Palm Says Foleo 2 Still on Track

Posted By: Kris Keilhack Tuesday, October 30, 2007 11:18:05 AM

Palm FoleoAccording to the Wireless Week industry trade journal, a new version of the cancelled Foleo Mobile Companion running on Palm's next-generation Linux OS is still very much in Palm’s future product plans. Brad Smith of Wireless Week has posted a new article, "Palm Still Tracking the Foleo", discussing comments made by Palm's Joe Fabris (formerly of Microsoft) Amidst the frenzy of the recent CTIA show, about the company’s future plans.

The comments of Mr. Fabris echo similar comments made by a variety of industry insiders and analysts concerning the tremendous resource drain brought about by Palm’s attempts to simultaneously develop both a new in-house OS and product category of Mobile Companions.

The article goes on to state that Palm is establishing a clearly-defined division between Palm’s Windows Mobile offerings targeted at enterprise solutions, with its current and next-gen Palm OS products targeting individual consumers and small businesses.

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All well and good, but .....

BGAMOH @ 10/30/2007 2:57:59 PM # Q
please just give us a new PDA!

Palm has saved my life every day since 1999. Since my IIIx to my T3, It's been the other half of my brain. And in my job working for the Mayor of New York, it's critical! Thanks, Palm!
RE: All well and good, but .....
cstamper @ 10/30/2007 3:37:53 PM # Q
Right!!!!
RE: All well and good, but .....
SeldomVisitor @ 10/30/2007 3:38:01 PM # Q
All well and good but the reporter, Fabris, and the CoB are out of sync with one another on when anything new is coming out of PALM.

RE: All well and good, but .....
PacManFoo @ 10/30/2007 6:16:29 PM # Q
Sadly my trusty TX screen was damaged last night and now I find myself in need of a new PDA. Right now my only choices seem to be another TX which is now two years old, a HP PocketPC, or a iPod Touch and hope for good 3rd party development come February. I just don't even know which way to go on this. It seems like going backwards to get another TX, Pocket PC isn't that friendly with Macs, and the Touch currently doesn't have enough software. Too bad us PDA users are being squeezed out. At least I don't have to worry about my cell phone being dead today as well.

P.S. Always Backup!! Luckily my old Tungsten T has been able to pick up the load of important information. I really miss my WiFi, and 320X480 though.

PDA's Past and Present:
iPod Touch ???? Maybe soon.
Palm - IIIxe, Vx, M500, M505, Tungsten T, TX
Handspring - Edge, Platinum, Deluxe
Sony - SJ22
Apple - MP110, MP2000, MP2100

RE: All well and good, but .....
Tuckermaclain @ 10/30/2007 6:39:04 PM # Q
Nobody (IMO) wants a Foleo. People want a new PDA. My TX crapped out as well and I have been using an older Palm. Like saying hi to an old friend. We should have a TX4 with 1024x768 screen and a bunch of other goodies by now. Get with the program, Palm.

RE: All well and good, but .....
palmit @ 10/30/2007 8:07:42 PM # Q
How can speak for everyone and say that nobody wants one? It could be (IMO) that its not a good product, but it doesn't make sense to speak for everyone.

I would want one!

RE: All well and good, but .....
thomaslb @ 10/30/2007 8:19:33 PM # Q
And so would I. And so would other people. So the cranks that routinely post here should cram it (remind me of those judges on the muppets really). NOTHING good came from canceling the Foleo (yes, PLEAZZZE give me more cute spins on the word--like the oh-so clever 'fooleo'.) Idiots.

Look, seriously. I've used palms since before it was cool to use palms--and now again that it isn't cool to use them...rrr..again. I use a Psion netBook as a laptop replacement too--it is roughly equivalent to what a 2nd gen Foleo would be like anyway. The tech economy is simply not better off with one less solid state computer shooting to be your mainstay computer(since none is currently in production). A lightweight palm laptop/solid state computer is what many of us mobile professionals really get ahead of the game with out in the field. Not a bloated expensive ruggedized Windows machine. I say it here: Hawkins was right--there is a place for a device like this. It was a DARK day the day they canceled (the smell of death it was indeed as few companies recover from that kind of move). The Foleo would have been just fine with the right software.

And none of you are better off if Palm tanks, say what you will. I mean really, what would you do with your spare time--you'd have to go back to kid's soccer games and start fights.


TI Avigo -> Palm IIIx -> TRGpro -> HE330-> TRGpro -> AlphaSmart Dana -> TRGpro -> Palm M515

RE: All well and good, but .....
SeldomVisitor @ 10/31/2007 7:18:02 AM # Q
> ...yes, PLEAZZZE give me more cute spins on the word--like the
> oh-so clever 'fooleo'.) Idiots

Not a problem!

