Comments on: Foleo News, Hawkins Interviews & Possible Release Date

It's interesting: if your PDA or smartphone took 15 seconds to turn on instead of less than half a second, would this substantially diminish it's usability? I know it would for me. I see Foleo as being basically a PDA with superior input/output capabilities. I suspect that having the same instant-on, instantaneous app switching, and pick-up-where-you-left-off capabilities of a PDA will be a lot more valuable than people are supposing right now.

I also think the Asus *looks* like you spend $199 on it. I'll give you that $600 is going to knock a lot of casual users out of Foleo's market, but the Asus is going to knock out anyone who cares about having quality, ergonomic, professional looking tools.

David Beers
Pikesoft Mobile Computing
www.pikesoft.com/blog

How long will it take ANY half-assed programmer to come up with "instant on" (*) for any Linux laptop?

=========

(*) We're talking =PALM= here, for Pete's sake! I would bet with almost 100% chance of being correct that the Fooleo's "instant on" is HORRENDOUSLY hardwired to a certain castrated configuration. Bet on it.

Please note, too, that the videos discuss pretty much nothing else.

Because there is nothing else to discuss.

I think the Foleo would be much better as a stand alone product, both with and without a GSM radio.

It will be interesting to watch the relative success of these various products. The Asus will probably replace my aging T|C.

I was in an "ASUS-only" store here in Taiwan and asked about the Eee's release. They told me that it was unlikely to be released here at all. The sales people said that it was too cheap and it wasn't targeted at this audience. (And who knows if they really had any idea of what they were talking about.) Of course if it gets released in the USA, I have ways of getting one anyway. A large factor would of course be whether or not the model with a 10 inch screen and eight or more gig of memory would put the price right back up there comparable to other good options (I don't think I would want it with less than those specs). I'll just have to wait and see I guess.


Thinking about Vista? Think again: http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.txt
Want an alternative? Try this: http://www.ubuntu.com/ or http://www.mepis.org/

With a startup time of only 15 seconds and a form factor around the same size, it will be stiff competition for the Foleo from anyone looking for a laptop replacement.

I think the "instant on" feature is over-rated. And over-priced.

So why haven't they? In fact, why haven't you? You sound qualified.

I would imagine "they're" working on it as we type.

> ...In fact, why haven't you? You sound qualified.

I did my OS-internals stuff back in the 70s. It was fun then. I have moved on.

Strangely, I also no longer have the slightest interest in building graphics-oriented computers using discrete chips but you haven't lived til you've been through that learning process.

Oh...you weren't serious were you?

Giggle.

Here's one question: sure, Foleo's "instant-on" - once it's been booted. But surely Foleo will experience the occasional crash, just like any computer. When this happens, how long does it take to reboot?

Back when PalmSource was still trying to make up their mind about whether to use X or not I was hoping they wouldn't: http://www.pikesoft.com/blog/index.php?itemid=49 As much as I like the Nokia N800, its Maemo OS is not nearly as snappy as Palm OS on comparable hardware, which probably has a lot to do with X and GTK. And it does take 30-40s to cold boot after a system crash. Still, that's happened only twice over 6 months of daily use.

David Beers
Pikesoft Mobile Computing
www.pikesoft.com/blog

There are a lot of nice touches about the Foleo, as compared to your standard laptop. But I must confess that it doesn't exactly set me alight with gadget lust. I could see getting one as a couch computer, but Palm really need to work on their sales pitch. Even if it is really a business machine at heart, they could do a much better job of touting the benefits of a lightweight laptop to their consumer market.

That said: I'm also very much looking forward to seeing how they'll adapt this new OS to their other products. I wish they weren't so tight-lipped about these things...

So you're saying that nobody else thought of it until Palm announced the Foleo?

"Giggle."

Sorry I underestimated your qualifications. You're obviously way more than half.

It seems that the Asus Eee PC 701 is closing the gap with the Foleo in terms of function ^_^

So..., now I'm sure the Eee will suck. No mention of Frozen Bubble! How can you have a Linux machine without Frozen Bubble?!!!

Seriously though, it isn't as interesting to me now that I read that review. The "small" keyboard sounds much smaller than I had thought earlier. That's a deal killer for me. And the screen really needs to be 10 inches. Otherwise, the 16 gig version would be awesome.


Thinking about Vista? Think again: http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.txt
Want an alternative? Try this: http://www.ubuntu.com/ or http://www.mepis.org/

So what's the incentive for the Foleo with the Asus in the market? The Foleo syncs with a Treo and it has instant-on. But the Asus is cheaper, has many apps right out of the box and is just as small and light, and I think a 10 sec boot is acceptable to most people: how many times can't you really afford to wait 10 sec to write something down on your laptop? After all, this is not a PDA.

Palm Vx (a classic) -> Palm 505 (*yawn*) -> Dell Axim (slooow...) -> Palm TE (great) -> Qtek 9090 (great idea, lousy platform) -> Nokia 6630 (a toy) -> iMate SP3i (not bad) -> Nokia 9300 (can't sync notes!!) -> Treo 650 (awesome) -> hw6915 (almost perfect)

Aw...poor kookums...do you feel better now?

