Foleo, Schmoleo Part Deux

Days after the announcement of the new supersecret Palm product, the Foleo, VIA also announces a similarly priced device called the NanoBook. Unlike Palm, VIA has already released the specs for their NanoBook and the lowdown can be seen here.



If the NanoBook will *really* be available at $600 with a 1.6 GHz processor, 30 GB hard drive and a whole alphabet soup of connectivity options (Bt, LAN, Wi-Fi and optional WWAN), then the folks at Palm should start worrying.

But that's not the end of Foleo's worry. Intel and Asus has also announced their entry to this niche. Called the Asus 'Eee PC' their device has a still undisclosed Intel Chipset and can run either Windows XP or Linux (yesss!) and just like the VIA NanoBook, will also support a wide array of connectivity options.



The Eee PC also has a built-in webcam and other features not found (or at least not announced) in the Foleo.

Now, how will this affect Palm's Foleo? Personally, the availability of these alternatives made the Foleo less attractive. I'd rather have a small laptop that can do more at less price (as with the Eeee PC) and at the same time allow me to run whatever software I prefer (I obviously prefer to run Linux if its a non-Apple hardware).