Here ya go, straight from its a-MAZ-ingly-horrible introduction at the D Conference!

== "...And here, nearly two years later, is the future to which
== Hawkins referred, the Palm Foleo (critics will inevitably dub
== it the “Fooleo”)..."

-- http://d5.allthingsd.com/20070530/palm-foleo/

Didn't take long for folks to recognize the work of idiots at PALM, huh?

RE: All well and good, but .....
mikecane @ 11/1/2007 11:44:39 AM # Q
Hey, I'd take a Foleo too -- just not the crappy one they offered!

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Foleo 2 requests

Poopie @ 10/30/2007 3:33:45 PM # Q
Keep the formfactor the same.

Add:
- about 300mhz more CPU power
- tabbed browsing support
- flash video support
- rdp/vnc client

My personal benchmark for laptop/desktop overall browser performance:
- set up a few dozen rss feeds in http://reader.google.com, go to reader.google.com, click on "all items", hit "j" repeatedly to move between headlines. If you can't refresh as fast as you can read the headlines, you FAIL.

USR Palm Pilot 1000 --> Palm Pilot Professional --> TRG SuperPilot --> Palm IIIc --> Palm V --> Palm M505 --> Palm M515 --> Tungsten T|2 --> Treo 600 --> LifeDrive --> iPhone

RE: Foleo 2 requests
cstamper @ 10/30/2007 3:47:06 PM # Q
Request:

-Make sure you actually ship it this time

That's all.

RE: Foleo 2 requests
twrock @ 10/31/2007 6:16:18 AM # Q
Keep the formfactor the same.

There were so many things about the Foleo that were right, but some critical things that were wrong from my perspective. Plenty of what needs to be fixed has already been mentioned, and hopefully Palm isn't ignoring those issues. It'll be interesting to see whatever it is that finally arrives. I wasn't overly interested in the Foleo I, but that was not because they got the form factor wrong. I much prefer the Foleo form factor to that way too undersized ASUS Eee PC (keyboard and screen).

(BTW, Mike Cane, I hope you pick up the Eee really soon so that we all can find out if your "fantasy" machine really lives up to your expectations or if it you end up hating it like your Nokia 770. You had obsessive fantasies about that one too, but look where it got you.)

Having said that, I really hope they are spending just about ZERO resources on the Foleo II at the moment. All their resources need to be being used to get the next gen OS out the door on some really cool handheld devices (hopefully that will include at least one really nice PDA among the smartphones). I'm still doubtful of Palm's ability to pull this one off, but I don't think they can survive on just being a rebranding company selling other companies' hardware and software.

Eh, we'll see. At this point I'm just taking a wait-and-see attitude towards Apple (will that "open" SDK really be open, and what will be available?), ALP (is it possible someone other than Palm will deliver a really great handheld that supports my current collection of apps?), and Palm (is there really any hope?).

But if Palm releases a TX2, even if it "only" used the old Garnett OS, I'd probably buy one to replace my current TX (assuming they put the missing features back in and that it didn't exhibit some fatal hardware flaw within the first month of release). That way the "wait to see what happens" would go a little easier, and I wouldn't have to spend $70 to replace my failing digitizer.


Thinking about Vista? Think again: http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.txt
Want an alternative? Try this: http://www.ubuntu.com/ or http://www.mepis.org/

RE: Foleo 2 requests
mikecane @ 11/1/2007 11:46:36 AM # Q
>>>You had obsessive fantasies about that one too, but look where it got you.

Yes, my mistake there was being first.

With the Eee, there are plenty of people who already have one, so there's much to read about before buying. So far, looks good.

Better than Foleo!

Reply to this comment

Oh my....

TrafficGeek @ 10/30/2007 4:15:33 PM # Q
I guess we'll start sending wooden sticks, holy water (especially if you pour it on the development server), and garlic labeled 'Foleo' on it to help Palm get back on track.

please, for all of us, surprise us with under 18 months for the next new products...no, don't let it be FOLEO 2...

Reply to this comment

OHHH, NOOO.....

MleB @ 10/30/2007 4:31:30 PM # Q
Kill it! Kill it now.

More rumours and promises! For a device that clearly is distracting Palm from any vague wisps of thought that might be taken for development of products that users actually want, need or lust over is not helping Palm (or their market share) at all.

Palm has become nothing more than a hardware provider to wireless companies and has lost touch with its OS, while the Desktop - now spun off from Palm - largely no longer supports the OS and its bundled software.

Diehard Palm users keep hoping that Palm will have an iPhone-like epiphany - a Eureka! moment - that will justify us putting up with such tired, poorly conceived and built cr*p for so long. Last original thought Palm had they bought from Handbrake more than 5 years ago...

And the Foleo ain't the device that will save Palm.

