Sure while everyone is taking pot-shots at Windows Mobile and market share hub-bub, people are using it left and right to get things done in the world.  The latest group to do so is not some fly-by night company but the United States Army.

Launching their Go Mobile Gear, designed for the modern, tech savvy solider (who would be laughed off the battle field for having a pansy iPhone), the U.S. military has approved a handful of  "...communications and conferencing devices that can fit into a soldier’s pocket while going easy on the service’s pocketbook."

Soldiers can use these devices to access "...the Army Knowledge Online portal, a repository of online information, distance learning tools, e-mail and other resources for 2.6 million Army users. The Web-based service is now part of a broader service known as Defense Knowledge Online."

So what does the military consider to be solid devices for the troops?

• HTC Ozone
• Samsung Epix
• Palm Treo Pro
• HTC Touch Pro
• Celio Redfly
• Planon Prinstik portable printer
• Solar Charger
• Myvu Solo Goggles

(Funny, I have half of that stuff....Army here I come!)

The whole kit (we imagine only one phone of course) can be had for about $1,000.  It's a pretty huge endeveor too by the military, which states:

Each piece of the Go Mobile kit has to meet stringent Defense Department information assurance requirements," Parker said. The project is getting ready for its first phase of deployment for garrison training. The next phase will be the tactical environment, which will require hardening of the equipment to military specifications, including both Mil-Std 810-F and Mil-Std 810-G requirements.

And joking aside, the military is evidently "tech agnostic" as they do plan to look at and roll out iPhone and Android sometime in the future.  But for now, it's all WinMo baby.

[Government Computer News via Federal Computer Week]

The folks at Celio, makers of the REDLY Mobile Companion, just dropped a note in our forums saying that they've updated the beta drivers for the Mobile Viewer. For those keeping score at home, Mobile Viewer basically lets you hook your Windows phone up to your desktop PC and control it from there, monitor, keyboard and all.

Build 192 brings the following:

• A new feature called Event Notification is now available. If you have your phone connected to your laptop and RMV running and connected to your phone, any phone call or SMS text message you receive will pop-up a small dialog in your system tray with that notice.
• A new feature called Network Sharing is now available. This feature is not yet working for all smartphones we support, but when it is enable on many phones, you may choose via a setting in the Options dialog whether to use your PC network connection in the Mobile Viewer or instead isolate that connection and communicate outward through your phone's data plan.
• Several small issues with scaling the viewer console window have been corrected.

Learn more about the REDFLY Mobile Viewer here, and get the new drivers here.

The idea of the Redfly goes thusly: Take the netbook form factor and then turn your smartphone into that form factor by "tricking' your it into thinking it has a larger screen, full keyboard, and mouse. It's an idea that we've been pretty fond of, but frankly we're not the sort to leave the laptop behind.

Enter Redfly Mobile Viewer, which takes the same basic idea and jettisons the Redfly hardware in favor of an app on your Windows PC. Think SOTI Pocket Controller with an added twist: instead of merely duplicating your smartphone on the PC, it actually convinces Windows Mobile it's running on different hardware.

Actually, never mind the details – the upshot is that you can have a window on your PC that is your smartphone – only enhanced with a 1024x768-sized screen, your PC's keyboard and mouse.  It might just be a nice solution for some Mobile Accomplishers out there who want to keep as much of their work as possible on the smartphone and/or who don't want to bother tethering.

It is a Beta, however, so it's still a little twitchy here and there (see: browsers).  On the bright side, Redfly has announced compatibility with 18 more smartphones and also sped up its software a bit.

The Beta is free and just might be worth a shot. Learn more over at CelioCorp.com.

Update: Phil takes the Mobile Viewer for a spin after the break.

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We've heard from a few of you out there asking when the Ceilo Redfly mobile companion would be compatible with the Opera Mobile 9.5 beta browser. Folks, your day has come. And, more important, Celio has heard you. The latest drivers build fixes the following:

• The Opera 9.5 beta release of the browser (which ships natively with many of the phones above) is now supported.
• USB performance and speed has been significantly enhanced.
• A potential conflict between WiFi and Bluetooth can occasionally cause connections to be dropped. There are multiple things that affect Bluetooth connectivity and signal strength. This has been partially resolved.
• Basic support for Direct Draw has been added to the REDFLY driver which now means that applications that used those interfaces will render properly on the REDFLY in most cases.
• REDFLY.exe has been re-factored now to be a service under the OS for improved stability.

And things they're still working on:

• This release does not support the HTC TouchFLO interface at this time. If this setting is enabled in the phone, REDFLY attempts to turn it off programmatically when you connect with the REDFLY, and then turn it back on when you disconnect.
• The Sony XPERIA Panels Choice menu doesn't work when connected to REDFLY -Panels themselves scale and work, but the Choose Panel window doesn't.
• The Sony XPERIA Phone Dialer window is cut off such that you can't see the number you are dialing.
• Samsung Themes 1 and 2 are not supported with the REDFLY.
• The Samsung Today and Samsung Widgets must not be checked (turned on) in the Omnia Settings menu.
• If in portrait mode when connecting to the REDFLY, the dialer application on the Omnia will not render correctly. Connect while in landscape mode and this is not a problem.

