How would you change the Palm Foleo?

As much as we respect and admire the man, we sure wouldn't want to be in Jeff Hawkins' shoes these days, what with the cool reaction his promised "breakthrough device" has been receiving in the media and among the army of amateur online pundits. But rather than wasting time knocking Jeff for the somewhat awkwardly-positioned Foleo, why don't we instead use our collective knowledge and preferences to help him make the F2 a product that we'd be comfortable dropping a few bucks on. For instance, what if Palm got rid of the redundant processor, OS, and radios, and simply offered consumers a dumb terminal in which to dock their Treos for under $200? Or what if they let that screen get its swivel on and added 'e-book reader' to the Foleo's list of features? And for heaven's sake, some proper video support please! Those are just our suggestions; what's yours?

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 11th 2007 12:24PM]

Oh yeah, and why would anyone work on presentations with the Foleo if they can't display them on anything bigger than a 10-inch screen? -> video out...

Eh never mind, whatever just drop the freakin price.
Problem is, business execs already have a 2 pound sub-notebook they spent $2000 on...they're not getting a Foleo.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 11th 2007 1:07PM]

For the Foleo to work for me:
e-Book Reader (Compatable with eReader / MobiReader)
PIM Apps (Basic Calender / Contacts / Memos / Tasks / Expenses)
Multi-Media Playback (Core Player, or something comparable)

I guess, in short - make it a stand-alone palm-type device that can hot-sync to other stand-alone palm devices. I know that using a Foleo in the office would be handy, and then sync to my T|X when I'm on the go.

Also, release the SDKs to the major 3rd party palm developers ASAF'nP - if Palm can't give us these simple apps for this new OS Platform their developing, let some developers out there do it - and quickly!

My $0.02,

Eric "GuitarEC" C

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 11th 2007 12:50PM]

Paint it white and call it the iFolio. Sell a million.

[pagercam Posted Jun 11th 2007 1:31PM]

There isn't a need for this device, kill it before people waste money on it. If they want a bigger screen for editing, make a tablet palm device

[keithwwalker Posted Jun 11th 2007 2:57PM]

Two words: 'Treo Lifedrive'

They should of made a pda with a radio in it, than the Foleo. Why have 2 substandard devices, when you could have one brilliant device that fits in with the Palm philosophy?

Palm has basically shunned all the pda lovers who crave the form factor of a 480x320 screen - good work...
:-(

[keithwwalker Posted Jun 11th 2007 3:01PM]

and a treo lifedrive with at least 8Gb flash memory only makes sense.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 11th 2007 3:10PM]

I actually remember a time last year when I was googling a keyboard, larger screen and pointing device that would work with my treo. There are times in which it would be convenient to have laptop-sized control over the treo. I believe that the Foleo is trying to do just that. In my opinion, the Foleo is not a new realm in portable computing, but rather an accessory to the treo.

That being said, I want the F2 to be able to run ALL software programs that are on my treo with continuous real time sync to the smartphone. This includes all the multimedia functionality and the ability to install and delete software.

The F2 should have the same shortcut buttons as the treo rather than just the email button. Preferences to these buttons should be modifiable in either the F2 or treo and synced accordingly.

The F2 needs FULL office document editability. For example, the treo out of the box can't open spreadsheets with charts, pivot tables, etc.

I don't know about the ports of the current Foleo, but the F2 definitely needs monitor out, USB and a swiss army memory drive.

The F2 should connect to the internet via WIFI or Bluetooth DUN.

And 500 bucks is way too much for an accessory that allows laptop sized control and connectivity. I would pay up to 300. Maybe.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 11th 2007 5:08PM]

FYI http://cgi.ebay.com/Toshiba-Portege-3010CT_W0QQitemZ200117671210QQihZ010QQcategoryZ177QQrdZ1QQssPageNameZWD2VQQcmdZViewItem Not quite as good, but it looks almost the same and it works (well, maybe not that one, not sure) and it's 5 bucks.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 11th 2007 11:32PM]

Make it touchscreen. Chop off the keyboard, so you could hold it up in front of you and use it. Have it project a keyboard onto whatever you put it on, like this: http://www.virtual-laser-keyboard.com/

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 14th 2007 10:23AM]

I like the dumb terminal approach. Maybe add more storage and application memory, and a real browser that can handle AJAX, with a decent GPU. Even though it would make it thicker, I always liked the idea of an internal dock, sort of like the old removable drive bays laptops use to have. Also give me a touch screen that will flip over into tablet mode.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 12th 2007 10:58AM]

for God sake, turn that palm logo around, it looks stupid when you open foleo.
make it tablet-able, video support & usb host, so i can watch my movies collections along the way.
also make it support HSDPA, so it can surf without treo
btw, is Jeff ever listening to Engadget?

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 11th 2007 4:51PM]

All comments about the Foleo aside, I agree with Evan's comment "got rid of the redundant processor, OS, and radios, and simply offered consumers a dumb terminal in which to dock their Treos for under $200?". I'd love to see the mobile device manufactures in general move to a scenario where I can doc my mobile device into a mobile docking station. All the dock would needs to have is a lager scree, a keyboard/mouse device, and a battery that would power the doc as well as charge my mobile device as the same time. Let me use the CPU, Memory and network from the native mobile device and no need to duplicate.