Linux/Foleo version?

[splicer]

Wondering if there are plans to make Agendus work on the newly-announced Foleo. Personally, I think it would be lovely to have all the power and options of Agendus on a big(ger) screen. Since I'm a Mackertosh user I get left out of all the Agendus for Windows fun.

Seriously, the biggest problem that I have with Agendus is the available screen size; some of the views that I'd really love to be useful just aren't, and it's no one's fault, it's just that there's only so much you can fit on a little tiny screen.

Make Agendus for Foleo and I'll be a very happy customer!

[chillspace]

I doubt that the Foleo will take off. This was the most lackluster product announcement in recent memory. Palm really should've concentrated on making an improved OS for smartphones to keep up with all of the other companies out there. Too bad. They say they have something in the works but it might be too late.

[splicer]

Lackluster product or lackluster announcement? I think Jeff Hawkins breathlessly exclaiming that it's a better idea than the original Palm or the Treo hardly counts as lackluster. Whether it's a lame product remains to be seen, but I have to admit that if a LifeDrive user thinks that a Palm device that's more of a handheld computer than a phone is a bad idea, that handheld computers (as opposed to smartphones) are probably dead dead dead. That makes me a bit sad. I've for a long time thought that laptops were too big and poorly conceived. My T3 made a great desktop (notice I didn't say laptop) replacement, but switching to the Treo has left me craving the T3's screen and the availability of the portable keyboard.

As far as concentrating on improving PalmOS, it's been long known that the next version of the OS would be based on the Linux kernel. Both the development at Palm and the development at Access for the next versions of PalmOS (whatever each will call it) are based around the Linux kernel. The Foleo does not have a Garnet compatibility layer and I assume that any Treo with the new OS would have to, but I think it's pretty clear that future development for Palm devices is going to bear more similarity to development for the Foleo than anything else.

So whether the Foleo sucks or is great, any vendor that doesn't want to support the Foleo will probably not support upcoming PalmOS devices. It's a question of whether those of us that don't use Windows-based Treos are going to be left in the cold by Iambic. I don't mean to be alarmist about it, but it is a real concern about the future.

[adriano]

Hi All,

whether we'll move forward on making Agendus available on the Foleo or not, that will much depend on Palm's allowing developers to gain access to the information stored on the device through sdks.

At the moment is unclear to us if a full set of pim related data structures are going to be present on the device, or if in its first iteration it will be primarily an email machine.

Once the SDKs will be published (https://pdn.palm.com/regac/pdn/index.jsp), we'll be able to come up with a better plan around it.

- Adriano

[rsgmoose]

Lackluster product or lackluster announcement? I think Jeff Hawkins breathlessly exclaiming that it's a better idea than the original Palm or the Treo hardly counts as lackluster. Whether it's a lame product remains to be seen, but I have to admit that if a LifeDrive user thinks that a Palm device that's more of a handheld computer than a phone is a bad idea, that handheld computers (as opposed to smartphones) are probably dead dead dead. That makes me a bit sad. I've for a long time thought that laptops were too big and poorly conceived. My T3 made a great desktop (notice I didn't say laptop) replacement, but switching to the Treo has left me craving the T3's screen and the availability of the portable keyboard.

As far as concentrating on improving PalmOS, it's been long known that the next version of the OS would be based on the Linux kernel. Both the development at Palm and the development at Access for the next versions of PalmOS (whatever each will call it) are based around the Linux kernel. The Foleo does not have a Garnet compatibility layer and I assume that any Treo with the new OS would have to, but I think it's pretty clear that future development for Palm devices is going to bear more similarity to development for the Foleo than anything else.

So whether the Foleo sucks or is great, any vendor that doesn't want to support the Foleo will probably not support upcoming PalmOS devices. It's a question of whether those of us that don't use Windows-based Treos are going to be left in the cold by Iambic. I don't mean to be alarmist about it, but it is a real concern about the future.

Give me a T5/TX body with phone capabilities (lose the Treo keyboard) and G1 and the Foleo would be dead before it got started.

