Palm announced (but did not release) its Palm Foleo mobile companion today. It has a 10 inch LCD screen, full-size keyboard, 5 hours battery life, email and other applications, and no hard drive. I got so excited about it, I bought it!!! Uh, well, actually that device in the photo above (device on a desk next to a Casio Palm-size PC)) does meet the Foleo description. But, it is a Compaq Aero 8000 that I bought in 1999 while attending the Microsoft Windows CE Developers Conference in Denver. And, the similarly spec-ed Jornada 820 (with an 8 inch LCD) is from 1998. It is also a Windows CE Handheld PC. Yes, neither one had WiFi or Bluetooth. But, nothing back then did. The Handheld PCs were great. How great? I fired up the HP Jornada 820 last year and used it to write most of Windows for the Intel Mac published by O’Reilly Media. I was very disappointed when the Handheld PCs faded away. And, since the Microsoft UMPCs are nowhere near the $500 level they were aimed at, I am saving my nickels and dimes to by a Palm Foleo when it is released. It will be great to have a Handheld PC again (even if it does not run Windows CE).