The Gadgets Page

Palm made an announcement yesterday introducing the Foleo. It is billed as a smartphone companion, but it borders on the size of a notebook computer. It costs $499 (after $100 rebate), making it a hilariously expensive accessory or an amazingly inexpensive laptop.

• Palm, Inc. – Products – Foleo

Sadly, it looks like the Foleo is merely a hilariously expensive Treo accessory. It is a machine that runs the Linux operating system, not Windows, and connects to the Internet through your phone to bring the web and your email to full size. Unless there are some amazing features that they are hiding up their sleeves, it looks like they expect you to pay 600 bucks for a wireless keyboard.

Are they daft or do they not realize that I can already get online with my laptop and my Treo? Their crippled Bluetooth implementation doesn’t let it be wireless, but I have no problem pulling out a cord to connect my phone to my computer. With the Foleo, I can’t edit video, retouch photos or play Second Life, but with my tiny Acer notebook, I can do all that plus email for only 500 bucks. They brag about only weighing 2.5 pounds, but my Acer weighs a mere 5.3 pounds. The Foleo is too big for your pocket and most purses, so you’re going to need to carry it around in a bag anyway. Might as well carry around a REAL computer and not this crippled monstrosity they are trying to pass off on you.

Palm keeps dropping the ball. The iPhone comes out next month and they are going to have serious competition from a company that understands how people use their phones. This latest move just makes it easier and easier for people to give up their Treos and choose the iPhone.

Via: Foleo | Palm’s New Smartphone Companion | Treonauts

Singer and song-writer, John Mayer, got an early release of the Blackberry Curve. He shows us pictures here:

• JOHN MAYER blog – Blackberry Curve

When you think of a celebrity blog, do you ever expect them to do a review of their phone? I sure didn’t and I was pleasantly surprised. This isn’t the first time John Mayer has reviewed his gadgets on his weblog. He wrote this entry on his Nike+ a while back:

• johnmayer.com – NIKE PLUS VS. A GUY ON STAGE

I wrote about it here:

• Starling Fitness » John Mayer and His Nike+

It seems that John Mayer likes his technology as much as we do and I’m excited to see more from him about his new phone.

Via: BlackBerry Curve hands-on by… John Mayer? – Engadget

Kitykity got a Blackberry Pearl for an early Mother’s Day present and she has been using it to blog:

As an early mother’s day present, Scott got me this new blackberry pearl I’m typing on. It’s white, and I love it. Since I have this great gadget that takes pictures, I thought it would be a great way to force myself to start updating my Blog again.

I must say that I am thoroughly impressed with the photos that she has been able to get out of that phone. Here is a simple example. This photo of the Sonic Drive-In sign is so clear that you could order a meal from it. Click on the photo for full size:

The detail that came through on this photo is amazing. She’s not using her best photographic techniques on these pictures. She’s just clicking photos, yet the Blackberry Pearl is able to get detail and clarity.

I’ve seen the lens on a Blackberry Pearl. The thing is no larger than a dime. Some of the talent goes to kitykity, of course, for rock solid stability and good photographic technique, but even the best photographer couldn’t get pictures this good out of my Treo 650.

Cameraphones just crossed over from toys to tools. Did you notice?

Steve Ballmer might think that the iPhone isn’t going to affect the cell phone market. That’s because he had the inside knowledge of the new innovation coming out of Microsoft soon: the Microsoft oPhone!

Why settle for a multi-touch screen when you can have three keyboards and a circular screen instead! This Microsoft-created phone spoof is actually really funny. I love it when Mel Sampat explains how easy it is to write software for the oPhone:

Coding for the oPhone is so easy, a five-year-old can do it. In fact, even a four-year-old can do it. All you need to do is use the right GDI APIs. Just GetClientCircle instead of GetClientRect. DrawCircle instead DrawLine.

At least the guys at Microsoft have a good sense of humor.

Via: Betsy Aoki’s WebLog : The Ofone made my day!

Dave at The Other Drummer is disgusted that Motorola is still riding the coattails of the RAZR. He notes that the RAZR is a four-year-old design whose time has come.

• The Other Drummer: Die RAZR die

I don’t think the RAZR is dead yet, but he’s right about technology years:

Changing the color of your product for four years does not constitute a “design refresh”. Releasing a purple “version” for Mother’s Day? “Tattooed” editions? Please. Technology years pass faster than dog years. That means your design for the RAZR is at least 21 years old. 21 years ago it was 1986.

