Palm LifeDrive Mobile Manager
by Palm
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Palm LifeDrive Mobile Manager
Customer Review: Great for College Students
Summary: 4 Stars
I just bought my Lifedrive used last week, and I managed to grab it for under $200. I have to say, it was worth the pricetage I purchased it for.
I was having some trouble finding a decent laptop for under $500, and running on a college student's budget, I found that the Lifedrive had everything I needed. After using it for a couple of days, overall, I'm really satisfied with it. I just bought a Bluetooth keyboard and the cradle (since I bought it used, it didn't come with the HotSync cable, only the power adapter.). Here's what I've found about each of the features thus far, and why it gets 4 stars instead of 5.
1) The Wifi:
A great feature on this little device, particularly the ability to download Powerpoint presentations my professors make before class. I'm able to run down to the library, download them online, and then have them in front of me in class to review at my own pace during the lecture. I think this is pretty fantastic. The WiFi does suck a lot of battery life out of the device, but if you're just popping on to do simple things like I do, then it's worth it. I just needed something to check the various websites that I use for my college and download a few Microsoft-based documents. If you're going to use the WiFi for anything bandwidth-intensive, then you could find yourself wanting to pull out your own hair, but this is a PDA, after all, and NOT a computer.
2) Documents-To-Go:
I love this program. It's wonderful. Since the Lifedrive is made for looking at high-resolution pictures and small type, viewing Powerpoints is that much simpler. The only problem I have with it is that the machine is a little slow opening and closing the documents, particularly if they're full of graphics and high-res photographs. Other than the few-second delay, however, I think it's great. Especially the fact that you can have it automatically zoom in on the slides. I also like the fact that it has full funnctionality, so I can edit rough drafts right before class if I forgot to do something at home. I wouldn't recommend writing a whole report on it, but that's one of the reasons I went ahead and bought the keyboard.
3) Voice Recorder:
This was actually what sold me, aside from the Bluetooth and the WiFi. Not only can I keep up with the online bits and pieces from my professors, I can record lectures in class on the same device, either to an external SD card or to the drive itself. The recording quality isn't what it would be on a couple-hundred dollar digital recorder, but it's enough to be able to go back through the lecture and re-take notes, and good for studying, particularly when I get to a point in studying for the exam when the question of "Hm.. I don't remember what she said about that..." comes up, and I don't have time to email or visit during office hours.
4) Bluetooth:
Once again, sucks up a bit of power out of the device, but as long as you have it on ONLY when you need it, and don't use it too much along with the WiFi, then you don't have the shock of physically watching the battery life suck down. The Bluetooth is quick, too. My boyfriend and I were exchanging photos and MP3s from his phone to my Lifedrive, with absolutely no problem. I can't say how the keyboard is going to react with it yet, since I won't receive it until Monday, but I'm sure it won't have a problem.
5) The Hard Drive:
4GB is more than enough for what I need to do on this device. Keep in mind, I'm not downloading any extra programs or games, or using anything that didn't come directly from Palm. In my opinion, that's not what this machine is for. It's used to organize and to edit. If you want a gaming system, buy a PSP. The Lifedrive is what us poor college kids settle for when we don't want to carry around a laptop on top of the books we already have to lug around. I imagine people who are trying to use anything RAM-intensive are having problems with it, because it does lag with the graphics in some programs. I just like the sheer amount of stuff I can carry around on this thing all the time, and not have to worry so much about whether I have this notebook or that handout with me, 'cause it's right on my PDA.
6) Photo and Video Viewer:
Absolutely flawless. Photos look better than they do on my computer at home, especially with the button to turn the images on their side and look at everything in landscape view. This is where hiding the Graffiti area is really useful.
7) MP3 player:
A wonderful feature to have in combination with all the other files I store on here. The sound quality isn't an IPod, but it's great that I'm not carrying around 5 different types of expensive equipment in my bag at all times to do everything I need to do. It's an all-in-one device, and it's made to be used as such.
8) Overall Organization:
Keeps Tasks and Calendar in the same view, so you can see what's coming up during the week (again, GREAT for me, since I am the queen of the procrastinators, because I forget how much is coming up during the week). I know it's just the OS that it runs on, but everything integrates fabulously. This is what Palm is great at. Organization. Use everything in this device to keep your life straight, and it will be good to you.
