jeff hawkins

Palm's Foleo: This era's answer to Microsoft Bob

Give this to the folks running Palm: At least management had enough insight to realize the company was about to commit one of the biggest blunders in recent tech history.

Palm late Tuesday announced its decision to cancel its Foleo mobile companion only four months after its co-founder, superstar developer Jeff Hawkins, gave the product's first public demonstration at the D5 conference. A $500 mobile companion for e-mail was going to be an impossible sell, so maybe this is a good contrarian sign to Palm investors that the company isn't as brain-dead as some of its harsher critics … Read more

Rock bottom for Palm and Hawkins?

Suddenly, it seems even more fitting that a company called Elevation Partners recently took a stake in Palm.

This might be rock bottom for the storied mobile-computing company. The decision to cancel the Foleo even before letting people get their hands on it is an embarrassing admission that Palm's vision of the computing world is way off base from the rest of the world, and it's a black mark on the otherwise stellar career of Palm founder Jeff Hawkins.

It's hard to dump too much on Hawkins. The man invented the Palm Pilot and the Treo. I … Read more

Photos: Palm Foleo

So after all the months of teasing, Palm cofounder Jeff Hawkins finally unveiled the company's new mobile device at the D5 conference today: the Palm Foleo. A companion product for smart phones, the Linux-based Foleo looks like an ultraportable laptop and is designed to let you more easily view and edit e-mail and office documents, among other things. It synchronizes to your device via Bluetooth and features a 10-inch screen, full-size keyboard, and integrated Wi-Fi for those times when you need to see everything in full glory.

Hey, I can certainly understand the concept and thought behind the whole … Read more

Palm's Jeff Hawkins to unveil new device Wednesday

Palm sent out a teaser to the media Tuesday, dropping word that company founder Jeff Hawkins will introduce "a new category of mobile device" at the D: All Things Digital conference on Wednesday.

No further details were provided. Hawkins invented the Palm Pilot, the ubiquitous personal digital assistant of the 1990s, and left Palm to found Handspring's development of the Treo. Hawkins is currently working at a start-up called Numenta with former colleague and Palm co-founder Donna Dubinsky.

Perhaps Hawkins has Palm's answer to Apple's iPhone, or some new product that will heighten the speculation … Read more

Palm reader: What's in the future for Palm?

Now, we're not ones to gossip (OK, yes we are) but there are a ton of rumors floating around the Internet about the future of Palm. Frankly, the stories have been so fast and furious over the past several days, it's all a bit dizzying. Kind of like whether Britney is in or out of rehab, but I digress. Getting back to the topic at hand, here's what we've heard so far, and remember these are just rumors at this point.

Is Palm for sale?: Speculation has started to grow that Palm is looking for potential … Read more