What Happened to Beta 145 Drivers?

[jwebb56]

I came home today, looked at Redfly's beta driver page and noticed they had version 145 posted. I downloaded it (and the firmware) immediately of course. I was disappointed to see though that the Epix camera bug was not on the list of new features. Nevertheless I tested it and much to my surprise the camera bug is fixed with version 145!

So I returned to the website to see if I just overlooked that fix. Another surprise, the beta driver page now was rolled back to the 093 version.

So Colin or Laurie, what's up with the drivers?

 

[laurieny]

Dang - you weren't supposed to notice that! It was only there for a couple of minutes.

;-)

We will put up a new beta build tomorrow morning (146).

-Laurie

Director of Engineering
Celio Corp | REDFLY

 

[laurieny]

Since you already spoiled the surprise, here are the build changes that you will see tomorrow:

Change List - 3/18/09

It is important to note that this version of the REDFLY driver (01.04.00.146) has significant changes from the last beta build (01.04.00.93) and it is necessary to update both the phone and the REDFLY to insure proper compatibility.

The primary changes in this build are:

1. A new compression mechanism has been implemented and it is found in a new tab in the REDFLY settings called Compression. This compression is turned off by default, but if you primarily connect via Bluetooth, we recommend turning this on. To do this, check the box that says Enable lossy compression. This will slightly reduce the image clarity on your REDFLY while significantly improving the performance speed of the data transferring between your phone and the REDFLY.

2. Several improvements for the Touch Pro, Diamond, and Fuze phones have been implemented which significantly improve the interaction with TouchFLO as well as the phone dialer. If you normally have TouchFLO turned off, the longer delay to load the screen has been eliminated and assorted issues with Font size changing on the phone have been corrected. The larger-sized tool and menu bars however have not changed, and it is unlikely that this will be resolved in the gold release. We continue to work with HTC on this issue and perhaps a solution will become available in the future.

3. The Epix camera no longer hangs when launched (in a REDFLY session).


-Laurie

 

[kraski]

Since you already spoiled the surprise, here are the build changes that you will see tomorrow:

Change List - 3/18/09

It is important to note that this version of the REDFLY driver (01.04.00.146) has significant changes from the last beta build (01.04.00.93) and it is necessary to update both the phone and the REDFLY to insure proper compatibility.

-Laurie

I know that the Sprint Treo Pro is a beta driver, while the GSM Treo Pro is a production driver (1.4.00.61). Are there things in the beta that will benefit the GSM model? If so, would it be benefial to you to have these tested on a GSM model?

Bill

 

[ckj]

The new build is back up (as build 147). Check it out.
http://www.celiocorp.com/install/beta

 

[ckj]

I know that the Sprint Treo Pro is a beta driver, while the GSM Treo Pro is a production driver (1.4.00.61). Are there things in the beta that will benefit the GSM model? If so, would it be benefial to you to have these tested on a GSM model?

Bill

Yes, you can download the beta driver for the Sprint Treo Pro and use it on an unlocked GSM Treo Pro. Just remember that it's still "beta" and you may see a few bugs. However, in generall, it is a very good experience. Faster than the offcially released build 61 you can find at http://www.celiocorp.com/install

I've been using the beta drivers on my unlocked GSM Treo Pro for some time and they work very well.

 

[drowe]

I've having the same problem with Spb Mobile Shell (2.1.5) that I've always had. If it is running when I connect, I get a black screen. I have the right soft key mapped to "now" and it is non-responsive via taps or the RMenu key. If I go to Programs and try to start mobile shell, the taps are again non-responsive. This is on a Verizon xv6900 with the Verizon official 6.1 update installed.

TomTom 6 goes to the flash screen and stops. After I disconnect, if I try to go to the program, it won't go and I can't kill it without a soft reset.

VZ Navigator (verizon's locked gps software) won't start, I get the spinner and it goes away and the program won't start. If I start the program first, the screen is loaded into the lower right corner and the tap areas on the buttons are a couple of inches left of where they are drawn. Exiting out leaves the redfly in a basically non-usable form. The screen won't refresh, the app never really closes, and a soft reset is needed.

Mobile shell I can work around, but I really wanted to use this for GPS. Any help would be appreciated, and if I can help you, please let me know.

Thank you,
David

 

[kraski]

Yes, you can download the beta driver for the Sprint Treo Pro and use it on an unlocked GSM Treo Pro. Just remember that it's still "beta" and you may see a few bugs. However, in generall, it is a very good experience. Faster than the offcially released build 61 you can find at http://www.celiocorp.com/install

I've been using the beta drivers on my unlocked GSM Treo Pro for some time and they work very well.

Thanks, Colin. I've only had my Redfly for a couple of weeks. The firmware rev is 1.4.0.61. So, I guess I get to do firmware update, as well.

 

[Aware]

1. A new compression mechanism has been implemented and it is found in a new tab in the REDFLY settings called Compression. This compression is turned off by default, but if you primarily connect via Bluetooth, we recommend turning this on.

This sounds like a great feature. I checked it out briefly and it does seem to make a difference. I need to go to Starbucks for a better test (no 3G at home) ... anyone want a Frappachino?