All in all, I feel like I got more than I needed out of the Lifedrive. WiFi's a bit slow and sucks battery life, Bluetooth sucks a little less battery life, but if you're not using either of them, the battery seems to last just fine, particularly for a device that can do so many other different things. For a college student who doesn't like keeping all of my information in 20 different places, and losing papers, and losing my mind, it's wonderful. I couldn't have picked anything better. I can't say it's worth it to buy it new. I shopped for a couple of months before I found it for the price I did, but if you can find one used around the $200 range, it's definitely worth it. I know I wouldn't have purchased it for almost $400, when I could've gotten a laptop instead. Not to mention, I don't have that kind of money to blow.
As long as you don't want it to play games or JUST because it can surf the web, the Lifedrive is for you.
Customer Review: I own a "good" one.
Summary: 4 Stars
I was one of the few lucky ones with this item.
The Good:
1. Works well with Franklin-Covey Plan Plus software.
2. Works well with Bluetooth keyboard.
3. Wifi and bluetooth work.
4. Hard drive space.
5. Documents-to-go software works well for me. May be too simplistic for some....
6. Holds many tunes.
7. Music sounds very good--I don't need an Ipod, and Palms manipulate data, also.
8. Syncs very well.
9. Battery is very good, I think.
10.Can view photos very well.
11.Most updated Palm software works.
12.Very good screen.
13.Huge selection of software for Palms.
14.Persistent memory on all Palms from Tungsten E2 and better.
The Bad:
1. Soft reset requires an agonizingly long time (many minutes).
2. Often requires soft reset if hasn't been used for a few days.
3. Versamail now crashes because of too many messages (may be my fault--shouldn't do this, though--may be software flaw, also).
4. Headphone jack is in wrong place (on bottom instead of top), and it becomes loose.
5. Picky about SD/MMC cards. My older ADATA 2GB MMC card won't work (it did work in the Tungsten E). As I understand it, SD/MMC cards that work currently are limited to 2GB. I haven't really needed them, however.
6. Not very good at multitasking. May automatically soft-reset.
7. Included Blazer web browser software is out-of-date and limiting (warnings to update the browser from servers may appear). As far as I know, upgrade is not yet possible.
8. Wifi uses up battery much more quickly.
9. Sync cable uses stupid proprietary short and insecure connectors for both syncing and charging.
10.Can be pokey.
11.Most useful software uses up my wallet--not much useful freeware is available for Palms.
The Ugly:
1. I can't believe that anyone obtains a rich experience in web browsing with any PDA or PDA/phone.
2. Bulky and heavy.
3. Good physical protection is essential.
4. I fear the inevitability of battery replacement: Palms always require unsoldering leads of old batteries/resoldering leads of new batteries to the PCB. Obviously, Palm wants me to buy a new Palm product when the battery dies: This is bad for the environment and my finances. Battery replacement is risky. Fixing a Palm (out of warranty) is equivalent to purchasing new in costliness.
5. Palm's branded accessories are pricey and often inferior (their pricey keyboard still uses infrared instead of bluetooth).
6. The Lifedrive before it was discontinued was really pricey.
7. The consensus is that the Palm T|X is superior, and, it always was cheaper than the Lifedrive before the latter was discontinued.
8. I wouldn't trust my Lifedrive to store important photos and then to delete photos on my camera memory card for more space--I would use the Lifedrive soley as a backup and keep the good photos on my card as well.
9. It's definitely best to check for compatibility of software before purchasing and installing. Not all Palm-compatible software is compatible with Lifedrive.
10. Palm replaces faulty units with refurbs.
11. Bundled 3rd party software for Word, Excel docs, etc., is not absolutely compatible: Such docs are not "native."
12. Very difficult to get Linux on these or even to sync with Linux. (I could sync with the Tungsten E in Linux.) Definitely, neither action is straightforward for Lifedrive.
13. It's best not to sync with legacy Palm apps (from an old Palm). Many people said this ruined their Lifedrives--again, check for compatibility and upgrade to the latest versions.
14. I'm not sure that I would trust a refurb Lifedrive; prices are getting tempting, however.
15. Pocket PC users are correct: Graffiti (Palm's shorthand for writing data with the stylus into a Palm doc) is "baggage." Yeah, I'm "biased": I can do it, but I'm not very good at it! Graffiti definitely has vocal adherents--I congratulate them for successes! The Lifedrive uses Graffiti 2 (What's wrong with simply writing in plain hand or cursive?)
