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    Comments on: Palm Officially Introduces the Foleo
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rcartwright @ 5/30/2007 1:54:03 PM wrote The price will tell the tale for me, but so far it looks way too big. From previous article: U.S. availability for Foleo begins this summer with pricing expected to be $499 after an introductory $100 rebate. RE: Hmmmmm....
Underwhelmed is not the word. This is crazy talk from Palm and Hawkins. What thing is even remotely revolutionary here? Seriously. This reminds me a bit of the first wave of WinCE based laptops in the late 90's that touted instant on and fast access to applications. Or it reminds me, you know, of laptops. RE: Hmmmmm....rcartwright @ 5/30/2007 4:34:47 PM #
$450.00 price-by itself not a deal breaker (BTW, thanks for the pointer I was in a hurry when I first scanned the artice) No touch screen/tablet feature-all I can say to this is WTF! Size- as a 40 something attorney I have stayed away from the Treo till a few weeks ago because of small screen size, no WiFi and dislike for the thumb board. Right now I use a TX/Treo 680 in somewhat the same way as Palm sees the Foleo/smartphone pairing. Sync is a kludge and seamless sync has some appeal for me. I would submit that for the segment of the population that can't really see the small screen of a smartphone, this has some merit. Of course, the people who say I already have a laptop, I would respond as some others have that if its as light as advertised and as fast as advertised and if it has some built in flash drive, then there might be a market for it. Alas, I may well not be part of that market. RE: Hmmmmm....fishtastic @ 5/30/2007 5:14:29 PM #
Hurray, Palm is saved. This will sell in the literally tens of millions. Time for the Palm board to order more ivory back scratchers. Er No... Oh dear. I can't believe this was what Palm had up their sleeve. I can't help being reminded of the OLPC and that doesn't cost $4XX. Very poor show, Palm. You never listen, you never learn. Bye Palm Fish RE: Hmmmmm....
You know what, if it had an e-ink display and really good battery life measured in days, I'd go for it. I need something to replace my paper notebook and magazines that I carry everywhere. But as it is, I just think it's too small of a niche. I already must carry my laptop for work, the functionality in this doesn't come close to replacing it, so why would I waste space on it? It really doesn't make sense. I suppose some extremely casual users could have some use for it, but I think they've carved a very small niche with this product. Palm: Do this with e-ink and a touch screen a-la the Irex Iliad (but with the battery life of the Sony Reader), and you've got a customer. Otherwise you are going down a well trodden path of stripped down laptops, internet only devices, email only devices, web-tv, etc. I suppose people think that they are going to get a million grandmas online with these devices, but that never seems to happen. They just don't fit the need for the rest of us. RE: Hmmmmm....painted_dog @ 5/30/2007 10:41:13 PM #
scstraus2 wrote: "You know what, if it had an e-ink display and really good battery life measured in days, I'd go for it. I need something to replace my paper notebook and magazines that I carry everywhere. But as it is, I just think it's too small of a niche. I already must carry my laptop for work, the functionality in this doesn't come close to replacing it, so why would I waste space on it? It really doesn't make sense. I suppose some extremely casual users could have some use for it, but I think they've carved a very small niche with this product." ...i absolutely agree. -painted dog Palm FOOLeo®: Fool me twice, shame on me. I won't get FOOLeoed...The_Voice_of_Reason @ 6/1/2007 5:37:36 AM #
March 30, 2007 will be remembered as The Day Palm Died. When I first saw one of these, I thought it was actually just a sick joke. An elaborate in-house April Fool's joke. TreoMan assured me it was real. That was the day I finally gave up on Palm. The FOOLeo® is a product that needlessly diverted attention and resources from Palm's core products, resulting in fatal stagnation of both the Treo and Palm's traditional PDA lineups. Palm is too small to spread its (severely limited) talent around, especially on redundant designs. This company is so clueless that there is no way they will ever recover from the burden of being run by utterly IDIOTIC LEECHES that only care about plundering and parasitizing the company until the very end. Most parasites are smart enough to ensure that don't kill their hosts. Not Palm's management. These bloodsuckers have bled the company dry as they've continued to collect paychecks and cash in massive stock options. The FOOLeo® is an answer to a question no one is asking. Let's see: Almost as big and almost as expensive as a Real Windows device, yet unable to run Real Windows apps? Break me off a piece of that! I'll take twenty! Any device much larger than the Nokia N800 that lacks Real Windows is pointless in this day of ever-improving Windows UMPC, Real Windows micro laptops and smartphones. The FOOLeo® niche simply does not exist. And organisms without a niche invariable die quickly. Eventually it will be leaked that long ago Palm knew this product was doomed. The problem was that so much time + resources had already been wasted on it that by the time someone finally stepped in and said, "W T F is going on here? This is utter crap that will never sell." no one had the cojones to pull the plug on the project in 2005 when they should have. So now we have the latest equivalent of the Palm i705/DUNGSTEN T5/LifeDrive/Cobalt. As with Cobalt (PalmOS 6), failure to quickly amputate a gangrenous limb (product) will be remembered as the coup de grace that (mercifully?) ended Palm's existence. What Palm should have released was a simple clamshell "PalmTop®" design along the lines of a CLIE UX50. With a 4 inch screen. Preferrably OLED. In 2005. With a COMPLETE software suite, including email, VPN, NetFront browser, PDF viewer, Word/Excel/Powerpoint-compatible suite. Keep It Simple, Stupid. The FOOLeo® with its current specs may have been a viable product category 4 or 5 years ago when I had urged Palm's product managers to consider a small PalmOS laptop with the simplicity of the AlphaSmart Dana. The key would have been to adhere to the KISS principle and not try to add features that the company's engineers were too clueless to easily implement. Palm is too talentless a company to be trying to reinvent the wheel itself. The FOOLeo® is the hardware equivalent of Cobalt: an unfinished, fundamentally flawed idea that is arriving 2 year too late to matter and will result in the death of the company. Maybe Palm should offer the FOOLeo® in a Special Edition Cobalt color? The only questions that now remain are these: Now that it has finally been revealed that Emperor Hawkins Has No Clothes and that the Secret Third Business (STB) was a sham all along, who will buy Palm? What value does Palm offer a potential suitor? What assets do Palm have in their portfolio that a company big enough to purchase Palm couldn't purchase cheaper elsewhere or easily copy/develop for themselves? Palm's "assets":
If PalmSource and Chrysler (twice!) can get sold, Palm has a chance. It all boils down to how greedy the company's board is. Kinda hard to bluff when everyone at the table knows the cards you're holding are utter crap, isn't it, Eric? TVoR RE: Hmmmmm....SeldomVisitor @ 6/5/2007 8:36:01 AM #
-- http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/05/via-intros-nanobook-ultra-mobile-device-600-ultraportable-lap/
Takes a long time for those competitors to show up, eh? 
