Sneak Peek Week

wlmoore · 07/13/2007, 05:28 PM

So the next round of Foleo Sneak Peek events is coming up--July 17 and 19--and I know a few of us have signed up. I propose using this thread to (a) collect some questions beforehand, and (b) collect some answers afterwards (or during!).

There's no way all the questions will get asked or answered, but a healthy list may help prioritize.

Here's my partial list. (I'm not publishing my really dumb questions.

Web sites to visit (some will work, some won't)
- Google Docs http://docs.google.com/
- Pandora http://www.pandora.com/
- Treo Central http://www.treocentral.com/
- Sun Java Applets http://java.sun.com/applets/
- Google maps http://maps.google.com/
- Yahoo! maps http://maps.yahoo.com/
- Yahoo! groups http://groups.yahoo.com/
- Popcap games http://www.popcap.com/
- YouTube http://www.youtube.com/
- Palm http://www.palm.com/
Questions
- Java runtime on command line?
- Compatible with Treo 650? What phones?
- How do I transfer a file from Foleo to Treo? SD card? BT?
- GUI built on X?
- Security features? Physical lock slot? Password protection?
- What happens when Foleo is tethered and a call comes in?
- Does mailto: URL in browser integrate with mail app?
- Warranty?
- Battery life on standby? Indefinite?
- How do you mount SD card? Does it show up in a file manager?
- Relationship of Foleo OS to Access Linux Platform? Any chance of ACCESS Garnet VM running on Foleo?
- What's the story for printing a document? PC required?
- Can keys be remapped, e.g. Alt or Menu key remapped to Ctrl or Meta?
- How easy to manage multiple network configurations: WEP on/off, proxies, etc.
- Possible to network directly to a PC via wifi?
Things to try
- The hinge
- Polarized sunglasses; screen still visible?
- Mount a USB thumb drive
- Download a file to Foleo
- File manager. What does home directory look like?
- FTP
- Linux shell

Malatesta · 07/13/2007, 06:02 PM

wlmoore, you've been think about this, huh? lol

I'll try to ask some of these...

bcombee · 07/13/2007, 06:12 PM

Here's some answers I can give right now.

How do I transfer a file from Foleo to Treo? SD card? BT?

At the moment, SD card and USB thumb drives are the best bet. However, our third party Avvenue has a nice service that lets you get access to files on your PC or Mac over the web. The Bluetooth connection is currently only used to talk to your paired phone.

Security features? Physical lock slot? Password protection?

No lock slot. There is optional password protection at turn-on time, and you can set the password to be disabled if your paired smartphone is nearby and within Bluetooth range.

Does mailto: URL in browser integrate with mail app?

Yes.

Battery life on standby? Indefinite?

It lasts a very long time. We designed it so if we ship it from the factory with a full charge, it should still have enough juice to be setup when you get it from the Palm store. I've left a unit alone for a month and still been able to turn it on and use it. Of course, this all can vary depending on individual battery quality, the amount of use the device has had, and user settings.

How do you mount SD card? Does it show up in a file manager?

You just insert it. Same for USB drives. They show up as additional volumes in File Manager as well as in all the various Open/Save dialogs. To unmount, just remove the card or drive.

What's the story for printing a document? PC required?

There's no printing support directly from the device at this time.

Can keys be remapped, e.g. Alt or Menu key remapped to Ctrl or Meta?

In the Terminal app, Menu is used as Control and Alt is used as Meta. This proves very useful when I'm editing configuration files on the device using nano.

How easy to manage multiple network configurations: WEP on/off, proxies, etc.

WiFi supports multiple profiles based on the network SSID, and each has its own security and networking settings. However, at this time there is only one proxy setting in the web browser, so you'll have to adjust it based on your network connection. I've suggested connection-specific proxy settings as a feature for future software updates.

Possible to network directly to a PC via wifi?

I can SSH from my Foleo to my PC through WiFi, and I can access my machine's FTP server for downloads through the web browser. We support both infrastructure and ad-hoc connections, but there's no support at the moment for mounting a PC's drive over a network. I expect developers will have solutions for that fairly quickly given the existence of Samba.

ksom · 07/13/2007, 08:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bcombee

Here's some answers I can give right now.

How do I transfer a file from Foleo to Treo? SD card? BT?

At the moment, SD card and USB thumb drives are the best bet. However, our third party Avvenue has a nice service that lets you get access to files on your PC or Mac over the web. The Bluetooth connection is currently only used to talk to your paired phone.

I think the original question was about between Foleo and a Treo. You answered for PC. I am thinking about saving a downloaded PRC and how to get that from Foleo to my Treo.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bcombee

It lasts a very long time. We designed it so if we ship it from the factory with a full charge, it should still have enough juice to be setup when you get it from the Palm store. I've left a unit alone for a month and still been able to turn it on and use it. Of course, this all can vary depending on individual battery quality, the amount of use the device has had, and user settings.