OK. It seems that PDAs (from both Pocket PC makers and Palm) are among many complex but flawed devices that have many advocates, detractors, lemons, and successes: They are all flaky, at least to some extent. Palm was right (finally) to pull the Lifedrive (they waited far too long). They should instead upgrade and enhance the T|X so that larger SD/MMC cards are usable (such as 4GB and 8GB and even larger). Even more to the point: Perhaps, Palm should combine many of the consumer-friendly concepts of the Lifedrive with those of the relatively reliable, much better liked T|X, to create a new, better, more reliable, and more consumer-friendly Palm (one that's lightyears more powerful than the Z22 that's also aimed at consumers). Successfully achieving this would make the Lifedrive a distant memory (admittedly, a really painful one for many). The Lifedrive originally was a good concept that, unfortunately, failed miserably in execution: It was a noble attempt of Palm to reach out to ordinary consumers and their common needs as well to those of its normal business-oriented clientele....
Customer Review: I have a love hate relationship with the Lifedrive
Summary: 2 Stars
(Bear in mind that I'm writing this in June of 2005. It's possible PalmOne will release software fixes for the Lifedrive that could take care of these issues. I should note too that I'm on my second Lifedrive, and both have the same issues, so I'm fairly confident that these are issues with the unit in general, not specific to my unit.)
In many respects the Lifedrive is a great handheld. Having 4GB of contiguous storage space available is wonderful. The unit handles full screen video playback with ease, and browsing the web works as well as on any handheld available. Palm's basic PIM (Personal Information Management) apps are wonderful-easy to use and powerful. They finally got all the features right-built-in Wi-Fi, tons of storage space, a voice recorder, etc. The unit's also great physically. I thought it looked big from the pictures, but it doesn't seem large in real life, and it feels good to hold. It's almost exactly the same size as the old Palm III or Visor Handspring series, which was a form factor I really loved. The buttons and directional control are EXCELLENT. Easily the best of any modern PDA. On top of that is the great screen, which is large, high resolution, bright, and easy to read. (It does have SOME "screen whine" that's present on most PalmOne units, but it's not as bad as many older units.)
Unfortunately I've had too many issues with the Lifedrive (and the Tungsten T5 prior to it's ROM update) to recommend it. Documents to Go 7 included with the unit is buggy. Installing the latest free update from DataViz doesn't fix all the issues. Mainly, it frequently won't sync spreadsheets stored in Docs to Go format, as it thinks the file is still being edited when it isn't. A temporary work around is to keep spreadsheets in Excel format on the Lifedrive. From what I can gather from DataViz, there's some issue with both the Lifedrive and T5-possibly related to the fact that both the LD and T5 have extra storage permanently built-in that the PalmOS sees as a memory card. (Around 160MB for the T5, and 3.7GB for the Lifedrive.) They claim they're working on a fix.
There's a bug in the audio system. Whenever a media file of any sort is playing and the audio portion gets quiet there's some nasty static. It's not that the audio is covering up the static, it's only present when the audio gets quiet. It also manifests itself between tracks in Pocket Tunes for the same reason. The audio hardware is engaged, but there's nothing playing for a split second, so the Lifedrive fills the silence with weird static. If PalmOne fixes this aspect of the LD, it'll be an exceptional media player. (But use the excellent free TCPMP media player instead of the included "Media" app for video.) I certainly prefer the flexibility of media formats and better controls to my iPod.
I've found a bug in the version of Palm Desktop that ships with the Lifedrive. (The LD can sync with Outlook too, but I vastly prefer Palm Desktop for it's superior interface and ease of use). If I edit or create a task that doesn't have a due date in Palm Desktop, when I finish editing it, the date gets set to "12/31/2031", which I have to manually change back to "No Date". At least PalmOne did fix the "find" bug present in the T5 and E2 which prevented those units from returning more than 8 results in a system-wide search.
The LD frequently won't sync on my first press of the Hotsync button after connecting it to my computer. It will try to connect, and time out. A second press usually seems to work, but sometimes I have to unplug the USB cable from my computer before it will sync again. I also bought a cradle for the LD, which I do recommend (the cradle that says it's for the T5 is the same as the newer cradle that specifically mentions the T5, E2, and Lifedrive).