Strangely, your stupid personal attack doesn;t change the reality of the statements already made.

But you knew that, didn't you, not having a reasonable comeback?

Giggle.

Jerk.

-- http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3829

You are really dense, so I'll spell it out for you. When I said you sounded qualified I meant as a half-assed programmer. You then demonstrated that you are much more than half an ass. I hope that's clear now. BTW, for somebody so old you sure giggle like a schoolgirl.

My point (which you never addressed) is still the same. If what Palm is trying to do with the Foleo is so obvious and easy to do, why doesn't it already exist? If it's not worth doing, why are others now working on it "as we type"?

Hopefully the ASUS will force the price of the Foleo down.

I'd be great to see a side-by-side comparison with specs, usability and photos. I'm sure we will by the end of summer.

A review of the Asus:

-- http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3829

It's like deja vu all over again.


Thinking about Vista? Think again: http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.txt
Want an alternative? Try this: http://www.ubuntu.com/ or http://www.mepis.org/

BTW - have you seen that review at notebook-whatever?

-- http://www.digitimes.com/systems/a20070820PD203.html

Even though the rumor mill says PALM announced the Fooleo well before it was ready so it could "beat" the competition to the market, with the dumping of its own Linux version and going "over the coming months" with WindRiver's it's a safe bet that the Fooleo will not be...robust...competition for the EEE as early as September.

Hey - sometimes the meteor actually does hit ya in the head.

I'll probably snag an EEE just to play around with it and see how XP runs on it. I could see carrying one around for light word processing/e-mail/playing a few games & emulators on. The difference between buying an EEE at $200 and a Fooleo is (other than $400) that the Asus can be pressed into service as a "real" Wintel PC if nothing else. The only thing that worries me is Windows hitting the HD so often that it wears out the write/rewrite capabilities of the flash memory.

Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX-->Treo 700P

the Asus can be pressed into service as a "real" Wintel PC

Jeff Berlind must be freakout's alter ego...

I'll happily send my iphone back to apple for battery replacement, or... more likely, I'll happily buy the next generation one when my battery life gets as bad as my LifeDrive battery life was.

I've never had a problem spending money on gadgets that captivated my interest -- even if they had shortcomings. Here's to hoping that Palm can produce something that captivates me again.

USR Palm Pilot 1000 --> Palm Pilot Professional --> TRG SuperPilot --> Palm IIIc --> Palm V --> Palm M505 --> Palm M515 --> Palm Tungsten T|2 --> Treo 600 --> LifeDrive --> iPhone

Anyway, here’s the policy: Because the iPhone lacks a replaceable battery, you will have to send your phone to Apple. If your phone is under warranty, the new battery will be free. If it is out of warranty, it will cost a hefty $79, plus $6.95 for shipping. Apple will also lend you an iPhone while your phone is in the shop, which will cost you another $20, warranty or no. In other words, if your iPhone battery runs down, you have to:

1. Put up $20, (or $105.95 if your iPhone is out of warranty);

2. Wait for the loaner to arrive;

3. Put your data on the loaner;

4. Send Apple your iPhone;

5. Wait for it to be returned;

6. Put your data back on your iPhone (it is erased while Apple is replacing the battery);

7. Mail in the loaner.

Sounds like a cinch!

Okay, I know this isn't an iPhone topic. Sorry everyone.

It makes me wonder why they have to waste all this effort, time and everything else to "convince" people to explain the Foleo, how it came about, how great it is, etc in hopes of persuading others to think in their line of thinking. Are we all 'wrong' and they're 'right'? Just sell us what we want instead of trying to convince us we want what you're making.

I'm not spending the same amount of money on something that is inferior to what I can get already for "simplicity's sake". I just can't understand this. I'd rather get a cheap laptop than the Foleo for about the same price if I can do more with it. This is ridiculous.

http://tinyurl.com/25lred">WIN Proporta Alu-Leather Case & Adv Screen Protector!
http://palmdiscovery.net">**** src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/MaceyrsPalmDiscovery.gif" border=0>

I have yet to see any credible REAL evidence that a "Linux PalmOS" is actually in the stars...

So... you didn't follow any of the coverage of the Analyst's Day presentation where Keast and Colligan specifically stated and displayed this across two or three slides? All the statements about how they think Palm OS Garnet is still a great user experience but needs a "new foundation"... "Linux core"..."Linux kernel"... "Linux drivers"... and the "simultaneous voice/data and multithreading" this would provide?

The Foleo doesn't have a mic or a cell radio for "voice," nor does it run "Palm OS Garnet." Did you think after the Foleo announcement that all Palm's stated Linux plans were about Foleo?

It makes me wonder why they have to waste all this effort, time and everything else to "convince" people to explain the Foleo, how it came about, how great it is, etc in hopes of persuading others to think in their line of thinking. Are we all 'wrong' and they're 'right'?

