BostonPocketPC

I just downloaded the latest IE8 beta that is available to the public and I am impressed with some of the new features especially the Automatic Crash Recovery, which is something I have wanted since IE6 was out and it seemed to happen more with IE7. Here is the wording from the Beta Feature page:

Automatic Crash Recovery (ACR) is a feature of Windows^®Internet Explorer^® 8 that can help to prevent the loss of work and productivity in the unlikely event of the browser crashing or hanging. The ACR feature takes advantage of the Loosely-Coupled Internet Explorer feature to provide new crash recovery capabilities, such as tab recovery, which will minimize interruptions to users’ browsing sessions.

They even have a whitepaper on it here.

Here are some of the other features to expect listed here:

Activities
WebSlices
Favorites Bar
Automatic Crash Recovery
Improved Phishing Filter

You can get the latest bits of the IE8 beta here.

There are release notes here, as well as testing tools and resources here like whitepapers, Hands On Labs, Internet Explorer VPCs,

Just in time for MIX08, which starts today.

Enjoy!

UltimatePC.com was launched by Microsoft as a beta to show what can be done with Windows Vista Ultimate PCs by hosting Blueprints, Profiles and Showcases of the best PCs available to show Ultimate Experiences of people using Windows Vista Ultimate to push the envelope in tasks like photography, gaming, and digital media experiences.

The website will also be the new landing page for Windows Ultimate Extras since Windowsultimate.com will be redirected to UltimatePC.com webpage.

Also available to approved Windows Vista Ultimate owners are "Ultimate exclusives" that are not replacing Ultimate Extras, but are exclusive deals just for those that have purchased the Windows Vista Ultimate SKU such as discounts on hardware and software. The validation is done by the Windows Genuine Advantage similar to the OEM reseller offers available to consumers through OEM distributors.

The current offerings are discounts on EVGA NVIDIA based graphics cards with the popular Crysis video game (which is designed to adapt to upgraded hardware) with a $50 discount off of retail pricing, Pinnacle's USB based Ultimate HD Tuner supports clear QAM for $89 as well as their Pinnacle Studio Ultimate 11 video editing software (who are division of Avid), and Stardocks Muliplicity for $29. Each offer has a ratings on it so you can provide feedback to Microsoft if these offers are appealing to you or not.

Here is the EVGA offer which isn't too bad if you are looking for a new EVGA 8800GTS 512MB or 8800GT 512MB graphics card and Crysis, which retails for $45.

It looks like the new site will provide a place for the ultimate team to communicate to the community on its current and future plans on Windows Ultimate Extras and I am sure we will be seeing more from them in the near future.

If you paid for Windows Ultimate it is definitely worth checking out since some of these offers are limited by date or quantity.

Spb Mobile Shell is one of my favorite applications on the Windows Mobile 6 Professional platform combined with Spb Pocket Plus it makes the UI and usage of the phone much easier. Allowing me to see and access the information on my phone that is important to me at a glance. Well the folks at Spb Software House have improved on the product even more with their latest version Spb Mobile Shell 2.0.

There are three main Panels in Spb Mobile shell as well as a Today screen plugin. The three main panels are the Now Screen, Spb Menu, and Speed Dial Panel. There is also a new way to interact with the panels and call them up as well that makes this program a joy to use.

Now Screen

Spb Mobile Shell 2.0 makes some improvements on the the previous version by making some updates to how the "Now Screen" operates. The Now Screen if you are not familiar with the product is the first screen you see when you turn on the device.

The Now screen is customizable in that you can change the color and from two different looks - Professional (on the left) and Classic(on the right). The layout of each is a bit different with the most notable being that the Professional has a digital clock and the has an analog clock, but the UI is also different. My personal favorite is the Professional, since it displays the information I need, yours may be different. Its good to have a choice!

Each of the screen has customizable settings to tailor its look and functions of the Now Screen  under settings.

The Professional screen comes with the very top bar with a battery indicator, signal indicator, and cellular provider information. Beneath that is a larger iconed bar that displays the local weather, phone functions of new messages, text messages, missed calls, and also has a volume indicator. Tapping on each of these icons displays detailed information and controls of each.

