Palm LifeDrive Mobile Manager

I got the Lifedrive one week ago to replace a sony Clie. The following comments are based on one week experience.

Pros:

1. New lifedrive manager software which in most cases obviate the need for hotsync. This is truly revolutionary.

2. Larger hard drive. Finally we are catching up with the rest of the world. You may be able to replace your iPod mini with this more versatile handheld.

3. Good voice recorder. I just got back from a meeting and recorded one whole days worth of talks from the back of a room with 60 people and record quality was quite good and no software bugs were noticed. In addition to the time allocated under your voice memo section, you can directly record to your hard drive allowing you to record more stuff.

4. This machine can store an enormous number of powerpoint presentations. This is a big plus for if you do any teaching e.g. quick review of a topic with a med student before a surgery.

5. Nice metallic finish. Looks better than cheap looking T5.

Cons:

1. Poor battery life. After a whole day of heavy use, the battery dies without warning.

2. Repeated powering down of the hard drive causing a few second delay in opening new applications. Annoying as hell!!!

3. No way to customize turning off the screen after a short period of inactivity. If you play chess on this machine, it becomes annoying. By the way, Hiarcs chess engine runs quite well on this machine(Downloadable for 39.99).

4. Adobe reader formats most documents well, but some with complex formatting turn into incomprehensible amorphous text.

5. Price. I don't understand why a piece of cheap looking electronics made in china should cost this much money.

6. No integrated cell phone or camera.

7. Some applications don't run on this device. I signed up for audible.com membership to get a $100 rebate. But so far I have been unable to make the audible manager recognize this device and download audiobooks to this device.

8. It is very disappointing palm decided to put the cheaper and slower WiFi. I suspect their next device will have the faster version.

9. Size. More bulky than other palm handhelds. Not a true shirt pocket device.

10. No headphone provided. Why can't they throw in a $10 headphone for this $499 device. I am using my old sony clie headphones which works fine.

Overall, 4 stars. I am sure I will find a lot more annoying problems as I use it more.

I've had my Lifedrive for about 3 mos. now and have been very pleased with it. There seems to be quite a few negative reviews about the Lifedrive so I was a little wary at first. Many of the complaints seemed to stem from running older Palm software that didn't operate on the new Palm OS or from people who weren't used to using Palm PDA's. Although Palms are very easy and intuitive to use I think the Lifedrive is a little more complex due to the integrated hard drive, which at first doesn't seem integrated at all.

I didn't reuse any of my older Palm OS software which must have spared me from some of the re-starts and lock-ups some people experienced. Once my unit was charged I started with a new user name (so a new synch profile is created) and then immediately installed the 2.0 software update. I've only had 2 restarts on the device since I started using it, but I use it quite a lot. One restart was apparently due to a poor wireless connection and another I think was caused by Versamail while downloading an e-mail with an attachment. Other than that the device has been very stable and the restarts haven't been repeated.

At first I wasn't very pleased with the new Graffiti II but now that I'm used to it I'll concede that maybe it is an improvement over the older version. Handwriting recognition on Palms has always seemed far superior than on Pocket PC's to me and the Lifedrive's no exception.

Some reviewers have mentioned a "lag" problem when starting a new program. I was a little worried about this before I purchased the Lifedrive after reading it in several reviews. However, I tested a couple of Lifedrives first at electronic stores and didn't really notice any lagging or hesitating. It might have been 3rd party software issues as I haven't noticed this problem-and I'm very impatient.

www.palmfocus.com has a list of Palm software rated for compatability with the Lifedrive. Before installing older Palm OS software it would be a good idea to check this list rather than struggle with your device. (Any software written for the new OS isn't an issue as far as I know.)

Pros:

+Wireless works well and connects easily.

+Being able to store, view and edit MS Word and Excel in their native format is a plus. (no conversion step as on Pocket PC)

+Store tons of videos, music and photos and take it with you everywhere.

+Synchrone entire folders from your desktop computer (Only folders on the root drive of your device can be synchronized so nested folders won't be synchronized unless you spread them out in the root directory of the drive. This will change the folder heirarchy on your device but not your desktop if you want to keep all the folders synchronized)

+The USB synchronization and connection has been flawless. (This hasn't been my experience with Pocket PC's)

+Very powerful yet elegant PDA!

