nimrod wrote:

…The price doesnt really matter that much, i just want something portable that will let me do these 3 things. Obviously, the fact i can read email/docs etc is a bonus but not that fussed really.

Basically,
I am looking for a handheld device that has a decent battery…

I currently use a Tungsten T3 and when the screen recently cracked I bought a LifeDrive. I was so unhappy with it (it’s just too damn SLOW) that I returned it and had my T3’s screen repaired instead.

But now the new Palm T/X is out for $299, and if you get one of those instead and then buy a 2GB card for the SD slot, you should be able to get all the useful capabilities of the LifeDrive along with the speed of a conventional Palm-OS PDA, plus it has a newer OS, longer battery life, smaller size (thinner), lower weight, and you should be able to save a few bucks while you’re at it. If the T/X was available when my T3 broke, I’d have one today instead of my repaired T3 (which I’m pretty happy with, but the T/X is cool!)

Hope this helps!

Basically,
I am looking for a handheld device that has a decent battery – does anyone know if i can say, tuck the LD up in my rucksack and listen to music (also, i presume i could have mp3’s stored and create playlists etc??) with the screen switched off maybe, to save battery? is it kind of like an ipod but with the video and internet access bonus as well? What do you reckon to using one of these as a multi media device? good/bad idea and why. Is it ok to use for this intention? can you suggest any other devices?

Thanks for your time, any responses really appreciated.

Andy

Judie wrote:

I am hoping that Tapwave will continue to produce exciting devices.

A pity about Tapwave bowing out of the market – like Sony before them, they’ve discovered that ‘Palm’ and ‘innovative’ do not go together with ‘profitability’. :confused: I’ve seen the Palm LifeDrive in the stores, and my thought on the matter is that it’s WAY too big for everyday use – it’s almost the size of the Toshiba Libretto U100 I saw in the same store, or the QD0-01 which came out fairly recently, and those are full-fledged computers with WinXP, but with fewer features and even slower response times than those PCs.

I’ve always liked handhelds which actually performed snappily, which is why I’ve been fairly dissatisfied with most of the PocketPCs I’ve handled, with but a few exceptions… and with the way Palm’s going, I’m afraid their LifeDrive2 or whatever will be about the same. Which, in my case, is probably going to send me over to the PocketPC camp, since at least there I know they’ll probably be around for more than a few years.

2) You should use the “64 MB” for programs, since it is easier for the OS to find things. Store your movies and music on the “drive” portion of the microdrive, since most multimedia apps are programmed to look primarily in external memory.

3) The manual may be a PDF file on the install disk.

4) Sell your accessories on eBay. There is still a market for them. This will help offset the high cost of your new LD. Perhaps you can find a cradle and case for it there too. New Palms have this new “universal connector”.

Look around here for more answers:
http://www.1src.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=151

A related question is, can I install ALL apps and data using just the 64MB (my T3 wasnt even close to full) and keep the LifeDrive available solely for MP3 files (my primary intended use for it)? Or do I need to install apps on the LifeDrive for it to work properly? I hate to have to ask this kind of question, but there doesnt seem to be any Owner’s Manual in the box with my unit. Is this lack of proper documentation standard PalmOne policy? No cradle, no manual, and not one of my several expensive T3 accessories (two cradles, a USB cable, a car charger, a PalmOne keyboard, and, just purchased and received one day too late, a beautiful nSignia case) is usable with the new unit. This, after being assured on the phone two years ago by someone at PalmOne that the T3’s “universal” connector will be used “with all upcoming new models.” How cheesy can you get? I’ve still got a box somewhere full of old and useless accessories for my long-replaced 3C!

Another question: You had problems after sync’ing all your data from your Treo 650. Will I have similar problems with installing the LifeDrive’s Palm Desktop and/or sync’ing all my data from my T3?

The first one died after two days. It went into a continual soft reset until it finally died. Now, I’d been reading other newsgroups and Palm forums saying that there could’ve been some application that might have caused the problem, but no software was installed on that model.

