detailed as they needed to be,” said Major Jim Harvey. “The larger screen and keyboard has given our officers what they need to bring up mug shots and individuals’ information from our databases, as well as implement a new Paperless Reporting program to submit incident report narratives. Now they can do their jobs more effectively and are very comfortable using their smartphones to file their reports.”

The purchase of REDFLY has enabled the Memphis PD to improve incident report narratives. The officers now have much larger screen real estate and a larger QWERTY keyboard provided by the REDFLY’s eight-inch display and keyboard.

Harvey continued, “We want to provide our officers with the best technology, while being good stewards of the taxpayers’ money. This is a good investment.”

“The Memphis PD’s decision to use the REDFLY Mobile Companion is a tremendous example of the efficiency and cost savings this technology can provide,” said Kirt Bailey, president and CEO of Celio Corp. “They are showing organizations of every size how to get the most out of their mobile technology investment.”

For more information about the REDFLY Mobile Companion, visit www.celiocorp.com.

[via Tracy and Matt’s Blog]

The problem with the Redfly device wasn’t that it didn’t work, but that it was just too limited. Celio is now going to be offering software that can be run on a suitably-sized laptop or netbook that will allow you to dual-boot your hardware, so you’ve got the best of both worlds. I can’t imagine the Redfly stuff takes up more than a gig at the very most. That alone is a solid product — in a limited connectivity situation, tethering may be difficult or not useful, but using your smartphone to the maximum of its capabilities may be a great idea.

Another interesting thing they’ve got going on is what they’re stressing is a “proof of concept” for Android compatibility. Obviously it’s not quite ready for the living room, but hey, it’s stretching right and the cursor works. That’s good news by any measure. They haven’t given a date (they’re emphatic about the fact that there’s no timeline) but that doesn’t mean I can’t look forward to the day I get to try it out.

Lastly they’ve got a device that, well, I’m not quite sure exactly what it does. Says here, “enables projectors, office kiosks, and commercial applications to use any display, keyboard and mouse with just a smartphone.” Okay. I believe that means it’s going to be using a smartphone as an interface device. In any case, it’s one of the things we’ll be able to see and touch pretty soon, so we’ll get you more info ASAP.

The RedFly is a response to the simple problem of having too much information to display on a small screen. Some phones have more of a problem with this than others, notably Windows Mobile — not just because WinMo isn’t particularly streamlined, but because so many business users rely on it for managing their enormous address books, calendars, and so on. It’s just too much data for a tiny screen. Celio figured “why not make a device that essentially just takes the capabilities of a modern smartphone and transplants them into a micro-PC form factor?”

The obvious response, made stronger by the last few months of multiplying netbooks, is “because you can get something more versatile and powerful for a hundred dollars more.” This is true. At $300 the RedFly is entering netbook territory, where there is extremely fierce competition right now. However, what you’re buying in a netbook is an underpowered PC, while what you’re buying with the RedFly is like a turbocharger kit for your phone. I can’t tell you which one is worthwhile for you, but unlike some I feel it is silly to dismiss the RedFly out of hand.

I ran into a problem with the Nokia E71: the phone was capable of so much, but the cramped and archaic OS obscured its best aspects. So the case is with Windows Mobile, which RedFly is designed to work with. Although iPhones and Android will probably be taking over the world during the next couple years, in the meantime WinMo is still the OS capable of doing a lot of the things businesses need. The systems that run government databases and law enforcement, for instance: JILS, ECLS, and other outdated but tenacious embedded programs, are really only possible through a Windows environment and accessing them would be impossible without something like a RedFly.

Remote Desktop capability is another bonus over the usual smartphone fare, and again something that would be extremely vexing to try without a real trackpad and keyboard.

Actual Performance

Another leg up a RedFly has on netbooks and syncing is that it’s unbelievably fast and easy to set up. Watch this video of the connection.

It takes about a second to turn on, and like five seconds to connect. Even the simplest netbooks running stripped-down Linux have far more layers of OS on them, making something like internet sharing or what have you a much more complicated affair. The fact that this is a totally dedicated device makes it extremely effective at what it does. It’s quick to respond, the trackpad is good, the keyboard is adequate.

The RedFly itself does very little work; there’s a little video compression being done, but all communication is done by the phone and passed instantaneously to the device to display. This means its battery life is great — eight hours, probably longer than your phone will last if you’re doing 3G browsing the whole time.

