Notes from the Foleo Webcast
Palm just wrapped up the webcast for the Foleo product introduction. Jeff Hawkins formerly introduced the device, talked about it's development and intended use and revealed some more specs and details about the upcoming Foleo mobile companion.
Read on for some of our notes and more details from the presentation.
Hawkins started the video webcast talking about how the product has been in development for a few years. He says he came up with the idea over five years ago, but it didn't make sense to build at the time as the technology wasn't quite there yet.
The Foleo is primarily targeted towards heavy email users. It is not meant as a Laptop replacement, but more of a large screen, full keyboard companion to your smartphone's capabilities and email functionality. While initially the product is not meant as a Laptop replacement, as time goes on and more developers create unique solutions Hawkins sees its utility as a laptop like device expanding.
Out of the box the Foleo will support Palm OS and Windows Mobile Treo smartphones. Palm plans to support RIM Blackberry devices, Symbian phones and even the iPhone, should Apple open their platform.
Foleo itself is about the size of a hardcover book. It has a very clean design all around, with smooth lines and a "velvety" texture. The top has small rigged lines to assist when gripping the devices and there is a small array of ports on the bottom of one side. It has dimensions of 10.55" inches wide, 6.67" deep and 0.94" inches thick. It weights 2.4 pounds.
The device opens with one finger and the display hinge latches securely into place. The keyboard has full size 18mm pitch keys and mostly defines the width of the device. The screen is a 10 inch display, with a 1024 x 600 pixel resolution. It does not have a touchscreen. The keyboard has a rubber nub in the middle which controls the mouse pointer. It also has an array of navigational buttons below the spacebar which includes a scroll-wheel.
The outside ports include a power connector, SD card slot, usb port, video out and a 3.5mm headphone jack. There is an additional Compact Flash slot for internal memory expansion as well. The device has solid state flash memory inside, Palm didn't say what amount will be included. It's wireless capabilities include Bluetooth for syncing with smartphones and WiFi for general Internet connectivity.
The Foleo has only two working states of operation: on and off, controlled by the power button. There is no sleep, suspend mode or shutdown. This also allows for instant saving and open and close operation as everything is always stored within the flash memory.
Applications are designed to always take up the full screen. Apps can be opened via an application key, which brings up a pop-up menu and also switches between applications. Pairing a smartphone is a simple four step process. Palm demonstrated the Versamail email client syncing with a Treo 755p, it was also showed opening Word documents, Excel spreadsheets and powerpoint files as attachments. Palm also briefly showed a PDF viewer built from an open-souce application.
The device is powered by a Linux core with a custom Palm graphical interface. The Foleo will be a fully open platform, with Palm encouraging creative third party applications. A SDK was promised to be posted when the product becomes available. Palm OS Garnet compatibility was not discussed at all, which we will follow up more on later.
Besides the Versamail program, Documents to Go and a PDF viewer Hawkins showed the Opera web browser, a Photo viewer and a Linux console. The Opera browser will support Flash, but apparently the processor can't handle Flash video sites such as Youtube. Hawkins remarked he was dissatisfied with this and it would be something they would work on.
When talking about future applications a Palm spokesperson remarked that possible ideas include a Calendar and a direct email program. It does not seem that the device will include a full PIM suite. He also touted the ability to use your connected smartphone as a security proximity sensor. So if the Foleo detected the phone in range, the Foleo would not require a password when opened up.
Palm would not say exactly when the device will begin to become available, but said US availability would begin sometime this summer. It will sell for $599, but will initially be available for $499 with a $100 mail-in rebate.
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RE: I started watching the webcast a few minutes ago and...
But as it is, I just think it's too small of a niche. I already must carry my laptop for work, the functionality in this doesn't come close to replacing it, so why would I waste space on it? It really doesn't make sense. I suppose some extremely casual users could have some use for it, but I think they've carved a very small niche with this product.
Palm: Do this with e-ink and a touch screen a-la the Irex Iliad (but with the battery life of the Sony Reader), and you've got a customer. Otherwise you are going down a well trodden path of stripped down laptops, internet only devices, email only devices, web-tv, etc. I suppose people think that they are going to get a million grandmas online with these devices, but that never seems to happen. They just don't fit the need for the rest of us.
RE: I started watching the webcast a few minutes ago and...
I'm sure there are some positive points to this device, but in my opinion Palm is absolutely the wrong company to bring it out in their present state of implementation. Have they learned nothing from the Treo 650 and Lifedrive?
If this is the "big event" Mr. Hawkins and crew have been concentrating upon for the past few years then I guess that explains why it's too much work to even divest the most basic problems on the Treo and they keep releasing a tweaked version of the same one every year or so now. (oh, I'm sorry - the 755 comes in **colors***!!!)
