Mobile Ministry Magazine

I know that this hardware has yet to be released by Palm. However, I want to share with the Palm community a different vision than I am hearing in several places.

As a long-time Palm user, I can remember that the Palm was really supposed to flop. Everyone pointed to the Newton and decried any future for PDA's. It has been supposed to flop for years. The "death-bell" has been ringing since the beginning. And yet, Palm continues to innovate out where other companies aren't even looking. All of our phones would be "dumb" without Palm/Handspring.

The Foleo, I think, is being misunderstood. Maybe it's announcement didn't emphasize the future possibilities of such a device enough. I think that I can see how this single device has the potential to replace my laptop.

Here are the ways that I hope to see the Foleo turn some nay-sayers:

1. Third Party support. To me the "win" of the Foleo is getting everything that have on my Palm accessible (documents, all PIM data, music, videos, pics, database info...EVERYTHING) on the Foleo and visa versa. I can imagine doing my research, writing, surfing, & downloading and then having EVERYTHING I've done synced wirelessly between my devices. This will take third-party companies writing client apps for the Foleo. However, having access to every app that I use on the Palm available to me would be huge! And having the ability to walk away from a keyboard with all my work (not just my docs & PIM info) saved to my Treo really does make my Treo my new home computer. Growing memory sizes, the speeding up of data connections, and the migration of the Palm OS to Linux all point to great opportunities through the Foleo.

This benefit would be felt in spades for a program like Olive Tree. Can you imagine having all of your Olive Tree files accessible on the big screen?!

2. Robust Web Access. Simply having onboard WIFI & Opera makes the Foleo tempting to me. Most of my life and the lives of my friends & co-workers is stored, kept, and accessible through the internet. Bringing a full-bodied, unfettered web-browser to the Foleo is the way to go.

3. Sub-Sub Form Factor. Big enough to use, small enough to carry. That's what we all want. Working to find the "sweet spot" in screen size & thickness will be worth every research dollar spent. Ten inches is a great place to start with screen size as getting in under the typical 12" sub-notebook is vital. Working with resolution, brightness, and aspect ratio will help tweak it to the right width. Thickness is vital too. Too thick = "doorstop" comments; too thin = "too fragile" comments. Erring just over the border of too thin (with a strong casing) seems to get raves for Apple & Sony. Of course, battery size & life impact all of this discussion in major ways, but we all know that the longer the battery lasts, the more impressed we are.

4. Connectability. I have noticed the SD slot & the USB port on the side of the Foleo, though I've heard very little discussed about it. The possibilty of using a "home base" external drive answers the questions about the missing drive space on the Foleo. The idea is PORTABILITY. Yet, having the connectability to plug into my big drives at home and be my Hotsync between that info & my Treo opens up even more delightful possibilties.

I know these are not perfect ideas. At the end of the day, developers decide. However, I think that those with a generally negative tone about the Foleo are missing the possibilites.

As I said before, maybe the launch presentation missed casting the "vision" in a way that the community can see the possibilities. Call me a cool-aid drinking fan-boy if you want, but I can see it.