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I just read over at Engadget that they got their hands on a Palm Foleo and will be offering up a review shortly. Many credit (blame) Engadget with the death of the Foleo. But I think it was the Palm community as a whole who brought about this untimely death! But I did get to thinking about something. We all know that the techie gift of 2007 was the seven inch, Linux OS Eee PC from Asus! Its basically a bare bones PC with four gigs of Flash memory, WiFi, and a camera. Its very limited in what it can do, and retails for $399. Remember the Foleo retailed for $599. So with that in Mind, I thought it might be fun to compare the two as we know/knew them, just to see which one might have come out on top since the two were very similar in their approaches. Of course, the Foleo was going to depend upon a Palm OS Treo to function, and the Eee depends largely on a WiFi network, to function. | | Palm Foleo
| Asus Eee
| | Function | 
|  | Flash Storage
| 128 megs of RAM and 256 megs of flash, | 4 Gigs of Flash RAM
| | Weight | 2.5 Pounds
| 2.0 pounds
| | Display | LCD Size / Type: 10.2" Wide
| LCD Size / Type: 7" Wide
LCD Resolution: 800x480 (~WVGA) | | Chipset | *? But seems like it was the same as the Treo chip the best I can remember
| Processor: Intel Mobile CPU
Chipset: Intel Mobile Chipset | | Operating System | Linux developed and hacked by Palm and who is now Acess Linux
| Linux Preloaded
(Windows XP Compatible, Drivers included) | Ethernet Communication
| None, as it depended upon the Treo's data connection or Wifi | 10/100 | | WiFi | B | B/G | Camera for Video Conferencing
| None for the Foleo | Eee has this covered
| Expansion Slot
| SD and Compact Flash | SD Card Slot
| | Price | $599 | $399 |
The Eee PC for $400 delivers a unit that does email, surfs the web, runs on WiFi, has much more storage, would handle pictures, includes Windows drivers, and is generally a much more versatile device. And for a list price $200 cheaper than the Foleo was supposed to debut at. I too, vented about the Foleo and how stupid I thought this idea was. And my biggest argument at the time, was that for the same amount of money that the Foleo was, I could go to my local Office Depot and come home with a Laptop that also played music and movies as well as sync with my Treo and all that it cost me was a couple of pounds. If you look at Eee sales, you know that they have a winner on their hands! This little Linux Wonder is a big hit for sure! This was what the Foleo could have been! These could have been Foleo sales! But Palm didn't want to build a Linux Laptop, they wanted to build a companion device to a unit whose OS was dieing a slow death. Palm, you were close, but no cigar . . .
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