As the
rumored launch date of Palm's
Foleo draws closer, it follows logic that the pieces would start to come together regarding the innards of this thing. Shortly after
naming Wind River Systems as its preferred Linux provider,
Palm is reportedly divulging details about the specifications to developers at the LinuxWorld conference. Under the hood will supposedly be goodies such as a 416MHz Intel / Marvell PXA27x processor, Marathon 2700G graphics accelerator with video output, 128MB of RAM "for holding currently running applications, and 256MB of non-volatile memory," a
CompactFlash slot located behind the battery, an SD expansion slot (though some reports suggest
SDHC works also), and
WiFi support. Most intriguing, however, was the note that some developers at the expo were "given a unit already in its retail packaging" after attending a seminar about writing applications for the Foleo and "signing a non-disclosure agreement," which certainly leads us to believe that this gizmo will hit shelves sooner rather than later.
posted August 10th 2007 8:55AM
meh
Yeah. No thanks.
At $600 this POS is up against low-end laptops - yet it's horribly gimped.
This thing was a joke when it was announced and now it's just kinda sad.
What a waste of time. I Love Palm, but they are over
Does it come with a Sony battery for termination at will?
For me,the real test of this thing will be whether it can gather enough developers from the Linux arena to move forward as a platform. I'm pessimistic that it will, because similar devices have failed on that front, but if it does, it could wind up being very nice.
I disagree with the people who say it's overpriced. It has a much better screen than the $300 UMPCs, and better battery life. $400 laptops are nowhere near as small and portable. I think they may have hit a sweet spot with the hardware, balancing portability, battery life, usability and cost.
It's possible that the platform may be greater than the sum of its individual parts. People scoffed at the Nintendo DS too.
The Nintendo DS had the full backing of one of the most prolific software publishers in history.
it is by far overpriced. the sweet spot would be $350 max. right not it is has to compete with a 14" $600 laptop and $200 wifi cellphone with built qwerty keypad. My blackberry gets me by when I am in the car or in public and for the other times I use my laptop.
Is this processor + GPU combo strong enough for full screen video playback?
I was told (by my housemate who has a foleo... he works for palm) that it won't do video period. I didn't try youtube or anything, but i did try google maps and it was CRAWLING... I made a post about this down below, but yeah, no, i was told it can't run video, and i believe him. I'll have to check tonight though!
-Taylor
What a joke! What in the heck are they thinking? It will be the biggest flop of the year.
Dam I can't run Vista on it...
Palm is dead! When I was returning my Treo 750 there were two other people doing the same thing. One bought an Iphone the other a blackberry and I bought an 8525.
The only reason Palm exist still is because HTC and Palm have an agreement to manufacture phones for palm. Palm's processors are too slow. The designs are too old and the software is bugy. I love the form factor, but that is not enough to sell me!
Compare a Palm phone to any HTC phone and palm loses.
Foleo, in the African Zulu language means warrior who ran with the lions and won the race only to be crapped on by a monkey.
Goodnight palm. Iphone with direct push will be your pallbearer and AT&T TILT will be your priest! Rest in peace Palm and my your bastard stepchild Folieo finaly find its home in hell with his lesbian sister, the Palm Gandolf!
A. My Treo 650 never crashes. Key word in that sentence is NEVER. That cannot be said about ANY WinCE device. If only HTC would make a device running the Palm OS...
B. I was more interested in the Asus EEE, but the price of that is creeping up. But it has a crappy screen compared to the Foleo. So I'm starting to swing back to the Foleo.
C. With such little onboard storage, that slot better be SDHC.
I work in a software company that creates software for Palm and we also have a large pool of Treo 680ps and 700ps. We also just replaced several 600ps.
Let me tell you, Palms crash ALL THE TIME. The kernel itself is unstable and will die randomly, and the OS has poor protection against software doing stupid things (this includes the bundled software) that also manages to kill the device half the time.
Teaching end users to soft reset the device is standard practice. They are not a stable platform.
Windows Mobile is an annoying to use, stupidly-designed OS, but at least it's worlds more stable than PalmOS.
It's like a slower Dell Axim...
The Axim has a 624Mhz PXA27x and the 2700g GPU. The Folio should be able to do full screen video no problem.
I talked to some of the booth staff at LinuxWorld and came away with the impression that Palm has very few inhouse developers to work on the Foleo. It's like they just took a Taiwanese-built prototype and threw it up against the wall to see if it would stick. It's great to see a Linux mobile device, but this one weighs more than 1kg, and looks like dead meat next to the Toshiba Portege R500, where one can easily install Ubuntu.
Not only will it stick to the wall, but tilled into the soil, it would probably nourish your crops!!
(-but please, wash you hands after handling it, okay?)
