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A quick BIG THANKS to Sammy of Palm Addicts, Alex of TreoBits for their mention of us on their front page! Please excuse me if I missed anyone else just drop me a line with your link and I’ll link you back!

Ha, ha. Just when you thought that the whole Foleo news is dead (because apparently the device certainly is), now everyone, okay, not everyone, is trying to lay claim to being the “one” that killed the Foleo. First of all, I am NOT in that camp. Second, I don’t take pleasure in claiming the credit for killing anything. Third, Palm Discovery hardly has any authority on this or anything else in the PDA community (at least my head is in check).

Everyone knows (or doesn’t know) that my puny little Palm Discovery blog doesn’t get much visits in a day, never mind getting much of *any* Palm executive to view or know of its existence. Okay, maybe they have heard of Palm Discovery (or maybe not) but whatever. Nothing that I have written has sparked anything from Palm’s end (no emails or contacts so far ever from anyone at Palm Inc) so obviously, I am quite sure that my editorials were NOT involved in helping kill the Foleo.

Since the beginning of this year, I have written a few editorials starting with the Dawn of a New Palm or its Setting?, my less than enthusiastic Foleo thoughts in Is The Foleo the Right Treo companion?, What I think the Foleo and What I think it should be, The Stuff is flying, and finally, Foleo dies an untimely death. If Palm were reading them, they certainly didn’t respond. I am (and I still believe so) just a little bug on the wall.

What I am sure of, is that the general concensus of the PDA community plus the mainstream media has done its part in taking credit for it. So, I think I can claim that am a *small* part of this backlash but certainly not the one that took it over the edge. I still believe that Engadget is probably the only one that can lay claim to that and not Gizmodo. After all, they were the ones that came out with the “open letter” and within a day, Ed Colligan provided a public statement and response on their own blog (something that previous open letter attempts that failed to get such swift address and attention). And don’t forget all the blogs and references to that Engadget open letter that poured in. Here’s a link to Technorati’s search on this so you get an idea. Even now, still bloggers and responses are still coming so you can understand the sheer scope of this. As I’ve mentioned before, it’s very cool because I’m discovering a whole bunch of blogs that I never would have found otherwise.

Regardless, I don’t take pleasure at watching anything fail (I’m one of those who feel sad when a business goes under) and that goes for the Foleo as well. I certainly am not *happy* per se about the Foleo’s death (although I’m sure a lot of people probably think I am) but more, relieved that something I thought was a money losing venture that wasn’t going to get Palm back into the fold was stopped before it could do more damage. I am certainly not happy about how it came about all so sudden. I feel very bad for all the people involved in supporting and developing the project like Ben Combee, for example. Here’s one guy who has been instrumental in developing the Palm OS and obviously did a lot for the Foleo and now all that sweat and tears spent seem wasted. Will they ever get compensated for their hard work and effort into something that turned out to be nothing? I doubt it but certainly hope that Palm can compensate them somehow. All I keep thinking is why NOW? Only a week or so ago, they were quoted as confirming the “end of summer” deadline for the Foleo and then, boom! It’s dead. As much as I didn’t care much about the Foleo, I was curious about it, hoping that it would turn out to be more than I expected and that I was all *wrong* about it. Instead, that day will never come.

Looking back (again, hindsight is 20/20), I would have hoped that Jeff Hawkins would have not made the Foleo so “secretive” so that he could have gotten some more input and ideas on it from the industry, media and even us bloggers rather than just presenting it at the All Things Digital conference and receive such an embarassing lukewarm reception. As I’ve said, if you have to waste so much time and energy explaining that the Foleo isn’t a laptop or even a cheap alternative, then you either have to change the device so that people won’t compare it like that, or ditch it and get back at the drawing board.

Regardless, I think that we, as the PDA community and everyone else who can claim that we were “right” about the Foleo should just put this whole thing to rest. The Foleo is dead and talking about something that isn’t happening is simply silly and a waste of time. I for one, hope that this is my last Foleo editorial because it’s getting very stale. I’m not claiming anything and I think I’m perfectly happy with that. Now, back to talking about Palms, Treos, PDAs and gadgets, and maybe even iPhone and the drop in price! Now, even being a non-iPhone person, I think that’s more of an interesting discussion!

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