If by "all" you mean all 23 of you geekheads hanging out on the fan sites bashing the Foleo, then I'd say, yeah. :-) I could be wrong, but when I talk to mobile business people who are actually in the target audience for Foleo (my customers and colleagues) the response is overwhelmingly positive. That just doesn't happen to be the kind of person who hangs out on fan sites or writes technology opinions for Engadget.

David Beers
Pikesoft Mobile Computing
www.pikesoft.com/blog

Linux? Of course.

Linux PalmOS?

Nope.

PS a previous poster mentioned high res video out. Is that confirmed? Can it handle that at 30fps?

Linux PalmOS?

Nope.

So you think there won't be backward compatibility with Garnet applications. I'd offer a wager on that, but it wouldn't be fair. ;-)

So just out of curiosity, what do you think the slide meant that showed the Palm OS Garnet arrow joining the Linux arrow with a label reading "Commitment to the Palm OS Community" over the words "Linux Kernel" on the segment where the two are converged?

David Beers
Pikesoft Mobile Computing
www.pikesoft.com/blog

User interface similarities? Okay, sounds possible, maybe even probably (and I believe just that sort of UI similarity has been discussed right here ages ago).

Linux PalmOS?

Nope.

I'm be much, much more worried about the processor being able to handle video playback that whatever its onboard video chip is capable of outputting. I have a feeling the Sony PSP refresh is going to be quite a exemplary demonstration of a handheld device outputting "big screen" video.

I just don't understand why Palm didn't go with some kind of integrated graphics chipset with hardware assisted video decoding!?!

Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX-->Treo 700P

After all these years, personal media still doesn't seem like it enters much into Palm's thinking. Irritatingly.

Two words 'Battery life'.
If you compair identical laptops one with intergrated graphics and one with dedicated graphics you'll get 2/3 the battery life if you're lucky.
5 hours of battery life = a whole bussiness day of on/off computing.
I doubt Palm is willing to give that up so the Heroes episodes I download 6mths early will play while I lay on the couch.

Att Palm:
Foleo = Smartphone companion
T|X = Dumbphone companion
If you think a Foleo will sell and a PDA wont you're out of your mind.
SunGod aka Luigi(AusPUG)

Y'know that episode where the invisible guy throws him off the roof? I was CHEERING.

That they're lying to us? They've shown that they are not able to execute on simple strategy (700p update, anyone?) So just because it's on a slide, I wouldn't stake my business on it. Fortunately for me, my job is in no way related to the success of Palm hardware. I don't envy you, Beersy.

I don't envy you, Beersy.

Foleo is a great wide-open opportunity for developers, Pikesoft in particular. Can't promise anything just yet, but I think you'll be hearing an announcement or two from us later in the year.

David Beers
Pikesoft Mobile Computing
www.pikesoft.com/blog

Ed Colligan has been exercising and same-day selling stock options for awhile now. I believe he was doing this because, if he did not start when he did, the options would expire before he could exercise them all since he has been limited, as CEO, with how much he can trade per day or wee - he simply had to trickle them out starting some time ago.

PALM/Colligan just made an SEC filing about those exercise and sales. Included amongst the boilerplate is this nugget:

== "...On August 31, 2007, Mr. Colligan terminated his Rule 10b5-1
== trading plan..."

Now...IF (and that admittedly is an ambiguous "if") Colligan =HAS= to exercise his options before they expire and do so according to regulation etc etc etc it doesn't make much sense to stop the automated selling plan.

Except if he is about to leave, when he can exercise as he desires, not according to regulation.

I can't think of any other good reason to stop the automated plan if the automated plan had been put in place due to time constraints.

The story isn't over yet - waiting for the denouement - like on September 12th?

Many smart people in this world would love to see Linux spread and become a strong adversary to Windows.
The Foleo has that potential.

Can you imagine for a company that has field workers how important having Foleo will be? Instant on, no moving parts, an incredibly much lighter OS compared to Windows, etc will all equate to lower maintenance and operational costs. Not to mention less worker stress, higher customer satisfaction and greater productivity.

The Foleo brings the efficiency and power of computing ever closer to consumers in their homes and workers at work or in the field.

No revving hard drives, no 15 second -out of suspend- boots (which often result in hung applications)..

Foleo will be
ON NOW!
Get to the app NOW!
View/enter data fast!
Close the lid (no snaps) and the person goes about their day with a smile.

yup, I am really confident is on to something very big.

Expect quotes like:

"I just bought a Foleo! The thing fits very nicely in my bag/briefcase. I had no idea how useful and fun it would be. There is no way Im going back to a clunky heave slow laptop now!"

I also enjoy photography, the Foleo seems perfect as a portable picture viewer.

I used to have an HP notebook, I hate using Windows (and Vista even more), it died a watery death. I was planning on buying a MacBook, but that is overkill for note taking and web browsing. I am thinking that the Foleo would be a better choice. It would certainly lighten up my back pack.

In the past I have tried to use my T5 to take notes with, via keyboard and graffiti. The keyboard was too small and flaky, graffiti was too unreliable.

I loved graffiti-1... I got so comfortable with it, I could do just as fast on the PDA as writing. I hate graffiti-2.

I've even caught myself using graffiti-1 strokes on paper.