Palm needs to hire a few hungry innovators over there... and QUICK!!!
RE: I started watching the webcast a few minutes ago and...
That's what people have been saying for years but to no avail; it won't happen this time around either. Palm should have focused on evolving the Treo/PDAs and the next-gen Palm OS instead of fiddling around with this.
But I said bye-bye to Palm a while ago, when they released the 750v without Wifi. My advice is: Move on!
Palm Vx (a classic) -> Palm 505 (*yawn*) -> Dell Axim (slooow...) -> Palm TE (great) -> Qtek 9090 (great idea, lousy platform) -> Nokia 6630 (a toy) -> iMate SP3i (not bad) -> Nokia 9300 (can't sync notes!!) -> Treo 650 (awesome) -> hw6915 (almost perfect)
RE: I started watching the webcast a few minutes ago and...
Palm FOOLeo®: Fool me twice, shame on me. I won't get FOOLeoed...
When I first saw one of these, I thought it was actually just a sick joke. An elaborate in-house April Fool's joke. TreoMan assured me it was real. That was the day I finally gave up on Palm. The FOOLeo® is a product that needlessly diverted attention and resources from Palm's core products, resulting in fatal stagnation of both the Treo and Palm's traditional PDA lineups. Palm is too small to spread its (severely limited) talent around, especially on redundant designs. This company is so clueless that there is no way they will ever recover from the burden of being run by utterly IDIOTIC LEECHES that only care about plundering and parasitizing the company until the very end. Most parasites are smart enough to ensure that don't kill their hosts. Not Palm's management. These bloodsuckers have bled the company dry as they've continued to collect paychecks and cash in massive stock options.
The FOOLeo® is an answer to a question no one is asking. Let's see: Almost as big and almost as expensive as a Real Windows device, yet unable to run Real Windows apps? Break me off a piece of that! I'll take twenty! Any device much larger than the Nokia N800 that lacks Real Windows is pointless in this day of ever-improving Windows UMPC, Real Windows micro laptops and smartphones. The FOOLeo® niche simply does not exist. And organisms without a niche invariable die quickly.
Eventually it will be leaked that long ago Palm knew this product was doomed. The problem was that so much time + resources had already been wasted on it that by the time someone finally stepped in and said, "W T F is going on here? This is utter crap that will never sell." no one had the cojones to pull the plug on the project in 2005 when they should have. So now we have the latest equivalent of the Palm i705/DUNGSTEN T5/LifeDrive/Cobalt. As with Cobalt (PalmOS 6), failure to quickly amputate a gangrenous limb (product) will be remembered as the coup de grace that (mercifully?) ended Palm's existence.
What Palm should have released was a simple clamshell "PalmTop®" design along the lines of a CLIE UX50. With a 4 inch screen. Preferrably OLED. In 2005. With a COMPLETE software suite, including email, VPN, NetFront browser, PDF viewer, Word/Excel/Powerpoint-compatible suite. Keep It Simple, Stupid. The FOOLeo® with its current specs may have been a viable product category 4 or 5 years ago when I had urged Palm's product managers to consider a small PalmOS laptop with the simplicity of the AlphaSmart Dana. The key would have been to adhere to the KISS principle and not try to add features that the company's engineers were too clueless to easily implement. Palm is too talentless a company to be trying to reinvent the wheel itself. The FOOLeo® is the hardware equivalent of Cobalt: an unfinished, fundamentally flawed idea that is arriving 2 year too late to matter and will result in the death of the company. Maybe Palm should offer the FOOLeo® in a Special Edition Cobalt color?
The only questions that now remain are these: Now that it has finally been revealed that Emperor Hawkins Has No Clothes and that the Secret Third Business (STB) was a sham all along, who will buy Palm? What value does Palm offer a potential suitor? What assets do Palm have in their portfolio that a company big enough to purchase Palm couldn't purchase cheaper elsewhere or easily copy/develop for themselves?
Palm's "assets":
- A dead PDA lineup that hasn't seen significant improvements (or even a slightly refreshed new model) in years.
- A rapidly-aging set of bulky, shoddily-built smartphones that haven't seen significant improvements made to a 4 year old design. (There isn't much in the latest Treos that wouldn't have been in the 2003 Handspring Treo 600 had Handspring not been living hand-to-mouth + on the verge of bankruptcy when the Treo 600 was originally released.
- A laughable FOOLeo® product that - BY DEFINITION - has no target market that exists outside of Hawkins' dreams. (It's sad to see Hawkins embarassing himself trying to pimp the FOOLeo®. Remember the rhetoric we previously were subjected to re: the i705/DUNGsten T5/LifeDrive/Cobalt? It's baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack.)
