Do I want a Palm Foleo?
A few years ago, I really wanted a Vadem Clio. With its swiveling display and sloping keyboard, it was one of the coolest looking machines in its class. Unfortunately for Vadem, that class—underpowered, overpriced mini-PCs running on Windows CE —never managed to find a market, since they were too bulky and expensive to replace PDAs, and too scrawny to replace traditional laptops. Now it looks like Palm is going to try to revive that market, with the new $500 Foleo. And I have to say, if anyone can make me want to buy one of these weird hybrids, it’s Jeff Hawkins. But, in the end, I’ll probably end up taking a pass on this one. These days, $500 can buy a decent, albeit low-end, laptop, and the Foleo, despite its bundled Bluetooth and WiFi, just doesn’t seem much more powerful than the Clio was in its day. And it’s not nearly as cool.
