Run, don’t walk, and pick up a REDFLY Mobile Companion for $199.95

I wrote up my first thoughts of the Celio Corp REDFLY Mobile Companion back in March, then I bought my own in May and then the price dropped from US$499 to US$399.95 in August. Well, now you can pick this device up for only US$199.95 and IMHO that is a steal for anyone with a Windows Mobile device looking to be productive on the go. I understand this is a “seeding” price that is only good until 31 October and I guess the intent must be to get the device out there and have people talk it up.
Celio keeps working on and releasing device drivers so development is continuing with the REDFLY and I sure hope this major price drop is not any indication of trouble in the near future. I like using my REDFLY on my commute and on business trips and want to see driver support continue for years, along with expanded drivers for S60 and maybe even the Android OS.
I think this is a perfect enterprise device since you can send employees out on the road with it and their phone to give presentations and work on Office documents without worrying about security issues or even damage to the device.
I keep reading this price and am just amazed it dropped down this far. I was happy to pay what I paid for mine and really hope this lower price takes price out of the equation for potential buyers as I want to see continued development of drivers and support for this excellent product. I think at just under US$200 the purchase is a “no brainer” for any Windows Mobile enthusiast or enterprise user.

(I refers to matthew miller)

Xohm WiMAX service to launch in Baltimore in September 08

We have been hearing about the on and off story of Sprint, Clearwire, and Xohm for quite some time now and I pretty much had given up hope of really seeing any commercial release of WiMAX with 4G right around the corner. According to Sprint CTO Barry West, Xohm will launch in September of this year. Apparently, the first rollout will start in Baltimore, Maryland and then move to DC and Chicago later in 2008.

There are 575 Xohm WiMAX base station sites up and running with different devices being tested. The devices you will be able to connect with Xohm at launch include a Samsung AirCard, modem from ZyXEL, a ZTE USB dongle, the Nokia N810 Internet Tablet, and selected laptops. I think it would be great to use WiMAX with a device like the Nokia N810 and look forward to trying it out when Xohm hits the Puget Sound area.

The pricing plans have not yet been revealed, but it may now only be a few months until we get a chance to try out this high speed network. Then again, I’ll wait to get too excited until I actually hear reports of people in Baltimore using the network.

iPhone 2.0 lets open source in through back door

With the first Apple iPhone open source developers were like burglars breaking windows, forcing their software onto the device.

Thanks to the Apple iPhone SDK they’re more like beggars now. Knock on the back door politely and you might get a beer.

But that’s a long way from walking through the front door like an honored guest, Funambol vice president-marketing Hal Steger told ZDNet today.

“They’ve been less than forthcoming in extending the olive branch directly to us. We’re viewing Apple as a proprietary mobile platform. They’re still basking in the glow of their success.”

The Mac-ambivalence may be behind media response to Funambol’s Wireless Sync announcement yesterday. The Washington Post called it a direct competitor to Apple’s own MobileMe.

Not really, said Steger. “It’s apples and oranges.” MobileMe is far more limited, almost a MiniMe next to the synchronization services Funambol is offering.

Apple’s attitude will change only when it faces real competition, and Funambol CEO Fabrizio Capobianco writes in his blog that the iPhone 2.0’s pricing is designed to forestall that. “Surprise. It is a mass market phone,” he enhused.

The low price is based on direct carrier subsidies, just as your “free phone” is subsidized now, as Apple is forced to forego its piece of AT&T’s data revenue and the carrier, in turn, raises the price for those contracts.

You can do that when you’re the only game in town. When will that change? “We’re tracking the other platforms closely,” Steger said, predicting some Android kit will arrive by year-end.

Funambol will be ready. ”We are a Switzerland, in that our strategy is to provide solutions for all the leading platforms,” Steger concluded. Hopefully that doesn’t mean they outplay the Czechs, lose, and get their key man’s knee broken.

Leaked Flip Mino camcorder official, touch sensitive

The leaked Mino camcorder from Flip is now official, and from the looks of it, it’s still got the stripped-down appeal of its sibling Video.

New features on the Mino include touch sensitive buttons (as opposed to click) and an increased video bit rate of 4.0 Mbps (doubled from before), giving the user an hour of capture.

What’s more, the built-in sharing function will now upload to MySpace, YouTube and AOL. Dimensions are a lithe 3.94″ x 1.97″ x 0.63″.

On the flip side (no pun intended — well, okay, maybe a little), the camera’s resolution is still 640 x 480, and the lens and 2X zoom remain the same.

One change in particular should be noted: AA battery capability has been swapped for a non-user replaceable Li-ion cell, doubling battery life to four hours at the expense of quick-fire, on-the-go replacement. It will take a minimum of two hours to recharge using a new power adapter or three hours plugged into a USB port.

The Mino is available now for $180.

Andrew J. Nusca is an assistant editor for ZDNet.com.

Time for LiMo and Android to stop talking

Ed Burnette has a great piece out today in Dev Connection about Google’s choice of Apache as the main license for its Android phone.

Some pieces will use Eclipse, some GPL V.2, and there will likely be some proprietary bits as well, he writes. That’s nice.

The LiMo folks have also been a-twitter since Verizon decided to join its camp rather than hang out with the Googlers. (The most recently-delivered LiMo phone, the Purple Magic (right) from Purple Labs, looked like a Razr with a penguin on it. Blech.)

But, as a fan of both systems, I would like to kindly ask both sets of developers to close their mouths for a while and get to work.

Press releases, alliances, and application possibilities won’t win this market. It’s designs that will win this market. If neither group can create something as compelling as an iPhone interface, neither will go anywhere.

It’s the proprietary iPhone which has changed the mobile game, demonstrating that with the proper interface people actually will go for mobile data in a big way.

What LiMo and Android are designing, now, is not a mobile phone, but a handheld Internet client. The winner will be the one who makes it most attractive to move the most data back-and-forth on a mobile network.

But as of now, neither group is really in the game. I have yet to see anything compelling from either group beyond press releases.

No more press releases, please. No more FUD. Send me a phone when it’s ready, and I’ll decide whether it’s worthy. By “I” and “me” I mean the marketplace.

Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for 30 years, a tech freelancer since 1983.