The Classic has similar icons with a larger icon for battery and weather and depending on your preferred setup options the placement will vary with how you have configured the display of your upcoming appointments.

Tapping the weather icon brings up a new detailed Now screen with the weather for that day with the times of weather and temperatures for that day with a 5 day forecast for the week. Tapping on the subsequent day icons will bring up the detailed information. Selecting the settings gear allows you to set your local city.

Selecting the Volume icon will bring up a Profile screen to set the volume of your device, which is great when you entering a meeting or place where you need to quickly silence your phone.

The next bar on the Professional screen is the local time in nice easy to read numbers with the current date. Tapping on this icon brings up an even larger time, great for those over 40 who have macular degeneration or thickening of the cornea and need to extend the device away from their body in order to see it clearly will really appreciate this. This Time screen also shows your next alarms as well as time zones in three customizable cities.

The next bar is your next three appointments from your calendar or calendar for the current month. Depending on the number of appointments you have or how you configure it the amount of calendar you see will vary, so if you have no upcoming appointments you will see 3 weeks of the current month. Notice the picture is different from the one above.

The last row is new to Spb Mobile Shell 2.0 panel bar that has quick jump icons to jump between the different panels. One for launching applications called Spb Menu, One for quick dial by Picture ID  from your contacts called the Speed Dial Panel, and Close. Some cool things I found when using the software is the ability to toggle between the three different panels via the soft keys on your device for quick on handed use. Pressing the left soft key advances the panels to the left and pressing the right soft key advances the panels to the right. You can also access the same Now screens by using the new kinetic interface by dragging your finger across the screen from left to right will bring you to the Picture ID contact screen, from right to left will bring you to the application launcher and if you keep going in either direction it will keep rotating through the screens. The way the screens and UI work are very similar to the HTC’s TouchFLO interface.

You can customize the kinetic animations in the settings menu under the Animation tab.

You can also access the Panels of Spb Mobile shell by making a gesture from the top of the Taskbar down with your finger or Stylus. This too is activated in the Settings of Spb Mobile Shell and is called taskbar smart gestures. Once the panels are on screen moving left or right will allow you to select and launch the panel if your remove your finger from the screen you will cancel the operation.

Spb Menu Panel

Spb Menu is a great program in itself and showcases some cool animation when launching the larger iconed buttons.

The smaller icons at the top are similar to the icons that appear on the Today screen with both pinned applications (you can pin an application in a position by tap and holding it- see picture above) and recently opened applications.

One of the icons is the screen brightness icons that is always there and it allows you change your screen brightness on the fly.

The larger icons bring up a large iconed list that allows you to easily launch programs in that category.These are customizable in the Spb Mobile Shell Settings->Advanced Tab->Menu Button. Here you can add remove items.

You can also choose the layout in either One by one list, Grid view (if you have alot of items), and choose whether to have the most used items first.

There is one for Spb Organizer that launches Spb Contacts, Calendar, Tasks, Notes, and allows you to beam your contact information. Each item has a sub menu to allow you more granularity, but quickly and easily with out having to grab a stylus.

Here is the Spb Contacts that allows you to search your contacts by phone number or by name by using the touch screen keypad it searches both numbers and names (first or last).

The Calendar allows you to add a New Appointment, view Today, Tomorrow, This Week and This Month with a press of the screen or selection of the directional pad.

The same goes for Tasks that allows you create a New Task, view All Tasks, and view Active Tasks.

Notes allows you create a New Text Note, New Ink Note and to Show Notes.

Beam My Contact provides a simple way to beam your contact information to another user. It brings up my Contact and you select from Spb Contact what you want to set as your default contact or to select which contact you wish to beam. It then brings up Windows Mobile Beaming which turns on your IR and Bluetooth ports(if you have them) and proceeds to scan for devices to beam to and you just beam them the contact.

The large Internet icon allows you to launch your Favorites, History, Internet Explorer and Live Messenger.(This will vary depending on what you have installed on your device)

The large Multimedia icon allows you to launch Media Player, Camera, and Pictures. I added a few that I use regularly.

