With visions of the MacBook Air hovering tantalisingly before us, one designer took a page from the now-dead Palm Foleo and has docked the iPhone into a really barebones 12" chassis—essentially nothing more than a screen, keyboard and USB ports. Willy Yonkers, its creator, thinks that if you kept it simple it could sell for as little as $US150. Too bad it's a pipe dream, even if it looks a bit fugly. [Willy Yonkers via Yanko Design]

We just got word that the controversial Palm Foleo has been canceled "in its current configuration."

I know, I know, you're terribly upset, all five of you who defended the off-beat mobile companion when it was introduced in May. In a message on the official Palm blog, Palm CEO Ed Colligan wrote:

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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!

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OK, so the rumors weren't rumors, just little wispy truths that have been confirmed by one big announcement: Palm has indeed built some kind of crazy laptop-like friend for the Treo, called Foleo. Suffice it to say, the initial reaction has not been overwhelmingly positive. We handed you the press release and specs and even a gallery, we've given you the best seat in the house for the unveiling, but still something is nagging at you. What, exactly, is this baby meant to do? Is it really a supplement to your smartphone, or is Palm trying to go into the laptop business? And is $499 (after rebate) cheap as hell or way overpriced?

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It would be redundant to step through the Foleo right after Hawkins gave us a feature tour, but I have held the hardware, and it is impressively light (physically and software wise). It looks like a fanless, or near fanless design, the screen is very nice, and the keyboard reminds me of a Toshiba Tecra (a favorable thing). It looks to be a very efficient machine. If you overlook all the crazy buttons for navigation. And I thought the Thinkpad num/trackpad with multiple buttons was bad. That's not simplicity in design. There is a dedicated email button, which is a nice touch, as well as an Apps button that goes to the Dataviz office docs, the photo viewer, web browser, etc. The menu is top left, like a mac/windows hybrid and is favorably clean. But that's what happens when your device has no apps. What does it take to compile software to run on the Foleo. Would I buy one? No, I'm not a smart phone junkie. – Brian Lam