RE: OHHH, NOOO.....
Timothy Rapson @ 10/30/2007 7:34:17 PM # Q
'Tis but a flesh wound.
Come back here and I'll bite the EEEPC's kneecaps off!"

Reply to this comment

FolEeeo

Gazpacho @ 10/30/2007 4:34:57 PM # Q
The Asus Eee has the same design principle: small, cheap, lightweight and no big Windows-crap.

But, in comparison to the Foleo, it has a much better distribution of features. It can do YouTube and other multimedia quite well, it has relatively a lot of internal memory, and the mail client actually can get mail throught the Wi-Fi connection: a 'feature' that Palm either didn't think was necessary or just blocked it to emphasize their 'Mobile Companion' gimmick.

In the end, being an accessory to a smartphone killed the Foleo. The Asus Eee PC is a stand-alone subnotebook that can ALSO work as a mobile companion to a smartphone, and that already sounds much better for starters.

http://foleocentral.blogspot.com

FoleoCentral is the news, opinions & review blog about the Palm Foleo Mobile Companion

RE: FolEeeo
TooMuch @ 10/30/2007 5:49:35 PM # Q
The "smartphone companion" idea is the only reason I would be interested in this product. I have a great Apple laptop (that serves as a desktop too) but I don't always need it's power for every meeting or trip. I would add the mobile screen/keyboard/communication tether of a Foleo product. I don't care about a full product OS.

RE: FolEeeo
Poopie @ 10/30/2007 7:44:31 PM # Q

being an accessory to a smartphone killed the Foleo.

Hear hear.

It needs to be an excellent standalone device first, and a mobile companion second.

Quoting Jamie Zawinski


Every program attempts to expand until it can read mail. Those programs which cannot so expand are replaced by ones which can.

Poopie's corollary to JWZ's law:

Every mail device or program attempts to expand until it can read mail via IMAP and send mail via SMTP. Those devices or programs which cannot so expand are replaced by ones which can.


USR Palm Pilot 1000 --> Palm Pilot Professional --> TRG SuperPilot --> Palm IIIc --> Palm V --> Palm M505 --> Palm M515 --> Tungsten T|2 --> Treo 600 --> LifeDrive --> iPhone

Reply to this comment

I don't want to be cruel, but...

adamsmark @ 10/30/2007 7:35:47 PM # Q
Bruce Springsteen can get away with releasing a new album every three or four years. There's only one Bruce. But Palm can be replaced. Unless they stay on top of their game, which they are not, they will become a footnote. One can only hope Palm will do what Apple has done: screw around for about a decade and then come up with something so revolutionary, every forgets the past.

"I believe in the atomic bomb."

Blogging at http://agabus.com">Agabus.com.

Palm V > Vx > Clie Peg T615C > T3 > Clie TH55 > T3 > Treo 650 > Treo 700p & T3!

RE: I don't want to be cruel, but...
jca666us @ 10/31/2007 6:25:24 AM # Q
Apple has come out with several innovative things:

OS X
ipod
iphone

and rejuvenated their product line.

Palm will need more than a stable, functioning POS 2...

Reply to this comment

Whoever Palm Has working on Foleo 2...

drbuzz0 @ 10/30/2007 7:56:49 PM # Q
GET THEM OFF THAT PROJECT AND WORKING ON THE DAMN NEW OS!!!!!

Sorry for shouting, but how the hell long did it take to get the original Foleo mock-up OS to be at least usable? Okay I realize that the new Palm OS is more complicated... but seriously... give this all you've got to get it done ASAP if it means sacraficing other projects because your COMPANY'S VERY EXISTENCE DEPENDS ON IT!

This is worse than rearenging the deck chairs on the titanic. This is list drawing up plans for the new light fixtures to be installed on the titanic while nobody is in the damn helm house and the iceberg is looming on the horizon.

RE: Whoever Palm Has working on Foleo 2...
SeldomVisitor @ 10/31/2007 7:09:57 AM # Q
It would be ... strange ... if PALM didn't have Windriver working on the new OS.

They went to the trouble of throwing out their years of development for Fooleo-I's original OS implementation and retaining Windriver (accompanied by a big splashy PR-fluff) JUST before they threw out the Fooleo itself as well.

To NOT use Windriver would be really weird.

Or maybe the departure of the Senior VP of Engineering is now explained?

Remember - they have gone on record saying the new OS coming for the Fooleo-II is the same OS for their other devices - all now scheduled for no sooner than sometime mid-2009-ish.

RE: Whoever Palm Has working on Foleo 2...
SeldomVisitor @ 11/4/2007 9:27:10 AM # Q
Now that Google is about to announce (Monday, 11AM) their Linux-based world, do ya think PALM will jump on board?

And throw their SECOND Linux attempt out the window, too?

And if they DON'T?