 Third business.averageguy @ 5/30/2007 1:56:29 PM #
palm is making laptops? m125-zire 71-zire 72 "Never pay full price for late pizza" Michelangelo RE: Third business.SeldomVisitor @ 5/30/2007 2:06:15 PM #
I wonder if there's any competition in that sector? RE: Third business.
I see where they are going with this. With a decent enough third-party developer ecosystem it could even work. The smartphone is supposed to become the "soul pad" of the new personal computer: the central repository for all your critical data around which everything else is just input/output devices. And I do think that's where personal computing will go. But out of the box... I don't know. Is the lead solution on this thing--email--really going to be enough to make someone who doesn't carry a laptop around say "I need this thing"? The software looks beautiful and simple. And the instant-on, instant-off aspect is more important than I think many people give it credit. I was really hoping we'd have a touchscreen. I can see developing some great business software that syncs between this and a smartphone. But I need Palm to get people to buy these first, and I'm not seeing the market driver here. This is going to look to shareholders like Palm is trying to go head-to-head with Microsoft. And it's going to look that way because that's exactly what Palm is doing! Wow.
RE: Third business.PenguinPowered @ 5/30/2007 2:27:16 PM #
There's no there, there. There's probably more processing power in the foleo than in the smartphone, even if foleo is only using the same chip, and it has room for a bigger battery. Throw in an evdo card and you don't need the phone. On the other hand, people who want bigger keyboards and displays than their smartphones supply will want more of everything and will go for laptop once they're stuck carrying the extra baggage anyway. UMPCs will blow this thing away, or the market for it simply doesn't exist.
RE: Third business.SeldomVisitor @ 5/30/2007 2:38:20 PM #
I think LifeDrive II more than adequately describes this. RE: Third business.
>>>UMPCs will blow this thing away, or the market for it simply doesn't exist. 2008 will bring: Foleo. Flopio is more like it! Hey, you Nokia N800 users. This gonna make you switch? Thought not! Why would I want to shell out $500-$600 bucks for something that looks like it was ripped off from HPs old sub-subnotebook (I can't recall the model now; someone will dig it up somewhere) and has far less capability than a notebook that costs maybe 1.5-2x as much and can do, minimally, A HUNDRED TIMES MORE? My Reaction To Palm’s New Foleo Device Next! BTW: Anyone else notice Mobile Companion has replace Mobile Manager (LifeDrive) in the Palm site sidebar? RE: Third business.
Sorry, even if I'm repeating myself, this product just cries out for more accurate names: Flopio / Flopeo as you already mentioned, but more: Forgetteo, Fooleo, Noleo, or even No-Treo. Thanks Palm, at least we have something to giggle at your funeral ;-) RE: Third business.
You can Fooleo Somemeo Peopleo Somemeo Time. Who could do that better than yourself, Mike? RE: Third business.painted_dog @ 5/30/2007 10:44:07 PM #
mikecane wrote: "BTW: Anyone else notice Mobile Companion has replace Mobile Manager (LifeDrive) in the Palm site sidebar?" ..separately, i would've expected the Foleo to be listed under Accessories ;-) -painted dog RE: Third business.
The fact that Mobile Companion has replace Mobile Manager as a category adds more fuel to the speculation that the LifeDrive really was Hawkins' third business. Until it flopped. I wonder how many flops Palm can sustain? RE: Third business.
>>>Who could do that better than yourself, Mike? Go suck on your Nokia. And swallow. And hopefully choke. RE: Third business.
EPOC and Palm-size PC. Oh, wait, EPOC died when almost everyone could afford to go out and buy laptops, and Palm-size PC bombed. I'm sure a third go at a non-standard system and OS with extremely limited capabilities and an absurdly high price point (for $499, you can buy a real laptop) will magically work this time around. After all, it says "Palm" on it. RE: Third business.
The advertising on the Palm website is shilling the Foleo as something to use with your Treo. I am not going to buy a Treo and a Foleo, and I don't think anyone but the most rabid Palm fan would. People are going to use their laptops, not a Foleo. The original Palms succeeded because they integrated so well with existing PCs. The market is not so radically different now that Palm can get away with selling Treos that are effectively mobile internet access devices, and sell a Foleo that serves as an in between Treo conduit, when you have your PC that is far far more capable than being a simple Treo add-on. RE: Third business.Stan Wayne @ 5/31/2007 10:18:29 PM #
mikecane @ 5/30/2007 2:41:52 PM #
>>>UMPCs will blow this thing away, or the market for it simply doesn't exist. 2008 will bring: Foleo. Flopio is more like it! Hey, you Nokia N800 users. This gonna make you switch? Thought not! Why would I want to shell out $500-$600 bucks for something that looks like it was ripped off from HPs old sub-subnotebook (I can't recall the model now; someone will dig it up somewhere) and has far less capability than a notebook that costs maybe 1.5-2x as much and can do, minimally, A HUNDRED TIMES MORE? My Reaction To Palm’s New Foleo Device Next! BTW: Anyone else notice Mobile Companion has replace Mobile Manager (LifeDrive) in the Palm site sidebar?
Budget play?
It looks like this is a low cost laptop. It reportedly weights 2 lbs, so my p1610 with Windows XP is just as portable. So what advantage does the Folio have over my p1610? - Instant on vs. my 10 second resume from hibernation. Not a big deal when you have to set it up on a surface to type anyway. - Sync with the Treo's documents and email. My email is always on the server anyway, I just access it via IMAP. So I see no advantage there. It would allow me to keep master copies of documents on the Treo if I want to. - Price. Folio costs $500, my p1610 cost $1600. That is a big difference. So the only real advantage is a lower price. For that lower price you lose Windows application compatibility and the ability to use only one computer (assuming you will still keep a desktop somewhere). I hope Palm is working hard on getting a Remote Desktop client running on this or it will have very limited appeal. I can imagine a remote desktop client running on this tied to something like Amazon's virtual computing services being very cool. RE: Budget play?EricsProjects @ 5/30/2007 2:12:31 PM #
Considering all the implementations of VNC on Linux, it shouldn't be difficult to find a remote desktop solution. http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=linux+vnc&btnG=Google+Search RE: Budget play?SeldomVisitor @ 5/30/2007 2:16:25 PM #
Nor to program a regular laptop to interact with the same software that's running on all those F-compatible smartphones...
