Celeste & IOS 5

[DC_Dave]

An aternative Bluetooth tweak called AirBlue Sharing is out for $5. I am going to compare it's usability to Celeste, it is by Eric Day who has just added Obex transfer to his Bluetooth tethering packages.
Modmyi article at
Apple, iPhone and iPad News | ModMyi - [Review] AirBlue Sharing - Seamless Bluetooth File Transfer for iOS

[Fafner]

I've been trying this since yesterday, and I have to admit it works suprisingly well for a first release, which, looking at the version number (0.9.8) even seems to be considered as preliminary by the developer. It even imports stuff relying on Cocoanuts's Gremlin (I'm just missing an "auto delete after import" option), I wonder what they think about it!
There are a couple of things which make this even better than Celeste, at least in its current beta version:
- it looks more stable and refined
- from and to my PC, transfer rates are about 2.5-3x quicker (around 170kb/s compared to Celeste's 60-70)
- it's possible to receive multiple files
- while the iPhone is sending stuff, it's possible to add other stuff, there's a sort of "transfer queue". Haven't found a way to multiselect files and send them with a single command. Looking at the release notes, it looks like the previous way to interact with iFile allowed this, but it was changed, and it's a pity.
- I tried to send stuff from an iPhone4S to a 4, trasfer rate there was around 0.5-0.7MB/s, not bad. No idea if WiFi was used there.

Some of these features were promised by the Celeste team in the uservoice homepage, it has to be seen how long it's going to take. I have no past experiences with Eric Day, thus no idea on how reactive he is on fixing or adding stuff to his apps.

Does this new Celeste beta works for iPhone 4S as well?

Works on iPhone 4S as well?

It does.

[jpmarch]

Fully agree with Fafner first comments on this comparison.
My additional views are as follows :
1/ as far as installation & connectivity (devices recognizing & pairing) are concerned, both tweaks have roughly the same behaviour n' simplicity
2/ transfers are fine with an advantage for Airblue Sharing regarding speeds (certainly due to the capability to operate automatically in WIfi providing devices on the same LAN)
3/ access to files to be transferred equivalent for both regarding photos but much better regarding music files for Airblue Sharing since offering a direct access compared to Celeste which needs selection via MyTunes, DTunes or something else ....
4/ the price (ABS is twice cheaper than Celeste)
5/ finally but not the less important: UPDATING follow-up !! updates for ABS are expected on a regular basis compared to Celeste Cocoanuts that have largely demonstrated in the past a very, very long process frustrating & irritating a lot of times their customers !!!

[JarJarTee]

Tried Celeste a few times now, transferred files across iMac, iphone to iphone etc, seems to work OK. It's a shame coocoanutapps are so crappy at their communication - spoils it a bit.

[keenpois0n]

JUST FOUND THIS OUT: you cannot add 'apt.cocoanuts.co' unless you have paid for the product already. so I won't sent out the debs to anyone else anymore. and besides..even with the deb, it has to download a lisence first, so it won't work

[DC_Dave]

If you are on iOS5 and can't buy Celeste to then enable you to add the source http://apt.cocoanuts.co/ and test the new beta out, try post #37 or #38 to buy Celeste first, then adding the beta source should work

[Ashishb]

here is the modified deb file. It works for me on ios 5.
http://cdn.anonfiles.com/1329396144655.zip

If anyone don't know there is a cheap celeste alternative available at Cydia named "AirBlue", which perfectly works on ios 5.

keenpois0n: can you PM me deb as well, please ?

here is the modified deb file. It works for me on ios 5.
http://cdn.anonfiles.com/1329396144655.zip

If anyone don't know there is a cheap celeste alternative available at Cydia named "AirBlue", which perfectly works on ios 5.

[DC_Dave]

Those of you with a Polaroid Pogo printer, stick to using Celeste as I haven't been able to get AirBlue to print to my Pogo yet.
In SBSettings, More, Mobile Substrate Addons,
CelesteSSHelper needs to be on to send a photo with Celeste via the Photo App.
Should you want to use AirBlue instead, then turn off CelesteSShelper and turn on blued-obex-photoli...
Note... having both on does not work and crashes the Photo App on my iPhone
Also... remember to turn the Mobile Substrate Addons back on before you upgrade, uninstall, reinstall the tweak.

[DC_Dave]

If you are still on iOS4 and have updated Celeste and YourTube with the new beta downloads, Gremlin now works with YourTube  but you loose the Action menu send for iPod music 
This can be fixed by replacing the Library/ActionMenu/Plugins/Celeste.dylib file with the one from Celeste 1.1-1 (then respring). Either uninstall the beta and install 1.1-1 to get this file or you can extract it with iFile from the Celeste.deb (with no Gremlin) you may have experimented with before the beta came out. This is not needed if on iOS5.

