Expert: Jack Cook

So what is the RedFly?

Let me answer that by first saying that most of us have a laptop or a tablet that we use to store and work on a variety of business or personal tasks. I use both and I use them every day but truth be told, the ability to have instant on with a Pocket PC device for looking at, working on or sharing documents with a colleague is a huge advantage.

A Pocket PC can have and several do have “laptop power” but their size does introduce huge limitations in what you want to accomplish. Celio Corporation has bridged that gap with the introduction of the RedFly, a device that can extend the possibilities of your handheld to have the most important features of a laptop, a keyboard, a usable screen and the ability to use a mouse. In addition, the RedFly has VGA output, access to a USB Flash drive and with its battery, it will charge your handheld via USB while you are using it.

You csn read the full review here.

Recently I did a review on a Bluetooth hands free solution that was in my estimation one of the best solutions I have ever used. In a nut shell it had a great quality case, excellent sound reproduction and the FM transmission was absolutely terrific. Shortly after that review I was contacted by a representative of the makers of the Venturi Mini and they asked if I would like to look at their device and if I liked it, would I review it. Frankly I was impressed with the confidence they expressed in the quality of their device so I said I would look at it and I am pleased that I did.

The Venturi Mini is quite a bit different than the typical hands free solution you see on the market today. The device does not attach to your sun visor but rather plugs directly into your cars DC outlet where it then will tune to an available space in the FM radio bandwidth. All sound from calls or from streaming music plays through your cars audio system.

As soon as you pair your device to the Venturi Mini, you are able to listen to music and hear phone calls over the car speakers. A2DP technology allows high quality stereo audio to be transferred from your device and if you have multiple devices, it will allow you to connect up to four. For this review, I used two devices (Motorola Q9m and the Cingular 8525).

You can read the review here

Developed by acoustic scientists and engineers, the Sound ID HD300 offers exceptional Bluetooth connectivity, sound clarity and comfort

Sound ID announced a breakthrough Bluetooth headset, the HD300. With NoiseNavigation, providing pristine sound through the automatic reduction of wind and background noise, the HD300’s acoustic innovations are evenly matched by its narrow form and chic, high-gloss piano black finish.

“Comprised of hearing specialists and top acoustic scientists, Sound ID brings an in-depth knowledge of the human ear to the Bluetooth arena,” said Michael Jones, President and CEO of Sound ID. “Engineered to complement the natural hearing process, the HD300 delivers great audio and a slim design for comfort and style – ensuring its place among the slickest gadgets on the market today.”

Read more!

The Crème de la Crème of Bluetooth Car Companions

The AX Visor is the ideal solution for hands free communication, offering an OLED display for caller ID, auto connect feature, 400 hour stand by, and dual microphones in a sleek design whose width and length are smaller than a dollar bill.

TRITTON Technologies has announced the arrival of the AX Visor Universal Bluetooth car kit and has listed it at a price of $119.99 MSRP.

The TRITTON AX Visor Bluetooth hands-free car kit integrates cutting edge wireless technology, functioning as a portable speakerphone when linked to a Bluetooth cell phone supporting headset or hands-free profiles. The AX Visor will also automatically detect between hands-free “car mode” and “speakerphone mode”. In “car mode” the unit will activate the unidirectional microphone, while in “speakerphone mode” the omnidirectional microphone is activated. The auto connect feature of the AX Visor utilizes an integrated accelerometer that detects vibration in a vehicle and automatically connects to the paired phone. Underneath the glossy, black bezel is an OLED screen that provides information to the user, including caller ID.

Features:

Supports Bluetooth headset and hands free profiles
Supports hands free car mode (unidirectional microphone)
Supports speakerphone mode (omnidirectional microphone)
High performance built-in speaker and dual microphone
OLED for caller ID display
Auto connect feature senses vehicle vibration and connects to the Bluetooth phone
15 hours of talk time and 400 hours of standby time
Convenient charging via AC/DC adapter, cigarette jack or USB

The equipped OLED display ensures low power consumption for longer battery life. No need to re-pair your phone, the auto connect feature senses the vibration of your vehicle and automatically pairs the Bluetooth phone to the AX Visor. Not only does it provide 15 hours of talk time, but has an impressive 400 hour standby time. TRITTON’s AX Visor supports headset and hands free profiles for hands free function with Bluetooth phones.

Visit TRITTON Technologies' website at www.trittonusa.com.

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to see and briefly use the Celio Redfly at a lunch meeting and was really impressed with its ability to improve and increase your abilities to get a much improved experience with your Mobile Device. The REDFLY brings out that true laptop power of your mobile device by extending its capabilities to a larger screen and it does it easily.

The REDFLY Mobile Companion has a flip clamshell design providing you with an 8" screen, a full usable keyboard, a really neat "wide" touchpad all encased in a form factor that is easily portable and extremely light (about 2 lbs). In addition, you get over 8 hours of battery life, instant on and a couple of neat features like VGA output, USB flash drive support and the ability to charge your device while using it.

At this point in time there are not a huge number of compatible devices but that is changing weekly and I expect that will become a non-issue soon.

So how do you get it to work? You install the REDFLY Interface Driver on your device, connect via USB or Bluetooth and it works. It's that simple and it is that good!

Take a few moments and head over to jkOnTheRun and check out his First impressions of the Celio Redfly. I think you will like what he has to say!

It is a small (almost the exact size of the EEE PC) laptop form device that does only one thing- it connects to a Windows Mobile smartphone or Pocket PC and extends the display and the keyboard of the phone. That's all it does and it does it very well. There is no processor onboard, no memory, no computer of any kind. It uses the phone as the processor and simply gives you better input/ output capability for the Windows Mobile phone. There is a short list of currently certified WM phones that will work with the Redfly but Celio is working on adding to that list. The folks at Celio supplied an AT&T Tilt to use with the Redfly evaluation but I will not discuss the phone at all at this point. Read on for my impressions of the Redfly.

So, now that you read what James had to say, now head over to The Mobile Gadgeteer at ZDNet.com and check out what Matt Miller had to say as well and check out his pictures and a really neat video introduction. Matt asks the question: "Can the REDFLY Windows Mobile Smartphone Companion succeed where the Foleo couldn’t?" I think the answer is YES it can and I believe it will!

The applications appeared much better on the REDFLY than I thought they would before I had a chance to try the device and there were only a couple that had issues. This is an early beta model and the software is still being worked on and optimized. Web browsing was actually enjoyable on this display and text entry is going to ROCK! Using applications like the SoftMaker Office suite with this large display and keyboard could be killer for the business user.