Celio's REDFLY mobile companions, laptop-like terminals for smartphones, aren't exactly flying off the shelves. So it shouldn't come as a surprise that the company is now dabbling software. In short: Celio's released an application, the REDFLY Mobile Viewer, that turns any Windows PC into a mobile companion.
The software, available in beta and free, works with all current REDFLY-compatible smartphones. It gives users access to all of their handsets applications and features, but on a much bigger display and with a standard-sized keyboard and mouse.
REDFLY Mobile Viewer users may select from four different resolutions (800 x 480, 800 x 600, 1024 x 600 or 1024 x 768) to view their smartphone screen in a larger PC window. It allows them to send and receive SMS messages and e-mail in a full-screen window, for example, and enables them to interact and use both their smartphone and PC platforms on the same display simultaneously
If the concept behind Redfly sounds familiar, it should. In 2006, Palm killed a similar-sounding product, called the Foleo, before it even shipped. The laptop-like 2.5-pound Foleo, with a 10-inch screen and a full-size keyboard, was to serve as the inaugural device in a new category of product for Palm called Mobile Companions.
Foleo’s main purpose was to allow users to view and edit e-mail and documents from a smartphone (preferably a Treo) more conveniently, automatically synchronizing files back and forth between itself and the mobile handset through a wireless Bluetooth connection. You would have also been able to access the Internet for Web and e-mail, edit Microsoft Office documents and more on Foleo without a smartphone present.
