Palm LifeDrive Mobile Manager
by Palm
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Palm LifeDrive Mobile Manager
Customer Review: The first steps towards real convergence.
Summary: 4 Stars
Good or bad, this marks the beginning of the microDrive convergence into PDAs and cellphones. Yes, South Korea, China, and Japan have had microDrive PDAs for awhile now, but this is the US debut of real storage, and a definitive shift away from HotSync to a more-generic external drive model.
Think about that for a moment. Even Microsoft PowerPCs don't support a pure external drive model of synchronizing. This allows you to just connect to a central data store (via Bluetooth, WiFi, or USB) and bring your MP3 files over. Or Word documents. Whatever. It's not the data storage that's most impressive here, it's the final surrender of Palm's HotSync methodology. That's the big news here.
Of course, this device represents a compelling upgrade for older PDA users. Storage at near 4Gb means the iPod mini or Zen Micro are less attractive electronics, by virtue of their single-function purpose. The OS has been ramped up, and it still runs most of the legacy Palm apps (you will find that more and more apps are not migrating, though). The extra treat of Bluetooth and WiFi radios means you can use a Bluetooth keyboard, connect to a BlueTooth cellphone, maybe stream music to your Bluetooth BMW.. or use WiFi to stream to a WiFi stereo system, receive that stream and playback, grab MP3s from your basement machine, and so forth.
I can see this being used as a web pad in most homes, allowing for some web browsing, some MP3 playback, and more importantly, remotely viewing another PC on a home network (maybe to shuffle music playback or check email). Of course, having WiFi or Bluietooth in a PDA is not groundbreaking; having both isn't either, but it's impressive and long overdue.
The sum of features makes this a worthy addition if you're looking for a new PDA, or if you want something much more than an iPod mini or Creative Zen Micro. However, if you hang on a few months, maybe to Q4 2005, Nokia will have a cellphone with a 4Gb (maybe 6Gb by that time) microDrive, and then the electronics landscape changes forever, because no one will want "just an MP3 player" ever again (unless they really don't want a cellphone or handheld computer).
Fred
Customer Review: Nice try, but...
Summary: 3 Stars
Palm is on the right track here with the LifeDrive, but they don't quite pull it off, and when you spend five hundred smackers, you want a convergence product that solves all of the little nagging issues.
Like an iPod mini, the LifeDrive has a 4GB hard drive, but attaches a fully-featured PDA to it that includes WiFi but no phone as yet (maybe in LifeDrive 2 or Treo 1000?). You can do all the classic Palm functions, plus for the first time decent video (other Palms just don't have enough memory).
The device has a beautiful, large enough screen, and finally somebody has figured out how to automatically download camera memory, turning the LifeDrive into an effective memory bank. (Too bad they figured this out AFTER flash memory prices cratered.)
But if you want real video or even significant photo storage, the 4GB just isn't enough. Battery life is weak, at under 10 hours. And the size is large, significantly bigger than an iPod maxi. Overall, it's not bad for a first try, like the original 5GB iPod. But before this becomes a killer, must-have device, Palm is going to have to:
1) Up the GB level.
2) Up the battery power (new batteries being developed by Toshiba hold much promise).
3) Upgrade the sleekness of the machine.
4) Improve the software package so it will better sync with your pics and movies. That is the beauty of iPod photo -- the syncing with iPhoto and iTunes is a joy, versus a cumbersome loading process.
5) Consider adding a wireless TV dock so that LifeDrive (or more likely, LifeDrive2) can double as a DVR. How cool would it be to be able to record the Sopranos, take it to a friend's house on your LifeDrive and play it? There are ways to do this now through your computer, but it's a bit cumbersome.
6) Cut the price so regular folks can afford it, not just doctors and lawyers and techno geeks looking for the latest toy.
Overall, first adopters will ignore the glitches and glow over the best attempt at a video/photo/PDA yet created, but savvy regular shoppers will wait a year for LifeDrive 2, or, more likely, for a video iPod, which could be headed your way by Christmas.
Customer Review: Been using Palms for a good ten years...
Summary: 5 Stars
First I must mention that I never had a Lifedrive with the original hard drive, I've always purchased upgraded with a CompactFlash card.
Speed: faster than all other previous Palms that I've had.
Battery life: it's not bad, probably due to being a few years old it probably is limited compared to new, but still last a few days easily unless watching movies or such.
I love this machine so much I've gone and got 2 more (and another on it's way), all with the CompactFlash drive upgrade, before they get too rare and expensive.
The only bad things I can say about it are:
1) that the internet is unstable and crashes a lot, someone needs to make a better browser.
2) a lot of software should have come with it, but you can get most of it for free.