So How Much Storage
Does anyone else see that they said that it can take SD or CF cards but they neglected how much storage it contained
So much for 'pocketable'
And I wonder if that's a 2.5 mono jack (like my T|C) and if they'll EOL it within the year. Email over Wi-Fi to come? No hard drive? So far, this is a device that, by itself, does nothing. I know they say that they are "actively supporting third-party software developers", but this is one developer who learns from the past. Palm needs a scapegoat to blame for their poor implementation and third party applications have been blamed in the past. I predict an underwhelming migration of developers and even worse adoption by the non-geeky public. How many people want to drop over $1,000 to get two devices and be tethered to a wireless carrier? RE: So much for 'pocketable'painted_dog @ 5/30/2007 10:37:37 PM #
...& another great thing is that even though it fits on an airplane tray table, you can't sync it w/ the treo (or other smartphone) as you aren't allowed to use any RF transmissions. (i don't remember seeing IR as an option for Foleo. ... Deo!... er i mean Doh!)
-painted dog
music and memory?dustbunny44 @ 5/30/2007 2:08:57 PM #
2 questions:
1. will it support/enhance a phone for music playing? The ipod's been successful long enough that they must know music is a big part of people's mobile experience. I don't see anything in the initial release info about music support. Good support for music (how this would work on this device remains to be seen) would help support for the iphone. Jeff indicates they want to support lots of phones, and the initial iphone looks like it might benefit from keyboard support. 2. memory capacity, and can it be upgraded. Kinda goes with #1. 3. throw in a third: 3rd party program support.
Ya know what's interesting?SeldomVisitor @ 5/30/2007 2:08:58 PM #
At my doctor's office (bunch of doctors in one office, etc) they use devices essentially like this (same size) wirelessly throughout the office space as they and the nursing staff are walking around seeing patients, etc.
Been doing so for years, too. Damn! What a great idea!
The Multimediasnakechung @ 5/30/2007 2:14:04 PM #
Can't see any multimedia for this device? It is important for the buyer to choose a new mobile device now. RE: The Multimedia
Oh it comes with a VGA adapter....presumably that means one more proprietary dongle to have to tote around & potentially get lost. SD & CF slots? Come on, that's redundant. Sure there are plenty of CF peripherals out there but they all require drivers which will never be written for this thing. I'd like to see the CF slot jettisoned, an SDHC slot instead of regular SD (why does everyone but the camera companies refuse to move forward with SDHC?), and 2gb+ of internal flash. And, of course, a $399 or less pricetag without any of those silly mail-in rebates.
RE: The Multimediaaverageguy @ 5/30/2007 2:29:16 PM #
i work for the lirr and everyone who has a laptop coming home from work is watching movies and listening to music with there laptops. its seems to be pretty important to umwind from work. you need good multimedia in a device. m125-zire 71-zire 72 "Never pay full price for late pizza" Michelangelo RE: The MultimediaAdamaDBrown @ 5/30/2007 6:16:20 PM #
hkk, a CF slot supports storage up to 16 GB right now, 32 GB soon, and no known limitations. Still want to toss it? :) RE: The Multimedia
Let's assume that the CF slot is entirely open and user-accessible...and that the OS/bootloader are not contained on a pre-loaded CF card, eh? ;-)
IF it's a CF card that can be devoted entirely to storage then let the rejoicing begin! I just find it an interesting choice as the entire industry seems to be moving away from CF at the moment. Even some DSLRs are starting to adopt SDHC....I have no opposition to CF, it's just a VERY un-Palm-like move seeing as how they just kicked up between the legs by dropping fullsize SD/SDHC to go with miniSD on the last two Treos. I really wish laptops still came with integrated CF slots. I find the usual SD/MS combo slots kind of limiting, actually.
Initial impression? A disaster in the making!
Nice industrial design but there's simply no way that anyone will go for this unless they have very specialized needs. Looking at this thing I cannot help but think of it as basically a Palm Portable keyboard with a CPU & a screen grafted onto it. Or maybe one of those Cidco/Earthlink Mailstations from a few years back (modem/keyboard/mono LCD all integrated together). Or even one of the ancient Tandy 1000s or a first-gen Windows CE clamshell. Or a WebTV but with wi-fi and an LCD screen. No video capabilities? No document creation capabilities? No internal storage capacity? The carriers aren't like to push this thing...is Palm going to try to sell through traditional B&M retailers and pitch this as an uber-PDA? Either way, the pricing, size, and crippled functionality are all going to conspire to absolutely doom this thing. What Palm REALLY needs(ed) is a $400 or less, TX-sized full-fledged PDA with integrated EVDO wireless data and a chunk of internal flash storage. This thing is simply too little, too late. There's no way I'd leave a $500 , 15" widescreen, dual core laptop running Vista at home and carry this $500-$600 thing in conjunction with a $600 Treo. No, Palm & Hawkins have totally lost it this time. Lightning is not going to strike thrice for Hawkins. Instead of this tomfoolery Palm should continue to refine their pocket-sized PDA line and add high-speed integrated wireless and gigs of flash-based storage. What a misfire. Palm was once owned by 3Com. 3Com had the Audrey. Now Palm has their own version of the Audrey in the making. RE: Initial impression? A disaster in the making!fierywater @ 5/30/2007 2:22:16 PM #
I can't help but feel that if it were $399 instead of $499 and without a rebate, this device would have an infinitely higher chance of success. RE: Initial impression? A disaster in the making!
Does it truly not support video, SDHD or document creation? RE: Initial impression? A disaster in the making!
This is not really for people that have a laptop. Lots of people have desk tops and for non-IT literate people I think a simple to use Plam OS device would be great and you'd have access in the long term to a very large library of Palm software. Agendus is better than Outlook IMHO... Jah RE: Initial impression? A disaster in the making!AdamaDBrown @ 5/30/2007 7:15:27 PM #
PDAJah, the Foleo doesn't run Palm OS or Palm OS applications. RE: Initial impression? A disaster in the making!
IMHO, it may work if... - it can function as the monitor and keyboard of a zero-footprint (tiny) PC regardless what OS that tiny PC runs, best if that that tiny box is the size of a regular Palm (or even smaller) - it can function a portable TV screen - it has a sensitive microphone and speaker to be used for a phone via wifi (using Skype or alike) - it runs WMA and/or RealPlayer as a portable streaming radio/video player - it is ruggedized (less breakable), solar powered, not temperature sensitive, or alike (to be mounted and/or left in the hot, humid, freezing car for a long time) Otherwise, without at least three of the above in any combinations, I am afraid this will end up as 3Com Ergo Audrey, or Microsoft BOB, Apple Newton, etc... RE: Initial impression? A disaster in the making!
