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Palm Unveils Foleo, Linux-Based "Mobile Companion"
An anonymous reader writes "Contrary to recent rumors, it's not Palm's first Linux smartphone, and no, it's not a competitor to Nokia's Linux-based N800 Internet Tablet. Rather, Palm today unveiled the Foleo, which it's calling a 'new class' of mobile device. The device 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. Company founder Jeff Hawkins predicts that the Foleo will be more successful than Palm's original Palm Pilot, which he designed, and more successful than its current Treo smartphones. He touts its simplicity: 'Press a button, it's on. Press it again, it's off. There are no other modes.'"
It's too big to be a PDA, too small to be a laptop. This thing looks like a solution looking for a problem. Other than the fact that it's a portable device that runs Linux, I see no reason to spend $500 on this. I'd rather buy a sub-notebook and have the extra functionality.
I understand aiming this at people looking for a low-level laptop replacement, but as an alternative to a Blackberry or some smartphone? Look at the size of the thing...what's the killer app that's going to convince people to pick this up?
A 2.5-pound notebook running Linux with WiFi and Bluetooth sounds sweet...but one report says it's a closed system, which means until somebody hacks past that limitation, it's a dead-end. For about $500, I'm expecting at least a mostly-open system (like Maemo with the Nokia N800).
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Eh?
Perhaps you haven't noticed, but practically everything has a single on/off button.
Infact, I cannot think of anything with separate buttons, certainly there is a case for rocker switches and toggles, but not two distinct buttons.
liqbase
That's what I'm thinking. I travel a lot and would love a small low power laptop with a real keyboard. I've found that I really don't need much more than a browser, document creator and a terminal connection to servers for heavy lifting. Very good price point in comparision to sub-notebooks and the n800 (which I like a lot, but I can't type on it). If it's fairly open so I can add some basic sysadm tools and run a terminal, I'd seriously consider it.
exactly what i was thinking, just not nearly as cynical.
i was thinking something more along the lines of 'when will these idiots learn that hardly anyone would ever buy shit like this.'
what really pains me is that some people, hell, alot of people put all their energy and time into making this, and i'm sure several of them knew 'this is going to flop. im wasting my time. at least im still getting my paycheck, though.'.
i'm fairly certain that there are full blown laptops smaller than this. (with more cpu power and more than 256mb ram)
i'm fairly certain that said full blown laptops are in the same general price range this piece of garbage will debut as.
i'm fairly certain noone, given the choice between this, and said laptop, for about the same price, would ever choose this.
i'm fairly certain we will yet see more and more useless devices like this end up new-in-box, on ebay, for a fraction of the initial msrp, before this year is out.
what a waste of R&D.
It is pointless trying to stuff productivity applications into a PDA format. Try doing word even simple processing on a PDA or blackberry.
This is also much more like what an OLPC should be. ARM == low power & cost relative to an x86. I think OPLC got it wrong when they went x86 - which looks like it was done solely to support Windows. Linux runs great on ARM (there are probably more Linux devices using ARM than x86).
Engineering is the art of compromise.
What good is stock as compensation if you can't ever sell it and spend the cash?
No one says you "can't" sell it, but if Hawkins truly thought Palm had a hit on their hands he'd be stupid to sell before the product is released. Ergo, by selling now, he demonstrates that he has little faith in the Folly-o.
This thing reminds me a lot of the IBM Workpad z50 I had. Yes, it's not as powerful as a laptop. Yes, it's bigger than a PDA. But I still miss the little thing. Sometimes you just need a full-sized keyboard and reasonable display and don't want the overhead of a laptop. I don't care if I can't run Eclipse. I don't care if it won't run some hulking Adobe application, I just want something a step up from a word processor where I can write documents and code fragments that gets out of the way and lets me think about the problem. I want to turn it on and start typing, not sit there stewing while it boots or lose my concentration because applications are nagging me about trivial updates.
Think of it as a modern Tandy 102 and it begins to make sense. I'm not sure I trust Palm the company, but that's somewhat unrelated to this specific piece of hardware.
Hey now, I can write programs in BASIC on my Tandy Pocket Computer out of the box!
Actually since its running Linux it does everything your Mac Book does.
a) They use ARM on all their PDAs
b) x86 cannot support the instant on/off thing. ARM can
c) Its very light on the battery
Its a logical choice to use ARM on such a device.
I've always wanted something with the libretto form factor with a modern processor, memory, etc. Could this be what I'm looking for?
Why do students need mini-laptops for taking notes in class at all?