[Dave Karow]

Anyone using Celio RedFly and Pocket Informant 8?

I'm tempted to buy a Celio RedFly terminal device. It connects via Bluetooth or USB to my Windows Mobile device and provides a MUCH bigger screen (800x480) and 8" keyboard, acting like a dumb terminal or KVM switched screen. The phone can stay in my bag and the screen and keyboard (looks like a small laptop) can be turned on and taking control of the phone in about 2 seconds. That all sounds pretty cool, but the bottom line is that I'll only get real value out of it if it lets me use Pocket Informant without any problems.



So, is anyone ALREADY using a RedFly with PI8? Success stories? Horror stories?

I googled and locally searched the daylights out of this combination.

What I have found so far:

GOOD: "I installed the trial for Pocket Informant and working with my PIM data on the 8 inch screen is just super. PI works well with the expanded resolution of the Redfly and I can see so much data on a single screen it's like using a computer." (posted at http://jkontherun.co...jk-first-impre/)

SLIGHTLY BAD: "Pocket Informant has some trouble rendering the keyboard encoding, at least in the Daily Notes function. I can't type parenthesis and apostrophes among a few other characters." (posted at http://forums.thoughtsmedia.com/f355/edn-s...dfly-91020.html)

Frankly, I expected to find a TON of PI8 users on RedFly. Perhaps there are, but there are no issues?

I would think that a bigger screen and keyboard and Pocket Informant's power features would go together very well. I like the idea of having an "always on taskpad" in the form of PI8 that is separate from the booted/rebooting/shutting down state of my laptop. I also like the idea of time based role switching: It's 5:00pm so stop looking at work tasks and switch to what's on tap in personal/family categories (something that Outlook can't even do).

Hope to hear good or bad things soon, as I'm itching to buy one of these but don't want to find out the hard way that there will be lots of gotchas to contend with.

/dtk

[dlc]

I bought a redfly in October (the original model). PI scales perfectly to it, as does Flexmail. I've not encountered a single problem with either of these applications on the redfly.

In fact, it was indespensible during an icestorm in December - we didn't have any power for a few days, and there was a problem with my power line when power was restored to the neighborhood causing spikes and drops, so I couldn't plug in a computer. I was able to use my Tilt and redfly to more or less stay current on my work. ( later, I did tether my phone to my laptop for access when it was safe to do so).

gotchas there aren't many that I'm aware of- some apps won't work on it. (Memmaid, Opera 9.5 beta, and at least on the original model, just anithing involving video).

Turning it on and connecting is near instantenious. Perfect for me so I can pop on, take care of a few quick e-mails, all in less time it would take to boot a laptop and log in.

Don