The Future of RedFly

So the RedFly has been out for a while now, and it’s time we got something new, right? Well, yeah, and I’ve got the beta version of the new RedFly right here beside me. Don’t go expecting anything crazy, though. Perhaps in response to critics who said the RedFly was too limited in its applications, Celio has added a media port that allows you to pipe video in from any device that pipes it out. I’ve tested it with my iPod 5G, and it works flawlessly. You can play video and use your mobile at the same time, although you’d be a bit pressed for screen space if you decided to. There are no controls on the device itself for controlling the media, which is annoying, but since your media player will be right there, cabled to the thing, it shouldn’t be too much of a challenge to reach over and hit “pause” on it. The cabling was, frankly, a pretty ugly affair. They’re working on making dedicated cables, which will help, but since the RedFly has no speakers you have to have be ready to provide your own sound.

It should also be noted that the new version (which you see in the video above) will be black, not red. Possibly more cool looking, definitely more evil.

There will also be another version (the C7) coming out with a slightly smaller screen (7″) and battery, which will use the same body but be considerably lighter. I wouldn’t say the old one is heavy per se, but one can always lose a couple pounds in the extremely competitive micro-PC market. It’ll also cost $70 less, which goes a long way towards distancing it from netbook territory.

If you need convincing, it’s probably not for you

I think Celio has a cool device here. It does exactly what it’s meant to do and does it well, and simply. The question is who is it for? Businesses that use Windows Mobile and have people in the field a lot (Law firms, for instance) I think would benefit from having a couple of these on hand — and since they’re so easy to pair, you don’t have to worry about which one is mine, which is yours. I don’t see much of a use for it in day-to-day consumer use, as generally people limit what they use their mobile for to what is easiest and quickest. Those of you out there who see utility in this great little tool don’t need much convincing, especially with the lighter, lower-priced versions coming out soon.

The mobile landscape is changing, and although the RedFly unquestionably improves the WinMo experience and expands your toolset a hell of a lot, the problem may turn out to be that Celio is sharpening the swords on the old guard. I like the device so I’m rooting for them, but as Windows Mobile begins fighting not just for market share but existence, there may be hard times ahead.

Table jacked from here.

Most of the CG team really likes Celio’s Redfly AKA the Foleo that wasn’t. It weighs two points, has a VGA out and two USB ports, and is, as Rob writes, a dumb terminal for a Windows Mobile cellphone. That’s right: it doesn’t have an OS. It connects to your phone and all the processing power comes from there. Oh, and it costs $500. Next.

If you’ve been waiting with bated breath for the $500 RedFly mobile companion to be released, your wait is almost over. Redfly’s taking preorders for the device. If you’re an IT manager or you’ve got super deep pockets, you can even order a five- or -ten-pack for $2,495 or $4,990, respectively.

Though the device might not appeal to everyone, I spoke with Brighthand’s Ed Hardy about the demo unit he was using at CTIA this year and he loves it. In fact, he didn’t even bring a big boy laptop, if memory serves. He was just tap, tap, tapping away on the RedFly. The eight-hour battery life, especially, makes it nice if your entire life is on your smartphone and you’re looking to outfit it with a big keyboard and screen.

RedFly pre-order page [GetRedFly.com] via ZDNet

Matthew Miller over at ZDNet got an early look at the REDFLY Windows Mobile Smartphone Companion, a Palm Foleo-esque device that more or less enlarges your smartphone’s screen to 800 x 480 (8-inch LCD) and gives you a trackpad, larger keyboard, two USB ports (used for charging, mice, flash drives, etc.), and VGA output.

It’s slated to be released at around $500, which Miller thinks is too expensive. I agree, especially since it doesn’t have a Wi-Fi connection, local storage (for backups), and doesn’t work for simple tasks like surfing the web without your phone constantly attached via USB or Bluetooth. For $199 or $250, it’d be a lot more intriguing since it’d beat the price of a more feature-rich Eee or similar device.

This device would be great for people who, for some reason or another, have a tricked-out Windows Mobile phone but don’t have a regular computer in their house and just wanted something simple for getting online using a bigger screen and keyboard. It’s possible that the REDFLY might just be ahead of its time and would be a very useful device once everyone’s entire life resides on an ultra-powerful cell phone.

Can the REDFLY Windows Mobile Smartphone Companion succeed where the Foleo couldn’t? [ZDNet]

Personally, I’d rather wait until mobiles usurp the capabilities of the laptop, not the other way around. But for people who are really hardcore about their smartphone use, this thing, at $500, may actually be a good idea.

Redfly resurrects the Foleo [Pocket Lint, via Gizmodo]