RSSpalmOne Launches 4GB LifeDrive PDA
By Ed Oswald | Published May 18, 2005, 12:39 PM
As expected, palmOne on Wednesday launched its LifeDrive, the first hard-drive based PDA from the company. The LifeDrive sports 4GB of internal storage, a 320x480 high-resolution color screen, and includes built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless connectivity.
"LifeDrive mobile manager comes at an inflection point in the market, when people are ready for more advanced devices that meet their growing mobile-computing needs," said Ken Wirt, senior vice president at palmOne. "LifeDrive is versatile. For the business executive, it's a personal mobile briefcase; for the photo enthusiast, it's a camera companion."
palmOne also struck a deal with Wi-Fi provider T-Mobile, who will give a 30-day free trial of its T-Mobile Hotspot service to all LifeDrive owners.
Also confirmed was an earlier report that palmOne was planning to include Real Rhapsody in the PDA. The company says that the device will be compatible with both the pay-per-download and Rhapsody To Go services. As with T-Mobile, Real will also offer a 30-day free trial of the service.
Other features included in the unit are a built-in voice recorder, support for the SD, SDIO and MultiMediaCard formats, and flash memory to prevent data loss in case of a full drain of the LifeDrive's battery.
The LifeDrive will retail for $499 USD and is now available in "limited quantities" from the palmOne online store. The company expects it to be widely available on store shelves by early June.
... a little slow. I hope it works better than the junk Treo 650 that I bought.
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|Im just extremely upset about this 4GB size. As we are all acustomed to large drives. 4GB is nothing (peanuts) compared to what we are used to.
especially for saving MP3's and photo's that take up alot of room when piling up on music and photo's.
they should of started out with a 40-GB and at their top shielf should be 250-GB. now that would be a BANG for the buck. Flash-Memory Cards should of started at 20 GB. its all about STORAGE these days.
forget about the rest, if people run out of Storage , they will get something else really fast.
Things LifeDrive makers should think of that is the most requested by consumers everywhere.
1 - Storage
2 - Mp3 usage
3 - photos
4 - games
5 - contacts and address
6 - Maps and guides and GPS
If they cant store without having to always move files to make room for toher things, they WILL find a better unit that will do the task.
Goof for thought.
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|Argreed exept for games i say leave those for nintendo and sony if they have to put a good video card in these things the price would jump fast and if im going to spend a grand or so i'd get a decent laptop instead.
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|Although I agree a 250GB drive in a device like this would be ideal, it's just not realistic with today's technology. Using what we currently have, you're looking at a 3.5" drive, which is bigger than the LifeDrive by itself. Then you've got to add a huge battery pack to run the drive (they use many times more power than flash, or even a 1.8" drive). Add a screen & PCB, you've got yourself a laptop!
Still want it? :P
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|What's wrong with the Treo? I thought it was a great crossover device.
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|Yeah, don't forget that this is using the same type HD as the iPod Mini, even smaller than laptop drives.
As far as game PDAs go, the Tapwave Zodiac is a clear example of a good machine hampered by today's tech. The battery life on it made it almost unusable for anyone who travels. I love it, I played games on it, and it made a pretty good MP3 player once I got a couple of 512MB SD cards, but I had to recharge it every night or it drained completely.
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|Not all but a LOT of the Treo 650's have a problem with dropped calls and the sounds mess up a lot. I can't get in to that much because it changes all of the time. I have had three so far and all have had major problems and had to be send back. I am waiting on my fourth right now. I have done some search for some reviews and I am not even close to the only one with these problems.
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