- The phone numbers of HTC, Solectron and Inventec.
- Rights to rickety old FrankenPalmOS and the freedom to continue adding more bugs/maggots to the OS until the PalmOS corpse finally putrefies.
- Several hundred million $$$ in cash.
- The Palm and Treo names
"Who's gonna bid it at a billion dollar bill? Five, will you beat it on a billion and five, bid it on a billion and five, a billion and five. Who's gonna bid it at a billion and five dollar bill?"
If PalmSource and Chrysler (twice!) can get sold, Palm has a chance. It all boils down to how greedy the company's board is. Kinda hard to bluff when everyone at the table knows the cards you're holding are utter crap, isn't it, Eric?
TVoR
Copyright, 2007
TVoR, Inc.
Note to Palm
a. mp3 player
b. camera/video
c. full PIM applications (basically, it should do everything the Treo does)
d. Web and e-mail
c. wifi and bluetooth
d. etc.
Good grief. Did I read correctly that the device doesn't even have a calendar?
Double good greif: $500 for the Foleo, $300 for the Treo, about $100 a month for service... darn, that's a lot of money for e-mail.
"I believe in the atomic bomb."
Blogging at http://agabus.com" title="Agabus.com">Agabus.com.
Palm V > Vx > Clie Peg T615C > T3 > Clie TH55 > T3 > Treo 650 > Treo 700p & T3!
RE: Note to Palm
RE: Note to Palm
The Foleo is the long awaited Palm device featuring LINUX OS !!!
It will catch on, you will have a GPL MP3 Player made by joe smock and a Calendar tool made available free by company X!
For Programmers who dont take there cars to work like me, openning a laptop in the bus or subway is out off the question and programming on a Palm Tungsten T3 not practical at all (trust me).
Students who cant afford A Laptop will get access to vital information for lots less back pain and almost twice the battery life!
Teachers will be able to show power point using the video-out function...
I just hope Palm have successfully created there Palm application virtual machine they started working on 12-18 months ago as they announced back then ;-) If the processor is not to weak and storrage is ample, this device will cath on among commuters, among workaholics and as a partial lap-top substitute for student and others.
If Only I did not just buy a lap-top, I would probably be a early adopter this summer :-(
Just remember one thing :
LINUX = GPL = Millions of small (or not CPU intensive) free application that will be ported to this device very easily!
Ben
RE: Note to Palm
> that will be ported to this device very easily!
Giggle.
RE: Note to Palm
1) Treos, as phones, are apparently worthless here in Japan. So, can I sync a Foleo with other devices, like my TX or Mac? Or will a Foleo sync with a Japanese Bluetooth-enabled phone (I'd then have a reason to upgrade my antique DoCoMo phone.)?
2) With Linux, does this finally--FINALLY--mean Unicode support and the possibilty of proper Japanese input that won't create quirks, like StockManager's stock charts causing crashes when J-OS or CJKOS are installed?
3) WiFi is hard to find in the places I frequent in Tokyo, but my university has Ethernet cables everywhere. I need an Ethernet jack, Palm! Or an Ethernet jack adapter that can plug into the CF card slot or something.
4) No PIMs? Extremely lame, but I expect that will be rectified before too long.
5) The rebate idea is idiotic and for anyone outside the US, almost worthless. Just lower the price and be done with it.
6) How (well) will Palm OS apps run on it, and what new OS apps are available? That DocsToGo will be ready is a boon.
All that aside, I'd probably be happier with my folding Bluetooth keyboard and a TX with a Japanese-friendly Unicode-supporting Linux OS.
Of course, were Apple to release a very similar machine, the Appleo, I'm afraid I'd go with that instead.
RE: Note to Palm
Yeah, the same sh*t was said about the Nokia Anti-Internet Tablets.
People who don't know at least the minimal history of that device are unqualified to speak about the Flopeo.
Oh, and Intel has their MIDs coming out. Those will flop too, but at least they aren't an outright *embarrassment* like the Flopeo.
Can't see Treo screen? This is cheaper
RE: Can't see Treo screen? This is cheaper
heh..who said LifeDrive II ?
everything we wish to be...palm refuse what we want!!!
Foleo!!!, whos care about Foleo
Treo's don't need Companions!
RE: Treo's don't need Companions!
RE: Treo's don't need Companions!
RE: Treo's don't need Companions!
Sorry to reiterate - but this device is stupid. Too large to fit into a pocket, not a laptop, too little battery life.
I'll keep my treo as long as it lasts, because I need something that will sync with anything other than Outlook.
But with syncml incorporated even into dinky little dumbphones, so small and cheap.. who knows? Maybe I am getting older, and wishing for a simpler life.
