Foleo | Palm's New Smartphone Companion

Like many others who posted here I want more emphasis put into the Treo phones.

I am not sure this was an either / or / scenario, but with so many treo fans waiting... and waiting for better more stable phones I can understand the let down, even if this is a good product. I would also suspect this will not be limited to just Treos soon.

The good news about this product is that Palm is focused on a business user, or student with this offering. Thats where the $$'s are. Just ask the airlines. Consumer phones are commodity's, business phones require corporate support and have a following.

We have salespeople in the field who fight carrying a full laptop for lots of reasons into their clients, but need access to our online tools. If this thing really connects at a decent speed and we can fulfill the quoting and order through our toolset then we have something. Like another person said, we're looking at $2000 a person for the small laptop, with spare battery(s) and excryption software that needs to be booted up 25 times a day at each stop.

This would be a faster start up, cheaper and have much less critical data stored in case of loss or theft. Our phones already have kill pills installed.

Now if the cell phone providers would allow us to use our existing dataplans or even charge a little more when DUN is enabled, instead of forcing us to buy another cell card this might work. I fear the providers will see this as a threat to selling high speed cards which is where their market is expanding. We resist buying a card from Sprint while we run Cingular, and I am sure we are not alone.

If AT&T (Cingular) was smart they would offer a deal to their Treo clients on the Foleo ASAP for about $99 if you have the unlimited data plan. There would be a waiting list. Verizon could do the same. Sprint could and should package this with Treo's, Blackberry's, etc and sell a card that works through the sd slot, but only on a Foleo.. that would really heat things up in the traveling connection world.

People - you aren't getting it.

I don't carry around a laptop anymore. The care and feeding has got out of hand. They are too big. They need constant care - keep the battery charged, keep the virus and malware protection updated (and paid for), reinstall the OS when something goes crazy, keep the OS patched, repatch it after every install, pay for expensive office software, keep THAT software patched, relearn how to use my browser after another IE update. . . I've had it!!! I'm tired of my battery dying, of my lap getting too hot (probably can't have kids anymore), and waiting for the darn thing to boot when all I want to do is quickly check my e-mail - but forget sleep mode because that will just cut into my battery time.

I want small. I want light. I want instant. I want cheap. I want simple. Give me the ability to browse, e-mail and write at a moments notice. Make it stable as a rock. I think the Foleo has got this nailed. Less is more, people. Make my life easier.

Anonymous--it remains to be seen if it's stable. If the 700p is an indicator of Palm's ability to write stable apps, i'd say you're outta luck! :)

i simply don't have all the problems you have with a laptop. i'm usually in airport for a couple hours, my laptop boots in about 1 minute. no big deal and i can do a whole lot more than just check my email. however, if you don't want to do much beyond that, i guess you're a good candidate for the foleo.

no one at my company is.

I like the thing. But I'll buy it when it enables watching movies on it and has more application.
Just that.

I dont have a laptop, usually I dont need it, but if the price is this low, I might get a Foleo for me when the above conditions came true ... and use it for:

.. for my PRIVATE mailing in office ;) Thus leaving the company comp. separate from my private bus... mails.

Why is the bezel on this thing as big as a man's size 13 shoe? For something with no internal laptop components it certainly does not look slick.

I used to love the treos, I could not wait to get one. I can't believe that after years, Palm is still slinging the same nonsense. Compare the treo 680 experience to the iPhone experience and it's Katie bar the door (whatever that expression means.)

Nice knowing you, Palm.

I'm eager to try the new Palm Foleo -- it might really soothe a sore spot with me on business travel -- it goes like this: if I'm traveling by plane for a couple of days, I'm tempted to not drag along my notebook PC -- just to read emails. My trusty Treo 650 can do that just fine, thank you very much! The problem is that sometimes I get big attachments, that even with Documents to Go, they are not really workable. So, I drag along my notebook, all 7-8 lbs. of it, plus the case, charger, etc. Then I have to play with hotel WiFi setups, all of which are different...

If I had a 2 lbs. small notebook I could just keep in my suitcase and pull out if needed, that would be ideal. I'd still do most of my email on the Treo, but when I really needed to tweak that spreadsheet, or browse a complicated website (like my bank's security page), I'd be set! Plus I'd be going through my cell for a connection, so I'd be free of the need to connect a million different ways. I hate airport WiFi!

If you get one of these and need a tester, let me know! :)

A few more thoughts on the Foleo.

I've been looking at the UltraMobile PC's. Under 2 lbs, small keyboards, touch screens, modified versions of windows to adapt to the small form factor. The prices for anything worthwhile are well over $1000, I would probably end up at nearly $2000 for something I could live with.

