Mobile Viewer Beta Plus new REDFLY Driver/Firmware

[cplush#WP]

im not seeing why it should be $40. Mymobiler has more features, more stability, and costs nothing. if this was supported over bluetooth maybe...but the larger screen size in my opinion is not worth the $40. ill play with the beta, but its not valuable enough in my opinion to warrent $40.

 

[Aware]

Magically I was able to connect, so I had a quick play.

The new Beta 2 of Bolt seems to work OK at default 800x480 resolution. Deosn't seem to want to run at 1024x768.

Opera Mini runs fine at 1024x768, if a little slow. I'm fairly sure the slowness is down to my phone (BlackJack II) rather than network or Opera.

Iris browser also seems to be OK at 1024x768, but I guess their servers are slow, as page downloads take a lot longer than the size report in the taskbar suggests they might (120k page can take a couple of minutes).

Gmail app works fine at 1024x768

Pocket Excel has ooodles of space to wok in and seems just fine.

General responsiveness is OK at 1024x768, but there is definitely a slowdown, unsurprisingly.

[EDIT] Weird - apparently Task Manager will not work at resulotions higher that 800x480!

 

[mknollman]

In a post in another thread laureny from Celio stated that there would be a discount for RF Owners. She did not say it would definitely be $20, but this is the price she assumed it wouls be. I agree that this is steep for the limited improvement on the freeware solutions and the actual loss of some functionality in other areas.

 

[jwebb56]

I think we are all in agreement that this software will be very sensitive to price. But then if they keep improving its functionality over time you never know, it just might have a market. One basic problem Celio has no control over is the lameness of the Microsoft Mobile Office apps. They are next to worthless. I ended up buying SoftMaker Office 2008 just to get the ability to actually do real work with word, excel and powerpoint files on my phone.

 

[Midgeslayer]

Mobile Viewer and Touch HD

To add to earlier comments in this thread about difficulty of using Viewer with Touch Diamond under Vista. If I've understood the comments correctly I get the same problem trying to connect my Touch HD. Using it with the Redfly I have to tick the tick box that says "Enable faster data sync" in Start/Settings/Connections/USB to PC in order to get a connection and use the Redfly. Lovely! Problem is if that box is ticked on the Touch HD I cannot establish an Activesync (or WMDC if you prefer) connection under Vista when I connect my phone to PC by USB cable. Connection works fine if I untick this box. So I untick it and set up the connection, BUT then the viewer complains that there is no phone attached. Presumably this is because like the Redfly it wants me to tick the aforementioned tick box. Catch 22. What can I do. Have tried screaming. Any other ideas or should I not bother and stick with My Mobiler?

 

[laurieny]

@ Midgeslayer

You should bother.

We are working on a way to programmatically address the advanced network settings for all the different configurations of Windows PCs. And we do have an extensive list of features planned in the RMV (REDFLY Mobile Viewer) roadmap. I can't give you a specific timetable for this, though hopefully we have demonstrated our desire to be aggressively responsive to our customers and to be as transparent in our plans as good business sense and strategic partnerships allow.

We received numerous requests for a software version of the REDFLY--lots of mobile app developers see a huge benefit in creating their products to take advantage of the much greater screen real estate and keyboard input possible with the REDFLY. We also felt it would be a good way to allow people to test drive the REDFLY experience. We really believe that the smartphone becomes the computing platform of choice in the very near future, but while the rest of the world is catching up with our vision (see http://www.celiocorp.com/vision for our view), people still want and need their PCs. Ergo, Mobile Viewer is released.

But given the expense of installing and patching a desktop OS and the virus and spyware tools needed today (not to mention the time wasted waiting for it to boot!) we believe that the REDFLY Mobile Companion is the most cost-effective, efficient, and mobile solution available today with its instant-on, long battery life, and zero maintenance.

Might be drinking a little too much koolaid, so getting down off my soapbox now...

Stay tuned for more RMV updates and other products coming soon.

Thanks,
Laurie

Director of Engineering
Celio Corp | REDFLY

 

[drowe]

<snip>
We received numerous requests for a software version of the REDFLY--lots of mobile app developers see a huge benefit in creating their products to take advantage of the much greater screen real estate and keyboard input possible with the REDFLY. We also felt it would be a good way to allow people to test drive the REDFLY experience.
<snip>

Hi Laurie,
I agree that RMV is a great tool to show off what a Redfly will do. Here is my marketing advice (and it's worth exactly what you paid for it ). It should be available as a 30 day demo to allow people to evaluate how their apps and work will benefit. At that point they should be either ready to buy a Redfly with a free license for the RMV, or buy a license to continue to use the RMV. Since the RMV doesn't add, IMHO, a lot of value if you have a Redfly, it should be included in the Redfly price. I can see a lot of value if you already have a netbook and would like to use your WM apps on it.

David

 

[Gameboy70]

For two days I've been trying to install RMV's RFP6_01040163.cab on my Sprint Treo Pro, and each time it freezes indefinitely on the Palm splash screen before booting. After a soft reset, it continues to hang on the splash screen. To move past this state, I've had to hard reset and restore the device image with Sprite Backup.

Any solutions? TIA.

 

[Aware]

Now I cannot get my phone to connect to my laptop at all. I've tried unistall/reinstall of various stuff. I'm guessing the phone is sick after so much messing around. Will try to make time to reimage the phone over the weekend.

