Less is More: Palm's New Foleo
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 06. 1.07
I was really excited to see the new Foleo from Palm, yet the Intarweb consensus is that it is DOA, underpowered and overpriced and why bother when you can buy a laptop? A typical comment on Gizmodo is "If you buy one of these its like carrying a big I'm an idiot sign" but as someone who still has a Palm Pilot 5000 on my bookshelf and can't go out the door without my Treo 650, I am going to say why I think this is big, perhaps the ultimate lean green machine.
Anyone who is interested in green computing is trying to get as much as they can out of as little as possible, the least power consumed, the least hardware on their desk, the most flexibility from their components.
I have been trying for years to turn my Handspring Visor and then my Treo into a notebook replacement. The handspring had a fabulous ThinkOutside external keyboard that never missed a key; the Treo infrared ThinkOutside version is sticky, sloppy and awful, if you are a touch typist and are not looking at the screen you go nuts because you do not know what letters have not registered. Nonetheless I can do interviews, type like mad with Wordsmith, take lousy pictures (give me a Hasselblad and I will take lousy pictures) watch movies, take dictation with Audacity, listen to books with Audible and read books with Peanut Press or e-reader or whatever it is called now.
My job now is writing, and I do that using Google Documents as my word processor, so I can work on any computer anywhere, or directly into movable type, the internet is my computer. Computer speed and power are now mostly irrelevant to my life and work; internet access and portability are.
So here is a machine that will let me connect to the internet either on wifi or through my Treo, let me work on a decent keyboard and screen, is all flash memory so it will suck very little power and run for a long time on batteries, for only five hundred bucks? Where do I line up?
All of the Gizmodo and Engadget geeks trashing this thing don't understand that we are entering an era where low power, long life and no moving parts are going to be huge advantages. I will wait to learn how it is made and what their environmental policies are, but this could be the greenest of computer systems. ::Palm Foleo
Looks good to me. When a change in the paradigm occurs there are always those who don't get it, retro grouches.
I've been waiting for something like this.
I get your point, but I really don't think this is the machine to champion.
The problem that people have it is that it's a companion piece for a smartphone or at least that's how it's be sold as. A small wireless device like this that would allow users to connect to the internet thru wifi and thru your phones's bluetooth connection only.
You would expect such a limited device to have a battery life far greater than 5 hours considering that it cannot connect to cellular data networks, cannot create office documents (only edit them), and cannot view video. My laptop lasts about 3 hours while I surf the net on a wifi connection and that has a cd/dvd burner and I can install software freely and it has a regular spinning hard drive.
A device with a smaller screen, no cd/dvd drive, a solid state hard drive, and a weak processor should be able to last much much longer than 5 hours.
Don't be fooled by Palm's marketing.
This is an underpowered device that has very limited functionality. This device would just add to what we use, not take anything away. We would still need a separate computer/laptop and a separate phone.
This device is not decreasing our load on the environment, but actually adding more unnecessary junk to our arsenal.
It is all well and good but last week 60 Minutes had a story on a similar unit that was $176 and expected to go down in price to $100. The catch it is currently intended only for third world countries. It will eventually come here but Americans will have to buy two - one for themselves and one for a child in a third world country.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/05/20/60minutes/main2830058.shtml
No. No. No. It is not a change in the paradigm. It is just nothing.
You can by a linux laptop for like $700 now. It is the real thing. Foleo is a miss. It is not going to be a companion for my smart phone. It is too big to put into my pocket. And if I need a suitcase anyway, believe me I will put there my PowerBook, not that Foleo.
I am very disappointed. I expected some real breakthrough from those guys. Foleo is not. I would put it into the same category as portable keyboards which are well known for years. Ok, they also added a screen to that keyboard, so what? Where is that change in paradigm?
The point is: we only carry three things: Keys, Wallet and Cell. Any other fourth one will be left home...
I think the folks at engadget use their machines for more than you do.
I, for example, develop java web apps on mine. I need something that can run virtualization software, compile Java quickly, handle my corporate email, and is fast enough that I'm not held back by it. I also need an SSH client. Is this thing any of those? Absolutely not.
What I have is a MacBook Pro that uses 85w of power and lets me run virtually every operating system through virtualization.
If you use your computer for word processing, web browsing and checking your email, this is probably good. But for the folks who, like me, write the apps that let you do word processing or web browsing or email or ecommerce, it's not nearly enough.
I partially agree with you Icelander, but I have to disagree on some parts.
You are right that different tools will suit different people.
But one thing I have learnt, partly through a failure to spend money on upgrading, is how much you can get done with how little. My server (with terabytes of storage), uses less than 85 watts. For me an 85 watt load can be visualised as a new solar panel.
I should note that I am a programmer. I have a 65 watt laptop supplied by work, that I had little choice in.
It's easy (as a geek) to get caught up in the latest and greatest, but having got left behind by a lack of funds, I have a new perspective. My server upgrades leave me hunting for CPUs with low power consumption (I may actually be able to get a system with lower power consumption, and over 20 times the processing power of the old system). For most people my computing resources are overkill if applied correctly. Hopefully the culure of conspicuous consumption and "Bigger is better" will be overtaken by a culture of frugality and efficiency.
(I'm a developer on the Foleo team at Palm)
Just a note -- I'm not sure where this idea that the Palm Foleo won't create documents has come from. Both the DTG Word and Spreadsheet apps support document creation. I've used it a lot to make notes in meetings... I just open the lid, hit Apps+W, Menu+N, and I've got a brand new document sitting there waiting for me to fill it with text.
LA: So can you get me one to try?