This is great! Since I have been using Treo, which because of the phone function has to be charged regularly, I forgot all about times when my Palm V could be sitting there for a month or so and still was able to be turned on. This is the definite differentiator between a laptop, because the longest I can leave my laptop in standby mode was 3 days.

wlmoore · 07/13/2007, 08:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Malatesta

wlmoore, you've been think about this, huh? lol

Yep...for exactly two weeks, ever since I signed up for the San Francisco event.

wlmoore · 07/13/2007, 09:58 PM

Awesome, Ben. Thanks! And I'm happy that many of your answers are the "right" answers IMO. Some followup...

Quote:

Originally Posted by bcombee

Here's some answers I can give right now.

How do I transfer a file from Foleo to Treo? SD card? BT?

At the moment, SD card and USB thumb drives are the best bet. However, our third party Avvenue has a nice service that lets you get access to files on your PC or Mac over the web. The Bluetooth connection is currently only used to talk to your paired phone.

To clarify, I was asking about transferring files betwewen Foleo & phone and from your answer it's clear I can do that with an SD card. I was also wondering, is it possible to use the File Manager or whatever to transfer files between Foleo and phone over Bluetooth? Clearly the syncing apps can do it; I was wondering if the user can do it manually for arbitrary files.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bcombee

How easy to manage multiple network configurations: WEP on/off, proxies, etc.

WiFi supports multiple profiles based on the network SSID, and each has its own security and networking settings. However, at this time there is only one proxy setting in the web browser, so you'll have to adjust it based on your network connection. I've suggested connection-specific proxy settings as a feature for future software updates.

Great, this is a good start. But let me get on my soap box. I would like to further suggest two things.

First...that the proxy setting be centralized somewhere so that I can change it in one system-wide preference panel and all internet-enabled apps (and there will be more eventually, right?

will be updated, provided they are written to access that system-wide setting. Many Windows XP apps seem to do this pretty well from IE's "Internet Options" window, though I'm sure you can do it more elegantly.

Second...I understand where you're coming from when you talk about setting the proxy based on the network connection, but Palm could take the lead here if you recognize that that's not really sufficient. Classic case is when I'm at home using my WiFi, I configure the network connection with a "home" profile: WiFi SSID, security, etc. When I then VPN into work though I need to configure some more stuff for the work network: proxy, DNS, etc. But when I'm not VPNed in, I need to change some of those to "home": no proxy, different DNS, printer, etc. The point is I have one network access profile--"home"--but two destination profiles--"work" and "home".

So what I really want is an elegant way to manage this two-dimensional matrix of "where I'm connecting from" (home, Starbucks, Treo DUN, etc.) by "where I'm connecting to" (direct connection, work, League of Superheroes LAN...oops, did I say that?).

Today on my laptop I have faked this matrix by creating a bunch of network location profiles with names like:
"direct @ home"
"direct @ library"
"work @ home"
"work @ library"
"work @ work"
...

My location manager does what you propose. When it detects I'm at the library, it automatically picks one of my two "library" profiles but guess what...half the time it's not the one I want and I have to manually switch it. That's not terrible, but you see what I mean it's not really solving the problem. The real nightmare is if work changes their proxy server or some other setting, I need to change all my "work" profiles, and there are many. So...very...many...[shudder!]

So what I really want is a network configuration manager with two pull-down menus: "from" and "to". It can automatically set the "from" based on the wireless SSID or whatever, and I can manually select the "to" myself, or get slick and let the VPN dialer set the "to." The win is I'm only entering the proxy info once per "to" entry, instead of the redundant nightmare I have today.

Okay, off the soapbox now. Boy are my feet clean. Thanks for reading.

PalmHead · 07/14/2007, 12:54 AM

Back to the list of questions. I'd like to know if the screen is visible outdoors. My 700p is great. No matter how sunny it is I can still read it (unlike most other phones I see people using). My experience with laptops is quite different. Most I've used are only visible when there's some shade.

bcombee · 07/14/2007, 02:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wlmoore

To clarify, I was asking about transferring files betwewen Foleo & phone and from your answer it's clear I can do that with an SD card. I was also wondering, is it possible to use the File Manager or whatever to transfer files between Foleo and phone over Bluetooth? Clearly the syncing apps can do it; I was wondering if the user can do it manually for arbitrary files.