The second one faired a little long, so it supposed to be tested by the whole staff. That is, until the last person (an experienced Palm user, I might add) tried to do a hard reset (following the instructions posted at Palm’s website) and it didn’t recover. We followed their recommendations to try and recover the unit, but it didn’t work.

I’ve been one of the most vocal supporters for Palm at my job. It was on my recommendation that they get the two units in. It was also my recommendation that they return them.

As useful as the unit is, some factors could not be overlooked. Most important is the lag time in accessing the hard drive. I admit, it’s a great idea, but keeping the programs on it, and having to access the drive whenever you wanted to run them, isn’t the best solution.

Of course, the fact that two units we ordered both died didn’t help matters.

I’m going to steer clear of the LifeDrive. I’ll wait for the next Palm to come along. As long as it has WiFi and Bluetooth and Flash memory, it’d be a far better investment.

Anyway, I just wondered if you could post a bit more information about the software uninstall thing from Microsoft – I’ve got an old copy of Palm Desktop which is proving a proverbial pain in the rump to uninstall in order to install the new version with all the bells and whistles. A link would be great.

Many thanks and congrats on a snazzy new site – I was rather shocked at the new look (in a good way ).

Jeremy.

FFSteve wrote:

Seems like a lot of people are nit picking about this device.
For those complaining about the speed, get a large SD card and run your programs from there.

If you do that, you may as well ignore this device entirely and get a T5. The whole point of the Lifedrive is the hard drive. The problem is the whole hard drive in a handheld-approach doesn’t fly for normal PDA users, at least not a mere 4GB drive.

To all the complainers about this not having a removable battery, Apple has been able to sell millions of ipods without one. I think a removable battery just invites loss of data. Once I got a Palm with a nonremoveable battery it seemed much more reliable than the first ones with removeable batteries. To me, it seems that dropping a unit with a removeable battery causes the battery to fall off half the time. My data is more important than being able to change batteries. Buy some kind of auxillary battery charger if you need more battery time. Just my 2 cents.

The fact that the battery pops out of the handheld if dropped is a good thing. The forces that impact the device get diluted into the parts popping out to the left and right as opposed to a totally solid device where the force may concentrate in a way that something critical snaps.

It’s the same principle as having cars that deform a lot in accidents; the deformation of the car soaks up energy that would otherwise impact what’s inside the car… the people.

A properly engineered device won’t lose data just because the main battery pops out. There are backup batteries in any properly designed PDA… and a prudent user takes backups in addition to that. My PDA does automated backups to the SD card regularly and recovery from there is a snap.

The big issue with this device not having a removable battery is the fact that it’s a power hungry device to start with, and not having an easily swappable battery makes it impossible to carry a spare. You can work around it with external power packs, yes, but that’s not very elegant…

Also, an ipod and a PDA are different. Few people ever need their ipod to work… music is nice to have, but you won’t lose money if you can’t listen to it. Meanwhile, if you have data on your Lifedrive you absolutely must access or lose money (in a business situation) or miss a meeting because the Lifedrive was dead and didn’t remind you then battery time becomes a much more serious issue.

The Zodiac was and is (IMHO) one of the more innovative Palms to appear in ages. I could pop two 2GB SD cards in its slots and get many of the benefits of the LifeDrive while using media that could be carried over to my next PDA. I am hoping that Tapwave will continue to produce exciting devices.

For me, that is not the LifeDrive. :0/

Thanks for the reply and I agree with you on many notions with Z2 being snappy and very useful. The harddrive and WIFI on the LD would be convenient, but as with most things…everything comes at a price.

Having everything built-in would also be convenient and helpful, but I’m going to have to wait and see what a LD can and cannot do compared with my present Z2 handheld.

If your partner still has her Z2 unit…I’d like know what she thinks in comparison…if that is possible.