IIIx -> T|T -> Treo650
What's next?
RE: What's next?
David Beers
Pikesoft Mobile Computing
www.pikesoft.com/blog
RE: What's next?
Pilot 1000-->Pilot 5000-->PalmPilot Pro-->IIIe-->Vx-->m505-->T|T-->T|T2-->T|C-->T|T3-->T|T5-->TX-->Treo 700P
RE: What's next?
hello people.
seriously.
(take for example, the PS3. if everybody saw it as the cheapest Blu-Ray movie player, instead of the most expensive games console, it probably would have been a runaway success!)
that's how I see things. you think I'm wrong? that's the way you see things.
RE: hello people.
-------------------------------
http://www.pocketfactory.com
http://www.elitistsnob.com
RE: hello people.
neither is special. heck, both are very close to the simplest products in their respective categories. but both have huge marketing behind them, and are percieved to be perfect (well, the iPod anyway, everyone knows windows bites, but thinks they have no choice and must keep using only windows)
(and for the record, everyone knows that hitler was a fruitcake)
RE: hello people.
Palm III->Palm Vx->Palm m505->Palm m515->Tungsten T->Tapwave Zodiac II->Treo 700p
RE: hello people.
Considering their dismal support of their "one trick pony" Treo 700p (EOL'ing it and forcing people to re-purchase it in the form of the Treo 755 to get functional bluetooth headsets) it appear that Palm is spread too thin to convince me they will act otherwise if I dropped half-a-thou on this gimmick. No early adoption for me, thank you very much.
RE: hello people.
Yeah, they said the same thing about the Nokia Anti-Net Tabs. Big fekkin success those have been!
Cool Factor?
Palm has gone off on a tangent and wasted their lmited resources on a dead end approach -- very disappointing. Somebody should take them out of their misery before it gets worse.
David
RE: Cool Factor?
PDA's Past and Present:
Palm - IIIxe, Vx, M500, M505, Tungsten T, TX
Handspring - Edge, Platinum, Deluxe
Sony - SJ22
Apple - MP110, MP2000, MP2100
RE: Cool Factor?
Tungsten T --> Palm TX --> Foleo?? (If it turns out to be a good multimedia platform??)
RE: Cool Factor?
It doesn't replace a laptop, or a phone (or a PDA for that matter). Thus you have an additional device that doesn't fit in your pocket. If you're going to put it in a laptop bag then why not bring the laptop? What do you put it in? Some sort of purse / satchel? ... not cool.
In addition, I can't see how a mobile device is supplimented by a much bigger device. The only reason mobile/cell phones are small is to make them portable. This device, however slim it is, makes mobile phones less portable if used as a companion. Otherwise, it it's intended as a 'back-to-base' docking station type thing, I'd take my laptop as a preferred 'companion' device any day.
RE: Cool Factor?
I predict a bull market for the "hip" Fooleo fannypacks!! Rock on, Palm... awesome!
I want to try it!
There's a lot of pretty stupid people suggesting this has been done before.
Please, someone, any of you, just one dumb punk-a$$ wince apologist among you: please post a link to a 2.5 lb laptop with wifi and bluetooth for $500. :)
I'd love to see it. Let alone one with instant-on, and an open linux API.
No really, quit the FUD yapping, and post the link. :)
The price-point is excellent, and for 5 hours of run time? This will do nicely.
Thanks Jeff.
No, REALLY: quit the FUD yapping, and post the link. :)
Couldn't find one? Ahh... I thought so. :)
------
"People who like M$ products tend to be insecure crowd-following newbies lacking in experience and imagination."
RE: I want to try it!
Go here to get a real laptop for an extra $28.00
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/Viewproduct.asp?ST=0.&PID=all&DPDID=NB&Page=1
Or better yet save $50 and get this one:
http://tinyurl.com/23a4c3
Heck with that $50 you can buy an extra battery just in case you think you are actually going to use that little piece of Palm crap for more than 2.5 hours.
My personal favorite is to go to the Apple store and spend a little more to get a MacBook. Hell if your thinking of buying one of these stupid things you're over half way there.
Let me know if there is anything else you are too lazy to lookup and I'll be glad to do it for you.
For $150 - $200 this is a great product, but for $500 you are a tool of Palm to think this is a good thing.
Bye bye Palm, if you think this is an engineering breakthrough you are done.
All of a sudden that $600 iPhone looks like the deal of the century.
RE: I want to try it!
http://Tapland.com
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I started watching the webcast a few minutes ago and...
And that, all by itself, is an interesting commentary from this watch-everything-PALM-does-like-a-...ahem...-hawk PALM-pessimist!