The Lifedrive does have some "lag" compared with other PalmOS handhelds, but it's not really that bad. Usually it adds less than 2 seconds to the load time of an app, if it hasn't been used recently and the hard drive is off (the hard drive takes about 1.8 seconds to start working when it's off).
The real issue is just that there are so many weird bugs I've come across. Just today I started getting a 15 second+ pause between loading many of my apps for no apparent reason. Doing a soft reset (which preserves everything on the Lifedrive) fixed it, but I have no idea what caused it. I've had tons of little things like that in the last three weeks, so I just can't recommend the unit.
Like the Tungsten T5, the Lifedrive's first button can only load the "home"/launcher/favorites application. Thankfully that's easy to fix. The free program "ButtonsEX" allows you to assign any program to the first button, making it just like the other three.
If PalmOne can fix the audio bug, and get the general wonkiness under control, the Lifedrive may be a wonderful unit. As of June 2005 however, it's just too buggy to recommend. It's a far cry from the "it just works" spirit of the PalmOS.
Customer Review: Do not buy this unit - Many problems
Summary: 1 Stars
Like many others, I am profoundly disappointed with Palm's latest release, the Life Drive Mobile Manager. There are many positive reviews posted here, but the majority of them are from users who are relatively new to the Palm PDA line.
As a power user, and having owned nearly every model they released, I can say with confidence that if you are a power user, you will be returning this unit within two weeks. The majority of the third party apps that I used to use are not compatible with it and that causes fatal errors and random soft resets. When the app is uninstalled, the error stops, but because the unit boots off of the hard drive memory and not flash memory as all previous models did, a soft reset takes approximately TWO MINUTES 16 SECONDS from start to being ready to use again. It is unbelievable. You should really drive down to play with one to look at the lag time BEFORE you order it here at Amazon. I promise you - it will be time well spent.
The power switch on the top of it is a slider that is made of plastic, looks very cheap and I'm guessing will last maybe 3 or 4 months tops before it needs to be replaced.
If you are thinking of buying this for watching videos and playing MP3s or as a replacement for your iPOD, keep your iPOD. Sometimes I wish Apple would buy Palm. Maybe then we'd start seeing some quality.
No cradle - a flimsy breakaway plugin to charge it.
The hard case looks sexy and sleek, but you will soon tire of having to pry it open several times a day with your thumbnail. And if you don't have any thumbnails, you're out of luck. Don't get the hard case or you'll never be able to open it.
Overall a big disappointment for me. I made the mistake of selling my T3 and putting the proceeds toward the LifeDrive. I still have time to return it - and I likely will - but am having a huge problem trying to decide what to downgrade to from the LifeDrive. T5 didn't get much better reviews and T3 is a few years old now...
If you absolutely MUST buy this unit, please wait until the LifeDrive 2 and LifeDrive 3 come out later this year or in early 2006. Remember the T, T2 and T3? My guess is the same thing is going to happen to this one. They would have saved themselves a lot of headaches if they waited until it was ready to be released as a quality product.
Now I don't know what the heck to buy to replace it. T5 maybe, but still nothing compares to the T3 thus far.
The only good thing the LifeDrive has going for it is a lot of storage and internal WiFi; HOWEVER, the version of wifi they chose to install is the slow version - it crawls; and I have no idea what all the fuss is about people being able to use this as a 4GB USB drive.
Yes, it works as an external drive. It's slow but it works. Big Hooey. Go down and get yourself a 1 GB USB flash RAM drive (tiny) if you want that level of portability. For me as a longtime Palm user, the ability to use this as an external drive is NOT a huge deal. I've been using USB flash drives for years to do what this does.
Perhaps the biggest annoyance - and primarily the reason why I am returning the unit - is the lag time switching between apps. You click the stylus on an app and since it is no longer booting from the flash drive, there is a two second noticable lag time before the app launches. It's ridiculous. They say that putting a hard drive in a PDA is an achievement that will allow for a great deal of things to come.
It would be. If they had left the unit booting to flash ram and used the 4 GB for storage only. Big mistake. Bad Developer. No cookie for you.
This crashes as often as a PocketPC, but it is much slower. That's the best way I can describe it.
Hope this helps!
Adam Boettiger
UPDATE: 22 AUG 2005 - Wanted to add a post script to this to let readers know that I did in fact return the LifeDrive to the store and purchased the Tungsten T5 and some accessories instead. While the T5 is not everything I want in a PDA, in my opinion it is the best unit Palm has on the market - primarily because it has fewer problems than the LifeDrive.