"Looking at this thing I cannot help but think of it as basically a Palm Portable keyboard with a CPU & a screen grafted onto it."
See that's the thing. If it was just that, this would be a great product. There are a lot of people out there carrying Palms/Treo's who are also carrying laptops for "real work" back at the hotel in the evenings, that would love a "Palm keyboard on steroids" to make catching up with email/docs editing/web surfing easier. But for $500? Why, when you can get a dual-core Dell for around a grand? The problem is that a $200 Palm keyboard on steroids isn't a company saving product. So they give it WiFi, throw around some buzzwords, try and get the Linux crowd fired up about it, and here we are. If this thing was just a nice simple large keyboard/screen interface to a Treo for $200 they'd sell a million of them.
It's a Win HPC device!!madmaxmedia @ 5/30/2007 2:18:06 PM #
Not really, but revisiting that form factor. I had a NEC MobilePro that I really liked. Close to full sized keyboard, instant on, long battery life, mobile Office apps, etc. The hardware was very long in the tooth, but obviously the new Foleo will be up to date from hardware side. RE: It's a Win HPC device!!Foo Fighter @ 5/30/2007 2:29:44 PM #
Ha! That's exactly what I was thinking when I first looked at this device. This is an HPC redux. Palm is about seven years behind the market. Hell, they didn't even get the HPC form factor right. Vadem's Clio was far more innovative and elegantly designed. RE: It's a Win HPC device!!
Hmmmm, I'm having tremendous feelings of Deja Vu over the past hour. Apple released the $800 Newton-baed eMate over a decade ago. It was met with astounding indifference in the marketplace. The eMate weighed 4lbs, had 1mb of RAM, 2mb of flash, and 8mb of ROM, a 480x320 monochrome widescreen and infrared wireless. http://www.the-gadgeteer.com/review/apple_emate_300_blast_from_the_past_review The eMate enjoyed nice mid-90s Apple industrial design, good build quality and a largeish LCD for the time. But it was just too underpowered for a laptop, too large for a PDA and never truly supported by Apple. I remember hoping that they'd keep tweaking the line and make it a real multimedia powerhouse. Then Newton's law brought us a world full of $1000 laptops and no one cared anymore. Then the eMate-derived iBook came out a few years later and took the market by storm and Apple hasn't looked back since. The primary difference here is that Apple was a PC manufacturer who dipped a toe into the PDA market and failed. Palm is a PDA company trying to climb uphill to dip a toe into the subnotebook market while leaping headfirst into the smartphone pool but still trying to adhere to the PDA playbook of 1996 (Zen etc). So.....back to the 700p ROM update watch I go! P.S. Speaking of the 700p...I ended up grudgingly going with a 700p because of my affection towards the Palm OS and the huge investment in apps I've made over the years. I went with a Treo because Palm hobbled their final PDAs so much and refused to let users of their PDAs do BT DUN with most all conventional featurephone/dumbphones on the market. So I HAD to go with a Treo in order to get Palm OS + wireless anywhere even though I didn't want a Treo *PER SE*. Now Palm comes out with something that's not the EVDO-enabled TX2 I was hoping for but an unwieldy, overpriced monstrosity I'd never consider carrying around with me. Why are Palm and Hawkins SO dead-set on ignoring the classic Palm Plot/Palm V formfactor. It's just big enough without being TOO big! P.P.S. I'd be more likely to spend $600 on a EVDO'd TX2 that was rock solid stable than the Foleo. It's not just a pricing issue, it's size/lack of multimedia/lack of document functionality etc etc etc etc. My only remaining hope is that there's a TX or Zodiac-sized (at largest) Mobile Companion in the works for an October release. RE: It's a Win HPC device!!
palm wihout any doubt, has become the biggest joke in the industry. always moving backwards
Laptop wannabeFoo Fighter @ 5/30/2007 2:27:09 PM #
So this is Palm's third business? Dumbed-down laptops running a proprietary OS for the same price of a real laptop? Oi! Anyone else hear that loud splash? It's the sound of this product sinking to the bottom. I retract what I said before, this product won't even establish a niche market. You can buy a really nice Acer laptop for $449 that isn't much bulkier than this. Oh the pain...the pain. RE: Laptop wannabe
Well, Dell is selling a $499 laptop now with a dual-core Turion CPU, a DVD burner, memory card slots, a 15.4" widescreen and Radeon DX9 integrated graphics. It's no powerhouse but it can handle Vista in full Aero Glass mode without too many hiccups. For $399.99 + tax (out the door, no rebates) BestBuy are currently selling THREE different laptops ( Compaq & Acer Celeron M's and an Everex VIA C7-M). All have 512mb of RAM, 60 or 80gb HDs, Vista Home Basic, and a CD or DVD burner. They are not instant-on nor are they ultra-portable but I'd take one of the above $400 laptops plus an $80 Z22 and a $100 dumbphone for REAL productivity anyday.
RE: Laptop wannabeFoo Fighter @ 5/30/2007 2:50:11 PM #
Agreed. It astounds me that Palm actually believes a customer base exists for this product. Based on everyday functionality alone, this thing is absolutely worthless for anything beyond basic web browsing and email. A 10" display is too small for real work. For a full portable computing experience a 13" or great display is a must, and even el cheapo notebooks in this price range offer up to a 15.4" widescreen display. Another astonishing disappointment is its rather homely design. I wouldn't go so far as to call it ugly, but this certainly isn't something I would be proud to pull out of my backpack at a meeting. All plastic, unattractive grey plastic. It looks more like really cheap looking PC notebook than the elegant portable Palm claims it to be. Palm really has lost it's edge. They have no clue what mobile computing is all about anymore. It now must resort to throwing spaghetti at a wall to see what sticks.
RE: Laptop wannabe
>>>For a full portable computing experience a 13" or great display is a must, Aw, nuts. I could do plenty with a Samsung Q1 Classic and it's 7" screen. It's the SOFTWARE, stupid. Which the Flopeo is lacking. And will continue to lack. Just like Nokia's Anti-Internet Tablets. RE: Laptop wannabeFoo Fighter @ 5/30/2007 3:10:51 PM #
Trust me, after spending a few hours squinting at that puny 10" display, that MacBook sitting on the shelf at CompUSA is going to look real good to you. Another thing you may have overlooked is the small screen means a cramped keyboard as well. So not only are you squinting at the screen, your hands are practically clasped together when typing. Orthopedics should give these away to patients, they're sure to generate repeat customers. ------------------------------- http://www.pocketfactory.com http://www.elitistsnob.com RE: Laptop wannabe
I've used the Q1 Classic. It's fine. That's not to say the Flopeo is any good. Right off the bat I can see it's not. Yeah, Palm now Daughter of Audrey! RE: Laptop wannabe
Totally agree with what's being said here - if you're going to buy half a laptop, then you might as well just go the whole hog and get a real computer. Foleo screams "niche market only". And here we were all hoping for a cool new handheld that could Palm exciting again. What a letdown!! RE: Laptop wannabeSeldomVisitor @ 5/30/2007 8:55:14 PM #
> ...And here we were all hoping for a cool new handheld
> that could Palm exciting again... Not me! I was looking for some show-stopping SOFTWARE running on remote servers ala the iPhone's Visual Vociemail et al that would allow DUHmb Linux-based phones to be served both applications and massaged-data on-the-fly! I really really did think that Bill Coleman was brought onto the BoD for a reason! > ...What a letdown!! Yup.
