Peripheral

Amazing how we’ve come to expect so much more from our phones now, including streaming video. TheChanner is a free app that gives you access to over 300 streaming TV channels. This week we’ll also note a freebie that gives you an iPhone-like unlock screen, a review of the Celio Redfly (which turns your phone into a laptop), and an early review of the Omnia II.

I was pleased to see that two new Celio REDFLY models were announced last week. Basically, the REDFLY is a small laptop that uses your phone as its brain. In addition to covering that, this week I want to pass along a how-to on syncing your device with the DVR recorder you use with your TV. And we’ll note an offer of free multiplayer games on Microsoft’s Windows Mobile TotalAccess web site.

 The Celio Redfly is a device that provides a netbook-sized keyboard and monitor for Windows Mobile Smartphones and Pocket PCs. Originally priced at as much as $500, Celio has had a discount promotion during the month of October during which they have been selling the Redfly for $199. Reports are that Celio has extended the promotion for a couple more weeks, and as of November 4, the discount is still available on their web site.

So what is the RedFly?

1. After publishing my review of VirtualCE 4, there have been some changes:

1. a new MyMobiler version has been released, implementing, for example, manual screen rotation and the ability to hide the Today screen icon
2. some of the bugs of VirtualCE 4 have been fixed (for example, BMP24 crashing). Hope the developer also finds a way to completely (even from the bottom taskbar) hide the main selector / controller screen as is asked in the above-linked HowardForums thread
3. Pocket Controller 6 has turned out to support LAN discovery and hiding the connection “bubble†upon TCP/IP connection (as opposed to the ActiveSync one).

2. I, after more than a week’s waiting (see my previous post HERE), still haven’t received any feedback from the Strategy Analytics Inc. folks regarding the lack of Opera Mini in their 5-Star Safari Leads Mobile Browsing Experience, which, in many Windows Mobile users’ (including me) opinion, is the most useful / quickest Web browser for the Windows Mobile platform. And, for other mobile platforms too – on my Symbian Nokia N95 and BlackBerry 8800, I almost exclusively use this browser to access the Web. Not including it in the test makes the entire report pretty hard to depend on – it’s like completely ignoring, for example, Ferrari (a top-performing car) when evaluating the cars of Formula-1.

And, of course, I’ve already elaborated on the bad ranking of Nokia Web (running on Symbian S60 3rd edition devices – that is, NOT on Windows Mobile) and, particularly, Opera Mobile (running on all major mobile platforms). Again and again, if you do learn the dialpad shortcuts and/or, with Opera Mobile running on a dialpad-less Pocket PC, use a third-party tool to assign its key functionalities (accessing favorites, current tabs, back etc.) to Pocket PC hardware buttons, they both become quicker and easier to operate than Internet Explorer. It’s clearly at this point (in addition to the lack of Opera Mini) that Strategy Analytics Inc.’s report severely lacks – it’s evident the test folks didn’t really make an attempt at learning the dialpad shortcuts / configure Opera Mobile for easy and much quicker access / use.

Last Summer, upon the release of the brand-new, 6-series of SOTi Pocket Controller Pro and the free My Mobiler (click the links for a review!), I’ve already pointed out the “let’s control your Windows Mobile device from your desktop!†scene is really thriving.

Since the above reviews, here have been major upgrades. First, My Mobiler has been greatly enhanced (for example, TCP/IP connections have been added) and the bugs I’ve elaborated on in the review have all been fixed – while still maintaining its free status. In this article (and the accompanying chart), I also thoroughly elaborate on these changes.

Even more importantly, the, for long-time Windows Mobile users, known VirtualCE has been greatly upgraded and enhanced.

As VirtualCE has been written by the same developer as the well-known and very fast PQV and SmartGear – one of the best titles in their respective categories (picture viewers and pre-SNES home and handheld console emulators). I wasn’t disappointed: while there is indeed some missing functionality in the new version, its price, CPU usage and, at times, speed, speak for themselves. It’s evident it has been written by a Windows Mobile & C / assembly language guru that knows how to optimize code and, therefore, reduce the CPU (and memory) usage.

(The main interface screen and an example of remote controlling a HTC Vox / s710. The latter displays the VirtualCE client on the handset.)

VirtualCE is, feature-wise, somewhere between the free My Mobiler and the pretty expensive, albeit VERY capable and highly recommended SOTi Pocket Controller. In some respects, it’s definitely more capable than SOTi’s app (for example, see the parallel multicontrol feature, which is only present in the even more expensive Enterprise version of SOTi’s app; also, the much lower CPU usage should be mentioned); in other respects, it’s inferior to even My Mobiler (see for example the complete lack of handheld / handset -> desktop PC clipboard synchronization).

Anyone having read my past, remote controlling-related articles knows there already are some remote control solutions to remotely access a Windows Mobile device from under desktop Windows (or, for that matter, with VNC, any other platform, even including another Windows Mobile device).

Solutions allowing this include SOTI's excellent and, if you don't mind the price tag, by far the most recommended Pocket Controller (review HERE).

