The Palm Centro Get's Reviewed

Let's get things straight, the Palm Centro isn't the most anticipated gadget out there. Heck, it doesn't look like it's anticipated at all. But anyway, it's here. Engadget has done the honors of reviewing the Centro and I'd have to admit, things are looking pretty good.

Don't get me wrong, the Centro isn't a high end smart phone. It's geared more to first-time smartphone owners which is great since the Palm OS is as simple as a smartphone can get. Simplicity is the key here, since this phone obiously doesn't have the "wow factor" everyone's craving nowadays. However, at $99 a pop, it's practically a steal. Anyway, you can read the full review here.

Credit: [Engadget]

Thoughts on the Palm Centro

This isn't the first time the Palm Centro was leaked. But I held off blogging about it before today because the first few leaks weren't really blog-worthy in my opinion. They were grainy pics that didn't really interest me.

However, the latest Palm Centro leak looks great. Finally, an official-looking photo of the not-so-much-awaited Palm smartphone. In contrast to the first photo, this one certainly looks like something halfway interesting. Here's some more info about the Centro care of our trusty rumor mill...

• Smallest Palm OS smartphone to date
• Targeting a younger demographic... people who are new to smartphones
• Runs on EVDO network
• Features a full keyboard and touch screen

• It'll go for $99, and Sprint will have 90 days exclusivity

A bit disappointing... these are all nothing I haven't heard of before. Is it just me or is Palm losing it's touch? I mean I totally agree with Engadget's open letter to Palm (Dear Palm: It's time for an intervention) --> except for the Foleo bit. Palm needs to shape it up or the company might die a natural (or painfully unnatural) death. I especially agree with these statements...

• "Get thin - Three words: FIGURE IT OUT. If HTC, Apple, and Motorola can offer thin (and we mean friggin' thin) smartphones, you can too. We know you think the Treo is perfectly proportioned, but it's not. It's chubby. No excuses any more, ok? It doesn't have to be as thin as the iPhone, but you've gotta trim some of the fat."
• "Speaking of the keyboard, don't mess too much with it - Apple may or not add a physical keyboard to the iPhone (our money says it won't happen), but the one the Treo has now is pretty good and it's pretty much the one thing that's keeping a lot of Treo owners from jumping ship."
• "Add WiFi - Is it really almost 2008 and the Treo STILL doesn't have WiFi? No excuses any more, sort it out."

• Oh, and I have a request of my own. If you can't put a decent camera on a smartphone, don't put one at all.

These aren't difficult requests. They should be pretty obvious actually. Let's see how Palm fares in the future... I do hope they release some great gadgets pretty soon.

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The Palm Foleo Makes Sense

The Palm Foleo was announced a few months ago and is due to be released anytime soon. When I first heard about this device, I was seriously doubting the saleability of a device that was not quite a laptop and not quite a PDA. It seemed so in-between to me.

However, the more I hear about this device and the more I thought about it, the more sense it made to me. I mean a lot of people nowadays use their laptop just for email and web browsing, why not have a device that does this alone and does a good job on this? Think about this, it turns on instantly (no long startups), it's lightweight, it has 5 hours battery life, it has wifi, come to think of it, it is starting to sound like a very good idea.

All we have in the name of portable email and web browsing before the Palm Foleo were puny devices with tiny keyboards and/or equally tiny and clunky touchscreen pads. It's either that or laptop computers that cost and arm and a leg and with lousy battery life to boot. The only problem I have with this is the lack of support for video and multimedia. Come-on, even PDA's and cellphones can play multimedia. I'm not asking for dvd playback after all, just online embedded video or videos from email attachments. Surely they can add this feature later?

Anyway, you can check out these links for more info on this device.

• Brighthand's first thoughts on the Palm Foleo
• PCMag's Hands-on with the Palm Foleo
• Palm Infocenter's Hands-on Gallery
• Palm Infocenter's Foleo Webcast
• Palm's official site
• Palm Foleo Wiki
• ProFoleo - A Foleo centric website

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