SolarPalm: Free Energy PC

Eric Sheline — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 18:00:00 EST

Palm hacker Allen Wong caught our attention last year with his Palm Pilot Notebook, and now his sights are set on designing a greener version. Wong's SolarPalm is essentially a solar powered Palm TX. While its 312mhz speed won't set the world on fire, this shows how coupling efficient solar energy with low power computers could result in a device as ubiquitous as your grade school solar calculator. [Allen Wong]

Palm Foleo vs. DIY Palm Pilot Notebook

Noah Robischon — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 21:16:04 EDT

This week Palm announced the Foleo, an ultraportable Smartphone companion laptop. The January 2007 issue of Make shows you how to take a hardcover book and turn it into an ultraportable laptop by embedding a Palm Pilot and keyboard. The designer, Allen Wong, even powered it with AAA batteries that last for days. How does the Foleo stack up against Wong's Palm Notebook? It's time for... Iron Gadget!

Power Up
Foleo: Instant On
Palm Notebook: Instant On

Screen Size
Foleo: 10-inch screen, 1024 x 600
Palm Notebook: 2-1/4" x 3"—Wong used a IIIe which is 160 x 160

Connectivity
Foleo: WiFi and Bluetooth
Palm Notebook: Wong used a serial cable. But a newer Palm, like the TX, would supply WiFi, Bluetooth and infrared

Battery Life
Foleo: 5 Hours
Palm Notebook: Days... if you're carrying big pack of AAAs

Memory
Foleo: About 118MB RAM expandable with SD card slot.
Palm Notebook: 2MB RAM (later Palm models have SD slots as well)

Weight
Foleo: 2.5 lbs
Palm Notebook: 1.1 lbs

Cost
Foleo: $500
Palm Notebook: 1 book, 1 old palmpilot ($25) and Landware GoYype ($40), hours of
time.

Bonus Round: Green-ness
Foleo: 100% not recycled
Palm Notebook: 90% recycled

From Allen Wong:

Future Plans:
After they saw the article in MAKE, the good folks at Palm sent me a TX.
When I get a wireless keyboard, the TX will be disassembled and converted
into another Palm Notebook, hopefully smaller and lighter than the first.

Upgrading to a brand new TX with WiFi and a 320 x 480 screen would bring the total to around $325. Which one would you buy? –Noah Robischon

Palm Pilot Notebook [Make Digital]
Palm Foleo Coverage [Gizmodo]

Gizmodo: allen wong

SolarPalm: Free Energy PC

Palm Foleo vs. DIY Palm Pilot Notebook