The handheld controller scene (a desktop Windows computer controlling a Windows Mobile device) is pretty lively. SOTi, the market leader, have just released a brand new and pretty nice series of their well-known, market leader Pocket Controller (see my SPT / PPCT-frontpaged review HERE). Other developers haven’t been lazy either: BitBank (developer of PQV and SmartGear, both kick-butt, highly optimized, assembly-based applications) have announced a brand new upgrade to their Virtual CE too, now, promising compatibility with all recent operating systems and, what is more, SPEED, pure SPEED (I hope it really turns out as good as promised!). Finally, the MTUX folks have recently released another, very promising and, despite its comparative sluggishness and severe lack of features, very useful remote controller tool, MyMobiler. In this tutorial & review, I review the latter – and also provide you with a tutorial.

(Current, tested version: 1.0 70626)

(controlling Call of Duty 2 on the 2700G-based WM5 Dell Axim x51v)

We all know the, without doubt, BEST “let’s control a Windows Mobile device from a desktop PC†solution, SOTi Pocket Controller Professional capable of controlling both Pocket PC's and Smartphones. Now that they have just released a brand new, 6.0 version, I’ve given it a very thorough test ride (current, tested version: 6.01 build 1256). Read on to find out whether it’s worth upgrading!

Note that the excellent Windows Mobile site Just Another Mobile Monday has already published an excellent review. Please make sure you read it. In the current article, I “only†show what has changed over the last, 5.07 build 966 version (and, for SP users, I give you some genuine registry hacks to hide the icon of the old Pocket Controller from the task bar). I also provide you with some benchmark so that you will know everything to decide whether the new version is worth upgrading. You may also want to read my all-in-one roundup of all the comparable solutions HERE.

Availability

It’s available HERE. A single-device license costs $35.95. If you have purchased Pocket Controller-Pro during the last 10 months, you are eligible for a free upgrade. Otherwise, you get a 20% discount if you've purchased Pocket Controller earlier.

Should you have more than one Windows Mobile devices, you need to purchase a license for each of them, should you want to access them via Pocket Controller. This isn't an issue with the vast majority of the Windows Mobile users out there, having only one handheld, "only" supergeeks and gadget fans having more than one device.

Controlling your Pocket PC from your desktop has always been a great feature offered by many applications. The PDA Controller folks have just updated their application, PDA Controller, to version 2.0. This is I have jumped at it right away to find out how it compares to the alternates and have accordingly updated my well-known “Do you want to access your (or, any) Pocket PC from another (desktop) computer?†all-in-one article.

http://www.smartphonemag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=514&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

Remote Keyboard by TranCreative is a really nice application. It’s compatible with all Pocket PC operating system versions (even WM5, which is a big thing because of the new WM5 networking model ActiveSync uses) and screen resolutions (except for the Landscape mode, as far as mouse handling is concerned) and, in addition to supporting the keyboard and the mouse on the PC, it also supports

1. connecting to remote (non-ActiveSync-ed and/or WM5) Pocket PC’s by their IP address
2. broadcasting to discover (non-ActiveSync-ed and/or WM5) Pocket PC’s in the neighborhood (LAN); that is, you don’t need to enter the IP address of a Pocket PC that is on the same LAN as your desktop computer. (Actually, this is discovering ActiveSync-connected WM5 devices is working)
3. clipboard synchronization. This works in both directions – that is, if you copy any text in the clipboard on your desktop computer, a Ctrl-C will paste it onto your Pocket PC and vice versa

Installation

Just download rkbsetup.exe from the official homepage and install it (you won't need to separately download Pocket PC Connector as it's also included in rkbsetup.exe ). It will install both the server application on the desktop (Start/Programs/Remote Keybord/Pocket PC Connector) and the Pocket PC client to the Pocket PC.

Pocket PC remote controller applications can be really great – they offer a really easy way to access the Pocket PC from a desktop computer, which, in cases, can even be a remote one. You can use your Pocket PC far easier this way, using the keyboard and mouse of the desktop PC and being able to see the screen of the Pocket PC, with some clients, even zoomed in (magnified).

Over than half a year ago, I've already published an article on this subject. It can be found here (alternatives: MobilitySite, AximSite, PPC Magazine, FirstLoox, BrightHand). In addition, I recommend this blog entry on the latest Pocket Controller version.

Before reading on, reading these two articles is highly recommended.

As I not only discuss the "local" (you use the desktop keyboard/mouse to access your Pocket PC to make it much easier to enter for example text on it and also see its screen on the desktop computer) but also the "remote" way of accessing Pocket PC's, I've also included in the current article a detailed discussion of the current Virtual Network Computing (VNC) servers for the Pocket PC.

In this blog entry, I only elaborate on subjects that haven't or have just superficially been discussed in the previous articles:

1. Windows Mobile 5 (WM5) compliance
2. TCP/IP-based remote access through any kind of network connection
3. image capturing-related capabilities

http://www.soti.net/default.asp?Cmd=Products&SubCmd=PCPro

http://smartphonemag.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=18550

Q: How can I direct the mouse pointer on my PDA screen with the D-pad?