Palm introduces smartphone companion Foleo
US mobile device manufacturer Palm announced the Palm Foleo, its first smartphone companion product. The Foleo mobile companion has a large screen and full-size keyboard with which to view and edit e-mail and office documents residing on a smartphone. Edits made on Foleo automatically are reflected on its paired smartphone and vice versa. Foleo and its paired smartphone stay synchronized via Bluetooth throughout the day or at the touch of a button. Foleo has a Linux-based operating system, a USB port, video-out port, headphone jack, and slots for SD and compact flash cards for memory expansion. Foleo applications include email, full-screen web browser, and editors or viewers for common business documents such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF files and it uses the smartphone’s radio or the Foleo’s built-in Wi-Fi radio for general internet connectivity.
Foleo mobile companions work with Palm’s Treo smartphones (Palm OS and Windows Mobile versions). However, Palm believes that most smartphones based on Windows Mobile should work with little or no modification. Smartphones based on operating systems from Research in Motion, Apple, and Symbian likely can be supported with a modest software effort. The Foleo’s synchronisation architecture is open, and Palm expects to work with third-party developers to support as many smartphones as possible.
The new Palm Foleo mobile companion will use the Opera web browser. Based on Opera 9, Opera for the Palm Foleo offers intelligent navigation features and support for advanced Web 2.0 applications using Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML). DataViz provides its Documents To Go software for Palm Foleo mobile companions. The mobile Office suite, Documents To Go, will provide Foleo customers with the ability to create, view