BUT ................ It would be under 2 pounds and easy to travel with, give me the capability I need on the road. I need to edit documents and spreadsheets, send and receive email, read (and create presentations), get on the Internet, read PDF's, listen to music. I don't need to play games, I'm not a developer, an architect, or any of those other things.

I do not need a full PC in a laptop form factor while I'm on an airplane or in a hotel, airport or conference room. I spend 2 weeks, or more, a month on the road. I have been very close to getting a UMPC because of this. A full laptop is more than I need on the road. Anything that improves my mobile computing capability is well worth the cost.

What improves mobile computing for me? Small form factor and low weight are paramount. I often am on 3 to 5 flights in a typical week and will fly 5 to 10 thousand miles. I refuse to travel with anything but carry on luggage, so whatever I take with me has to fit in my suitcase and briefcase. A laptop and AC adapter takes up quite a bit of room and weight. Room and weight I would rather devote to other things. Yet another reason for a UMPC. It has to have a long battery life. Some UMPC's only have about 2.5 hours of battery life. My current laptop, on the internal battery, in powersaving mode, can go about 4 hours, plenty for the majority, but not all, of my flights (Seattle to Orlando is 5.5 hours there, 6 hours back).

Along comes the Paleo. It's going to do all of the things I need, have WiFi for airports, conference rooms and hotel lobbies and connectivity to my Treo for when I don't have WiFi (hotel rooms, for example). With Docs2Go I can read and edit all the document types I use on a regular basis. It has a 5 hour battery life, sufficient for just about every flight I might take. Instant on means I can pull it out and use it whenever I need to easily. And all the other stuff I need.

And it will only cost $500, half the price of the cheapest UMPC. And I wouldn't even buy that UMPC, it doesn't meet all of my needs. So, it's about a fourth the price of the UMPC I'm likely to buy. And I can leave my 4 pound laptop at the office and take just this with me.

It's easier and lighter than a UMPC, and does everything I need it to do. It costs about the same as a full size econo model laptop. My Compaq nc4400, 12.1" screen, 3.9 pounds, 4 hours of battery, costs $1800 without any accessories, list price at HP.

This is a no brainer for heavy business travelers who value mobility, low weight and functionality. Get on an airplane and travel 75,000 actual, not bonus, miles a year, live in hotels 10 to 15 days a month, and spend the rest of your time in conference rooms and airport lounges and see how you feel about a $500 laptop that weighs 6 pounds and has a 15" screen. Or, even, an ultra-portable laptop that costs $1800, weighs 3.5 to 4 pounds and has a ten to twelve inch screen. For people like me, the cost means next to nothing. I spent $300 on headphones to reduce the noise level on airplane flights and you think I would consider $500 to be expensive for what this does for me?

I'm not worried about whether my company will pay for it. I'll buy it myself and they won't grouch about me using it. Why not? Simple, the company will see it as an add on to my Treo, just as Palm intends. I'm never going to directly connect to the company network, just VPN and email.

I'm a business executive and I travel a lot. If we aren't the initial market I'm shocked. But, we are.

In focusing only on business executives as a target group, Palm have obviously laid an egg. It has been pointed out many times on this forum why this is precisely the group which doesn't need an in-between device that is neither PDA nor laptop.
However, one target group which will be far more grateful is that of researchers, teachers, academics and possibly legal professionals - and generally people who take notes on the hoof. The Foleo-cum-Treo is great to take into libraries, archives, meetings, classrooms... So forget the tired icon of the high-flying executive emailing at the airport's check-in gate. Paradoxically, web connectivity may prove less useful, in actual practice, than wordprocessing capacities (i.e. the Dataviz Documents-to-go software, if possible enriched with the functionality of the FileMaker and EndNote mobile companion ware). A real bonus would be the possibility to run PDAreach from the Foleo so you can access the .prc ware on your Treo through the Foleo.

Dear Jeff..
problem with Treo is small screen not keyboard.
so make Foleo II a tablet(read: touchscreen on d size of iPhone or Lifedrive) which is capable of multimedia and PIM.. we got treo capabilities that taken out browsing and emailing function of a laptop and you give us another laptop(smaller) to carry around??

I personally own a Treo and a Lifedrive.. I wish lifedrive would have bigger screen(read: smaller button)
and of course a laptop for more serious matter..

but on the run, I don't carry my laptop anymore, cuz i got enough with those two for communication on the go..

Remember Newton?? Lifedrive can be like that..(with serious tweaking) + Cellphone(TREO) purrrfect..

.......
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/05/palm_cancels_foleo/

Palm wants to focus on its next generation of smart phone... Let's hope it's actually a next generation rather than a mutant offspring...