Am I right thinking that the compression is reducing colour depth rather than converting to , say, jpg or png?

There's another new tab - or one I never noticed before - "Licensing". What's the purpose of that?

 

[laurieny]

Licensing

The licensing tab is for our new software product called REDFLY Mobile Viewer. It will use the same phone drivers we currently make available for REDFLY Mobile Companion devices, but will be sold and licensed independently. It comes with a 30 day free trial, but will need a license after that point. This dialog is the place where you would enter that license after purchase.

-Laurie

Director of Engineering
Celio Corp | REDFLY

 

[c1oudrs]

laurieny--we are peeps--(little birds with our beaks wide open) we really enjoy the frequent updates in software you and your team provide and continue to look forward to all the best from you.

 

[Aware]

Licensing: Ahhh - got ya. Thanks Laurie.

 

[kraski]

Yes, you can download the beta driver for the Sprint Treo Pro and use it on an unlocked GSM Treo Pro. Just remember that it's still "beta" and you may see a few bugs. However, in generall, it is a very good experience. Faster than the offcially released build 61 you can find at http://www.celiocorp.com/install

I've been using the beta drivers on my unlocked GSM Treo Pro for some time and they work very well.

You're right. It is faster (147). So, now for my bug reports.

Both (61 & 147):
1) TomTom 6 locks up at the splash screen.
2) I mostly use Touchflo 2D (a modified version for the Treo Pro) as my interface. My SMS tab doesn't show the latest incoming message sender & text. My email tab is totally blank. Both tabs display properly when not connected to the Redfly. And the text on the home tab does display, either way. Otherwise, the top & bottom bars stretch across the screen, but the Touchflo stuff is in the upper left corner -- positioned & completely functional as on the phone.

Version 147:
1) Mouse support has gotten flakey. If I reset the phone while connected, the mouse will only work after reconnection if I unplug the mouse & plug it back in. That wasn't an issue with 61.
2) I sometimes use Pointui Home 2.0 as my interface. It seems to determine that it's in landscape mode when the Redfly is connected & layout gets a little messy. As well, ALL the informational text on the various apps disappears when connected to the Redfly. I didn't get to try this before I switched to the latest version, so I'm not sure if this is new or if it's ongoing.

 

[laurieny]

There are only a few apps that we are aware of that do not interact well with the REDFLY. TomTom and SpbShell are the two most frequently mentioned and they in fact do not work in most cases when connected to a REDFLY. We have attempted to contact the vendors of those products in order to address this interaction, but unfortunately we have not been successful in getting together to solve this. I will make another attempt however.

Custom interfaces are another aspect that are similarly challenging to support, though we continue to expand our capabilities in this area. The Direct Draw primitive support we added since build 61 is an example of this. Our greatest priority for support has been the TouchFLO interface that ships "natively" on many HTC phones now, like the Touch Pro, Diamond, etc.

Working with HTC, we are pretty close now to handling its unique implementation, though even on the phone, TouchFlo works differently when in landscape mode. Variants of TouchFLO, like "after-market" installs (sometimes present in "tweaked" ROMs) are not something we have addressed. And the look of the large tool and menubars (sometimes known as the "My First Phone" look) is not something we even can address as the resource files on the phone (icons, bitmaps, etc) are not provided on the phone to scale appropriately to the REDLFYs screen aspect.

PointUI is not something we have been asked about before, but we focus our efforts on the most-requested enhancements so if we get more demand for this particular shell then it might get added to the list of things to investigate.

About the mouse interaction. There is nothing in the driver upgrades since build 61 that could change the behavior of the touchpad. Perhaps it became damaged somehow, but possibly it is just an aspect of calibration that happens in rare cases. Whenever you "boot" the REDFLY (i.e. turn it on) the touchpad automatically calibrates itself. If by chance you happen to have your finger hovering closely over the pad and mouse button just as it comes on, you can put the touchpad in a funny state where you will see the mouse move erratically in response to touches. All you have to do to fix this is turn it off and then turn it back on with nothing near the touchpad. If it still seems to respond inappropriately then it could only be a hardware issue and you need to contact support to address that.

Hope this helps,
Laurie

Director of Engineering
Celio Corp | REDFLY

 

[drowe]

Thank you, Laurie, for the explanation. I've always been of the opinion that vendors have the responsibility to make their products work with the "stock" version of whatever they are adding functionality to. Anything that I do to change and modify my phone or car or house makes it my responsibility to get everything to work together. I really appreciate the help and support from Celio to get these disparate devices to work, you are going above and beyond to help your customers.

Cheers,
David

 

[Aware]

general observation: on my BlackJack II running WM 6.1 it seems that the most recent driver revisions have been a lot slower than older ones - 61 maybe?

 

[kraski]

There are only a few apps that we are aware of that do not interact well with the REDFLY. TomTom and SpbShell are the two most frequently mentioned and they in fact do not work in most cases when connected to a REDFLY.