As it did the year before, the Smartphone Round Robin needed to go into overtime again this time around -- but we're finished now!  If you haven't been following along, here's what you missed:  Each of the editors of our five Smartphone Experts sites swapped phones for a week or so, reviewing and leanring what it's like to wear another smarphone user's shoes.  The result is the entire series of articles you see linked on this handy page, the Smartphone Round Robin of 2008.

What will you learn there?  You'll learn that there was no single smartphone that 'won' the Round Robin -- but that's by design.  There's no perfect smartphone out there, but there just might be the perfect smartphone to fit your needs.  If you're looking to get a new smartphone soon, think about what you need it do to and then hit up these articles -- you'll find that depending on what each of us care about, we'll give you a useful perspective on whether a given smartphone matches up. 

Actually, we explain it all pretty well on this page. Oh, yeah, one more thing, we are giving away fabulous prizes:

• From Android Central, the T-Mobile G1, the BlueAnt Z9 Bluetooth Headset, and SPE Screen Protectors
• From CrackBerry.com, the BlackBerry Bold, Spare Battery, and Case-Mate Second Skin
• From The iPhone Blog, the iPhone 3G, Case-Mate Naked Case, and Motorola H9 Bluetooth Headset
• From TreoCentral, the Treo Pro, Case-Mate Clear Armor, and Aliph Jawbone Bluetooth Headset (original)
• From WMExperts, the HTC Fuze and the Celio Redfly Mobile Companion

Find out who the winners are, after the break!

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After seeing this post at jkOnTheRun, I hot-footed it over to Mio's booth to check out their new device -- which is a Mobile Internet Device running Windows Mobile Pro 6.1.  It's still very much a prototype, they're still deciding on final specs, and they're not even sure that they're going to bring it to market.  Price, final RAM, even whether or not it will have a SIM card slot for connectivity are all up in the air.

Nevertheless, it's one sweet piece of kit and the best Windows Mobile device I've seen at CES.  Find out more after the break and check out our hands-on gallery!

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Celio, the group that brought us the REDFLY Mobile Companion, reportedly is at work on some more goodies - one hardware-related, the other software.

Engadget reports that the REDFLY PC Software will let you essentially run Windows Mobile on any XP- or Vista-based computer. Real-life scenario: You've got a netbook or laptop but no WiFi. You've got some major blogging to do but don't want to bash it out on your smartphone. The REDFLY PC Software would let your laptop control your phone, data connection and all, with a much more reasonable keyboard.

Also on tap is the hardware-based Smartphone Dock (above). Think of it as a BYO keyboard and monitor sitution. Plug in your phone and you've got desktop-sized Windows Mobile goodness. Why do that instead of just using the desktop computer? Security could be one reason. Easy access to your contacts and e-mails when you're on the go could be another. Anyhoo, this is just in the concept stage right now. And the price would need to be very competitive to make sense.

Update: Wondering what that PC Software might look like?

The WMExperts Store has the Redfly C8N and C7 mobile companions in stock.  The C7 has a $30 mail in rebate. Additionally, there's a 25% off coupon that applies to Redfly accessories (only). Use coupon code 'REDFLY25' (no quotes).

A quick shout-out to Redfly for sponsoring the Smartphone Round Robin as well!

Celio is updating their line of Redfly Mobile companions. There are two new models that replace the original C8: The C8N and the C7.

The C8N is pretty much identical to the original Redfly with a one important difference. They've added a “Media Port” which, with a $20 cable (you have to buy it separately) will allow you to use the Redfly as a screen for an iPod, Zune, or whatever else you've got with a composite video out (that's the 'yellow plug'). The cable also has another USB port on it for charging. Otherwise you're looking at the same 8 hours of battery life and an 8“ 800x480 screen. The price for this model is $299.

They're also introducing a newer low-end model called the C7. It's the same Redfly you know and possibly love but they've reduced costs by dropping the screen down to 7 inches (though it's still 800x480 screen resolution) and also by reducing the size of the battery to 5 hours instead of 8. The two changes combine to cut a half pound off the weight of the device. The price here: $229.

Both models also feature a slightly redesigned keyboard (though it's still not full sized), wherein the OK has been conveniently placed next to the arrow keys and the function keys at the top have been reordered. They're also both now a much more conservative black color. Overall, we're not entirely sure that it's a great idea to take a product that already requires some explanation and further muddy the waters by adding two different models. On the other hand, both models are better than the original in their own way: pick a media port or pick reduced weight.

You can get the full skinny on how the Redfly works by checking out our full review of the original Redfly. Speaking of that original, it's still keeping that reduced $199 price at the WMExperts Store until stock runs out.

One thing we had to keep close to the vest here: for our Smartphone Round Robin we're giving away an HTC Fuze and a Redfly. What we didn't tell you is that the Redfly we're giving away is the new C8N. That's right, every day you comment in an official Round Robin post or forum at WMExperts you're entered for another chance to win this great package -- check out all of our updates to the Round Robin here.