This is the end...of Palm
It took Palm almost 2 years to come up with a stripped-down laptop as their new mobile device? ("The earliest indications that Palm founder Jeff Hawkins had a major new project in the works came in August of 2005."). What a let-down. Since I need my laptop for business applications anyway, does Palm expect me to carry a second laptop-like device around with me? RE: This is the end...of Palm
Unbelievable right!?!
In the larger scheme of things, I guess it is a sign of things to come for Palm as a company. I see it going the Ford/GM way. Will be honestly sorry to see Palm hammered - we all come to this forum because we love /loved Palm's platform. But times have changed. And Palm is just not there. Period. RIP.
What a disppointment!
Somebody worked on this for 7 years? What a idiot! $450 laptop in 7 years ago is a "third catagory" business, but now it is just a joke.
excellent product by Palmchiefthetony @ 5/30/2007 2:33:52 PM #
If anyone has trid to do some work using the small screen and the small keyboard will appreciate this one.
Wow - Hawkins appparently ALREADY said to Mossberg...SeldomVisitor @ 5/30/2007 2:35:08 PM #
== "...WM Let me get this straight. It won't do the hottest thing
== on the web? [They blame the flash ware, but its obviously the procesor] == == JH Let me be clear -- it will do it, but not well. == == WM When? == == JH UHHH...In the future. == == JH If I could do it again, I'd put a faster processor in here. Gack!
Does this require a DUN-enabled Treo?
I've got an unlocked GSM Treo 650, and I use it as a mobile internet connection for my Nokia N800. I can do this because my unlocked Treo supports DUN (dial-up networking), which allows the Nokia to use it as a wireless modem. And with an (expensive) unlimited data plan, this setup is pretty nice.
But many Treo users are not so lucky, and have Treos where DUN has been disabled by the carrier. How is the Foleo going to work with these devices? Is this why it has to "sync" with the Treo -- because it cannot get to the internet directly?
more questions
Given, it just came out, but I hope that Palm will provide a spec sheet so we can all see what this really is. Right now you can't tell. 1. Storage? What type? What size? RE: more questions
Work with a RAZR? Considering Palm has their final two PDAs (Lifedrive in May '05 and TX in Oct '05) to not work with CDMA dumbphones via BT DUN so as to keep Sprint & Verizon buying more underpowered Treos, I think the answer is a resounding "NO" to that question. Sure, Palm may cozy up with one or two manufacturers (Apple & RIM spring to mind) to make a small handful of certain handsets Foleo-friendly but I would not consider the Foleo a device that can be used universally on ANY cell phone with a Bluetooth DUN profile. Also, Palm hasn't updated their sad PhoneLink update software since June of 2005. They're not about to start doing it again anytime soon.
Agreed, need to see specs.JonAcheson @ 5/30/2007 3:16:20 PM #
I'd like to know about display resolution, processor speed, and onboard memory. Also, is this thing able to be used as a standalone device, or do you have to have a Treo? I have no intention of buying a Treo, but it might be a nice standalone writing device. What's really missing right now is the mission statement. Something like "You use it to blog." If all it's good for is email and Docs to Go, color me unimpressed.
Found some specs!JonAcheson @ 5/30/2007 3:40:19 PM #
From the PC Magazine article here: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2138728,00.asp Hawkins calls this new category of handhelds "Mobile Companions," and his new device is called Foleo. It sports a full-size keyboard, a 10.2-inch bright color screen, and has an SD card slot, VGA out, USB, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi. The base unit itself comes with only 256MB of built-in RAM, but it has a CompactFlash slot under the battery so you can expand memory there or via the SD card slot. Memory is disappointing, but the price is right, and it should do a good job displaying PDFs. And the memory can be fixed by adding a big CF card. As a cheap Linux laptop, this might be interesting. It would be competing against the Intel Classmate PC, and the OLPC, though the latter is unlikely to be commercially available any time soon. Screen ResolutionJonAcheson @ 5/30/2007 3:46:29 PM #
More info from PC Mag: It weighs about 2.4 pounds but feels much lighter, and even with its small battery it can deliver five full hours (even while using Wi-Fi the entire time). The large screen supports 1024-by-600 or 1024-by-768 VGA resolution. Navigation is done through a TrackPoint nub in the keyboard and it has a roller wheel below the keyboard to provide fast and easy scrolling. "All opinions posted are my own, and not those of my employers, who are appalled." RE: more questions
Hmmm I'd still rather see 2x SDHC slots than a CF & SD slot. Still, at least they let you roll your own flavor of CF...be it a cheap leftover Microdrive or a slow off-brand regular CF or a huge 16gb CF (down to $150ish nowdays. So with 8gb or 16gb in the CF slot and 4gb in th SD slot it still might turn out alright. But then again, 2 or 4 gb internally would still have been the best solution to complement dual expansion slots. I don't see what runs up the cost on this thing. All of the tech used here is stuff seen on previous Palms (other than the 10" LCD of course) and there's nothing like WiMax, SSD or OLED to run up the pricetag. Could it just be Palm being greedy again and hoping for a specialy low-volume, high margin niche device like the T|C was?
RE: more questions
The CF slot is what will hold the LifeDrive's MicroDrive.
Ooh. Gotta go put mine up on ebay! The Microdrive, that is. My LifeDrive is now LifeFlash.
Guess what? No new OS for you!!
There's the new OS. And I bet it AIN'T coming to your Treo or whatever remaining PDA Palm deigns to put out.
It's for the Flopeo -- uh, Foleo only. Wait.
finallyaverageguy @ 5/30/2007 2:55:51 PM #
this might replace the fossil watch i still wear. m125-zire 71-zire 72 "Never pay full price for late pizza" Michelangelo
Product looks fantastic!