Thanks again…

BrianS

FFSteve wrote:

Seems like a lot of people are nit picking about this device.
For those complaining about the speed, get a large SD card and run your programs from there. Yeah, when you have a physical hard drive you will always have a lag. To me except for songs or photos, I don’t see why so much space would be needed on a PDA. This device to me seems like an attempt by Palm1 to make a combo PDA and ipod.
To all the complainers about this not having a removable battery, Apple has been able to sell millions of ipods without one. I think a removable battery just invites loss of data. Once I got a Palm with a nonremoveable battery it seemed much more reliable than the first ones with removeable batteries. To me, it seems that dropping a unit with a removeable battery causes the battery to fall off half the time. My data is more important than being able to change batteries. Buy some kind of auxillary battery charger if you need more battery time. Just my 2 cents.
And to me the screenshots of the Blazer browser in operation look pretty freaking good.

Performance on the Z2 vs. LifeDrive is another area where it’s hard for me to comment. All I can say is that I remember the Z2 bing very snappy.

Hope this helps…

I’m a Zodiac 2 owner and computer technician by trade and am thinking about moving over to the Lifedrive for the extra harddrive space, built-in WIFI, etc. My questions are:

[INDENT]1. Would you replace a Zodiac 2 (outfitted w/1GB SD, Sandisk WIFI, etc) with a Palm Lifedrive?

2. You’ve reviewed both the Z2 and Lifedrive units…is the load times on the Lifedrive enough not to upgrade?

3. How do the two units compare performance wise?

NOTE: I’ve owned a Z2 for about 6 months and use it for both PIM, WIFI, etc. The Lifedrive has a few features that would be very handy like 4GB HD and built-in WIFI, which are both blessings since my external Sandisk WIFI can be annoying having the insert and remove anytime I use it and the HD storage could be used in my business for moving files, security updates, etc.

4. Finally, should I wait or purchase something else (Palm’s next Lifedrive, Dell Axim X50v, or Dell’s next Axim unit)?
[/INDENT]

I’m looking forward to you response and would appreciate complete honesty since making another change can be both time consuming and costly.

BTW, I’ve looked at the Dell Axim X50v before and cannot quite get ahold of the interface and software compared to the usual Palm interface and standard I’ve used previously. Is changing from Palm OS to PPC that difficult and how does Palm OS Garnet and Windows Mobile 2003 compare?

Thanks,

BrianS

There is a Pocket PC Skype though, if Skype is important enough to influence the purchasing decision.

The LifeDrive is about 1/8in longer and 1/4in thicker than the Dell.

Thanks for your quick follow-up. Your pic on the left seems to show a longer LifeDrive than the Dell x50V. The pic on the far right seems to say they’re the same length. Is it because your camera was set at wide angle on the left? Maybe next time set it to 50 mm or something, zoom in a bit from 28 mm (I’m not really a photographer, though). Looked like you were using some kind of Nikon (5800). The LifeDrive looks smaller than I initially thought.

Raul

athreya wrote:

Julie
I posted some questions earlier in this thread about making presentations using the LD. this is a very important feature for me. May I request you to kindly give it a thought and let me know abt it?
thanks

Take a look at http://www.margi.com
I have not tried it myself, but they have an sd card which should allow you to make PPT presentations with a Palm device. If you are interested you could ask them if their card works with the LifeDrive.

i am hoping to get the Irma infrablue soon and will report back.

if anyone else has thoughts on PPTs i would be grateful.

athreya wrote:

1) Can the lifedrive be used for making PPT presentations to an external display? Whats the output port?Is it possible wirelessly using any software or device (accessory)? Does it come with a remote? Whats the best presentation software available for this in the market today?

I can’t help you with this question. I have never really played with PPT presentations on a Palm or Pocket PC for that matter. The built in Documents to Go application will allow you to view PPT presentations.

2) Is the HDD response response TRULY slow enough to make it a showstopper?

It’s not dog slow, it’s just slower than what I would like it to be.

3) Is the email client, always on, all the time, like Blackberry? Does email get PUSHED or is it PULLED?

The app is only ‘on’ when you launch it. You have to pull the email.

4)Im planning to purchase the virtual keyboard? http://www.vkb.co.il to go with this. How does one assess compatibility of the device?

I do not have an answer for you as I have not used that specific keyboard for any length of time.

5) Whenever Skype mobile gets released, is this compatible with it?

Sorry, not sure of the answer to that question either… I’ve not used Skype. Maybe someone else can help answer the questions that I was unable to do.

Julie