Thursday, May 31, 2007

Palm's New Foleo

Palm recently introduced the Foleo. I was a little surprised Jeff Hawkins is fully behind it because it doesn't feel like a break-through type of product.

Is there a need for it? Yes! Does Foleo fill a void? No. My laptop is already my Foleo albeit presumably not as easy to use. These days laptops can be as cheap as Foleo. So I don't think Foleo has a niche big enough to fill.

From a slightly different angle, Foleo is a Linux device. It breaks ground of a new category of PCs that is Linux based, runs a good collection of applications for communication, audio/video and other essential functions. Ideally these applications should operate seamlessly either online or offline. Also, if any different, these applications should be very similar to their real PC counterparts. This is the more interesting aspect of Foleo.

Rare Appearance of Steve and Bill Together

What is it like when Steve Jobs and Bill Gates appear on stage and talk together? You can check it out yourself.
Steve: "The PC Guy is great. He has a big heart."
Bill: "PC Guy's mother loves him."
Bill: "I miss some people who’ve left the industry. It’s nice to have someone like Steve around."
Last two standing? All in all, they are both humans. The little bit of true emotions shown there was quite touching.
Q: Advice for the upcoming entrepreneur?
Gates: The idea of being at the forefront and increasing in size has been one of our greatest challenges. Our business is really about the passion.
Jobs: If you don’t love it, you’re going to fail. You’ve got to love it and you’ve got to have passion. And you’ve got to be a great talent scout, you can only build a great organization around great people.
Standing ovation in the end.