The Tools icon seems to integrate well with the Spb Pocket Plus I have installed that allows me to use the Task Manager, Soft Reset, Rotate Screen, and Theme picker from Spb Pocket Plus.

If you don't have Spb Pocket Plus you can change the theme in the settings of Spb Mobile Shell under the theme tab there is a drop down list of theme colors.

You also have a nice menu to Browse Files as well with quick links to My Device, My Documents, Storage Card and previous visited directories.

Speed Dial Panel

The Speed Dial Panel allows you to add up to sixteen photo contacts of your choice mine was auto-populated with Contacts from calls I made that were in my Call History.

Selecting the contact will bring up their contact information with their phone numbers and allows you to send off a quick sms text message or open their contact information for a more detailed view or to access another phone number if its isn't listed.

To edit the list a simple tap and hold on the contact will allow to remove, add, edit contacts as well as add a quick launch icon shortcut for Spb Contacts.

Spb Mobile Shell Today Screen Plugin

The Today Screen plugin consists up to six tabs that can be displayed on the Today screen from a predefined list of options. A nice feature is that you can hide the tab so it won't steal screen real estate when it isn't in use . When you press on tab it will open up the Today screen application and any quick launch short cuts to applications you add to it. Here are few that I placed in mine.

The Home Tab indicated by the battery % indicator brings up the same programs found in the top of Spb Menu of your pinned items and recently opened items.

The Alarm/Time Tab lets you see the 3 different time zones you selected and upcoming alarms. Here you can also add items to the bottom of the tab and change your preferred cities.

The Contact Picture ID allows you to place 5 of your most frequently called numbers and with this new version you can have more tabs of contacts than just the five. If press and hold on the contact you get a list of their numbers which you wish to call or set as the default indicated by a check mark by the number. I also added some icons to launch connection manager, phone, contacts and Internet Connection Sharing.

I added a Windows Live tab that utilizes the today screen plugin from Windows Live that allows me to toggle between Live Messenger, Live Mail, connect to Live Messenger and sync mail. I also added some items to the bottom of applications similar in nature that I use frequently.

I added a Windows Media Player tab from a Today screen plug in that allows me to control Windows Media player and view what is playing from the today screen as well as launch my media applications and applications that use it. I was also able to place some buttons on the tab to increase, decrease, and mute the volume.

The last tab is the weather tab, that allows you to quickly glance at weather on your today screen as well as see a four day forecast. You can also customize this tab. I was thinking of adding the Weather Channel and some satellite feed links to the bottom tab. To add items to any of the tabs, all you need to do is tap and hold and it will allow you to arrange items in the tabs as well as add items, files and folders.

You can customize the today screen tabs and soft keys in Settings to fit your personal needs. I had upgraded from Version 1 and found that none of my tabs are there in the Tab setting even if I added the tabs I already have. The only one that was there was Device Lock which I don't have in my tabs. Hopefully this will be fixed in an upcoming version.

Spb Mobile Shell 2.0 Features

• NEW! All functionality in one tabbed window
• NEW! Full screen dialogs for Weather and Time
• NEW! Animated transitions
• NEW! Contact cards
• NEW! Navigation with gestures
• NEW! Quick panel selection with taskbar gestures
• Now Screen: the most important information at one screen
• Spb Menu: phone style menu
• World time
• Weather forecast
• Photo speed dial
• Launcher
• Color based themes
• Spb Contacts: smart contact search

If you can't tell this program is great, hopefully the will come out with a Windows Standard version that allows you to customize Smartphones like SBSH's Facade. This is a one of those must have programs for Windows Mobile 6 Professional owners paired with Spb's Pocket Plus it makes for a great user experience that I wish was inherent in the UI of Windows Mobile and now I have it!

I think its amazing that the folks at Spb were able to add functionality as well as reducing the memory consumption of the first version by about a half. If you have the previous version you can upgrade at 50% off the retail price.  If you purchased a 1.x version within the last 90 days, you are eligible for a free upgrade. If you are new to purchasing you have 30 days no questions asked refund of your money if you aren't satisfied with the product.There is currently a special offer for Spb Mobile Shell for $6 off at Handango here so you get it for $23.95.

