Build for C8
I know you have all been anxiously waiting for further updates about the status of the C8 REDFLY. Sorry it took longer than I had hoped to get an answer ? though I didn?t know you would be quite this invested. At Celio we have been working day and night, but I guess I thought other people were less obsessive...
;-)
We launched the new release (version 1.5) of the software today with added support for select BlackBerry 4.6 phones as well as Windows Mobile 6.0/6.1. Support for select Windows 6.5 phones will come out in a few more weeks, though fundamentally the support is there now, we just need some more time testing these late-arriving phones. In other words we will have another official release for that soon.
You will see UI changes with our new Control Panel in Windows as well as a new splash screen on the REDFLY, USB print support with the purchase of a JETCET driver, and a few more nice things, but in general the really significant changes are all ?under the covers? and predominantly focused on adding support for BlackBerry and Windows Mobile 6.5. This involved adding support for alpha blending, a tricky scaler algorithm, etc.
We have also officially retired support for the original C8 with this launch. Of course, the C8 is no longer available for sale and hasn?t been for a year now. Due to technical differences in board design between the old and new models and the capacity of that FPGA, along with the overhead and cost involved in regression testing more than 75 phones on all three platforms, it was a business decision we had to make. And build 1.4.0.212 that people have now works just fine for all but the newest phones.
However, we do want to support our early adopters and their desire to adopt the ?latest and greatest.? In order to show our appreciation, we have spent a fair bit of development time the last few weeks going back to the older code base and re-compiling it to properly install and "fit" on the C8 devices. Though we?ve done very limited testing with this build, in general, the communication between the phones we?ve tried and the C8 devices seems to be working fine. Therefore, we are making this build available on a special ?magic? web page for those of you that would like it on an ?as is? basis.
Please note that unless you are a Windows user planning on moving to BlackBerry, or you are getting a new 6.5 phone in the very near future, there is no real reason to change what is working for you now, just to go to this build. Though I do have to admit that we did resolve the ?grey bar? issue to a large extent for 6.1 phones (still missing the gradient though) and because Microsoft fixed the underlying root cause, there is no soft key menu display issue in 6.5 phones. (Yes this build is pretty good to try with 6.5 phones too.)
To get the new version (1.5.0.286) today, go to http://www.celiocorp.com/008 to install it from a PC - not available OTA. One important note is that you MUST upgrade any existing REDFLYs using a Windows Mobile phone before you can try it with a BlackBerry phone! Until you upgrade the firmware to a 1.5 version, the REDFLY does not know how to talk to a BlackBerry phone. Once the REDFLY is updated to 1.5, then you can connect one of the supported BlackBerry phones (Bold 9000, Curve 8900, or Tour 9630) to it and try it out.
We do appreciate the patience you have shown here waiting for a response from me. Sorry it took so long, but we did have to go through some hoops to make this work -not like software development is a perfectly predictable animal anyway. Hope this special build will be welcomed by the people here.
Thanks,
Laurie
Director of Engineering
Celio Corp | REDFLY
I know you have all been anxiously waiting for further updates about the status of the C8 REDFLY. Sorry it took longer than I had hoped to get an answer ? though I didn?t know you would be quite this invested. At Celio we have been working day and night, but I guess I thought other people were less obsessive...
;-)
We launched the new release (version 1.5) of the software today with added support for select BlackBerry 4.6 phones as well as Windows Mobile 6.0/6.1. Support for select Windows 6.5 phones will come out in a few more weeks, though fundamentally the support is there now, we just need some more time testing these late-arriving phones. In other words we will have another official release for that soon.
You will see UI changes with our new Control Panel in Windows as well as a new splash screen on the REDFLY, USB print support with the purchase of a JETCET driver, and a few more nice things, but in general the really significant changes are all ?under the covers? and predominantly focused on adding support for BlackBerry and Windows Mobile 6.5. This involved adding support for alpha blending, a tricky scaler algorithm, etc.
We have also officially retired support for the original C8 with this launch. Of course, the C8 is no longer available for sale and hasn?t been for a year now. Due to technical differences in board design between the old and new models and the capacity of that FPGA, along with the overhead and cost involved in regression testing more than 75 phones on all three platforms, it was a business decision we had to make. And build 1.4.0.212 that people have now works just fine for all but the newest phones.
However, we do want to support our early adopters and their desire to adopt the ?latest and greatest.? In order to show our appreciation, we have spent a fair bit of development time the last few weeks going back to the older code base and re-compiling it to properly install and "fit" on the C8 devices. Though we?ve done very limited testing with this build, in general, the communication between the phones we?ve tried and the C8 devices seems to be working fine. Therefore, we are making this build available on a special ?magic? web page for those of you that would like it on an ?as is? basis.
Please note that unless you are a Windows user planning on moving to BlackBerry, or you are getting a new 6.5 phone in the very near future, there is no real reason to change what is working for you now, just to go to this build. Though I do have to admit that we did resolve the ?grey bar? issue to a large extent for 6.1 phones (still missing the gradient though) and because Microsoft fixed the underlying root cause, there is no soft key menu display issue in 6.5 phones. (Yes this build is pretty good to try with 6.5 phones too.)
To get the new version (1.5.0.286) today, go to http://www.celiocorp.com/008 to install it from a PC - not available OTA. One important note is that you MUST upgrade any existing REDFLYs using a Windows Mobile phone before you can try it with a BlackBerry phone! Until you upgrade the firmware to a 1.5 version, the REDFLY does not know how to talk to a BlackBerry phone. Once the REDFLY is updated to 1.5, then you can connect one of the supported BlackBerry phones (Bold 9000, Curve 8900, or Tour 9630) to it and try it out.
We do appreciate the patience you have shown here waiting for a response from me. Sorry it took so long, but we did have to go through some hoops to make this work -not like software development is a perfectly predictable animal anyway. Hope this special build will be welcomed by the people here.
Thanks,
Laurie
Director of Engineering
Celio Corp | REDFLY
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