3) From the ones I have, the screens are manufactured from various suppliers and differs a lot in terms of brightness. One at max is comparable to another at minimum.
4) Palm should have made this model user serviceable, such as replaceable batteries, and even the hard drive, as they knew that CompactFlash would catch up, that they limited the size to 4GB in the OS.
5) the connector is a bit flimsy and slightly hard to plug in.
6) not able to synch on 64bit OS (Vista or Win7) via the USB, but can be done via the WiFi/network settings.
The good:
1) Too many things... it's a full pocket computer. It does just about everything a laptop would be used for. Get a folding full size keyboard with it and taking notes on it, is as good as any laptop.
2) With the proper 4GB SD cards, you can have a 8GB machine, which means hours of videos, audio, hundred of ebooks, games, utilities, etc.
3) SDHC card can be used if one purchases the drivers (I haven't as I've never needed more than the 8GB so far).
4) large screen, decent speaker
Had Palm been smart, this machine could have been the ultimate media player, laptop replacement, and killed the competition.
Customer Review: Just not worth it
Summary: 2 Stars
Ive had my LD for 3 weeks now and just cant find a good reason to feel like my $500 was well spent. Im not an experiened PALM OS user, so just starting up, getting updated software, figuring out the how to HotSync and how to store what to which of the 3 memory locations war real frustrating for a few days. I really only wanted some music/video portability and good Chinese language translation software (PLECO DICTIONARY, which was only available on PALM until a few days ago...) But after 3 weeks, Ive had all kinds of trouble and I just dont know what to attribute the probs to. Many LD have shipped with bad WIFI, so these needed to be replaced. My WIFI was real poor too, but i didnt really know if it was my LD, LDs in general, or the the WIFI systems I was trying to connect to. In my classroom, everyone with notebooks (Mac and PC) could acces the WIFI, but not me. Uhhgg.... Also, my LD screen just started buzzing yesterday and wont stop. I read that other LD uers are having the same prob. THis is real annoying in that its a high pitch and can be heard when the LD is just sitting on my desk under normal noise conditions. Its driving me crazy. Additionally, my HotSync seems to get locked up a lot. Other issues: yes, accessing the hard drive is a little slow and will cause small skips when simultaneously playing music. The 4 plactic buttons on the face of the LD could easily be pulled off by a fingernail or thin piece of plastic or metal. The built-in speakers cannot handle very much volume so are more or less a waste of space. Finally, you will be frustrated about the lack of add-ons for the LD at this time, but Im sure that will slowly change.
GOOD stuff: Hard drive capacity (4Gig) is fine, and should easily hold 800-1000 MP3s (BUT it doesnt recognize WMAs out of the box!!!!!). Plus you can use your SD cards. Most PALM OS apps are easy to use, though not quite as intuitive as Windows apps have become. PALMs can carry and manipulate MS Office files, but not very thoroughly.
Bottom line: Im returning my LD today. Just not worth $500. Period. Maybe give it 3 stars if was $250.
Customer Review: Exceptional start to a new concept for Palm
Summary: 4 Stars
After much consideration of the many reviews online about the Life Drive I took the plunge. My choice came down to the TX and the Life Drive. I chose the Life Drive for it's integrated 4GB (3.85 usable) hard drive. That translates into little less then 40x the usable storage space of the TX. It's been widely reported that the Life Drive is much slower, bulkier, and prone to inconvenient crashes and unreliability. However, as with any new product there are bugs and then there are fixes. Palm as released significant fixes to address these problems. All I have to say is, I am glad I waited. I got mine online for less then $240 plus shipping. For that price it was a terrific deal. I don't think I would feel that way had I paid the full $499 or even the new price of $399. For what its worth, the Life Drive is slower then the previous Palms but that's to be expected with a 4 Gig hard drive that has to spin up. I've owned the Handsprings Visor in the past so I am familiar with Palm Handhelds.I've experienced application launch lags from a fraction of a second to up to 2 seconds at most. It's still much faster then any PC. This thing is my do everything on the go device. I LOVE IT! Both it's WiFi and Bluetooth are incredibly fast on my wireless network. I have to say that the Life Drive not only does everything, it does it very well. I note that some third party applications occasionally cause soft resets. Data has never been lost, and none of the applications that came with Palm have ever rest the unit, only the apps I've added. The touch screen is colorful, bright and beautiful to behold. The batteries last about 5-6 hours with the screen set to its dimmest (Still ample backlighting).I give it 4 stars only because every new concept has room for improvement, the Life Drive is a very good start. I'd like to see a 8GB or more, Compact Flash in place of the Micro Hard Disk for speed and integrated TOMTOM GPS! Lets upgrade the battery to 2300mAh instead of 1600mAh and make it user replacable. Then we would have perfection! Then it would be worth paying $499 or more.