Palm unveils Foleo PC as smartphone companion
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(InfoWorld) - Despite consumers' cool reaction to ultramobile PCs, Palm will launch a handheld computer called Foleo with a full keyboard and 10-inch screen. The product, announced Wednesday, seems to fly against Palm's own strategy of migrating away from PDAsÂ built around data entry to smartphones centered on voice operation. Hardware vendors can earn larger profits selling the more expensive smartphones, such as Palm's Treo, which have grown in popularity thanks to features like mobile e-mail. Now Palm hopes to ride the coattails of smartphone popularity by pitching the Foleo as a "smartphone companion product." Users would carry both devices in their pockets, synchronizing data between the platforms just as PDA users swap data with their PCs. "Smartphones will be the most prevalent personal computers on the planet, ultimately able to do everything that desktop computers can do," but at times users need a bigger screen and full-size keyboard, said Palm founder Jeff Hawkins in a statement. The 2.5-pound (1.13 kilogram) Foleo stays connected to its companion smartphone through a Bluetooth wireless link and supports Internet browsing with either its own Wi-Fi card or the smartphone's radio, Palm said. Together, the wireless networks will allow users to read their e-mail and office documents, such as Word and Excel, files on a large screen instead of a cramped phone display. The Foleo PC uses the Linux OS and is designed to synchronize with both the Palm OS and the Windows Mobile version of the Treo smartphone. However, Palm hopes to sell the Foleo to users of all types of smartphones, saying it can easily link to most smartphones based on Windows Mobile and requires a modest development effort to link to smartphones using operating systems from Research in Motion, Apple, or Symbian. By choosing the Linux OS, Palm is also encouraging software developers to create new applications for the platform. That decision could be a successful strategy, one analyst said. "Using the analogy of the OS as plumbing for the device, with Linux, all the plumbing is already developed, so it's easy to layer your own application on top of it," said Todd Kort, an analyst with Gartner. One drawback might be the proliferation of 10 or 20 different types of Linux flavors in the market, but several consortiums are tackling that problem by trying to define software standards, Kort said. Palm will also win some marketing buzz by being one of the first vendors to bring a Linux-based handheld PC to the U.S. Motorola and other vendors sell some comparable products in China and Japan but have not yet brought them to the U.S., Kort said. Palm will sell the Foleo in the U.S. this summer for $499 after an introductory $100 rebate.
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The maker of Palm operating systems for handheld computers plans to introduce Tuesday its first version designed specifically for so-called smart phones.
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PalmSource Inc. on Tuesday launched the latest version of its operating system, which targets manufacturers of the increasing number of advanced cellular phones in the market.
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PalmOne today unveiled its latest addition to the Treo Smartphone range, the Treo 650 targeted at mobile professionals. Available as either a digital dual-band or quad-band world phone, the Palm OS-based device
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PalmSource has taken the wraps off of its latest smartphone software platform, launching OS Cobalt 6.1 with an eye on drawing more licensees and developers to the company's operating system and improving the performance of converged voice/data devices.
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Palm on Wednesday introduced a compact  portable computer aimed at helping business travelers better  manage their e-mail and documents on the go without the bulk of  carrying a laptop PC.
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Blog: Palm revealed earlier this year that it's working on its own Linux-based version of the venerable Palm OS, but it's not going to arrive until next year.
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PalmOne Inc. PLMO.O on Monday unveiled a new version of its popular Treo that adds a removable battery and short-range wireless technology to the device, which combines a mobile phone and digital organizer.
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Palm Inc. PALM.O on Tuesday unveiled   a new smart phone under a partnership with British mobile phone   giant Vodafone Plc VOD.L, marking Palm's biggest effort to   get a foothold in the European market.
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In an effort to ring up more sales, PalmSource Inc., of Sunnyvale, known for making the operating system for the Palm handheld computer, on Tuesday introduced a new operating system for so-called &quot;smart phones.
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PalmSource Inc. has finally answered the smart-phone call. The maker of Palm operating systems for handheld computers plans to introduce Tuesday its first version designed specifically for so-called smart phones.
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Intrigued by Palm's new "smartphone companion" but not ready to bet on an unproven and probably doomed Linux-based ultra-compact computer? We've got seven attractive options for you.
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A consistent theme among many people in PDA forums around the Internet lately has been that Palm OS based PDAs are not making the effort to cater to the need for more useful features (for example, there is only one current PDA model that includes Wifi
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Although the long-time smartphone maker will "continue to focus around core business initiatives," it's still unknown whether these initiatives will include a new home-grown, Linux-based version of the Palm OS.
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PalmSource is set to announce its first operat- ing system for smart phones, with applications typically found on desktop computers.
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PalmOne Inc. on Monday introduced the Tungsten T5, the company&#39;s latest high-end PDA. The new T5 sports flash memory that will retain data even if the device&#39;s battery discharges, a 320 x 480 pixel color screen, Bluetooth standard and more.
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PalmOne this week is announcing the Treo 650, a hybrid PDA/mobile phone device that addresses many of the shortcomings of its hugely popular predecessor, the Treo 600.