Strangely, the RAZR is really just a Motorola StarTac that has gone through the pasta roller. Back in 1996, Motorola released the StarTac and I was happily surprised at how small and portable my phone became. The StarTac was the first phone that passed the “Should I Take It” threshold. I never again needed to decide whether I should bring my phone with me or not. It was small enough to take with me all the time.

Then again, the StarTac was a smaller version of the MicroTac by Motorola. The MicroTac came out in 1989. Despite its size compared to the StarTac and the RAZR, it was actually a micro-cell phone compared to the bricks of its day. This was my first cell phone and I was so proud of my cool phone back then.

Does that RAZR design still look dated when compared to its predecessors? That clamshell design has been the cornerstone of Motorola for years, but what’s the difference between a cornerstone and a stale design? In the end, the “flip-phone” style is VERY efficient, but the RAZR is about as small as it can go and still be usable.

I believe the next step for Motorola should be the flip-phone PDA. Motorola is on track with the Motorola Q Phone and the next step is a phone as small as the RAZR with the full capabilities of a PDA like the Q. They have to solve the data input problem and the Blackberry keyboard, QWERTY keyboard and touch screen keyboard are all inadequate right now. Once Motorola solves that problem, they’ll once again have a killer phone that everyone will want. It will finally be the phone to tear me away from the Treo. I can’t wait!

Matthew Reinbold over at Muted Noise has written an excellent review of Google’s new free 411 service.

• mutednoise » 1-800-Goog-411

I’ve been pretty skeptical about the service because I usually would rather pay 75 cents for information than have to listen to an advertisement, but I realized something that made me pretty depressed. Now that Google is going to be sucking up all the 411 calls, the telecoms are going to lose business and to increase revenue, they’ll probably start putting advertisments on their own 411 service. So, I’ll have to pay my 75 cents AND hear a commercial in the future.

I guess I’m willing to try 1-800-GOOG-411 now…

While other companies are desperately competing for content for cell phones, Catholic Mobile has jumped right in to provide guidance… for a fee.

Catholic Mobile provides families and individuals with inspiring Catholic content that will enrich their daily wireless experiences.

Bring your faith to your cell phone. Bible readings, prayers, saint of the day and more…

For $4.99 a month or 49 cents a pop, you can have devotionals sent to your cell phone, but is it the Catholic Church that is providing the content? This is the info from their “About Us” page:

Catholic Mobile is a partnership between Denver, Colorado based JP2 Media and The Missionaries of Faith Foundation (MOFF) , headquartered in San Diego, California.

What do I think about this? I’m not Catholic, so advertising phrases like, “Make your phone 100% Catholic, too,” don’t offend me. Would I like daily inspiration sent to my cell phone? Maybe? Am I willing to pay 5 bucks a month for it? Nope.

I have enough friends on Twitter to have daily inspiration sent to my phone for free.

I AM disturbed that everyone featured in the advertising is so very, very, white. Most of the models are so blond, that even I feel excluded, but don’t fear, they have segregated the races in a Spanish language edition: Móvil Católico.

Via: Adrants – Catholicism: Not a Religion but a Lifestyle

This is an old entry from back in November, but it’s still very useful. More and more, I see people using their cameraphones in situations where my mom would have used the 110 camera when I was a child. Just the other day, I saw a mother at a restaurant snap photos of her children at the table. The cameraphone is creating photo albums of the lives of many families. Here’s how to make those memories better using that dime-sized lens:

• Geek to Live: Take better cameraphone photos – Lifehacker

Here is the quick and dirty list of their ways to make your cameraphone photos better:

• Get close and personal.
• Keep it steady.
• It’s all about the light.
• Use night mode.
• Turn off the fake shutter sound.
• Keep your lens clean.

Of all of these, the clean lens has been the biggest issue for me. Since my phone is bobbing around in my purse with its lens unprotected, mine is usually covered with lint. If you are going to snap a photo, take a moment to wipe off the lens first.

Via: Meriblog: Meri Williams’ Weblog » links for 2006-11-21

I’ve known about the Hipster PDA for a while. It’s just bunch of index cards held together with a binder clip. It’s light, you can write using an object you are already familiar with (a pen), and there is no plasticy keyboards or stylii (yuck!). The only problem with the Hipster PDA is that there is no music capabilities.

Until now…

THIS is what the iPod Shuffle was made for!

Via: Meriblog: Meri Williams’ Weblog » links for 2007-03-03

The first iPhone commercial showed during the Oscars. It’s a brilliant tribute to both the movies and the telephone. “Hello” was the first thing that the Mac said to the world. Now, we’ll be saying it to the iPhone. Cool…