[jpmarch]

I've now completed all the possible comparison tests regarding Celeste vs Airblue Sharing then have definitively adopted Airblue Sharing for my own usages ...
AB Sharing is more performant in terms of transfer speeds, stability, simplicity services and doesn't require any manipulation between iOS's to work.
Moreover, as anticipated in previous post #63, AB Sharing team has already released 2 updates of their tweak which demonstrates a very fast responsive behaviour to improve the product ...
Has someone found any superiority regarding Celeste compared to AB Sharing for something else ????
Thks also to DC_Dave (post#61) having drawn people attention in this forum to this very interesting alternative to Celeste .......

[DC_Dave]

I have both Celeste and AirBlue installed. You have to select which one to use for Contacts and Photos with the SBSettings/more/mobile substrate addons.
For Photos select either CelesteSSHelper or blued-obex-photoli...
For Contacts select either CelesteMPhelper or blued-obex-address
(remember to turn them back on first if you uninstall, reinstall or upgrade either) but both can be accessed through iFile. If I swap Bluetooth methods when sending files to a PC, I do have to unpair my PC first and re-pair again. Although AirBlue only takes 65% of the time Celeste takes to send a file (at the moment) and has a useful "open in" feature, I am mostly using Celeste as it works with my Pogo printer, displays the correct mac address on discovery, the photo filename is the same as the file in your Camera Roll and you have a very useful manual option to switch Between iOS, BTStack and none if things get stuck or you need to switch Bluetooth gadgets. Nearly forgot, for a lot of people, Gremlin will be one of the key selling points of Celeste now its back and working with song and YourTube iPod imports.

[jpmarch]

I have both Celeste and AirBlue installed. You have to select which one to use for Contacts and Photos with the SBSettings/more/mobile substrate addons.
For Photos select either CelesteSSHelper or blued-obex-photoli...
For Contacts select either CelesteMPhelper or blued-obex-address
(remember to turn them back on first if you uninstall, reinstall or upgrade either) but both can be accessed through iFile. If I swap Bluetooth methods when sending files to a PC, I do have to unpair my PC first and re-pair again. Although AirBlue only takes 65% of the time Celeste takes to send a file (at the moment) and has a useful "open in" feature, I am mostly using Celeste as it works with my Pogo printer, displays the correct mac address on discovery, the photo filename is the same as the file in your Camera Roll and you have a useful manual option to switch Between iOS, BTStack and none if things get stuck. Nearly forgot, for a lot of people, Gremlin will be one of the key selling points of Celeste now its back and working with song and YourTube iPod imports.

Let me know for better understand yr statement : does it mean that AB Sharing doesn't work with yr Pogo Printer ?? I would be surprised since it work fine with my Kodak Easyshare PP 500 which has the same OBEX BT interface for pairing ....
OK, agree for Gremlin benefit in favour of Celeste (however I don't use it very much)

[DC_Dave]

Yes, that is correct, one of the reasons I am keeping with Celeste as that I can't get AirBlue to print to my Pogo, maybe others can? I wonder if it is a pairing issue, the fact that my Pogo is already paired though Celeste to my iPhone's Bluetooth mac address? Unlike a PC, you can't unpair a Pogo and start again. Or at least I haven't found a way to do this either! Apparently the new Polaroid GL10 printer works with AirBlue.

[jpmarch]

Yes, that is correct, one of the reasons I am keeping with Celeste as that I can't get AirBlue to print to my Pogo, maybe others can? I wonder if it is a pairing issue, the fact that my Pogo is already paired though Celeste to my iPhone's Bluetooth mac address? Unlike a PC, you can't unpair a Pogo and start again. Or at least I haven't found a way to do this either! Apparently the new Polaroid GL10 printer works with AirBlue.

Curious .... whatever is the source sender (PC, Mac, iPod/iPhone) pairing process to Kodak PP 500 each time starts with opening a window dialog to enter a pssword (always is 1111) therefore, apparently, there is no pairing active memory in my printer and still surprise me that it's not the same for you (unless in yr case the psswrd could be different i.e. 6000 instead of 1111 ??)

[DC_Dave]

OK apology, I have just managed to print to my Pogo with both Celeste and AirBlue, not too sure why AirBlue didn't work before, but I have been trying with it since it first came out! Maybe it could be the recent updates to Celeste and AirBlue which have cured it or the fact that I have both installed was causing a problem? (in my test, Celeste was slightly faster than AirBlue printing a 2Mb photo)

[jpmarch]

Right ! Possibly this was due to both parallel installation (n' may be operating on background) which is a quite abnormal situation. After experimentation phase for evaluation purpose, a choice would have to be done depending on every personal usage range ....
In conclusion, as far as I'm concerned, I reiterate that Airblue presents "actually" the best characteristics of simplicity, performance and reliability as stated in my post #70 above. This is the reason why I've opted for Airblue Sharing rather than Celeste.

