I've been waiting impatiently to get my hands on the Celio Corp. Redfly. After seeing this device at CES, I got the opportunity to interview Kirt Bailey, CEO of Celio Corp, and Brad Warnock, VP of Marketing, and learn more about the features of the Windows Mobile companion device. (If you missed the series, you can go back and read the Overview, Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 in the archives.)

While the REDFLY is definitely being marketed as an enterprise device, it should appeal to many users. I covered the hardware basics before, but fundamentally, this is a small clamshell device with an 8-inch screen, touch-typable keyboard, touch pad mouse, Bluetooth, 2 USB ports, and VGA out. No processor, no memory, no hard drive. It connects either via USB or Bluetooth to a Windows Mobile phone and extends the experience of your WinMo phone to a more usable interface then the little 2-3 inch screen provides.

My initial impression - this is a very well made device. It feels solid, much more so than I would expect from something this size and just 2 lbs. Connection with the phone (an AT&T Tilt) was quick and painless and the refresh rate seems quite reasonable. I've only started playing with it so far, but I plan to do some real testing over the next few days.

What do you want to know about this new category of device? I do plan to do an InkShow on this as soon as I'm more familiar with it, but your questions will help to guide me as I look into the Redfly.

It's not often that a chance comes around to see something of this kind of exciting magnitude. Today HP issued a press release announcing the proof of existence of memristors.

HP today announced that researchers from HP Labs, the company’s central research facility, have proven the existence of what had previously been only theorized as the fourth fundamental circuit element in electrical engineering. (...)

In a paper published in today’s edition of Nature, four researchers at HP Labs’ Information and Quantum Systems Lab, led by R. Stanley Williams, presented the mathematical model and a physical example of a “memristor” – a blend of “memory resistor” – which has the unique property of retaining a history of the information it has acquired.

While we are undoubtedly years away from commercial application of this discovery, this could completely change the landscape of computing. From personal computing through enterprise applications, memory usage is growing by leaps and bounds. Fast access to memory that retains its stored data is an enormous leap, far more than what we have with today's flash memory.

One application for this research could be the development of a new kind of computer memory that would supplement and eventually replace today’s commonly used dynamic random access memory (DRAM). Computers using conventional DRAM lack the ability to retain information once they lose power. When power is restored to a DRAM-based computer, a slow, energy-consuming “boot-up” process is necessary to retrieve data from a magnetic disk required to run the system.

In contrast, a memristor-based computer would retain its information after losing power and would not require the boot-up process, resulting in the consumption of less power and wasted time.

I'm extremely excited about this new discovery. Although the existence of the memristor has been theorized since 1971 in a paper by Professor Leon Chua, no one had been able to prove its existence until now. Given the advances in nanotechnology over the last several years, we've finally reached the point of being about to build memristors. This could fundamentally change computers by nearly eliminating boot times, reducing power consumption, and reducing in general the time we wait on computers. In my mind, that is at least as exciting as a new battery technology.

This research comes from HP Labs, the scary-smart people who dream up new technological advances well before we know we need them. If you want to see some fascinating research, browse around HP Labs technical reports. They can get quite in-depth, but they're interesting reading.

Read more about memristors on the HP Labs website.

I'm pleased to announce that TechSmith has just renewed their sponsorship of our wildly successful InkShows and Podcasts! This will mark their third consecutive year of sponsorship and we are extremely grateful for their continued support. TechSmith, along with our other loyal advertisers, make it possible for us to deliver the content we do.

Join us in thanking TechSmith by leaving a comment here and also by checking out their products: Camtasia Studio, SnagIt, Morae,  UserVue, and more.

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TabletPCReivewSpot.com got a tip from a reader who spotted what looks like a new Tablet PC from Fujitsu at a customer presentation in Germany. No full range of specs known yet, but word is that it runs an Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 and has a 13” passive digitizer for a display.

Look what just arrived for our HP 31 Days of Dragon Giveaway? Do you think I should open it up and test it / play with it, or keep it pure for the eventual winner?

Anyone want to see an InkShow on this beast / baby?

