Insider - the eXpansys staff blog

We have great news of an exclusive offer from Palm for eXpansys UK customers! 

Order your Palm Centro between July 1 and July 31 2008 from eXpansys, complete this form and send it to Palm with a copy of your invoice and claim £30 back!

- Palm Centro before cash back claim: £170.95 inc VAT;
- Palm Centro after cash back claim: £140.95 inc VAT!

Check Palm's cash back claim form for full terms and conditions. Offer available to UK customers only.

I was lucky enough to get my hands on 2 new UMPCs yesterday - and took the time to shoot a quick video. The MSI Wind (final production version in the video) is a sub-notebook style device running Windows XP, while the GIGABYTE M528 (pre-production model in the video) is more like an OQO model e2, with a touch-screen, slide-out keyboard and Linux operating system.

After its community content platforms http://1000words.kodak.com/ and http://pluggedin.kodak.com/, Kodak has just released a new site dedicated to the creative hiding in each and every one http://kodakcreativelabs.wordpress.com/.

Built as a think factory about pictures, the site includes interviews, reportings, practical guides and a lot of tricks.

The Slingbox Classic is not a new release, but is a great device and is now available for only £59.95 from eXpansys. You can access a TV, set-top box, DVD or DVR over your home network or remotely by accessing it through your ADSL router.

I took one home last week and had it set up within 10 minutes of getting in the door. I used the provided SCART connection to attach it to my Sky box (it also has a coax connector to connect directly to your terrestrial TV aerial). To connect to your home network, the Slingbox has an RJ45 connector - my ADSL router is the other side of my living room, so I plugged an old 54Mbps wireless router instead.

Then I downloaded the latest SlingPlayer software for my laptop from Sling Media’s website, installed it, and detected the Slingbox over my WiFi network. You also need to stick the provided sensors near the IR section of your set-top box to capture/transmit remote control signals. During the configuration process, you can enter the make and model of your set-top box – this gives you access to a replica on-screen version of your remote control.

Soon I was flicking through Sky channels in my home office while the rest of the clan were transfixed to their daily dose of soap operas on Freeview in the living room. The image quality is very good – I was surprised at just how good it was. I could just get Sky+, but I’m fed up of waiting until everyone has gone to bed to catch up on my favourite programs. If you are in a similar boat to me, the Slingbox Classic could be the answer for you.

Redfly – a brilliant idea and the must have accessory for WINMO devices summer 2008.

I’ve been using a Redfly for about a month now, and I think that it’s one of the best accessories for a Windows Mobile smartphone that I have ever seen.

It looks like a laptop which makes people think that it’s a computer in its own right, but in fact it isn’t – it’s a keyboard and an SVGA screen which both connect over Bluetooth to your phone allowing you to use the full capacity of your smartphone, I found it to be a superb way of getting my e-mail when I am out and about and it makes Pocket Word and Excel 50-times more usable than they are on a 3-inch QVGA display.

Let that sink in for a minute – its just a screen, a keyboard and a big battery, no processor, no operating system, just a remote screen and keyboard for your phone with an oversized power source attached.

But there are two other cool things about it as well – it has 2 powered USB ports and the battery is huge, much bigger than the Redfly alone requires so you can use it to top up your phone’s battery when you are away from an AC outlet, I went away for 3 days last week and never charged the Redfly or my phone. I just topped my phone up from the Redfly the whole time – I use push e-mail all day and normally charge my MWg Zinc II in the afternoon and again at night so the Redfly was working quite hard. You can also use the USB ports to connect USB memory which is then accessible to your phone – ideal for music and videos.

The guys at Celio have also done a superb job of the Bluetooth pairing software, pairing Bluetooth devices is still a pain in many cases but with the Redfly you simply connect the phone to the Redfly with a USB cable and press ‘pair’ then you can disconnect and use the devices – brilliant.

I have got a couple of niggles with the Redfly though, the unit is well made but it doesn’t look as well made or well designed as it is, some of the plastics feel a bit cheap and the whole thing lacks density – though I suppose some people prefer light weight gadgets, I prefer them to feel denser and more metallic than the Redfly. Also the price is a bit on the high side when compared with UMPCs like the MSI Wind or the Asus EEE PC, although it’s a very different device and better in many ways.

Celio see a huge corporate market for these devices, mainly as laptop replacements, Most current Windows Mobile cellphones (6.0 and above) can be remotely locked or wiped using Microsoft’s new management tools if they are lost or stolen and since the Redfly stores no data a WINMO phone plus a Redfly is a great solution for people who work with sensitive data and want to be 100% sure that it can’t be lost.

All in all this is my recommendation for the ‘must have’ smartphone accessory for summer 2008.