webOS-Based Foleo Rumor Picking Up Steam

Ever since I was present for the Foleo at its introduction, I've always found the concept intriguing.  The idea of a Mobile Companion has been passed up by the Netbook craze, of course - but Palm's hardware on the Foleo was actually quite nice and their attention to the details that matter (i.e a real, full-sized, decent keyboard) was what really worked on the device.  Above, a quick vid of the original Foleo.

Ever since the webOS was announced (actually, ever since the original Foleo was cancelled), there have been rumors that the Foleo II would come back, based on webOS.  Since webOS is essentially resolution independent and so much of it is based on HTML, it truly could be a "cloud book."  Up to now, that's what we knew.

Now Electronista claims to have a few more details.  They cite "analyst" Tip Chowdhry, who says that the next Foleo will sport similar hardware as the original Foleo, use an ARM processor and a Qualcomm Gobi chipset for on-board 3G, and have 8-10 hours of battery life.

Chowdhry claims former Apple Employees had much to do with under-the-hood changes (no surprise there) and it will still sell for $399.

How this analyst came by this information is a mystery, but it doesn't sound crazy to us.  On the other hand, it doesn't seem very realistic that Palm would be able to launch not one, not two, but three new webOS-based devices within a year of each other (make that 6ish if you count CDMA separately from GSM).  So while we expect the Foleo to make a comeback someday, we expect that day is quite a ways off.