webOS-Based Foleo Rumor Picking Up Steam 20
Ever since I was present for the Foleo at its introduction, I've always found the concept intriguing. The idea of a Mobile Companion has been passed up by the Netbook craze, of course - but Palm's hardware on the Foleo was actually quite nice and their attention to the details that matter (i.e a real, full-sized, decent keyboard) was what really worked on the device. Above, a quick vid of the original Foleo.
Ever since the webOS was announced (actually, ever since the original Foleo was cancelled), there have been rumors that the Foleo II would come back, based on webOS. Since webOS is essentially resolution independent and so much of it is based on HTML, it truly could be a "cloud book." Up to now, that's what we knew.
Now Electronista claims to have a few more details. They cite "analyst" Tip Chowdhry, who says that the next Foleo will sport similar hardware as the original Foleo, use an ARM processor and a Qualcomm Gobi chipset for on-board 3G, and have 8-10 hours of battery life.
Chowdhry claims former Apple Employees had much to do with under-the-hood changes (no surprise there) and it will still sell for $399.
How this analyst came by this information is a mystery, but it doesn't sound crazy to us. On the other hand, it doesn't seem very realistic that Palm would be able to launch not one, not two, but three new webOS-based devices within a year of each other (make that 6ish if you count CDMA separately from GSM). So while we expect the Foleo to make a comeback someday, we expect that day is quite a ways off.
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To paraphrase likely the greatest leader of the 21st Century (if not all time):
Fooleo me once, shame on you.
Fooleo me twice.... won't get Fooleo'd again...
How about the Palm Mini
They could call it 'Palm Post'.. ;)
I still think the Foleo2 (or what ever you want to call it) should be a Redfly type solution (a terminal) for the Palm Pre. The benefit of the Redfly type solution is that you always have your data with you and there is no syncing or relying on cloud data service to have your data. Plus you use less power because all the memory and processing takes place on the Pre. Plus your total cost of ownership is less because all your software would reside on your Pre and your Pre would be your wireless modem so you would not need to pay your provider twice. Trust me, its the way to go.
There's a reason why the Redfly is barely selling and they keep slashing the price, and that's because without the phone, it's useless, and people want more functionality than a phone can give on the larger form factor and screen size. If you notice, they've started selling Redfly PC software, and I'd bet that's selling many more copies than the Redfly hardware.
The Pre already has a small battery, and to connect to a device like this wirelessly via Bluetooth would just drain battery even more quickly. I guess you could maybe tether it via Bluetooth, but with the Pre being so focused on wireless data download, that defeats the purpose.
Just like the Android netbook which is going to flop hard, I think a WebOS one would as well. From a netbook form factor people in general want to be able to run their normal programs with no compromises. No matter how well the OS works on a phone, an ARM processor just can't do that. Sure, Docs to Go works well on the tiny screen of my Treo, but if I'm on my laptop, I want the full MS Office or OpenOffice experience with no compromises. WebOS just can't do this.
In addition, I don't think the form factor would be all that great running WebOS anyway. My main computer is a Dell XT tablet, which has capacitive touch, but generally that isn't nearly as useful in the laptop configuration as it is in the slate configuration. Its hard to be all that accurate when you're poking at something that is vertical and on a hinge. And since WebOS has no on-screen keyboard, there's no way a slate would be possible.
As for the OS, it's tailor-made for a small screen in which applications need to take up the whole screen to be useable. On a 9" tablet or higher, you really don't have this problem as much, so Windows or OS X can do multitasking there just as well, if not better since you can have multiple programs open on the same screen at the same time, without having to switch between cards. (And I love the cards metaphor on the smartphone, by the way, so I'm not just complaining about that in general).
The thing I could see as being very useful though... what if Palm released a "Synergy" PIM solution for the PC? It would be perfect for those who are complaining about no desktop sync, and from what we've seen so far, the software is far better in this respect than even MS Outlook (which does Exchange well, but that's it) or anything else on the desktop.