Interesting little meme on Twitter this morning started by Robert Scoble with this Tweet:

My Microsoft Office trial is over. I am not spending $450 just to get Outlook. Gmail and Google Calendar win this game: big time

That prompted quite a few others to chirp in and say that with the exception of Outlook and OneNote they’ve moved to other solutions, mostly on the web.

How about you? Are you still using Microsoft Office applications and if so which ones? I know I still use Word and Excel quite a bit because the functionality I need isn’t there yet in online solutions.

Don’t forget you can follow GottaBeMobile.com on Twitter.

We are all familiar with the Pen Flick Gestures in Vista. What about hover-based gestures that get activated without the need to press the pen to the screen? How could technology like this helping you with your Tablet PC experience? Take it a step further - what about capacitive-touch based hover gestures? How about multi-touch hover-based gestures?

Here is a video and PDF paper by Microsoft Research's Ken Hinckley and Tovi Grossman exploring the idea of hover-based gestures.

Last week, we posted a link to some Tablet PC stock photography work being done by Electronic Perceptions. Kathy Burns-Millyard, the photographer behind the work, was obviously paying attention to the traffic, as she has posted a new series as a response to our article. 

I like the new approach Ms. Burns-Millyard is taking and think she is on the right track. What other marketing type stock photographs would you suggest Ms. Burns-Millyard pursue?

Amazing. I’m glad somebody does this research because I don’t know too many folks who actually read EULAs on commercial software, much less on malware products. According to Ars Technica, malware developers are now starting to use EULAs (end user license agreements) to try and protect their wares.

So, let’s see. You create an illegal product like a botnet to go and attack other computers and then you put a EULA on it. Hmmm? And get this, the EULA in question actually has a clause that locks the user into purchasing any future new versions. Like the folks who might purchase the thing in the first place would actually pay attention to any of that. Amazing.

jkkmobile has turned the camera on the Asus Eee PC 900 and given it a once over. He says he has lots more to say coming up.

In other Asus Eee PC news it looks like Asus is going to spin off the Eee PC line turning it into its own brand. That only makes sense given the phenomenal growth in sales and in terms of the number of variants they’ve introduced and plan on introducing.

This time coming from HP for the HP Pavilion tx2000z. Mike Rowe, known from the Discovery Channel series Dirty Jobs, takes on the tx2000z and comes clean with usages. There are five videos in the series, each one showcasing Tablet PC features. Each video is around 3-5 minutes. They're a lot like the series - funny and kinda silly.

Maybe this is the start of actual Tablet PC marketing. Hope springs eternal.

This could be very interesting. Everyone is already convinced that there will be a 3G iPhone come this summer. Some say as soon as early June. But CNN is reporting that AT&T is preparing to offer subsidies for the new version, possibly as much as $200. With unsubsidized prices predicted to be $399 and $499, that could lower the price to a point where things could get really interesting. Of course, you’ll have to sign a contract to get the discount. I wouldn’t be counting pennies just yet, but it will be very interesting to see if this comes to be.

Very funny. Lenovo has crafted a very clever little ad and slogan going after the MacBook Air featuring the Lenovo X300.

Via Gizmodo

Hold the train. Just as news was starting to spread that Microsoft was about to release XP Service Pack 3, comes word of yet another delay. According to CNet’s News.com:

The software maker said there is a "compatibility issue" between the XP service pack and Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System, a retail chain management program for small and midsize businesses.

Microsoft finalized the code for Windows XP SP3 last week and had planned to make it broadly available starting Tuesday.

"In order to make sure customers have the best possible experience, we have decided to delay releasing Windows XP SP3 to Windows Update and Microsoft Download Center," the company said in a statement.

The glitch also exists between Microsoft Dynamics RMS and Windows Vista Service Pack 1, though that product has already been broadly released. Microsoft started pushing out Vista SP1 last week via Automatic Updates.

Just as we told everyone yesterday, Lenovo's IdeaPad U110 is now available for ordering at $1899.

Head over and check it out! I can't to get my hands on our eval unit. It is gonna be fun!!!