[DC_Dave]

The current Celeste beta works well with iFile and iPod integration. I for one still use Celeste instead of AirBlue. Celeste were the first to integrate bluetooth file transfer into iOS (yes I did get sucked into the hype ) and I do prefer its user interface to AirBlue. I find Celeste's SBSettings toggles and the BTStack/Celeste Settings menu give you a greater degree of control over what you are doing than AirBlue does. AirBlue works well too, but I didn't like having to wait for the Bluetooth to automatically shut off after 3 minutes, while with Celeste, you can force the BTStack off or to iOS mode when you want too. It is a shame that the Celeste beta is not open to everyone to buy, but you can always fool your iDevice to make it look like it has iOS4 before you buy from Cydia. Finally a word of warning with AirBlue, or at least it happened with me, if you uninstall it, the Open In feature in other Apps still shows AirBlue as an option even though it has been uninstalled.

[Fafner]

Well, matter of taste ofc, but I strongly disagree with most of your points.
Celeste was first, no doubt about that. But maybe for this very specific reason Cocoanuts just didn't care to add any notable new feature for 1 year or more, limiting itself to fix stuff taking far too much time, often with months of complete silence in between. This just can't be accepted considering it's one of the most expensive Cydia tweaks available.
They woke up more or less at the same time Eric Day released its AirBlue Sharing to Cydia, at least apparently. They released a beta promising much things to "come soon", 6 months after there's still no ETA, no new features, the usual weeks of silence followed by promises and sentences which look like written by a bot.
AirBlue has been supporting more features than Celeste since its launch. I couldn't live without the ability to multisend and multireceive for a single hour anymore, with Celeste you have to do everything 1 file by one. Sigh! AirBlue got it's own filebrowser to send and (most of all) import stuff, obviously supporting multiple files at once. Look for that on Celeste. The very recent iFile 1.7.0 added native support, again with multiple files send support.
AirBlue does import more stuff compared to Celeste.
You write one email to Eric Day, he replies you within HOURS. You ask for a feature, if he agrees he adds it withing A FEW DAYS. Try that with Cocoacrap crew.
Celeste worked decently enough after many months since its initial crappy release, however it never really coped well with the Widcomm Stack I'm using. It succeeded at transferring stuff, but with random errors here and there. Never had one single flaw with AirBlue.
I agree with your point about SBSettings integration...Eric Day prefers to have AirBlue automatically shutdown after a while to avoid complaints about battery drain or such. And most of all, he doesn't want his tweaks to depend from other developers. Just a matter of philosophy, but I think he has a point here. Time needed for updates only depends from him, he doesn't have to wait for someone else.

I'm an early Celeste owner as well, I got it in the very first hours at a discounted price (which was still higher than AirBlue standard price), but this doesn't detract me from recognizing that Cocoanuts lost in every department: features, stability, SUPPORT. I'm done with Celeste, or whatever tweak this bunch of slackers will release in the future. They deserve no more trust.

The current Celeste beta works well with iFile and iPod integration. I for one still use Celeste instead of AirBlue. Celeste were the first to integrate bluetooth file transfer into iOS (yes I did get sucked into the hype ) and I do prefer its user interface to AirBlue. I find Celeste's SBSettings toggles and the BTStack/Celeste Settings menu give you a greater degree of control over what you are doing than AirBlue does. AirBlue works well too, but I didn't like having to wait for the Bluetooth to automatically shut off after 3 minutes, while with Celeste, you can force the BTStack off or to iOS mode when you want too. It is a shame that the Celeste beta is not open to everyone to buy, but you can always fool your iDevice to make it look like it has iOS4 before you buy from Cydia. Finally a word of warning with AirBlue, or at least it happened with me, if you uninstall it, the Open In feature in other Apps still shows AirBlue as an option even though it has been uninstalled.

[jpmarch]

Fully agree w/ post #78 above from Fafner .... The Celeste tweak dev's have disappointed so much customers for along too much time & months loosing definitively their credibility for the future ....
At least it's true that Celeste "now" works pretty fine while its concept & behaviour remains clearly second-class compared to AirBlue on my opinion as explained in my previous post's.
Since few months I've uninstalled Celeste from my iDevice's and solely using AirBlue w/ 100% satisfactory results !!

[DC_Dave]

I do follow what you guys are saying and I will not guess who gets to iOS6 first, I only hope that the music library database remains unchanged so Gremlin iPod import will still work for Celeste, iFile and AirBlue.