For more information and for other reviews by others in the community head here. Also check out Matt Coddington of Pocket PC Louisville's video review of it here as well as Arne Hess of unwired's review here.

GN Netcom always has lots of new interesting headsets on display at CES and gain they didn't fail with their latest Jabra products.

They won a few CES awards and had some vinyl stickers to customize the look of some of their headsets. Hmm personally black or silver are fine for me, but I guess they are wanting to appeal to the younger crowd or at least that's what they told me. However my oldest daughter (10) didn't think they looked all that great and called them flatly dumb when I was writing up this post.

They also had the new Jabra JX20 Pura – Titanium Edition based on the internal components of the popular JX10 design. The headset weighs less than half an ounce and turns on and off by rotating the ear-piece to minimize the buttons and provide a sleek look to the headset. It also charges off of a standard USB port. We hope to see it ship some time in Q2 of 2008 as promised.

Here is the desktop docking/charging station of the new Jabra JX10. Jabra also has a A7010 Bluetooth Hub which is designed for users who work both in and out of the office and need wireless freedom no matter where they are, the new JX10 + A7010 bundle means users can receive calls from both mobile and desk phones.

They also had a set of folding headphones when opened worked as speakers called the Jabra BT8030 featuring Zirene POWER BASS software for great audio sound. The speaker magnets seemed pretty heavy duty, but the cloth material while it appeared comfortable looked like it would start a sweat-fest on the top of one's head. They seemed a bit expensive at $310, but who knows they may be better than other high end headsets and this one's got Bluetooth.

The folks at Joby had a really cool new device at CES last year called the Gorilla Pod which allowed you take pictures by attaching a quick release mechanism that connects to the tripod mount on the bottom of your camera anywhere by attaching the tripods legs to objects in the area and using the timer feature on your camera. I will be posting up a review of the SLR model here soon. Their big thing this year is their new Bluetooth headset called Zivio.

The Joby Zivio is an elegant, high performance Bluetooth Headset featuring an extendable, flexible microphone boom that ensures users can communicate in noisy environments that have been traditionally challenging. By utilizing an ultra-sensitive, retractable microphone the Zivio eliminates background noise, providing users with crystal clear sound quality.

The Zivio features sets of interchangeable earpieces and soft gel caps to provide all-day comfort, as well as an optional ear loop for a custom fit. Its a sleek and lightweight headset, that can be worn on the left or right ear and will be available in a variety of colors.

ZIVIO PRODUCT SPECIFICATIONS:

· Talk Time: 10 hours

· Standby Time: 200 hours

· Charges: via USB connection

· LDS: indicates headset status

· Weight: 13 grams

· Dimensions (mic retracted): 53.5 mm x 15mm x 7.2mm

· Wireless Range: standard 10m (33 feet)

· Bluetooth Chip: CSR BlueCore 4

They said it will be available Spring of 2008 so we should see it soon it looks like a very interesting device similar to what Star Trek's Communication Specialist Lt. now Capt. Uhura wore.

For more information on other Joby products head here.

I was asked at the last meeting what I was using to change the slides of our trip to CES 2008 and proudly showed my MoGo Mouse that I had received as a gift about 2 years ago and it is still going strong. In October I was rewarded with another as an MVP gift for being reawarded as a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional and my children quickly scooped it up to use it with the laptop they share for school and entertainment.

They are pretty cool to use and now they are even cooler to use with a free software update that allows you to scroll, yes scroll! The new MoGo Mouse BT™ Scrolling Software takes your MoGo Mouse BT to a whole new level by adding the ability to scroll, which is a feature many people who have a MoGo Mouse wish it had and now your wish has been granted more on this later. :)

Currently I use the MoGo with my Fujitsu P1610 since it has a full PCMCIA slot and the two work so well together for the times I need a mouse and the built-in trackpoint mouse nor touch screen can do the job like fine manipulation of photos, video editing, screen captures with TechSmith's SnagIt software.