Every time somebody posts a message about an alternative to the Foleo, I eagerly look it up on the web, hoping to find an option worth considering.
This time it's the Toshiba Portege R500, but my evaluation turns out the same as for previously suggested alternatives. Sure, the R500 looks nice, but I can't bring myself to spend an extra $1500 above the price of the Foleo for a machine that I will use for nothing more than VPN+RDP back to my office desktop when I'm on site visits. I'd rather save the $1500 and maybe even buy a second Foleo for my girlfriend to take to school.
From the perspective of my requirements, all the Foleo alternatives fall into three categories:
(1) Good price, but far too big/heavy. I want 2.5 lbs or less and something in the Foleo to Picturebook size range.
(2) Great features, but $1500 more than I want to spend for VPN+RDP. R500 and Vaio TZ are examples.
(3) Wrong form factor for me. Tiny screen or keypads. E.g. OQO or other UMPC.
I agree with some posters that the size, weight, battery life, and price combo for the Foleo are hitting a sweet spot that works for some of us with very particular (peculiar?) requirements.
I used a Linux based Zaurus for a while and it was Good. I thought, why not make a larger, more functional mini-laptop out of this? It could be so cool. So I think this has potential...but not for me since a) I have a laptop (who DOESN'T have one?) and b) I have an iPhone. Also, after by Treo 650 debacle, I will not drink the Palm Kool-Aid again. But other than that...
I already sold my Treo 700p on ebay. I want nothing to do with a company that has such lack of vision for the future. Bought an iPhone, and I'm much happier anyway.
I am going to buy a Foleo and I am pleased to see that it will be available soon. Being a salesperson I spend my day either in a car or in front of people. My IBM Thinkpad works well, my Treo 700wx has replaced my PDA and phone. I look at e-mail, price lists, e-fax, view pdf files and send them. I carry 2 batteries for the laptop and end up recharging often. The Foleo concept is for people like me. Fast video cards, advanced gaming, movies?? Not me. My laptop is for work, my phone is for work. My Ipod is for fun. From what I see, the Foleo fits my world and most business people.
My housemate just got a marketing job at Palm, and they gave him a Foleo in full retail packaging.... these things are coming out really soon.
Too bad it sucks... (even google maps slows it down... BIG TIME)
-Taylor
Google maps-type AJAX applications might be slower because of Opera on the Foleo. For these types of apps, on the desktop Opera feels slower than Firefox or Safari.
Ah, well, this isn't "feels slower" like you're describing your desktop experience... it is a CRAWL. Like, it's barely usable. My friend also mentioned it won't do video, like youtube, though i didn't try that out (i should...). But yeah, even google maps on opera on my phone (XV-6700) runs waaay faster... So something is just crappy there... :(
-Taylor
My Palm 700p ALWAYS crashes. Focus on "ALWAYS". Like when I hang up a call or when I am listening to an audio file (from my SD card) and the train heads into a tunnel. I would understand if I was streaming but I am not!
I have interest in a sub-notebook and don't need much but a text editor, a PDF Viewer and wifi. If someone comes out with the hybrid of a Foleo, iPhone and Sony's eReader.
they added wifi... Can't wait to pick one up at Fry's for $199
BOOORRRRRinnggggg
I love reading comments on Engadget. When is engadget gonna have it's first annual Hater's Convention?
http://www.populationstatistic.com/images/chappelle_timehaters.jpg
when the next Foleo story crops up? :p
My Palm 750 with Windows Mobile NEVER crashes ... very stable and very responsive. The Folio is an overpriced underpowered waste of plastic. I can pull a loaded desktop out of Dell's outlet center for the same price.
The Foleo, by Palm's admission, is a niche device. Low sales volume means high prices and small profit margins, if any. Hardly the killer device Palm needs to pull itself out of the doldrums!
The only device I would buy from Palm these days, is a large screen Treo with BT and Wi-Fi.
I am tired of hauling my laptop around and with Exchange Server 2003 running so that I sync wirelessly and With EVDO on the Palm 700W what is not too like here and why not Foleo? What a home run! 90% of what I do can be done on the Foleo with the exclusion of AutoCAD, Adobe Suite, etc. Instant on! The weight? I own equipment dealerships in two states and have had 20 PDA's in the last 10 years. $400.00? What laptop can you get for that weight and instantly turns on? I have a 4k Dell Lattitude with a built in Verizon card, dual core processor and two gigs of ram and I will spend the $400.00 for the instant on and to not have some idiot put his seat back and wait for the Windows boot up. I will buy 5 of them right away. Hawkins is no idiot and the Windows Treo is the best PDA out there. The keypad on the front is still the best one handed operation out there. No HTCs compare, I have had three of them.
BOOORRRRRinnggggg