I'm an IT consultant and I hate carrying my laptop. I always have my TX handy with my timesheets, accounting, and contacts/appointments database. All I need while travelling about is MS office, internet functionality and some multimedia capabilities. This device might do it all for me. Windows XP is too slow to start up when all you want to do is quickly add a few notes or look up some items. Time is quite precious. I'm intrigued by the linux aspect, as it opens up enormous possibilities. As I use UNIX almost everyday, for an IT technician machine this could be perfect for remote access. It's also easy to see that any number of a large amount of existing applications may be ported quite easily to this platform. That was always a failing of the Windows CE platform. However, it worries me that there is no mention of memory or solid state hard drives yet. It needs a reasonable amount to make the product a winner. Slim, gorgeous, sexy, linux. I think Microsoft are in for a shock. RE: Product looks fantastic!SeldomVisitor @ 5/30/2007 3:44:43 PM #
Didn't you forget the ob-disclosure paragraph? RE: Product looks fantastic!
Not sure what you mean? But I don't have anything to do with Palm or development on the Palm platform. Nor involved as an industry or media analyst. I am a developer on Oracle, Windows and UNIX.
WOW!
What a piece of crap! In a time when we're trying to prevent carrying multiple devices, Palm's BRILLIANT idea is to make us all carry another one?!
Who fell off their rocker and made this suggestion? What a waste of time. Yet another tangent on the Palm road map which will inevitably result in a dead end. RIP Palm 2007
Who Cares..leathernuts @ 5/30/2007 3:02:21 PM #
I already have a laptop!!! What I want to see is the Darn!!! 700P update!!!! I guess its never gonna happen.
Touch Screen???Colormeweb @ 5/30/2007 3:03:18 PM #
Why does the screen not turn around to make a tablet? Where the heck is the stylus?? No touch screen on a Palm???
Already got something like this...BorgDrone72 @ 5/30/2007 3:07:59 PM #
...it's called the Nokia N800. 800x480 screen, very sharp, easy to read. If I need to look at a web page that doesn't render properly on my Treo, I just whip out the N800, which has a full version of Opera on it. It also does email and I can also remotely manage my servers and other computers (VNC/remote desktop and good old SSH remote login). I can also do email and news/RSS on the thing, either using webmail or its built in POP and IMAP mail client. The only thing it is lacking is a keyboard, and the capability to edit Office documents. I don't really need to edit Office documents remotely, so that's not really important to me. And as soon as my next paycheck comes, I'll be buying a Bluetooth keyboard, which the N800 plays happily with. (besides, the N800 has a soft-keyboard that is perfectly adequate for typing in short emails, URLs, and the like.) Plus it's a *real* Linux based computer, so it can use the thousands of open source applications that are out there... everything from basic text editing, email, web, news/RSS, etc., all the way to really weird esoteric stuff like biological protein molecule modeling and other sci/eng apps. And yes, there are lots of games for it too. It's also smaller than the Foleo, and easily fits in my inside coat pocket. So it may not be as elegant as the Foleo, but it was cheaper (about $400 for the N800 vs $599 and a $100 rebate for the Foleo).
RE: Already got something like this...
Yeah, well, YouTube sucks on your Nokia Anti-Internet Tablet. But it will probably suck on the Flopeo too. Between the two, my god! someone give me a sedative!, I'd choose the N800 over the Flopeo. God, just kill me NOW for typing that admission! RE: Already got something like this...BorgDrone72 @ 5/30/2007 3:19:49 PM #
Blame it on Adobe. The reason why Youtube playback sucks is mostly due to the fact that there is no official Flash support. You know, proprietary closed source protocols and all. Nokia is using an opensource Flash player, which is still evolving. They released a software update recently and now it is actually somewhat playable (there is still stuttering/jerky video but you get the gist of it). Before this update, it didn't work at all. I suspect that in the next software update it will be even better. I ran into the exact same thing on my desktop Linux box at work, which defaults to using the open source Flash plugin. I had to install the Adobe official plugin to get it to work right (which is only available as an Intel x86 binary, so it own't work on the N800 which is an ARM based unit.)
RE: Already got something like this...
Maybe Adobe is smart enough to see THERE IS NO REAL MARKET for these crippled devices?
Why???
I've said this before but now that I've "seen" it I'll say it again. This product will revolutionize the smartphone segment as much as the Segway revolutionized transportation.
I firmly believe the "revolutionary" comments start getting tossed out to the public once the designers and managers come to the realization "Oh sh*t. We answered a question no one was asking." Seriously, how can you spend years working on this pile of crap and actually admit you put that kind of time in to it? For about $150 - $200 I can maybe see a use for it but when you can get a nice laptop for the same price, you would have to be retarded to buy one of these. Aren't iPhones going to start at $499?
Remember the LifeDrive
This thing is DOA. They could have dusted off the LifeDrive and improved its features, pleased the installed base, and maybe even offered a new skinnier, better LifeDrive v 2. But they didn't. We'll all be reminiscing soon about Palm, what a great idea it had all those years ago, wondering if they'll have a sale on their office furniture. Palm Pilot, PalmOne, Palm, Foleo -- RIP.
