Palm LifeDrive Mobile Manager
by Palm
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Palm LifeDrive Mobile Manager
Customer Review: Decent unit - until the unit freezes
Summary: 1 Stars
I have been using a Lifedrive (LD) for about 12 months. A friend of mine gave me his in November, 2005. I previously had used a Palm T|C, and before that I had a Palm 72, and then I had a Handspring Visor. Note: both the T|C and the 72 are still operational years after purchase.
So, I have been a Palm (and related products) user for approximately 7-8 years. So I am an experienced Palm user. My main complaint with the LD is that the unit unexpectedly froze up. It froze up during the hard reset process and will not turn off unless/until the battery drains.
Pros:
1) a lot of storage
2) rotating screen was particularly great for watching videos
3) converting files for viewing on LD was a pretty straightforward process for someone who has some interest/experience with .avi and .mpg files
4) good audio quality both with headphones and using the speaker
5) decent browsing experience, and wifi is adequate
Cons:
1) My unit did not last beyond 18 months total. Which is unacceptable for a unit of this price, IMO.
2) very slow operation, especially when the LD recovers from a hard/soft reset
3) somewhat heavy when considering other PDAs - tho this isn't a serious con
In summary, I would give this a 4 star rating if the LD was built to last. Given it's serious system problems, I'm pretty disappointed in this Palm product.
Please note and a warning to all new purchasers: for the reviews from people who have had the Lifedrive a short period of time, I liked my lifedrive for several months. It just did not last a long as I feel a PDA of this price should last.
Customer Review: Nice for a first harddrive PDA
Summary: 4 Stars
The Palmone LifeDrive is certainly the best PDA on the market right now.
I won't list the feature set. Check above for that. The features I really like in comparison to my previous PDA, a Palm T2, are:
- Web and Email via WiFi
- Web and Email via Bluetooth (to a supporting computer or mobile phone)
- file transfer ability via either virual drive or LifeDrive manager
What I do not like about the LifeDrive:
- weird connection cable, not nice like the dock of my T2
- weird power cable
I will venture that these cables do not have the durability of previous Palm docking stands. They definitely do not have the elegance and leave loose cables on your desktop for synchronization and recharging.
However, you can sync via WiFi or Bluetooth to avoid part of the problem.
Lastly, the battery life is less than desirable. My old T2 had way less functionality so I probably didn't use it as many hours in the day as my new LifeDrive. However, I never remember having it run out of charge in use. A couple of visits to the dock for sync in the day for several minutes was usually enough to keep it going. I would leave it on for most of the day if I noticed the battery below half charged which was way less than once per week.
I have to plug in my LifeDrive and leave it there for a while a couple of times per day just to make it through the day.
An well-designed docking station would make this less painful. Maybe one will come with time.
Customer Review: portable PDA
Summary: 5 Stars
i have owned this unit for almost 3 years now, and I love it beyond estimation. i admit, i do not use it that often any longer as I used to in the begining, but I do still use it from time to other. the reason for not using it that often has no relation to the performance of the unit itself, but more because I have 3 Smartphones (Blackberry, IPhone and PPC) attached to my belt at all times, so there is seldom any space left to attach my Life drive to.
the unit itself has certain drawbacks, but then again, everything does. In the beginning, when I acquired it, it was primarily due to the size of the harddisk (4GB) which was a great improvement to my HPC with only 128MB shared memory. the palm unots does have a drawbwck in terms of software compatibility and availability, but not to the extend that it can't be overlooked.
as it is at the present, I use it for primarily infield presentations to clients, as the Bluetooth and WiFi makes it easy for me to distribute files over a LAN.
the idea at the time to use it as a portable Entertainment unit was appealing too, as beside the HDD it had the opertunity to insert SD Memory cards too, which were a bit more expensive back then compared to now a days. but ever since My wife got me the IPOD Classic 160GB, the appeal for the Life drive as an entertainment unit has declined.
but as a closing remark, just because I don't use the unit that often any longer doesn't mean that I don't love to use it when it does get its turn.
Customer Review: Not good playing music
Summary: 4 Stars
I will only refer to the Music Playback trouble I encountered with the Lifedrive.
I owned a Sony Clié NX70V before the Lifedrive. When I heard there was a device with 4 GB and a 416 MHz processor I thought I should have it, so I sold my Clié and bought the Lifedrive.
First of all, I think the Lifedrive should come with a faster processor because everytime you open any program, it causes a delay of a couple of seconds, which is very annoying. But that, I can handle. What I cannot handle is the interruptions it causes to music playing while navigating through other applications (this never happened on the Clié).
I don't know if this happens only with the Pocket Tunes 3.0.9 program (included with the Lifedrive) or with every other player, but I think that if this is the one included with the device it should play flawlessly.
When you are working, let's say on Docs To Go and are listening to music at the same time, every time you access a file or save a file, the music momentarily stops and then continues, which is really annoying. This, not only happens with Docs To Go, but with EVERY other application (including even the Calculator or the Calendar), and it also happens when switching between applications.
As a recommendation I think it will be better to wait until PalmOne releases a Lifedrive with a faster processor, because I think the 416 MHz they included are not doing the job.
Customer Review: Amazing hardware, but very deffective software
Summary: 3 Stars
I bought the LifeDrive to replace a Toshiba PocketPC.
The hardware spec of the lifedrive are you amazing. Display quality is awesome, even video can be seen with excellent refresh rates and resolution quality. Storage capacity is just amazing for a mobile device. I was able to store all my work documents, and most of my pictures and videos on it. Though it is a little bit bigger than most PDA's, the lifedrive can hold up must of your digital information.
However, when it comes to software, are is a lot to improve for this device. I'll give you some examples of what has happened to me:
1. Opening some Word documents that contain images can lead the device to crash and reset itself.
2. Refreshing available wireless networks doesn't work very good. You have to turn off the wireless connection, activate it again and then run a scan so you can get a realible listing of the available wi-fi networks.
3. Battery runs out of life very fast.
4. Letter recognition is very poor. You'd better get used to write very slow, because when you add speed to your writting, letter recognition will start doing very weird things, like thinking an "a" is a space or a "q".
When a PocketPC manufacturer produces a PocketPC with the hardware specs of the lifedrive, it will definitively beat Palm's Mobile Manager with a tremendous margin.