It it is surprising comfortable for short usage of around a half-hour or less or in times when your laptop's Trackstick or Touchpad just doesn't work you have an alternative mousing device that stores in an empty PCMCIA PC card slot. Its best usage as I mentioned before is for doing presentations and when not in use can easily be slipped into any pocket.

The box the unit comes in is your standard cardboard/plastic packaging, which almost seems to me a waste given its small size.

Installation on 64-bit systems won't work since there are no drivers for it unfortunately.

On the bottom of the device there is the optical laser port, a Bluetooth connect/pairing button as well as the kickstand. Underneath the kickstand is the on and off switch.

Flipping the kickstand on the bottom out turns the unit on and provides some height to the mouse as well providing an incline for use and rear legs for the mouse to glide around on. The mouse should automatically start working after turning on. With some Bluetooth stacks I found it necessary to click a mouse button for the MoGo and laptop to re-pair up this usually happened if the mouse fell asleep from inactivity.

Specifications:

• Hardware: PC Card Slot, USB Bluetooth adaptor or embedded Bluetooth,Bluetooth-enabled XP and Vista laptops,
• Operating System: Macintosh running Mac OS X, Vista Supported
• Bluetooth Specification: 1.1 and 1.2 compliant
• Resolution: 500 DPI
• Working range: Up to 30 feet (10 m)
• RF transmit power: <4 dBm
• Operating Battery Voltage: 4.2V
• Operating Current: 165 mAh Internal Rechargable
• Standby Curren: 32mA
• Sleep Mode Current: 22 ma and .04mA
• Dimensions: 3.4 x 2.125" x .21 inches (86 x 54 x 5 mm)
• Weight: 1.5 oz or 41 grams

The mouse works well on clean flat surfaces and in a pinch can be used on your cloth material as well, but at as with most optical mice there are some surfaces that prevent proper usage of the mouse. The buttons have a pretty sensitive click to it, but my older one doesn't have quite the "clicking sound and feel" on the left mouse button that the right one has. It still works, but its seems like the button or spring mechanism is a bit worn.

The Mogo mouse easily pairs with the built-in radio stack of your laptop or if you don't have a bluetooth radio set in your laptop, which almost a minority in today's modern age of mobile technology you can add the ability with the MoGo Dapter.

This is a small low profile bluetooth adapter that plugs into your USB port with out adding much to the profile of your laptop. It also has rounded edges so it won't snag or get caught on things like external USB bluetooth adapters or PCMCIA based ones tend to do at least once in a while.

Once paired it uses Microsoft's Bluetooth stack in Windows to pair with the HID profile.

If you are looking at getting high speed data access through AT&T you can get MoGo Mouse and the Dapter free through this offer. It is mainly for BellSouth Customers, but nothing beats free!

Back to the scrolling software, Pointix Scroll ++, this is software that used to cost money, but is no longer produced and the laws on unsupported software leads it to public domain "abandonware". The directions for installation look to be the same ones found on Carlton Bale's blog, which gives an explanation why the software is no longer available and the US Copyright office has given approval to share abandoned software. So I guess its legit.

So when you install it and you have to apply a crack to use it, you may be a bit wary of it, but I scanned it and looked at the code and it is free of malware, viruses, and trojans. The software works fine on Windows Vista 32, I don't know about Vista 64bit since the MoGo doesn't work with it, but I am sure it will still work with no problems.

The complete data sheet on the MoGo Mouse is here. The MoGo can be found at online retailers like Amazon for $53.50 for the PCMCIA card version as well as the Express Card 54 versions the MoGo Mouse X54 Pro that has a Presenter Mode for Powerpoint presentations and the MoGo Mouse X54 that allows for media playback with a MultiMedia Mode both of which have built-in touch scrollers.

Remember the old battle between MCI and ATT for their long distance land line unlimited calls.

It seems now that this battle is happing big with the wireless carriers.

ATT, T-Mobile and Verizon came all with their unlimited voice calls for one set fee(around a $100). Of course you add on extra's for your data plan, some had text messaging included........