UPDATE

Since I wrote the message above, I've connected every time since with no problem. I've no idea what, if anything I've changed. Mobile Viewer Seems to be rock solid now.

 

[mknollman]

I have yet tohave an issue with mobile viewer. It will connect with my phone even when Microsoft's craptastic WMDC is being difficult (often).

 

[anon159272]

For two days I've been trying to install RMV's RFP6_01040163.cab on my Sprint Treo Pro, and each time it freezes indefinitely on the Palm splash screen before booting. After a soft reset, it continues to hang on the splash screen. To move past this state, I've had to hard reset and restore the device image with Sprite Backup.

Any solutions? TIA.

You're not doing this with the phone plugged in, are you, by any chance? The Treo800w introduced a NASTY bug (some called it a protective feature, which is ridiculous) that caused the phone to hang at the Palm startup screen if you tried to soft reset when it was plugged into a charging source. I wonder if the same "feature" has made it to the Treo Pro?

 

[mknollman]

I had this similar issue with certain (can I say it) "cooked" roms on my Touch Pro. RFP would complete the install and then restart and never make it into Windows. By using the "safe mode" startup feature that is included in SPB Pocket Plus 4, taking the RF software out of the startup foldert and rebooting I was able to get into WM normally again. For some reason, the version I was using (could not find a pattern) just plain did not work and the driver would hang when it tried to open during startup and cause the whole phone to hang as well.

My only solution was a different rom. I am still using a cooked rom (ssk1.5 R4R version - thanks Scott Crossler) and have absolutely no issues. But I have encountered both your issue above and also the BT issue mentioned in another thread. I attribute both of these to my custom roms, once I found the right version and the planets aligned - everything worked.

I apologize if you are using a stock rom as the last 2 paragraphs wasted your time - unless you want to try a cooked one to fix the issue.

 

[flyemhighrockets]

Fine so Far

I have been using the mobile viewerfor a couple of days now. I feel it's a great software. I really appreciate the factor that I have several e-mail accounts and with my phone plugged up to my computer will not phone alerts build e-mails I can just check them directly on the phone instead of having to login to all of the different e-mails on my computer. This has been great so far.

I have answered and respond to e-mails and internet connection works great I have been using the sky fire beta it is faster while using the mobile view even though there is some lag.

the only problem I have been experiencing is when I open my e-mails while using the mobile viewer I can never download the pictures in my e-mail maybe it's just me or my phone. I am using Windows XP the phone is a Samsung blackjack 2. Has anyone else been experiencing this? Once I disconnect my phone and open e-mails I can download the pictures in e-mails just fine.

But other than that I have a great experiences with mobile viewer. Thanks Celio keep up the great work. Hope to see more from you.

 

[markkcurtis]

Sorry it simply does not want to know with my Vista and Touch Diamond. I've even hard reset my Diamond for this and still nothing so if this software is going to ship for $40 I hope there is one hell of a robust refund process because I'd be pretty pissed if I got stung like that.

It doesn't matter what setting I have it detects the phone as the icon glows but just keeps complaining that the drivers aren't installed or a phone isn't connected.

Think I'll stick to the free alternative.

IF this had worked for me and IF it was going for $20 then I would probably have purchased.

 

[mholmes7]

Possible timing problem?

Yesterday I had my Samsung i760 (WM 6.1) hooked up to the Mobile Viewer and needed to access a subdirectory on the phone. I normally use Total Commander (http://www.ghisler.com/) instead of File Explorer as my file manager. I found that by clicking THREE times very quickly, I was sometimes able to go to a subdirectory. I tried adjusting the Redfly touchpad settings, though I am not sure they are supposed to affect the behavior of an external mouse. There was no discernable effect. I "fixed" the problem by switching Total Commander from "double-click" mode to "single-click" mode.

The fix is easy, and I only mention the problem because I have had similar behavior on the Redfly itself. Often, when I double-tap the touchpad, I get the name-change function instead of activating the program or going to the subdirectory -- however, clicking the left mouse button always works. There may be a timing (or other) problem that someone at Celiocorp should check into during their abundant free time.

 

[IBPIT]

Mobile Viewr Problem

I have the new update loaded on my phone and Mobile Viewer loaded on my laptop. Viewer does not recognize my phone. Active Sync launches and syncs, but the viewer can not find the phone. I have tried the checkbox for extended network in USB-to-PC, no luck.

I would love to test the Mobile Viewer, but can not connect.

Help?!

 

[richuk]

I have the new update loaded on my phone and Mobile Viewer loaded on my laptop. Viewer does not recognize my phone. Active Sync launches and syncs, but the viewer can not find the phone. I have tried the checkbox for extended network in USB-to-PC, no luck.

My copy has been doing that all day today and I thought I had a problem, then I realised that this version expires at midnight (1st May 2009). Here in the UK its now the 1st May, and it is still not working - I think that they could have a bug in there software that made it expire a day early!

Rich

 

[IBPIT]

Expire Date

So, how do we get a copy of the one that expires June 1?

I would love to try it, but can't.

 

[badersk]

Anyway to extend the trial? I haven't had enough time with it, and it can't be reloaded or purchased.

 

[ckj]

Sorry, we've discovered an issue for some users in which the beta will expire after 30 days instead of June 1, 2009. We should have an update posted very soon that fixes the issue. I'll post back here with a link ASAP.