How do you use REDFLY?

[ckj]

What are you doing with REDFLY that you couldn't or didn't like to do with just your phone?

I've been playing around lately with RDP on the phone and remoting into a desktop running XP in another state. You can set the options to scale to screen size and get the most out of REDFLY's real estate.

You can go from here...

To here...

Firefox is pretty cool at 800x480 too...

 

[EdFrmBrighthand]

Remote Access

What have you been using for remote access? I often do the same thing with LogMeIn, which works well, but I'm always looking for a better solution.
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[ckj]

I'm using a free RDP client for the phone called WM6 Remote Desktop. It can in theory, remote back to any real or virtual PC through Microsoft Terminal Services (built into most of Microsoft’s operating systems but turned off by default) and lets you access and control a full desktop. The WM6 version supports scale-to-fit and full-screen mode on the phone, which looks good at 800x480 on REDFLY as you can see in the screenshots above. The touchpad on REDFLY works as you’d hope, giving you mouse/touchpad control over whatever OS the desktop is running.

If you have access to a Citrix environment then you can use the ICA phone client to access desktops through XenDesktop or even individual apps pushed out through XenApp. It’s hard to set up but very cool.

GoToMyPC also works in addition to LogMeIn.

 

[EdFrmBrighthand]

I've thought about testing GoToMyPC, but I have a hard time paying a monthly subscription fee when LogMeIn works pretty well and the basic version is free.

For those who haven't tried it, the LogMeIn client for Windows Mobile is a dumbed-down version of the Windows client, but it works well enough to get the job done. You can reduce the color depth and reduce the size of the remote desktop to put less demand on your smartphone, .

Typically, I run it at 8-bit color, a 1024x768 desktop, and 75% size on the Redfly.

I've never scaled the screen size to 800x480 because I'm someone who puts lots of things on my desktop, and changing the desktop size rearranges everything.
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[dc_in_sf]

I've setup a locked down Vista VM running on a internet connected HyperV box that I am using for those times where Opera 8.65 or Office mobile don't cut it. As long as I have access to wifi or a decent 3G signal I have the equivalent capabilities of a netbook available to me.

Putting the RDP client into full screen mode and IE 7 also into full screen mode makes good use of the screen real estate available.

 

[ckj]

Citrix XenApp

Here are some screenshots of full Windows applications running through the Citrix Windows Mobile client (ICA) on a smartphone (AT&T Tilt to be specific) and being displayed on a REDFLY full-screen at 800x480 pixels. Apps run very fast this way since you?re not actually running a desktop or anything ? only the application gets pushed down to the phone. You need licenses and a XenApp server to publish the apps, but once it is set up, it?s a really cool experience.

Citrix has done a great job getting XenApp to run on WM phones and with the REDFLY screen, keyboard, touchpad etc., getting real work done is now possible with just a phone, 3G connection and REDFLY.


This is an Excel file running in the full version of Excel ?

Here?s the full Windows version of QuickBooks?

And a Word doc running in the full version of Office...

 

[dc_in_sf]

How's the performance of the ICA client compare to the Windows RDP client? I've been disappointed with the WM RDP client - it's usable but the phone can get bogged down in screen refreshes, not a bandwidth issue as RDPing into the same box from my laptop with the phone tethered does not exhibit the same issue.

 

[Aware]

As I wait for my RedFly to arrive, I've been trying to find out what tools people are using to do Remote Desktop with Samsung BlackJack II running WinMo 6.1.

Note that native remote desktop support is removed from Win Mobile Standard 6.1 ('SmartPhone") edition :-( LogMeIn and GoToMyPC both report no support for BlackJack II :-(

Anyone found anything that works?

 

[Ebag333]

There are CAB's to add the remote desktop client back onto 6.1.

 

[Aware]

Sure. Installed that a couple of days ago. Still need to work out exctly how to tunnel through my ISP, router, firewall etc.

Installing that doesnt help LogMeIn ... LogMeIn's remote-device installer won't install to WM SmartPhone. Shame - cos it handles all the tunneling etc automagically.

 

[Ebag333]

Sure. Installed that a couple of days ago. Still need to work out exctly how to tunnel through my ISP, router, firewall etc.

Installing that doesnt help LogMeIn ... LogMeIn's remote-device installer won't install to WM SmartPhone. Shame - cos it handles all the tunneling etc automagically.

You should be able to just forward the ports on your firewall/router from your external IP to your internal IP.

Plenty of docs out on Google on how to do it.


And yes, LogMeIn is very slick that way. I still had to forward ports to handle it, however. (I run a very strict firewall. )

 

[Aware]

Sorted out the port forwarding - took 10 seconds Tested it out, and RDP does work with the BlackJack, but it's not usable. I think the lack of a touchscreen or mouse kills it (or Alt+Tab). Screen sceems to default to 8 bit colour too - I can live with that, but it's ugly A quick trawl has not turned up a help filr for Windows Mobile RDP yet. Must get to work ...

Should be able to test with the Redfly when it arrives tomorrow. Hopefully RDP on BlackJack works OK with the RedFly keyboard and touchpad, otherwise the RedFly has just lost it's most useful feature. Fingers crossed.