linuxdevices.com — Palm has used Linux to build what it's calling a "new class" of mobile device. The Foleo is designed to expand the email, Internet, and productivity application capabilities of mobile phones such as the Palm Treo, by adding a full-size keyboard and a larger screen.
May 30, 2007 View in Crawl 4
neotrooperMay 30, 2007
omg...how friggin lame. Foleo is too big for the tasks at hand (limited at that). at 10", it aint much smaller than full-featured subcompact laptop. So what is the real point of this product again? $500 for a full-sized keyboard for treo-users with fat fingers. next.
n8willisMay 30, 2007
Or $500 for a solid-state compact laptop. Which is pretty good. Since it has wifi and bluetooth, I'd say the treo is entirely superfluous.
schestowitzMay 30, 2007
neotrooper,There are many misconceptions that usher the arrival of new or disruptive paradigms. I suppose you might also thinking that OLPC units are intended to be business laptops. They are not. They are an educational tool. The Foleo has very specific tasks in mind and, having used Palm handhelds since 2002, I can see the selling point. The folding keyboard I have been using (and the small screen) were always an issue.
ccahuaMay 31, 2007
Don't sell Palm short, too soon. I read too much yawns and lackluster comparisons between WinCE, Psion, low-end laptops and the FoleoLet's see the Foleo is:-NOT 2 GRAND (I'm sick to death of those Winmob UMPCers with their bloated hardware and prices)-Lightweight under 3 pounds (It's not a 6 pound Black Friday $500 el cheapo laptop that Dell, HP, etc are carrying the bottom line with)-Full keyboard, nice sized screen/form factor a la Sony Reader (I don't have to lug my Think Outside keyboard)-Main Functions: think about the majority of time spent on what app? Does most stuff I do on my Macbook: web, textmate and email.-Connected: Bluetooth, Wifi, USB I/O, SD and CF for diskless memory expansion (Uh no cell phone plan needed! take that iPhone)-Opensource - It doesn't run WINDOWS. It's doing kernel 4.2 Linux. It has "Terminal" listed on the menu which means you can probably access the command line. who knows maybe even bash, vim, emacs, sed, awk, perl, python, ruby?-Some proprietary apps like a Picture viewer, Docs to Go Word,Excel,Powerpoint viewing and PDF viewer. Now I can read PDFs with a bigger screen than N800 or Palm Tx Let's face it the cellphone handset market is becoming commoditized if not already. Nokia foresees the challenge and branches out with Internet Tablets. Steve Jobs talks about a Post-PC world flinging out the appliances: iTV, iPhone, iPodThe market has embraced simplicity devices: iPod, Blackberry, Sony ReaderI'll be looking forward to the Foleo.Best,tony
baxterMay 31, 2007
Not lame at all. I've been a Palm user for years, and always thought that a larger display would add to its utility. Before the Palm, I spent $500 years ago for a Sharp Wizard OZ-9600 with a monochrome screen much smaller than on the Foleo, no networkability, no WiFi, no browser, and no way to back up the data without buying an expensive accessory. I used it productively for years before I moved to my current Palm.I'd love to be able to drop a Foleo in my briefcase.
neotrooperJun 1, 2007
The problem is i cant visualize the target-market for the foleo...if its for the business user, they would already be packing a full-featured laptop. Would someone carry both the foleo, in addition to their laptop? The casual user would be content with the basic Treo (and its tiny keys) IMO...OLPC R&D was a waste of good money. Sony have been producing OLPC-sized devices that ran winblows for at least 6 years now. At one time, i even owned a Sony Vaio-C1 (picturebook, 2000 model). 8-inch wide-screen LCD with built-in swivel camera. It had a 667 crusoe-proc, ran full version of windows 2000. It was a bit underpowered...but made a great toy nevertheless.Not to knock on Palm, i have owned many of thier pdas over the years (palmIII, palmV, palm505)...and still to this day use my Sony Clie-UX50 (with palmOS). I just dont think Hawkins dumped 15,000 or his shares prior to his foleo announcement proves much faith in his own goods.