Sorry... I misread the question. For Treo-to-Foleo, you can use SD card, but one other technique I've used is to just email the file to myself using Versamail on the device. Once it's an attachment in my inbox, it's visible on both the Treo and Foleo devices.

bulls96 · 07/14/2007, 07:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bcombee

Sorry... I misread the question. For Treo-to-Foleo, you can use SD card, but one other technique I've used is to just email the file to myself using Versamail on the device. Once it's an attachment in my inbox, it's visible on both the Treo and Foleo devices.

can we move mails from the outbox to the inbox in the treo so that we dont have to spend data on sending it to ourselves?

And please anyone try videos or youtube the next time you go to the preview.

thanks guys!

harps · 07/14/2007, 09:15 PM

I've just got one question at the moment.
Will the Foleo sync with a BlackBerry instead of a Treo if this is all you have?

Malatesta · 07/14/2007, 09:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by harps

I've just got one question at the moment.
Will the Foleo sync with a BlackBerry instead of a Treo if this is all you have?

I'm fairly positive at launch, it'll just do PalmOS and WM devices, with plans to add BB and Symbian (and maybe iPhone) soon after.

harps · 07/14/2007, 09:23 PM

As long as they have plans to add BB after the launch thats fine.
That will mean that it will be in place by the time they get around to launching it here in Australia!
(If the iPhone is anything to go by it will be about 6-12 months after the US launch!!!!!!!)

Malatesta · 07/14/2007, 09:29 PM

Evidently they are working on Symbian and BB support now, so it may be sooner than later.

They also plan to support "any broadband phone", so that will not limit people very much.

"Answers to Common Questions on the Palm Foleo" (nothing too new in this article)

treobk214 · 07/15/2007, 12:58 AM

The foleo meets the market. The video reveals how well it is received by those testing it....

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=3c8_1175824459

Gerorne · 07/15/2007, 07:35 AM

Is that a wrong link? Or a joke? I don't get it.

But if anyone else was interested, there is a new review at gearlog.com and I think it answers a couple potential questions.

The main points I get from it are:

Processor good enough for video
"a terminal program that falls down into the Bash shell"
Uses SD only and not SDHC
18mm keys (slightly smaller)

Video? Cool. I was hoping/expecting that someone would be able to develop something and it looks like it's actually possible.

I know almost nothing about Linux, so I don't know what the significance of Bash is, but the article makes it sound like a good thing.

Too bad about the SD card. I will be saving some money because of this, but it's always nice to have a higher capacity option.

So it has slightly smaller keys, but it doesn't sound like it's too much of a problem. If they're not smaller than the Palm wireless keyboard, then I can live with that. (But hopefully a little larger than that. I'd measure my keys if I could find my ruler)

treobk214 · 07/15/2007, 12:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gerorne

Is that a wrong link? Or a joke? I don't get it.

But if anyone else was interested, there is a new review at gearlog.com and I think it answers a couple potential questions.

The main points I get from it are:

Processor good enough for video
"a terminal program that falls down into the Bash shell"
Uses SD only and not SDHC
18mm keys (slightly smaller)

Video? Cool. I was hoping/expecting that someone would be able to develop something and it looks like it's actually possible.

I know almost nothing about Linux, so I don't know what the significance of Bash is, but the article makes it sound like a good thing.

Too bad about the SD card. I will be saving some money because of this, but it's always nice to have a higher capacity option.

So it has slightly smaller keys, but it doesn't sound like it's too much of a problem. If they're not smaller than the Palm wireless keyboard, then I can live with that. (But hopefully a little larger than that. I'd measure my keys if I could find my ruler)

I posted the video to underscore what a truly bad accident the foleo is.

bcombee · 07/15/2007, 12:33 PM

SDHC cards aren't officially supported with this software release. However, we have integrated some Linux kernel patches that should allow it to work, but we've not had a lot of cards around to really shake out any latent problems, so we can't guarantee their operation right now.

Old Cornfuser · 07/15/2007, 03:20 PM

Any clue how well Gmail works in the browser? Do you have to use the HTML version? Or can you use the Java version?

jhoff80 · 07/15/2007, 06:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Old Cornfuser

Any clue how well Gmail works in the browser? Do you have to use the HTML version? Or can you use the Java version?

First of all, its not really Java that Gmail (and all Google Apps) uses, its Javascript... More specifically AJAX. (which I believe stands for Asynchonous Javascript and XML or something along those lines.) I'd imagine that since it works fine in Opera on my Wii, that it'd work fine in the Foleo's Opera.

bcombee · 07/15/2007, 07:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Old Cornfuser

Any clue how well Gmail works in the browser? Do you have to use the HTML version? Or can you use the Java version?

GMail does work in the browser fairly well, although sometimes I've found it faster to use the basic HTML version depending on what I'm doing. Javascript speed isn't as good as a fast laptop or desktop machine.