As rumored, the big new device that's Palm's Jeff Hawkins has chosen to announce at the D conference today is the Palm Foleo, which the company is billing as a 'mobile companion'. Boasting a 10-inch widescreen display and a full-size keyboard, the device is intended to be used in conjunction with your smartphone, with any edits to documents made on one device automatically reflected on the other thanks to the device's Bluetooth connectivity. The device also promises to turn on 'instantly', boasts built-in WiFi, and should last about 5 hours on a single charge. It runs Linux. More here.
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Though it wasn't what I was expecting, if the Foleo was cheaper, say $200 - $300 I likely would have decided to purchase one. As a writer I don't need much more than a glorified lightweight typewriter with a web broswer and the Foleo looks small enough to fill that requirement. I think palm would have been better off developing the foleo as a sort of OLPC for consumers.
Edited 2007-05-30 21:40
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Yeah, the OLPC looks as it could do everything the Foleo could do, and then some.
With the OLPC spec being free, and all the optimisation being done in the hardware and software, I am thinking that someone ought to put it into a case as sexy as the Foleo's and start selling it for $300. OLPC and Quanta could do it in parallel with the XO-1 ...
I'd queue for one! Who else would like a nice and sexy ultraportable tablet PC that ran Linux for hours upon hours on a single charge, with a sunlight readable screen and a webcam, all for $300? Underpowered? Not really, for carefully chosen software; it won't run Microsoft Vista or Office, anyway (though maybe Sun should start thinking about an eventual DietOpenOffice ... DOO!).
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Agreed... a commercial spinoff from the OLPC project would be awesome.
My current Linux laptop is a nice piece of kit, but since it's less powerful than my desktop it ends up mostly being an ssh terminal. Would be nice if I could lose some of the excess weight / features, gain some battery life and have an efficient mobile terminal. OLPC looks like it'd be possibly better for my purposes than a "proper" laptop - I'd be interested in paying money for something similar.
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I blogged about how it compares to the Nokia N800 here:
http://eugenia.blogsome.com/2007/05/30/palm-foleo-vs-nokia-n800/
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I think you're greatly discounting the robustness of web applications when you say the Foleo is "just a web browser and email client."
Then again, since it is Linux-based, we're at the mercy of Adobe's Linux Flash plug-in. I haven't tried v9 for Linux yet, but I've heard of many issues with previous versions.
Lets just give Adobe the benefit of the doubt that the Flash plugin works in Linux (or will be better supported in the future) that means games are available. Video and multimedia is a available via youTube, Google video, etc.
For goodness' sake where are the tech specs? I'm getting impatient with Palms website. All I want to know is if the Foleo has audio capabilities. If it doesn't, my point about about Flash multimedia is moot.
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I don't think Palm is trying to make it more than just web/email and maybe office. IMO, as a device, the N800 can do more.
And yes, Palm not showing the tech specs is really pissing me off too. They should tell us internal memory and storage memory, screen resolution, cpu speed etc.
Edited 2007-05-30 22:13
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http://www.ministryoftech.com/
Well at least that answers the question about audio.
EDIT:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,276510,00.html
Edited 2007-05-30 22:23
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Well, Flash 9 works just FINE in Linux x86, (and maybe in Power PC), but to my knowledge, it would be its first appearance on ARM (which I assume is the Foleo's processor).
I'd venture there's audio; even the $99 z22 has it, so the Foleo would otherwise be the only silent Palm device!
Yeah, where are those tech specs?
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I think you're off on a few points in your blog. According to the Engadget article which is linked to, the Foleo does handle Flash, so I'm assuming it should handle YouTube. As for video, considering that most PDAs these days handle it without issue, what makes you think the Foleo won't be able to? If anything I expect its processor to be on the faster side of the PDA spectrum....
You are right about how nice it would be to have a device in between those two. Something like the NEC MobilePro 900, but priced right, marketed toward the consumer instead of only niche businesses, and with all of the web and multimedia functionality expected of such devices today.
Edited 2007-05-30 22:56
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you may find this engadget hands-on interesting:
http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/palm-foleo-hands-on/
more specifically the gallery, in particular this image:
http://www.engadget.com/photos/palm-foleo-hands-on/258102/
notice the file manager, and terminal.
then there is this:
http://www.engadget.com/photos/palm-foleo-hands-on/258111/
the application manager.
hell, one can even set shortcuts on the apps. and i can see a "menu" key on the keyboard shots, located where there win key is on most pc keyboards. hang on, its a menu key on the right side of the space bar, and a apps key on the left. looks like this baby may well be very keyboard friendly.
the one thing thats sad about this device is that it walked into the same trap as the nokia 770. its cpu is just a bit to weak to handle flash effortlessly.
question is, will palm come out with a new one with a stronger cpu if the sales are good enough? and if so, are the potential users in a kind of chicken and egg situation? as in, grab now and dont get the flash performance. or wait and maybe never see the device at all?