But as of tomorrow Sprint Nextel is offering "simply everything" unlimited play which includes all the following:

1. Unlimited Voice calls anywhere in the states to any line
2. Unlimited Data
3. Unlimited Text messaging
4. Unlimited E-mail (is Data)
5. Unlimited Web Surfing (is Data)
6. TV (is Data)
7. Music (is Data)
8. Direct Connect
9. Group Connect

And this all for $100 per month.

Read more...

It is always great when military grade technology trickles down into the consumer market. The Nextlink Invisio Q7 is a really small headset that rests in the ear canal with sound isolation due to the rubber silicone speaker membrane, which resembles a small disk.

A small piece of plastic that rests and wedges the headset by applying pressure to the outer ear called the Soft Spring.

The cool thing is that it has a Bone Conduction Microphone (see that nub at the bottom of the earpiece that is a bone vibration detector) capable of picking up existing vibrations in the jawbone set off by your own voice and also eliminates surrounding ambient noise. We really liked its small profile, I guess hence its name Invisio. The Invisio Q7 weighs in under 11 grams, measures in at 4.3 x 1.8 cm, and has up to 6 hours talktime and 100 hours of standby time on a full charge. The Invisio Q7 uses Bluetooth V.2.0 with EDR and is compatible with all Bluetooth enabled mobile phones on the market and has a suggested retail price of $179.It looks like Amazon will be carrying them here.

For those in wet conditions they have the Invisio PRO-M submersible, which is only headset for underwater operations up to 20m. It uses a waterproof Bone Conduction Microphone in an advanced waterproof housing with a scientifically designed speaker silicon membrane.

We don't know how well the Invisio line sounds or if it actually works well until we try it, but if it works like the Jawbone we may have a new winner on our hands for comfort, size, and noise cancellation.

One device at CES that seemed to stand out for Windows Mobile Devices and was amidst the buzz at CES that had people talking is the Celio REDFLY . Many have already penned it as the replacement for the Palm Foleo in which it has a similar design and features to. It even won a few awards at CES like the Inovations 2008 Design and Engineering Showcase Award.

The REDFLY weighs in at under 2lbs and provides a Windows Mobile device with an 8 inch laptop sized screen, keyboard and trackpad mouse as well as a charging source for the phone as well. The unit contains a 4500ma Lithium Polymer rechargeable battery with average usage one would expect about an 8 hour battery life between charges and around 5 hours if you are charging your device and using a cellular radio or WiFi. The REDFLY provides a large screen for your Windows Mobile applications whether you connect via USB or Bluetooth.

On the back of the REDFLY are USB 2.0 ports for connecting your device, a USB mouse,USB Keyboard or any other USB accessory you may have and a VGA port for hooking it up to a larger monitor or overhead projector for presentations on the road or in the boardroom with resolutions up to 800 x 480. Drivers for using the REDFLY can be installed by either installing the file from the included CD via ActiveSync or by downloading an installable file from www.celiocorp.com/install.

We had a chance to talk with CEO Kirt Bailey (who was the former Intel Capital director involved with mobility markets) and ask them why the REDFLY would be appealing in today's market and who they were targeting. He told us the REDFLY is a companion device for Windows Mobile devices without having to repeat computing power on a laptop form factor as well as without having to deal with the operating system, hardware, and software expense and support issues involved with laptops and UMPCs. He told us they were mainly targeting companies and enterprise users that have to issue users with laptops and mobile phones. This saves the cost not only of purchasing a laptop, but also the ROI involved with managing and administering the devices, which are estimated to roughly $4100 a year each. Another issues was security because the REDFLY doesn't store any sensitive information and all the data remains on the smartphone, displays can be shared amongst users without risk of data loss or security breach. The units are targeted towards sales personal that mainly live off of their handheld units and only use their laptops to access spreadsheets and web based applications that can now be viewed and accessed on Windows Mobile devices like Salesforce.com or other Web 2.0 applications, but now they have the option of viewing it on a larger screen without having to carry around a heavy laptop that can weigh in excess of 10 lbs if you include the laptop, power supply, accessories,etc. The REDFLY weighs 1.9 lbs.

