Palm Unveils Foleo, Linux-Based "Mobile Companion" 301
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.'"
whoop-de-do (Score:3, Insightful)
What's the point? (Score:2, Insightful)
And I'd Want This...Why? (Score:5, Insightful)
A 2.5-pound notebook running Linux with WiFi and Bluetooth sounds sweet...but one report [techdirt.com] 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).
Re:Bad on/off interface (Score:2, Insightful)
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.
Re:Anyone else thinking what I'm thiinking? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Anyone else thinking what I'm thiinking? (Score:2, Insightful)
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.
Just like a re-gutted Psion 7... great! (Score:5, Insightful)
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).
Re:whoop-de-do (Score:1, Insightful)
This machine looks a lot like my Toshiba Lifebook. My thinking, when I bought that, was that if I was going to get a laptop/notebook, I would want it to be as small as possible (for a notebook), and that's what I got.
But the lesson I learned, is that it still wasn't small enough. If it won't fit in your pocket, then you won't have it with you all the time. If something is bigger than pocket-size, then it might as well be big.
Re:Palm, Inc. jumps shark. Founder sells 15000 sha (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Re:whoop-de-do (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Just like a re-gutted Psion 7... great! (Score:3, Insightful)
IBM Workpad z50 (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Re:The Atari Portfolio Lives! (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:whoop-de-do (Score:4, Insightful)
I kind of like the idea of pressing a button and it's just running, rather than waiting a minute or two for a notebook to boot up.
I really don't understand the name - "Foleo" is a dumb distortion of "folio".
Re:Just like a re-gutted Psion 7... great! (Score:3, Insightful)
I am pretty sure the new thing will be able to do at least that much.
You don't need that much power to play videos anyways. An old 300 MHz iBook will play divx videos fullscreen just fine, too.
Re:About the Size of My MacBook (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Where did you get the specs? (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Looks like a toshiba libretto (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Education Market... (Score:1, Insightful)