Great vision
Finally, the simplicity of Palm in small laptop. Normal people now have a simple to use and hopefully reliable computing device that is affordable. It can only get better. I would love to use my Palm apps with a larger screen. Agendus is much better than outlook, for example. ListManager Pro would also be terrific when used with a larger display. This is only the platform - the software makes the difference :) :) :) Jah RE: Great vision
I understood it was not that difficult to port DataViz's apps so we should see the mega library of Palm apps in the near future... Jah RE: Great visionFoo Fighter @ 5/30/2007 3:48:42 PM #
Oh God yes, because Documents To Go is just as good (better in fact) than a real Office suite. *sarcasm* Why would I want the same limited baby PalmOS software running on a notebook-like portable? Do the apps suck less when you add a 10" screen and QWERTY keyboard? I think not. On a PC notebook in this class, for the same price, I get a machine that has ZERO software limitations. I can user virtually any desktop class application (short of PC gaming) with no restrictions. FOLEO offers none of that, not even a full web experience. This product is going to flop so badly that the light from flop will take 10,000 years to reach its surface. RE: Great vision
Hello for a second time! Why doesn't it even come with the FOUR BASIC PALM PIMs on it?! DataViz jumped on it as a way to try to get some $$$ from the MSWord, et al, market. Having had D2G lose the formatting on nearly everydamnthing I ever put in it, I will NEVER trust or use that software again. That the Flopeo has it is no selling point to me. RE: Great vision
@Foo - the point I can use the same apps on my Palm and Foleo, and I prefer my Palm apps. They are simple and efficient. I have a Sony Vaio TX1 and Samsung Q1 so I know what small XP/Vista devices are about..they are inefficient and slow. Non-IT people find PCs a nightmare to use. I really think having a simple OS with simple apps would appeal to a lot of people. I have 20+ years in IT and I never use more than 20% of the capability of Word and Exce... Jah RE: Great vision
@mikecane, if you can't port Palm apps with ease then I think the Foleo is dead...lets wait until July/August and see what the full set of apps are..I am sure we'll see Agendus and Databook etc Jah RE: Great vision
>>>I am sure we'll see Agendus and Databook etc If yer dreams, mate! People said the same fekkin thing about the Linux-based Nokia Anti-Internet Tablets. Yeah, some wealth of software that inspired! RE: Great vision
I don't think anyone can say how much of of a success this product will be. It's too early to tell. However, it's simplicity which drives mass market takeup of a product - the original Palm being a case in point. The majority still only buy a Palm for the basic applications, which satisfies their needs. However, we all know the Palm is a powerful platform with a vast number of programs, in it's own right. We are possibly back to a product, maybe in many ways like the original Palm Pilot. Maybe, so easy that my grandmother (or people like her) could use it. That's a huge market!! However, anyone who thinks a Linux operating system based product is an underpowered product, is a fool. Whether Palm can get enough critical mass from developers to port existing Linux applications or create new ones for 'power' users is anyone's guess. It depends entirely on the numbers who buy the product (all users). Developers and software companies have to make a profit. I'm sold on it. I've always wanted something quick and light, almost like a PDA for when i'm travelling. I mostly only need full office functionality (Word, Email, Excel etc.) and internet access. I know many people think like that too, since I'm nearly always sorting out their problems. The iPod, the original Blackberry, ... all basic functionality, but market winners. I know that one of the first things I will do is to seek a program for command line access to the operating system, to get full power of the machine. A portable Linux laptop for development. Yes, this thing is great for Pros and IT technical staff and consultants alike. I don't know what it takes to make a winning product, people are quite fickle. But all the winners so far, have 'appeared' to be quite simple in design and in function, at the start of their product life.
RE: Great vision
>>>We are possibly back to a product, maybe in many ways like the original Palm Pilot. Maybe, so easy that my grandmother (or people like her) could use it. That's a huge market!!
Then why the hell didn't she rush to buy this when it came out? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_eVilla Or is it only now that she's getting senile?
The Road To Flopeo: Two Prior Designs Revealed!
Damn, and what a raging success these babies were too! http://content.answers.com/main/content/img/CDE/_LAPTOP.GIF http://sharkysoft.com/archive/20020000-as3000/as3000-large.jpg I think the only way they will get rid of their *immediate* overstocked inventory of Flopeos is to give it away with the purchase of an unlocked Treo from the Palm Store direct. RE: The Road To Flopeo: Two Prior Designs Revealed!Foo Fighter @ 5/30/2007 3:24:22 PM #
Alas, poor Clio. You were ahead of your time... http://www.engadget.com/media/2006/04/ClioImage12.JPG RE: The Road To Flopeo: Two Prior Designs Revealed!
Oh, and here's the HP predecessor too: HP Omnibook 300, 1993 Hands-On with the Foleo from Engadgbet
Engadget got some hands-on time with this stinker So it DOES have a cursor and a trackpoint-style nub! And what looks like a 3.5mm headphone jack! http://www.engadget.com/photos/palm-foleo-hands-on/
RE: The Road To Flopeo: Two Prior Designs Revealed!Foo Fighter @ 5/30/2007 3:39:10 PM #
Best quote of the day, posted in the comments on Engadget...
RE: The Road To Flopeo: Two Prior Designs Revealed!
Well I'll be buying one! This is a platform for software - don't judge it in hardware terms. I want to use Plam s/w on a small laptop - much better than the overly complex stuff that M$ encourages for XP/Vista Jah RE: The Road To Flopeo: Two Prior Designs Revealed!
>>>I want to use Plam s/w on a small laptop Sure, go ahead and buy one. But the minute you come here months later wailing about THE LACK OF SOFTWARE FOR IT, you must post your address so we can come over and shoot your kneecaps off. RE: The Road To Flopeo: Two Prior Designs Revealed!
@mikecane...no problem...assuming you can get across to the UK :) Jah RE: The Road To Flopeo: Two Prior Designs Revealed!
Oy you. I'm amending that agreement. You can buy one IF you move to the US!
One Possible ApplicationDarthRepublican @ 5/30/2007 3:34:21 PM #
While the Foleo's initial specs are underwhelming there is at least one application for which I think it would perform perfectly. The five hour battery life is very nice and might appeal to students who are already having their multimedia needs filled by an iPod. It should be useful as a note-taking device that a student can carry to every class and to take notes. While a student could do the same with a laptop, most modern laptops have terrible battery life and can barely get through a couple of lectures without needing to be plugged into an outlet. In addition, if Palm or a third-party have a native note-taking application which allows you to combine text with free-hand drawings in one seamless Office or Office compatible document, this device would be perfect for note-taking. That it will be able to play nice with a Treo is a given but if the Foleo could somehow interact with an iPod for outputting music and video from the iPod to the 10 inch screen, then this device could be a perfect laptop replacement for at least some people. My point is that after constantly trying to cram all possible functionality into one device, many people still carry multiple devices and Palm if it is smart enough can take advantage of that fact by turning the Foleo into a hub for all of the gadgets that we carry. Even if they stick to only letting you use it with Palm devices (which would be a mistake IMHO), it gives Palm a lot more flexibility to make devices they might not have made before. They could for example, do a truly thin Treo with no keyboard and sell it together with the Foleo in the same box as a part of an agreement with a mobile carrier. They could shrink a PDA to credit card size (remember the Rex?) and let it recharge and edit its documents by sticking it into a slot on the Foleo. I don't think that the Foleo will be a screaming success but if Palm is patient and let it evolve and become more powerful, it will become a successful device. RE: One Possible Application
Uh, I guess you never heard of the Alphasmart?! http://www.access-company.com/news/press/PalmSource/2002/061702.html That was Flopeo 0.5 RE: One Possible ApplicationDarthRepublican @ 5/31/2007 3:30:19 AM #
Actually I do remember the Alphasmart. I don't see how a highly specialized device aimed specifically at the education market like the Alphasmart qualifies as a huge flop. And personally I don't really care if the Foleo is a "flop" or not. I've been using and enjoying the LifeDrive since the day after it debuted in stores -- and I didn't have to swap out the hard drive for a CF card to do it either. So I'm sure that there will be somebody who buys the Foleo and enjoys it even if it's not a success. RE: One Possible Application
>>>So I'm sure that there will be somebody who buys the Foleo and enjoys it even if it's not a success.
