Redfly Smartphone Terminal

This is an interesting idea. Essentially its a bigger, hires screen and keyboard for your Windows Mobile device.
http://www.celiocorp.com/

You connect it to your smartphone and it displays your smartphone screen on the Redfly's WVGA screen and allows accessing programs and documents through the Redfly. The first thing to wonder with this device is - will your applications scale correctly to 800x480? Fortunately there are a few WVGA devices already on the market so the answer: with most newer applications should be "yes".

This is a very similar idea to the Foleo for Palm devices. The Foleo never made it to market - likely due to the decline in Palm market share and the high price point of $499. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_Foleo

As someone that enters a lot of data into my phone I could see the use in this. But really - I think I'd rather get a mini-notebook like the Asus Eee PC and use Dashwire's software (athough that requires an active internet connection).

I imagine the Redfly is a product you'll have to try before passing judgement. If its extremely easy to use it might justify the $200 US for the entry model. But at that price I'm not quite interested enough to find out.

I do love products like this and I hope they have a market. Less tech savy road warriors might find this indispenable (again - if its dead simple to use).

And finally a link to back to My Today Screen who posted the first article I had read on the Redfly.

iSS Essentials Update

It was time for an update to iSS Essentials. This brings it to version 2.0.0.

The updates are:

iSS SciCalc 3.0:

This is the biggest update. Calc Pro 1.0 and SciCalc 2.3 have been merged and will now be known as SciCalc 3.0. This adds constants, unit conversions and graphing along with the easy to use interface of Calc Pro. The Calc Pro name will now be carried on by Panoramic Software which has done an impressive job of improving the look at feel of Calc Pro as well as adding a ton of features.

iSS Notepad 1.1.0:

Fixed the italic font bug
Added Document Info showing the word count, character count and full file name and path

iSS Task Manager 1.1.0:

Added "Smart Shut Down" and "Smart Soft Reset". These two features are almost the same and I've wanted them ever since we released Essentials. If you reset or turn off your device using these options in the menu - Task Manager will try to gracefully close all running applications first. What this means is - you won't lose changes to documents or settings of programs you left open. A much nicer way to reset your phone.

iSS Task Switcher 1.1.0:

I noticed a drawing error on my iMate JAQ3 on the menu. I couldn't reproduce it on any other devices but I thought it was worth fixing anyways.

I also added the above mentioned "Smart Soft Reset" to iSS Task Switcher on the quick launch bar (its the pretty new blue icon).

As always - you can buy iSS Essentials or any of the individual applications from Wireless-Apps: http://www.wireless-apps.net/

If you already have the full version and would like to upgrade - simply download the most recent trial version and re-install the software. It will retain the "full version" status along with your current settings.

Grab the latest demo from http://www.wireless-apps.net/ or http://www.implicitsoftware.com/

"How do I get the latest version of Windows Mobile on my phone?"

I see this question over and over and I've responded to it many times on places like Yahoo Answers so I thought it was time to write a quick guide.

Step 0: (since I forgot to mention this on the first edit) Backup any important documents or information. Updating your device will erase all saved data and applications you've installed. It basically restores it to an "out of the box" state.

Step 1: Determine the make (HP, HTC, Toshiba, etc) and model (111, G900, Touch) of your phone. You need to know exactly what phone you're using before you update.

Step 2: Determine which version of Windows Mobile you currently have. Open "About" under settings. On most devices its written out in plain english - ie "Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition".

Step 3: Go to the manufactures website to find the latest update. Sometimes companies will give you free updates, sometimes they're paid upgrades .. and sometimes they just don't exist.

Step 4: Read the instructions carefully!!

Step 5: Follow the instructions and update your device.


Now, if you can't find an official update - there still may be hope. For many devices, you can get what is known as a "cooked ROM". Essentially this is an update created by hacker enthusiasts and is NOT supported by the manufacture. If you have a warranty installing a cooked ROM will almost certainly void it - and you run the risk of damaging your device in the process. I've been experimenting with cooked ROMs for years and have never had a problem - but you're still installing at your own risk. If the installation fails part way through it could permanently ruin your phone.

If you want to try a cooked ROM start researching on google. Another excellent place to look is on XDA developers - there are cooked ROMs available for many popular Windows Mobile devices.

One last thing to note - when installing an unofficial or cooked ROM, you'll almost certainly have to install it from a memory card. So make sure you have one handy - and its very recommended to not put any files on the memory card that aren't essential to the update/upgrade.

Good luck and read the instructions!

Pocket PC to Windows Mobile

A quick guide to understanding new Windows Mobile Devices - taken from

http://ca.answers.yahoo.com/question/answer;_ylt=ApkZyyC_FOaoOLCzJbE_yWmzFQx.;_ylv=3

"Pocket PC" is now called "Windows Mobile Classic" for touch screen devices without a phone built in (such as the iPAQ 111) and "Windows Mobile Professional" if its a touch screen with a phone (HTC Touch, Xperia, Palm 750)

If its a Windows phone without a touchscreen its called "Windows Mobile Standard" - previously known as Windows Mobile Smartphone (Samsung Blackjack, MotoQ)

Now - for compatibility - software created for Pocket PCs usally works on newer Windows Mobile touch screen devices "Professional/Standard". Especially if it was created for Pocket PC 2003 SE (which introduced VGA, square, and landscape screens).

However - if you buy a Windows Mobile phone with a high-resolution screen (VGA / XVGA), a square screen or one that primarily works in landscape orientation (the screen is wider than it is tall) the software may not work.

Its a little tougher with non-touch screen devices. The original Windows Mobile Smartphone has a low resolution screen - 172x220 so most old software only supports this resolution. New Windows Mobile Standard phones are almost always 320x240 or 240x320 so I would make sure that Windows Mobile Standard compatibility is specifically mentioned before purchasing any software.

Cheers!

Wireless Apps (www.wireless-apps.net)

I wanted to let you know that the sister site to Wireless-gaming.com has also received a facelift.

Both sites have been completely updated. In case you haven't visited http://www.wireless-apps.net/ yet: it’s an excellent site to purchase Smartphone applications.

Currently the website has the top applications for:

Blackberry, Palm, Windows Mobile (both touch and non-touch screens), UIQ and Series 60 phones (most Nokia smart phones). Of course iPhone applications will be sold when they're available.

Take a look, just like http://www.wireless-gaming.com/ it has a great interface and we're very proud of the site.