They also showed us some prototype skinned devices in both hot rod flames and a nice leaf camouflage. They said these were to show options to channel partners for specific branding, but the colors the REDFLY will first be offered in will be blue and red with the other case matching the same color as the touch pad.

Here are some of the REDFLY specifications:

Size: 1 x 6 x 9 inches
Weight: 1.9 lbs
Battery Life: 8 Hours under normal use via USB
Display Size: 8 inch diagonal wide screen
Display Resolution: 800 x 480
VGA Display: Output 800 x 480
Keyboard: 8.3 inch 80-key QWERTY keyboard
Touchpad: 1.0 x 2.9 inches
Special Fn keys: Fn buttons are hot-keys for phone control
(i.e. send, end, OK, esc, left menu, right menu, etc)
Operating System Compatibility:
Windows Mobile 5.0 (Pocket PC and Smartphone editions)
Windows Mobile 6.0 (Professional and Standard editions)
More operating system compatibility to be announced:
See tested smartphone list at www.celiocorp.com/smartphone
Application Compatibility:
Applications and data from the smartphone appear on the REDFLY
enabled display
Ports and Connectors: VGA port, 2 high speed USB 2.0 ports, AC power connector
Smartphone Connection via Bluetooth: Bluetooth 2.0 EDR (compatible with Bluetooth 1.0, 2.0)
Smartphone Connection via USB: Use USB cable included with smartphone
Smartphone Charger via USB: Able to charge smartphones via USB (as supported by phone)
USB Flash Drive Compatibility: Standard USB Flash Drives (Drives appear on smartphone file system)
USB Keyboard Compatibility: Standard USB Keyboards
USB Mouse Compatibility: Standard USB Mice

The REDFLY Mobile Companion is compatible with Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PC and Smartphone editions and Windows Mobile 6.0 Professional and Standard editions. The REDFLY Interface Software will be available for other operating systems in the future. The REDFLY Mobile Companion will be available from Celio Corp in March, 2008 for $499 MSRP directly from Celio Corp. A list of tested smartphones is available at www.celiocorp.com/smartphone.

We had a meeting with the folks at Asus. They had no presence on the floor, but a small booth near the CES Blogger's Lounge in the South Hall of the Convention Center. They had many of their products out on display some were that were definitely crowded were the Asus Eee PC (we couldn't even get near them - heck it was even hard to enter the booth area since it was at the entrance), but we have seen enough of them in the wild at CES to get a good look at them.

They also had their ,which contained 1TB of hard drive space and pretty impressive performance numbers as well including a nice graphics card. This was designed for the serious gamer and PC Power User who may use it for CGI work, Video editing, game or software development on the go.

In the area where we had our meeting we also got to look at their UMPC.

What we were there for were their new Windows Mobile devices...and it was well worth it too.

They had a nice WM6 Professional phone with GPS called the P527 that was being sold unlocked for around $497 retail.The GPS can log and upload your data to be mapped on places like Google Maps or used in court to fight a speeding ticket.

The outside of the body is a nice tight metal casing with no gaps or creak like you get from current models of phones made from plastic. There is also a nice rubber coating on the back that provides a nice feel in the hand and prevents sliding around when on a flat surface.

The UI on the phone was very nice and some of it was customized to work with the numerical keypad on the front like WM Standard devices aka Smartphones do. There was no included GPS software like that found the MyPal line, but we were told it would come preloaded with North American Maps for those sold to the US and we were able to find it at Amazon for $566.36 with the maps preloaded.

Cellular Radio: GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900

Dimensions: 113 x 58 x 15.4 mm

Weight: 125 g

Display:TFT touchscreen, 65K colors

Size:240 x 320 pixels, 2.6 inches

Ringtones:Polyphonic (128 channels), Midi, MP3, WMA, WAV

Card slot: microSD (TransFlash)

Memory: - 64 MB RAM
- 128 MB internal memory
- TI OMAP 850 processor 200 MHz

WLAN: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g

Bluetooth: v2.0

Infrared port: Yes

USB:Yes, v1.1

OS: Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.0 Professional

Camera: 2 MP, 1600x1200 pixels, autof