And please dear God let not such a retard sit next to me in a public place!
Maybe it'll be good for something...
Well, it looks like this thing might be good for some people in very specific circumstances. But other than the few groups of people that will want the Foleo, no one's going to buy this crap. Palm should NOT have introduced this as a third, game-changing product line (especially since it appears to be reliant on their Treo product line to work). And with that insanely huge price tag... RIP Palm. But the way it is, the Flopeo is "...no longer good for anything but to be thrown out into the street and trampled by men." Come on, Palm! Let's see a TX2! RE: Maybe it'll be good for something...
Ok, based on a screenshot from Engadget, it looks like the Foleo will have about 128mb of internal storage. http://www.engadget.com/photos/palm-foleo-hands-on/258111/ RE: Maybe it'll be good for something...
Yeah, that bit about how much storage the Flopeo has hit me like a lead pipe yesterday. Geez, even FAKE IPOD NANOs have more storage! They should have crammed at least 1GB in there.
Yeah, yeah, don't give me this It Has Slots argument. Palm will screw up the filesystem again. Just watch... Besides, this is supposed to be a SIMPLE device.
I might be interested
I might be interested if it worked with my 700p, but bluetooth sucks on the 700p. Where is the 700p ROM update?
Mike
Are niche markets viable?
Like many others here, my first reaction was underwhelming. But then, as I thought about it, I realized that it's a niche item for a market Palm might be able to claim. I have several friends who are in sales or public relations. They spend more time out of their offices than in them. They've got Treos and depend on them, but complain about trying to manage their email on the little screen with the thumbboard. They don't want to carry and maintain another computer (i.e, a laptop in addition to their existing Treo and desktop). So they muddle through. The Foleo might give them better/easier access to the data they love to keep on their Treos without creating yet-another-place for data to be stored and synced. Unfortunately, it's a niche market. Success will ultimately ride on how well the software connects with "on-Treo" data and information. That, and how well Palm sells the idea to the business traveler. Of course, given recent performance and development... it's doomed. RE: Are niche markets viable?
Yes, it's down to marketing and timing. If they can sell the convenience factor of 'instant-on' and MS Office compatibility, it should take off. If a stripped-down MS Vista laptop with instant-on, suddenly arrives on the market then there will be some problems. MS Clout could spoil the party. As an IT person, the major gripe of most people/users is that a pc does more than they need, is too complicated, and too slow to boot up. The last factor is the single most irritating feature of all. The more programs that get added, the slower the start-up time, the more problems they encounter. They have a real nightmare with security (anti-virus, firewalls, anti-spyware) programs. MS Office functions (Word,Excel,Email), media players (photos, music, video), and internet access (via a browser) is all they care about. For almost anyone too, who is doing mobile working, at internet cafes, coffee shops etc. These above set of programs are the only ones that are really used. At home, a desktop/laptop with a large number of varied/specialist programs is fine. RE: Are niche markets viable?SeldomVisitor @ 5/31/2007 8:02:22 AM #
> ...If a stripped-down MS Vista laptop with instant-on, suddenly > arrives on the market then there will be some problems... These don't already exist? RE: Are niche markets viable?
But Palm hasn't included multimedia capabilities here. They should take an example from the philosophy of the iPhone and include the basic functionality that users will require. As you said, web browsing & email, document editing, multimedia. If this POS doesn't do all those things, then good luck to Palm. They've just released and expensive doorstop.
Hahahahah... Well for one thing, I was *surprised*!
I honestly had really high expectations and was really surprised when I read that this "revolutionary" new device was essentially a thin-client laptop.
Let's ditch the lappy, to use the phone, and now let's ditch the phone and use the foleo.. NO WAIT! Why don't I just use the laptop I already have??? BRILLIANT... Seriously now.. A companion device for a companion device for the computer.... I know they're really pushing to standardize the smartphone as the main source of data, but seriously. Who *really* relies 100% on their smartphone for everything? My guess is a tiny tiny *tiny* niche market. Way to go vertical palm... I really thought this was an april fool's joke... Wow.. [/rant]
Do they actually USE their products anymore?james_sorenson @ 5/30/2007 3:55:47 PM #
(Sigh)...
I own a Treo680. I love it, but it took some tweaking to get it right, and I still have the occassionaly "battery offset" issue where it'll fully-charge to only 26% at times. It makes me wonder how much they actually USED their own stuff before putting it out on the market. I also owned some of the early Psion UMPC models. I love the OS, but the form-factor was miserable. So....we have the Foleo now! A few Pros and Cons, shall we? Then add your own. Pros: Cons: 2. Wait...what's that on the keyboard? A track-pointer?!?! AAAAAAAAUGH...there's a CURSOR on the screen!!! It uses a @#()*#^ mouse instead of touch-screen! What is this, the 90s? 3. ...you know what, never mind. I already don't want this. Seriously, it has nearly all of the inconvenience of a standard UMPC but without the compatibility. ====What it SHOULD have been==== (Sigh again). Who's going to drop $400 for a neutered, awkward laptop when the Nokia N800 and Apple iPhone are available? I really hope I'm wrong about this device, but right I can't see why the "average joe" would pick this up, never mind us techies who know better. Average Joe wants touch-screen, movies, games, and that whole "it feels good in my hands" thing. This appears to be a niche market.
Huh?
2 years of R&D and they produce a laptop that does less than my Tungsten T3?!?!?!?!
Keep up the innovating Palm!
Hello Audrey
Hello Audrey, nice to see you, it's been a long time You're just as silly as you used to be RE: Hello AudreyFoo Fighter @ 5/30/2007 5:01:23 PM #
Audrey had a touchscreen. At least that product failed with grace, instead tumbling out the door landing flat on its face. ------------------------------- http://www.pocketfactory.com http://www.elitistsnob.com
End-run around blocked DUN
One positive thing that Palm is doing aside from addressing the instant-on and battery life shortcomings of cheap laptops: they are working around the fact that most of the carriers won't *let* you use a laptop tethered to your phone. The Foleo gets your email from the phone itself, not by using the phone as a modem, so it works around that limitation... for email and attached documents at least. Theoretically, you could have apps on the phone that work as agents to fetch you other things, like files off your office desktop or even the desktop itself (with a VNC client). But the farther you go with this the more you run into the limitation of the smartphone battery. I guess if you're going to do that kind of heavy remote connectivity over |
"Many men stumble across the truth, but most manage to pick themselves up
and continue as if nothing had happened."
- Winston Churchill