Edited 2007-05-31 01:48
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its a start. and from what i understood there was a SD slot on the side and a CF slot (probably the 128MB shown) under the battery.
and i think i read on one page that it would support USB mass storage, so grab a USB flash key or maybe a external HD for those really big files 
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Looks like a halfway decent stand-in for the Psion netBook has finally arrived. Just one issue: only five hours battery life?!?!?!?! Full-blown laptops of similar size offer that much these days!!!! If you're going to make it underpowered and PDA-like, at least make it last as long as a PDA is supposed to!!! Otherwise what's the point?
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It seems more a device for the executive who doesn't need anything else but has money to burn and co-workers to annoy.
It's nice enough but it doesn't do anything new, except the purported seamless synchronisation. A Treo in a different form factor would have been more useful. I believe that anyone with thumbs too big to type on the Treo keyboard would agree.
Palm has good ideas but they really need a visionary, not another device.
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I'll withhold judgment until I see it in person. I've been waiting for some type of affordable sub-notebook with a more PDA than desktop inspired OS. While The main draw of such a device is e-mail and web browsing, I'd really be interested in its third party application capability and it would have been really nice to include an (Pidgin based perhaps?) IM client.
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I think that is part of the possible appeal if it does turn out to have some decent linux hackability. Its a fairly small device, and most subnotebooks it's size cant be had for even close to that sum. (unless you go with a used device).
This is a device for the mobile roadwarrior, crackberry like treonaut crowd. Its a device design to get specific jobs done well and effeciently, while cutting out all the fat. If I'm in the airport and need to fire off a dozen emails. It would be alot easier to instant on this device, compose and send (with or without wifi) in the 10minutes before the flight starts boarding. Try booting up windows or linux, getting wifi connected or tethering off your phone, and firingin up some apps in the same time...not gonna happen..takes 10minutes just to get booted up and setup.
I think there could be a market for this type of tool, but only if palm executes it right, and they have a bad habit of not doing just that.
Im thinking it's got more ram and processor power then some people are banking on..even dell axims hit what 612mhz? and if they are saying its a device for viewing pictures on as a main feature, and handling email attachments....fyi engadget says its got 256MB ram and does flash, but just can't handle flash video...which is the norm it seems for these type of devices lately..flash video is a whole different monster form just playing flash on a webpage. Adobe Flash 9 for linux works fine BTW..no prob.
I say lets wait and see what type of horsepower it has, and what kinda app options you are given...before we call it bang or bust...
For chits and giggles, lets say its a open platform, and you can even install some of the embedded linux apps like stuff found on handelds.org and it has decent storage and power...I would say it's got a good stab at the n800 crowd, specially if they own treos already. Will be interesting to see whats under the hood.
Edited 2007-05-31 05:13
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I notice engadget is saying that the foleo will have flash which is interesting. Will have to see how youtube runs on it.
I notice that there is a terminal as well. Is it a linux terminal?
Also, this link :
http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/31/palms-ed-colligan-foleo-is-the-w...
Shows Ed Colligan saying there will be a dev kit available for it. I'm actually quite lookign forward to see what it can do
Edited 2007-05-31 15:31
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I think the instant on / instant off is the killer feature. To me a laptops portability is killed by having to wait a minute+ for it to turn on, and the battery life of most laptops(especially if we're talking the price range of the foleo) drain too much in standby.
If the foleo startup is truly instantaneous, it would make it a non-hassle to fire off email or browse a website. Especially if it's synced to get online through your treo's internet which is already connected anyways. "Instantaneous" makes the difference between being hassled and being streamlined.
I think that is "new" in and of itself. And if it's snappy enough, you won't be waisting battery life on loading of respected applications anyways.
If it delivers in that sense, I would want one. I probably wouldn't even want a laptop anymore. Waiting for it to boot, load, etc is too inconvenient to make it "portable enough" for me.
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I really like it, especially if it has goot USB-MSD support - but I really do not like the hinting of Palm using an xScale processor, but you're quite right that does fit the fact that it is a bit underpowered and its rather small battery time.
The only advantage that the xScale has to its competitors like the OMAP is that it is easier to sell due to its higher frequency, and it might be a bit cheaper.