Monthly Archives: August 2008

RedFly Windows Mobile Companion Now $399. Still Too Expensive IMHO

Back when Windows Mobile was Windows CE (Windows Mobile is actually a shell on top of the previous Windows CE 5 generation), the Handheld PC was referred to as a PC Companion. Celio’s RedFly turns the tables on this old concept by looking like a mini-notebook PC but is actually an unintelligent companion to your Windows Mobile smartphone. At $499 it was much more expensive than your subsidized Windows Mobile smartphone. But, with a price drop to $399, oh wait, it is still much more expensive than your subsidized smartphone. And, what do you get for $399 (plus shipping and maybe tax)? A bigger screen and QWERTY keyboard, basically. Yes, WiMo’s Internet Explorer is no longer a pinhole view of the web. But, it is still can’t deal with AJAX or other complex Javascript-ed sites. It still renders many non-AJAX sites incorrectly. It is still basically Internet Explorer 4 with a few tweaks.

Don’t get me wrong, though! Conceptually, I think the RedFly is a good idea. I just think it is way overpriced when I can buy full-blown netbook like the Acer Aspire One for $379 get gigabytes more of storage, multicard reader, and full-blown versions of apps like the Firefox and OpenOffice. And, if I move from a WiMo phone to a Nokia, Apple iPhone, or one of the Google Android boxes, I haven’t wasted $399.

If the RedFly were priced somewhere in the $175 to $225 price range, I think it would be interesting to me as a possible purchase. At $399? Well, let’s just say I’m ordering an Acer Aspire One later today.

Evernote for iPhone Update to Version 1.2


Evernote updated their iPhone client to version 1.2 and added the ability to edit notes. I ran into this error (see image above) after downloading the update using iTunes though. And, I was not able to update it at all directly from my iPod touch. However, after disconnecting the USB cable, it looked like the application actually installed on my touch. Firing it up I found that the new client can only update notes that are purely text. Even a file that included hyperlinked text with no other formatting was not editable.

Back to Basics: Email Key Sort


I cannot believe I did not know about this until yesterday. You all probably know that you can search through contacts and recent calls by typing a string on a Windows Mobile smartphone keyboard. Type O-G-A and my full name shows up as part of the search results of people in your contacts list, for example. But, I didn’t realize this also works with Email. In the example illustrated above, I tapped the keyboard letters P-B. As you can see, the email messaging client found this two letter sequence in both the From and Subject lines and highlighted the string. I am kind of embarrassed that I didn’t know about this useful email filtering feature until now. I wonder when it first appeared? It works on both the Standard (non-touch) and Professional (touch) Editions of Windows Mobile.

Back to Basics: Which Idiot at Microsoft Decided Anniversary Events Should Alarm at Midnight?

Windows Mobile smartphones (Standard Edition) can be actually powered down. However, Pocket PCs (Professional & Classic Editions) are not really off unless the battery is pulled out. So, if you have an anniversary event (birthday, wedding anniversary) set in contacts, it wakes up at midnight and sets of the audible alarm (if that is turned on which is usually the case). I’d like to know which braindead idiot at Microsoft decided this is a desirable behavior.

Google Translate for iPhone


I wonder how much of Google’s iPhone focused web-apps will work directly on Android based phones? In any case, Google Translate for iPhone looks great in my quick tests (with my limited knowledge of anything beyond English, and some would say, even there…). Just head over to…

translate.google.com

…on your iPhone or iPod touch. It redirects you to google.com/m/translate. The first URL results in the desktop page if you try it on a Windows Mobile smartphone. The second, direct, URL just throws a WiMo smartphone to Google’s simplified mobile home page. Once again, Windows Mobile gets no web-love. Sigh. Glad I bought an iPod touch to see the cool stuff Windows Mobile users are missing out on.

You can read the announcement for this new iPhone web service on Google’s blog at…

Google Translate now for iPhone

Watch NBCOlympics.com Video Clips on Your Phone (iPhone too!)


Everyone probably knows about the Microsoft Silverlight-powered NBCOlympics.com site. But, did you know you can access its information AND videos on your smartphone too? Yep, head over to…

mobile.nbcolympics.com

I tested video playback on my iPod touch and found that it works fine. So, iPhone users will not be left out of the Olympics this summer.