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News April 11, 2009
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Can a Redfly replace my MacBook?

Gear Diary Can a Redfly replace my MacBook? photo

My smartphone holds my whole life. I answer my emails on it, balance my checkbook, manage my calendar, my tasks, browse the web, and even occasionally make phone calls. Sometimes I think my MacBook feels neglected, since I often reach for my phone to answer emails and check things, even when the computer is open and sitting right next to me.

Now that I have a Redfly, my MacBook should really be sweating bullets. The Redfly fits absolutely perfectly into my smartphone world. I can pull out at work and answer emails on my lunch hour, I can be sitting in a waiting room and happily browsing my favorite websites, and I love being able to start working on my phone, plug in the Redfly, continue my work, and swap back over to the phone without skipping a beat.

It got me thinking…with everything I do on my phone, and everything the Redfly adds to it, could I survive just using my phone and a Redfly as my computer for a week?

So here are the rules of the engagement:

-I have to do everything that via my phone that I would normally do via my computer, such as browsing the web, IM, email, etc.
-I can’t reach for my MacBook at all. I have to do everything via Redfly+Epix, and if it can’t be done, I will note it as such.
-I’m also going to try to run comparisons of mobile sites vs full desktop sites with the Redfly and Opera Mobile. Since I’ll have a decent sized screen and a full keyboard (and wifi at home) I want to see if it feels more “functional” if I’m using the full desktop version of, say, Facebook over the mobile choice.

This is less a “smartphones are computers in your pocket”/”Redfly makes your phone better” kind of review and more of a “Hey I wonder what this would be like” kind of idea. Most of the reviews regarding the Redfly tend to focus on the business aspects, but what drew me to it was the consumer aspect, being able to take the mobility and connected-ness of a smartphone to a whole new level.

So as of 12:00am Sunday, I’ll shut down my MacBook and switch to the Redfly for the week. I’ll check in with a report mid-week on how it has been going, and I’ll post a full rundown next weekend on how it went, what I missed and what I gained from this “experiment.” If there’s requests for me to try a particular program or setting, let me know and I will give it a shot!

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About Carly Z

View all posts by Carly Z
Carly has been a gadget fiend for a long time, going back to her first PDA (a Palm M100). She quickly went from researching what PDA to buy to following tech news closely and keeping up with the latest and greatest stuff. She loves writing about ebooks because they combine her two favorite activities; reading anything and everything, and talking about fun new tech toys. What could be better?
  • http://www.s-consult.com Wayne Schulz

    The thing that seems to trip most people up in this area is how to replace the use of any wordprocessing and/or spreadsheets apps (aka Microsoft Office). What's your plan here or do you not have to make use of those apps?

    Possibly the secondary question I'd have is how will you manage your MP3 and/or movies. I know that I'm probably one of the few who really likes iTunes (maybe the only) and that takes up a LOT of local storage. For a short time I could stream via free apps like Pandora or Slacker — but it wouldn't be my music. And Movies are almost impossible to stream legally. Would be interested in the plan for this area as well.

  • http://www.justanothermobilemonday.com/Wordpress brandon

    Good luck!

    I liken this to I could shoot myself… but it wouldn't be much fun, so why bother? I figure there's a good little market for the Redfly, but as Wayne said there's just some things that you need a tried and true laptop (or at minimum netbook) for, like movie and music management.

    And no Wayne – you're not alone. I love iTunes and use it for darned near everything.

    • http://www.s-consult.com Wayne Schulz

      I'm not so much convinced that iTunes (cabled) is needed as wondering when we'll see unwired solutions.

      It used to be that the only way to load applications to your smartphone was via cable — now every time I've bought an app they give me the option to send it over the air.

      There should be a way to manage music remotely too. Yeah, even iTunes.

  • dancohen

    Great experiment you have going Carly- can't wait to see how this all plays out as the week unfolds. I find myself using my iPhone for some much these days that the idea of being able to pair it to a small light companion device that offered a larger-sized keyboard and perhaps a larger screen is more interesting than ever.

    I would love if somewhere along the way you could describe the experience of posting to
    GD using the RedFly.

  • Jessica Fritsche

    I use my iPhone and a netbook (well, I did until I sold it to get a *different* netbook!!) for pretty much everything, unless I'm doing a lot of work at home that requires a bigger screen, in which case I use my 17″ Powerbook or my desktop Mac that is hooked up to a 19″ LCD with wireless keyboard/mouse. It's just so much more convenient to reach for a smaller connected device!

    I will be interested to see how this works for you, Carly!

  • Drew

    Whoaaa! What a test.. Am so glued to my Mac, won't let anything test it.. :-) Ok well maybe if the new MacTablet thing happens..

    Will be interested in your results… :-)

  • http://www.grabaclue.com/perry Perry

    I love my Redfly. I really only find a couple of issues with it:

    1. They put the Up Arrow key where the right Shift key ought to be, which causes me a lot of typing mistakes.

    2. I'm surprised at the number of Windows Mobile applications that are not compatible with the higher resolution screen of the Redfly. Most of the Microsoft apps work fine; most of the third-party ones do not. At least in my experience.

    Also, I found out the hard way that the Redly is not yet compatible with Windows Mobile 6.5. I'm hoping they release a beta to fix that soon.

    But overall, I like the Redfly very well and I'm glad to have mine. Good luck with your week of using it exclusively!

  • questionfear

    Hey all-

    I will do my best to answer your questions in the mid-week review. Short answer to a few of them:

    -Iris browser to post in the gear diary wordpress site. It doesn't mangle the site like IE or crash my phone like skyfire (so far).
    -I don't do a ton of word processing and spreadsheets, so when I do I use google docs. I'll have a rundown on how that goes for me.
    -I'm working on trialing one or two streaming radio apps, and I have the youtube mobile app, plus skyfire. The Redfly can't really handle video, so it will have to be standalone on my epix.

  • toysandme

    Please compare the Refly hardware solution to their newly introduced MOBILE VIEWER running on a netbook. It seems that some netbooks are about the same size as the Mobile Companion dumb terminal and not much more expensive. The interesting thing with these solutions is that they do not involve tethering in the usual sense. This means that, depending on your provider, the cheap “unlimited browser” plan is all that is needed instead of an expensive data plan.
    http://www.celiocorp.com/

  • andrey

    looking fwd to the results.

    could you comment on long typing periods on the redfly?

    also, how the battery life of the phone was effected while on redfly?

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