Too bad they don't like cooperating more. Although TomTom may see the Redfly as something that might lower dedicated unit sales. But, just like SPB's lack of support for the 96dpi resolution (usually via RealVGA), it's lack of cooperation with Celio makes you wonder. Both are used by those most likely to use SPB products.

Custom interfaces are another aspect that are similarly challenging to support, though we continue to expand our capabilities in this area. The Direct Draw primitive support we added since build 61 is an example of this. Our greatest priority for support has been the TouchFLO interface that ships "natively" on many HTC phones now, like the Touch Pro, Diamond, etc.

I pointed out what I did because it just seems odd that they'd use different ways to put similar info on the screen. At least that's the only reason I can think of for the fact that Redfly doesn't display mail & sms pages, but home & weather are pretty much fine. Programming by committee?

And I have no real issue with the fact that the interface likes to hang out in the upper left corner of the Redfly screen. I understand that certain graphics & programming doesn't resize well -- not your fault or issue. In this case, it works the way it's supposed to (other than the above) & even works well with the mouse. Plus it's still larger than on the phone.

The version of TouchFlo I run is pretty stock, except for screen layout & graphics & has some things that don't natively work right on the Treo Pro. But using the right parts makes the Treo Pro easier to use. So, anything that makes "normal" TouchFlo work better on the Redfly should also benefit us custom TouchFlo users, too.

PointUI is not something we have been asked about before, but we focus our efforts on the most-requested enhancements so if we get more demand for this particular shell then it might get added to the list of things to investigate.

Well, if you're familiar with the "Bell UI" that's on a number of phones sold by Canada Bell, that's created by the Pointui folks. They also did a custom interface for Telstra. So, in both cases, some of their "stock" phones are running some variation of Pointui.

About the mouse interaction. There is nothing in the driver upgrades since build 61 that could change the behavior of the touchpad. Perhaps it became damaged somehow, but possibly it is just an aspect of calibration that happens in rare cases.

It's a Targus travel mouse that I got for my laptop, rollup cord -- the reel gives better protection for the cord, when not in use. The Redfly sometimes doesn't recognize it's there. More so with the 147 driver than the 61 driver. I also have a Logitech cordless mouse that almost always seems to work -- just too big for portability in the Redfly's case pocket. But you'd think that a wired mouse would work better than a wireless mouse, particularly when the wireless mouse needs a driver on a Windows pc.

 

[Smart Guy]

Battery consumption

I've been using the RF since 9am and at 4pm the battery seems like only 60% left. Unlike previous beta, I can have a go for more than 2 days without worrying about the juice.

PS. Overall, this update is no better that the previous one. In fact worst! Getting connected is longer that usual. I get disconnect very easily and frequently. Sometimes the display is only half. Eg. Displaying of Contacts, only 2 to 3 lines of contact are displayed. This also happened to other applications. It also seldom return to TF3D after disconnecting.

I am thinking of retiring the Redfly as its wasting me more time.
Thanks.

 

[anon159272]

I just installed 147 on a stock Sprint Touch Pro. Definitely an improvement, though there are a few issues still.

On soft reset I get:

ARM11 FATAL ERROR
oncrpcxdr_std.c line 542
Capture dumps?
Yes / No

ARM11 FATAL ERROR
Then oncrpc_xprtrtr.c line 674
Capture dumps?
Yes / No

When I clear those with "No" I'm able to connect the Redfly.

When I connect to the Redfly, my signal icon on the taskbar says I have no service, but everything works, so I clearly do have service (web browsing, email, etc.)

Doesn't play nice with Pocket Shield (have to use USB mode so pocketshield doesn't engage). Not that I expected that to work...just making a note. I know it's 3rd party software and all.

The clown icons ("My First Phone" - LOL!) are also sort of a dealbreaker for me personally - between the softkey menu and the taskbar it feels like a quarter of the screen's vertical space is used up. Again, just a personal thing, I'm big on screen real estate. I know this is an HTC specific thing and not imminently fixable...I'm just noting it as a personal issue and I know it doesn't bother others.

With 147 my softkey menu is always greyed out (white on grey). With the 800w, a soft reset would typically bring it back for a connection cycle or two. I'm using the default Sprint theme with TouchFLO 3D turned off completely. I've soft reset a few times and it's always greyed out now.

EDIT: While writing this post I got a different ARM11 error while soft resetting. I just noticed the line number was 464 - different from the ones listed above. When I get a chance I'll soft reset a few more times and see what errors come up. I can verify that under the Redfly about page both versions are 1.4.0.147 (software and firmware). But I'm out of time at the moment.

 

[mknollman]

Well, after a crazy busy week, I had a slow night at the firehouse last night and finally managed to update to 147. I am very happy with it overall. The biggest pleasant surprise for me was gaining back full use of Live Search mapping - it used to lock up while using my RF on version 93 when I attempted to use GPS. Now it behaves perfectly.

The only negative so far is that it seems to open my phone dialer every time I connect now. I would guess this has to do with the fact that it temporarily switches back to stock dialer from htc's dialer upon connection. It then switches back upon d/c. I will say that the stock one does behave much better. And I can deal with exiting out of the dialer for now. Thanks again Celio.