Evolution - Palm Pilot with "green" screen, MSeries with halfway decent color screen, Treo300 then T3 with a brillant color screen, then Treo 600 with keyboard and lackluster color screen, then Treo 650 (most acclaimed smartphone overall) but if they were to put a 320 X 480 screen with the Treo's PalmOS/Linux and kill the keyboard you'd have something like an iPhone? and the platform is already proven which the iPhone has yet to prove.

You aren't listening Palm - we want a 320 X 480 Screen on a T5 body with phone capabilities - not an iPhone - but they are listening.....full screen and kill the foleo because it's dead before it gets out of the gate.

Who wants to carry two devices - not all of the people that bought Treo's.

[chillspace]

There is a big reason to switch to smartphones: Reducing the number of devices to carry around on a regular basis. I used to carry my cell + LifeDrive. Did that for a couple of years. Gets a bit cumbersome really. Now with my BlackBerry, I have a full address book with all details intact, phone, push-email, multimedia, project management and other capabilities via 3rd party software. If I need full editing capabilities for documents, I would use my laptop. Surfing on a foleo over and edge connection would be atrocious...defeating the purpose of having wi-fi on your laptop. Check out the new Dell m1330 ultraportable.

In the age when UMPCs and ultraportable laptops are being pushed by the OEMs and may well become the norm, I can't see the Foleo getting very far...just my opinion.

[bulls96]

I for one would be in a market for Foleo if even at least Agendus Mail would be available for it. I would love to see my Agendus Pro on a full 10-inch screen, more so atttachments included in Agendus Mail.

I do hope you guys will develop this for the Foleo. Agendus has always been part of my Palm life. And having "ActNames" on my Foleo will just feel so right :)

[Ithakas]

If the Foleo seems worth buying, I'd definitely want to be able to use Agendus on it.

[splicer]

Well... yeah, for a lot of things I could use my laptop, but truth to tell I'd rather not have a laptop that's a clone of my desktop computer. If it gets used for different things its design and setup should be different. Stands to reason, no?

I've gotten more (and better) writing done on a T3 with Docs2Go than I ever have on my laptop or desktop machines. It's a cleaner, more focused environment. Switching off to the Treo killed my writing output. I just can't sit in a cafe and hammer out a couple thousand words on my Treo like I could with a portable keyboard or even Graffiti. The minikeyboard is perfect for short messages and it's faster than Graffiti by far, but I can't sustain its use for more than 90 seconds or so. The screen is also so small it makes a crappy eBook reader. So I'm about at the point where I'll get a TX to keep in my pocket next to my Treo. That sounds ridiculous to me, but there you have it.

An ultralight, instant-on clamshell-style device that works in some measure similar to my Palm? I'd kill for it. I wish I could tear the hard drive out of my iBook and install PalmOS on it.

The non-phone handheld computer is a dying (dead?) product because no one believes that a six-to eighteen ounce machine can do most tasks that a desktop can do. But everyone "knows" that anything you can do on your desktop you can do on your two-ounce cellphone, right? So instead of telling the public that it's a small computer, you tell them it's a big phone without the phone part. I think that's a smart way to circumvent the purchasing public's idiocy.

All that said, the product itself may suck badly. But the idea behind it, the concept? It's something that if done right will be really great.

rsgmoose, Palm *is* listening. Unfortunately there are only five of us worldwide that want what you describe. That's you, me, and I don't know who the other three are. The Foleo is Palm's bid to keep handheld computing alive, because at this point there ain't a market for a TX with or without a phone. Also, What you describe only sounds "good enough" to me. I'd really like something with a bigger screen than the TX.

Finally, if someday Palm fulfills its promise to make the Foleo work with other phones, that would give me the opportunity to drop this buggy Treo and get a phone that can be relied on as a phone.

[adriano]

Well looking at the news today, seems like this time our waiting a bit paid off...

http://www.engadget.com/2007/09/04/palm-kills-the-foleo-dead/

- Adriano