Reply to this comment

Could 'Foleo2' be a Foleo W ?

Konstantin @ 10/30/2007 8:54:09 PM # Q
Kind of conspiracy thought, was MS in any way linked to the Foleo cancel?
Will Foleo2 be powered by a linux os or it will be any of the MS OS flavors?

I actually wanted a Foleo, the idea of the instant power on device with a larger screen but not laptopish is appealing to me.
The software suite was a bit weak though.

Konstantin.

RE: Could 'Foleo2' be a Foleo W ?
SeldomVisitor @ 10/31/2007 7:19:57 AM # Q
It is Linux based if the folks at PALM are to be believed that the "new OS" will be used for all "new OS" devices out of PALM (yes, that's a strange way of phrasing the answer...blame Palm!).


RE: Could 'Foleo2' be a Foleo W ?
mikecane @ 10/31/2007 3:29:53 PM # Q
>>>Kind of conspiracy thought, was MS in any way linked to the Foleo cancel?

No.

RE: Could 'Foleo2' be a Foleo W ?
hkklife @ 10/31/2007 3:48:38 PM # Q
>>>Kind of conspiracy thought, was MS in any way linked to the Foleo cancel?

No, Palm's arrogance/hubris/complacency/incompetence are all reasons behind the Fooleo's cancellation (as well as its initial concept/greenlight/gestation).



Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX-->Treo 700P

Reply to this comment

speachless...

ggeoffre @ 10/30/2007 9:08:22 PM # Q
[insert negative rant here]

RE: speachless...
cstamper @ 10/31/2007 10:12:26 AM # Q
Why? -> Waste of time.

[insert 'why post negative' rant here]

Reply to this comment

Why the bitching?

Nycran @ 10/31/2007 8:13:52 AM # Q
Joe Fabris made it pretty clear that no (or very little) work is being done on the Foleo at the moment; all resources are being applied to the new OS and the Foleo idea is simply in Palm's "future plans".

As for the concept itself, anyone who's been following the enthusiasm of the Asus EEE PC users will realise that there is a great deal of merit in the concept and there's a definite market waiting for Palm if/when they do this, so long as they do it right.

Take a look at the number of new threads created on the eee user website in the last few days:
http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewforum.php?id=1

I reckon more eee's will sell in the next 12 months that the total of Palm's entire product line (providing Asus can restock fast enough).



RE: Why the bitching?
TooMuch @ 10/31/2007 8:56:16 AM # Q
If the Asus EEE functions as SLOW as their website I wouldn't want it. In fact, their product webiste is REALLY POOR!

RE: Why the bitching?
Nycran @ 10/31/2007 10:00:26 AM # Q
That is not the product website. It's a user forum setup by the community.

RE: Why the bitching?
mikecane @ 10/31/2007 3:28:53 PM # Q
Eejit. The Eee has been getting great reviews. It has in fact exceeded user expectations.

Can't say that for the Foleo.

BTW: Colligan, RESIGN already!

RE: Why the bitching?
TooMuch @ 10/31/2007 3:56:48 PM # Q
"That is not the product website. It's a user forum setup by the community."

I was not referring to a user forum. I am referring to their actual "discover" product website. Try it.
http://event.asus.com/eeepc/microsites/en/index.htm



RE: Why the bitching?
mikecane @ 10/31/2007 6:18:47 PM # Q
Give it a break. It's loading a huge fekkin Flash onto your PC.

RE: Why the bitching?
twrock @ 10/31/2007 9:30:46 PM # Q
And that's why I hate "huge fekkin Flash". Just give me simple JPG's and links, thank you very much.
Remember Flash, the comic book hero? He moved really fast.


Thinking about Vista? Think again: http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_cost.txt
Want an alternative? Try this: http://www.ubuntu.com/ or http://www.mepis.org/
RE: Why the bitching?
mikecane @ 11/1/2007 11:48:11 AM # Q
I'm no fan of Flash, either! Especially in ADS!!

Reply to this comment

I think I want A Foleo

JPT|X @ 10/31/2007 9:29:03 AM # Q
I think I want a foleo. It all depends on how bulky it is to carry around.
I currently use a TX and/or a Clie PEG-TJ37 (I think Clie's may have failed in U.S. because they did not have catchy names)
I'm on the hunt for a Sony UX50 right now...

I want the foleo to:
Stand alone without a treo
Run The Core Pocket Media Player
Sync with outlook
Surf with wifi net
Run palm programs
Skype compatability would be a dream, but the economcs forbid that, I suspect.

Reply to this comment

Just kill the stupid Foleo

Ervool @ 10/31/2007 1:53:44 PM # Q

I hope the Foleo 2 project is just laying around in some techie desk in Palm.

The product has no future at all, just kill the damn thing and bring new PDAs to the market.

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