Cons:

-Battery consumption high when using wireless. Don't leave on any longer than you have to.

-It's a little big and bulky to hang on to compared to older Palm PDA's. (Wish it had a place for a lanyard)

-Working with other applications while listing to music causes interuptions in the music playback.

-Versamail synch setup didn't go very easily for me. Make sure your default e-mail profile on your desktop is Outlook before you even get started with mail sync setup.

I've installed Dataviz Smartlist which is an excellent and fairly sophisticated database application which can sync with Microsoft Access. It works very well on the Lifedrive.

Also installed Mapopolis and it also works well. You must install maps to RAM or on a SD card and not the hard drive.

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I had the pleasure of reading some of your reviews, and quite frankly, I don't know if I should feel fortunate or laughing out loud, not to be rude, but literally, given that there is absolutely nothing wrong with mine.

After you received your LifeDrive, the unit turned on ok, the jacks don't fall out, the screen is not scratch etc, then, folks, there is nothing wrong with your unit. I can say with 99% confident that it is all software related.

Here's some advices for you that might help:

1). You should not use the operating software come with the CD; instead, you should download the latest version from the Palm site. And you should install the update 2.0. Then you need to know how the unit works, there are two storage areas in the unit, the internal memory and your 4 GB hard drive. You need to understand how backup works, and how to backup your cache as well as the files in the hard drive. Use Drive mode to backup your hard drive to your pc, and resync often for backing up the other portion. There is no need to use LifeDrive manager come with the CD.

2). You must have some sort of Uninstall software installed in your unit, because chances are you will installed something and want to get rid of it. I am using Uninstall Manager from Palm, and it works great. Oh, and for the one who complaints about the unit turned itself off after 3 minutes of inactivity ... There are softwares to prevent that, check the web.

Now here is the truth. This unit by itself may be over-priced; however, the synergy this unit can provide after you cleverly match it with well chosen softwares will give you a return on investment that is completely unmatched even at 2 to 3 times their combined price point. It's like having an assistant working for you 24/7 and you pay him/her 50 cents a day.

My LifeDrive is a powerful breast after I mate it with the following personally chosen softwares: Uninstall Manager, DateBk5, ShadowPlan, DayNotez, Supernames 2.0, Repligo PDF Mobilizer. Doc to Go 8.0, SmartList to Go, MyBible, etc. You get the point. (alternatively, you can replaced Datebk5 with Agendus, and Supernames with Beyond Contact, ShadowPlan with ListPro, or Life Balance etc). I don't play games, watch videos, or listen to mp3, but you can if you like.

I have not had one single reset that I am not aware of. Perhaps the only down side is that the unit does take an extra second to load, but after a while, I hardly notice it. It doesn't have a camera which some of you might prefer. Other than this, great unit.

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I purchased this in june and had to return it. I use it as a physician and have had a Tungsten C, and Visor and Palm V, each of which represented continuous improvement in speed and usability. The lifedrive was so slow switching between applications, up to 2 minutes and usually thirty to 90 seconds that I couldn't function. Also the programs I used ran more slowly (10-20 seconds for steps that were instantaneous before) than before or than on the T|X with which I have replaced it . Iuse a prescription program and it links to epocrates which meant every time it would take several minutes to perform a task that took 10-20 seconds previously.

On the plus side the multimedia and PIM functions worked well if you waited for them to start. It has a sharp screen and pictures. The dictaion feature was great.

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I purchased a Life Drive PDA because of the large memory capacity. I upgraded from Sony Clie. I have been unable to get any help from Palm, since my Life Drive crashed after a long holiday weekend. I guess the battery ran down and it will not recharge. A $500 device that is now useless. I have now returned to using my Sony Clie which continues to work. If I were you I would think twice about buying such an expensive PDA that does not contain replaceable batteries. Take a look at Palms website where they tell their customers that sending the device back could cost you more than the amount it would cost to buy another. "Let the buyer beware!"