After setting it up last week, I've had no problems with the T5 since. As a longtime Palm user, it was nice to see the zippy flash drive again, with no two-second delays in switching between apps, no Fatal Exception errors, etc. It just worked.
If you must upgrade now, buy the T5. If you can wait 4-6 months, hold out for the OS 6 devices due out in Q1 or Q2 of 2006. You'll probably be glad you did.
Hope this was useful.
Adam Boettiger
Customer Review: Excellent!! (minor gripes notwithstanding)
Summary: 4 Stars
Reviews on the LifeDrive has been up and down. Mine is way up, despite a few gripes. I've had mine for three weeks now as an upgrade from a Palm m515. With the m515, I was already dependent on a PDA for managing my daily routine. I was surprised, however, how much the LifeDrive has significantly expanded what I am able to accomplish with a PDA.
First, upgrading the DataViz software suite to 8.0 (7.0 is in the box) is a necessity. I am a criminal defense attorney, and I am always reading a variety of different documents. With the LifeDrive, I can do all reviewing on the PDA anywhere. I convert documents to PDF on my computer, load them on the LifeDrive's capacious hard drive, and read them with DataViz's PDF To Go (part of Documents To Go v. 8.0 -- MUCH better than Adobe's free PDA reader) The large drive allows me to load all docs for my whole case load, plus research materials like the criminal code, onto the PDA with plenty of hard drive space to spare. The large screen (which goes landscape at the press of a button) combined with the ease of PDF To Go allows me to read it all at any place or time (such as during down times in court).
Second, how I use a PDA has been transformed by software that allows me to convert and play video files. I can rip movies from DVDs at reduced file sizs, and then play them back at very decent quality video and sound. A two-hour DVD rips well into a compact 256 meg file for easy playing, all accomplished with free open-source software tools. More importantly, I can load video files from work onto the device and play them in similar fashion, again allowing me to review critical work materials anywhere at any time.
I like the hard drive concept a lot. It is slower than your computer's drive, and there is indeed a lag as data loads. However, the lag, although noticeable, is very tolerable and doesn't reduce the practicality of the machine at all. Once the data is loaded, the fast processor crunches it very quickly. I use a utility called SharkCache to reduce lag time to practically nothing for a few frequently-used applications. The capacious storage and free SD slot absolutely compensates for the minimal lag issue.
My PDA did crash a fair amount after doing the first hotsync. This was cured by going into the Palm data on my computer and deleting the SavedPreferences file, then hotsyncing after a hard reset. My PDA now crashes occasionally, but not inordinately, and I haven't had any need for a hard reset since. Some minor instability is another inconvenience that is far outweighed by huge gains in usefulness.
The obvious question is why this device as opposed to a laptop. A laptop will have these and more powerful features, and low-end models don't cost much more than the LifeDrive. For me, it boils down to portability (not just size and weight, but also necessary laptop add-ons like power cables), battery life (constant use for at least all day without fear of losing power), instant power-up, and ease of data entry (in a courtroom, it's easier to review a calendar and enter a new date or new contact by pulling a PDA out of your pocket and handwriting it in than it is to lug a laptop around and type).
The LifeDrive's screen is large, bright, and well-saturated. The Palm OS gets gripes about being outdated, but I like it and it is what I'm used to. Grafitti 2 is easy to learn and fairly intuitive (less so, though, if you have to unlearn the original Grafitti). The battery life is sound as far as I'm concerned, since I never go more than 24 hours between hotsyncs, and I haven't yet been in danger of power loss. The device is pleasing to look at and ergonomically sound. Wireless internet works flawlessly in public hotspots, but curiously I haven't been able to get it going on my home connection (again a minor inconvenience, since if I'm at home, I am likely to use my computer over my PDA for net surfing).
The LifeDrive isn't a miracle machine out of the box. It took a week after I bought it to configure the device and figure out the other items I needed to make it the miracle machine I now think it is. These items include a cradle, case, 1 gig SD card (better video frame rates when played from the card), and DataViz Documents To Go vers. 8.0.
Now that I've got it tweaked and tuned, I think it's a great PDA. Because I had to tweak and tune it, and because of the few inconveniences I've noted above, I can't give it a full five stars. But it is my pleasure to enthusiastically award it at least four.