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.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
Member since:2006-01-03
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!).
Member since:2005-07-06
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.
Member since:2006-06-12
Member since:
2005-07-06
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