SmartPhoneToday

Home | News | Reviews | Features | FREE Downloads | Forums | Compare PDA Prices | Compare SmartPhone Prices


  BlackBerryToday > News > Palm Foleo Attracts First Games, PIM

Palm Foleo Attracts First Games, PIM

By James Alan Miller
June 19, 2007

Click to View
Palm has introduced the first third-party applications to run on its upcoming Foleo 'mobile companion' product. These include a Personal Information Manager (PIM) from MotionApps and two games from Astraware.

When Palm founder, Jeff Hawkins, introduced Foleo a few weeks ago, he emphasized how the device , which looks like a mini-laptop with a full-size QWERTY keyboard and display, was pretty much a blank slate waiting to be expanded upon (outside its basic functionality - e-mail access and synchronization, the Web) by software developers.

The mDayscape PIM fills a frequently cite gap for Foleo; the ability manage calendar, contacts, and tasks on the mobile companion and synchronize that data with a paired smartphone. MotionApps developed mDayscape exclusively for the Foleo.

"Bringing a contacts, calendar and tasks application to the Foleo further increases usability of the Treo and enhances the user experience in a continued shift away from the desktop and toward a smartphone as a center of computing,” MotionApps CEO Voja Lalich asserted in a statement.

MotionApps' Quick Add feature enables users to not just create a new calendar entry quickly, but to also have that event mirrored automatically with user's smartphone, for example.

As we mentioned earlier, the first games for Foleo arrive courtesy of veteran game developer Astraware. These titles include Sudoku and Solitaire, both currently available for Windows Mobile and the Palm OS.

Astraware's version of Sudoku is a logical puzzle game that the company says is suitable for players of all abilities. Features include six levels of difficulty, pencilmarks in a choice of styles, optional completion and tracking of pencilmarks plus an advanced hint system. In addition, it comes with a selection of built-in puzzles and, after registration, allows the addition of pre-built puzzle packs.

Solitaire features 12 single-player card games, among them Klondike, Spider, Freecell and Pyramid. Each game has a wide range of custom gameplay options so users can play them with their favorite variations on the standard rules, according to Astraware. In addition, the developer says the game's style and interface has been designed to mirror the feeling of playing with real cards and offers a range of display options as well as detailed statistics to track progress.

The game has also been optimized for the high-resolution display on the Foleo and for use with the device's trackpoint controller.

With Foleo, Palm has brought over the third-party software model it basically invented with the original PalmPilot (and that's lead to over 25,000 Palm OS applications). The company hopes to establish a "vibrant developer community to create new applications that extend the mobile companion's built-in capabilities," And, it would seem, bring out Folio's full potential. A potential many pundits still do not see.

At $499, the ultra-slim, 2.5-pound Foleo is targeted at those who don't require the full power of a laptop, but would still like a large screen and full keyboard when reading, editing and responding to e-mail, including attachments, and accessing the Web than is possible directly through a smartphone. It runs on an open Linux platform.



Related Links:

  • Update: Apple Opens iPhone Up to Web 2.0 Applications
  • Update: Palm's Mystery Device Called Foleo – A Smartphone Companion
  • Palm to Introduce Mystery Device Tomorrow
  • Mystery Palm Device May Ship This Year
  • Secret Palm Project Still in the Works

     
     Printable Version
     Email this Story to a Friend  Add Your Opinion



    User Opinions:

       

    Be the first to add your opinion about this product
    Click HERE Now!


     Add Your Opinion  



  • PDA/Smartphone Newsletters
    text html text html
    X WindowsMobileToday X PDAStreet
    X Palm Boulevard X SmartPhoneToday
    X BlackBerryToday X Pocket PC Wire
    X iPhoneGuide      

    Other Personal Technology Newsletters
    X Sharky Extreme X WiFi Planet


    internet.comearthweb.comDevx.commediabistro.comGraphics.com

    Search:

    Jupitermedia Corporation has two divisions: Jupiterimages and JupiterOnlineMedia

    Jupitermedia Corporate Info

    Legal Notices, Licensing, Reprints, Permissions, Privacy Policy.
    Advertise | Newsletters | Tech Jobs | Shopping | E-mail Offers

    Whitepapers and eBooks

    Intel Whitepaper: Comparing Two- and Four-Socket Platforms for Server Virtualization
    IBM Solutions Brief: Go Green With IBM System xTM And Intel
    HP eBook: Simplifying SQL Server Management
    IBM Contest: Are You the Next Superstar? Join the "Search for the XML Superstar" Contest to Find Out
    Microsoft PDF: Top 10 Reasons to Move to Server Virtualization with Hyper-V
    Microsoft PDF: Six Reasons Why Microsoft's Hyper-V Will Overtake Vmware
    Microsoft Step-by-Step Guide: Hyper-V and Failover Clustering
    Intel PDF: Quad-Core Impacts More Than the Data Center
    Intel PDF: Virtualization Delivers Data Center Efficiency
    Go Parallel Article: PDC 2008 in Review
    Microsoft PDF: Top 11 Reasons to Upgrade to Windows Server 2008
    Avaya Article: Communication-Enabled Mashups: Empowering Both Business Owners and IT
    Intel Whitepaper: Building a Real-World Model to Assess Virtualization Platforms
      PDF: Intel Centrino Duo Processor Technology with Intel Core2 Duo Processor
    Microsoft Article: Build and Run Virtual Machines with Hyper-V Server 2008
    Go Parallel Article: Q&A with a TBB Junkie
    IBM Whitepaper: Innovative Collaboration to Advance Your Business
    Internet.com eBook: Real Life Rails
    IBM eBook: The Pros and Cons of Outsourcing
    Internet.com eBook: Best Practices for Developing a Web Site
    IBM CXO Whitepaper: The 2008 Global CEO Study "The Enterprise of the Future"
    Avaya Article: Call Control XML in Action - A CCXML Auto Attendant
    IBM CXO Whitepaper: Unlocking the DNA of the Adaptable Workforce--The Global Human Capital Study 2008
    Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro: Web Conferencing and eLearning Whitepapers
    HP eBook: Guide to Storage Networking
    MORE WHITEPAPERS, EBOOKS, AND ARTICLES