Remember when PalmOne announced the LifeDrive, how ecstatic I was? Well, now I'm even more ecstatic because I have one in my hand right now as I am writing this post.This is going to be a short and sweet first impressions post of unpacking and using the LifeDrive with a Mac. I've uploaded all the relevant unpacking shots to our Flickr set. Check it out. I'll do a more thorough review later on this week after I've had some time to get everything set up properly.
Read more after the jump...
First impressions:
- It's not as thick or as heavy as I had expected after reading different online reviews complaining about it. Then again, I'm a big guy who was never bothered by the clunky-ness of my Nokia 3650.
- The first time it boots it takes a looooong time to boot.
- I forgot what a pain setting up the Palm Conduit to work with iSync could be. Took me about 10 minutes to get everything to sync properly, but once I got it set, it was syncing nicely. This was all via the supplied USB to Palm cable. HotSync on the LifeDrive indicates that there is a WiFi sync option, but no mention of Bluetooth. I need to figure out how to Sync without a cable, and if it is not supported, I'll be working on hacking a bluetooth sync...
- All of my iCal calendars synced nicely and I like the Today, then This Week display of the device. The device comes with the standard Palm Desktop software if you prefer that, but the iSync with iCal and Address Book worked pretty flawlessly.
- The screen is nice and crisp. Looking at pictures is good. Watching video is good.
- The speakers sound good. I played the two default MP3s and they were nice and loud.
- So far, the two (admittedly large) Word files that I've tried to open on the LifeDrive have either not opened or brought the device to a screeching halt. I've reset it twice already.
- Setting up a new email address is a piece of cake. They already have a .Mac setting too.
- Web-browsing is nice and fast. The pages available via PalmOne's default home page for the LifeDrive load very quickly. Other sites can look a little squashed with graphics.
- TUAW loads, albeit a bit slowly.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-15-2005 @ 11:55AM
Chuck said...
I'd love to have a ftp app for this too. Be nice to be able to send media files that way instead of synching.
Anyone know of one (or am I missing some obvious functionality?)
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6-16-2005 @ 4:20PM
Henry said...
The LifeDrive is very nice but why does it have so little storage space? iPods can have 60 Gb (Although the 60 GB photo isn't exactly sleek.) Why can't this device? Compactflash (And soon SD) cards can hold 4GB. With 40+GB and a phone this would be the best haldheld computer.
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6-16-2005 @ 4:20PM
Michael Katz said...
Henry, with the weight of it and what's in it and the screen I would think they would have a hard time fitting a 40 gig hard drive in there, let alone keep it at the price point. Either way with no multitasking what's the need for a 40 gig? I mean so you can use it to transfer large files? With the interfaces it has, I would think it's a bit unlikely to have the larger hard drive sizes, it would sync too slow.
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6-16-2005 @ 4:20PM
Henry said...
Well, your probably right since Palm doesn't give it a lot of space but there definitely is a reason to have 40+GBs: media. The iPod can't multitask. I don't believe the archos can either. Price means something but the iPod's is priced less than the LifeDrive. The iPod is smaller than the LifeDrive and can fit the HD. And if it truly is not reasonable to have 40 Gb's why have a HD at all? Why not a CF slot? They can hold 4GB now and that amount is increasing. I'd still like a LifeDrive despite this. Apple should make a smartphone with 100 GB that runs Mac OS X House Cat. Hmmm its probably almost as likely that they make one with 100 TB that runs Mac OS C.
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6-16-2005 @ 4:20PM
C.K. Sample, III said...
Henry et al,
I should note that although the LifeDrive is slightly taller and wider than my 40GB iPod, they are both about the same thickness and they are also *almost* the same weight. Plus, the LifeDrive has built-in bluetooth and 802.11. Give me a Skype program for this baby and it's my new favorite gadget.
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6-16-2005 @ 4:20PM
Henry said...
Using it with Skype would be good. Even moreso if Skype gets integrated with the current phone network and wifi hotspots increse in size and number.
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6-16-2005 @ 4:20PM
Adam said...
I would love to know more about how the LifeDrive handles native documents (word docs, excel docs, pdfs), can you just dump the files on the LifeDrive and open them or is there some sort of translation/conversion required? That was the biggest pain of using Palm in the past I think, not being able to just dump a few pdfs on a SD card and then opening them up on the palm. SOunds like it didn't like the word documents, I'll be interested to see if that works better over the course of your testing.
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6-16-2005 @ 4:20PM
Bill Hennan said...
Will the "Active Sych" application sych the LifeDrive with Microsoft Office on a Mac?
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6-16-2005 @ 4:20PM
Pedro (home) said...
stop living in the 80's and put your watch on the right side of your wrist!
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6-16-2005 @ 4:20PM
C.K. Sample, III said...
Pedro: NEVER!!!
Adam, so far, I've only played with Word documents. One that I actually created in Pages won't open on the LifeDrive (which uses Dantz Documents to Go) and very large doc files tend to freeze it up. Regular average-sized files seem to work okay though. Supposedly it has PDF support, but I haven't tried it yet.
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6-16-2005 @ 4:20PM
_victor said...
Ah Palm... This seems like too little too late for too much money. At this price point you can get a laptop. Within 18 months there will be phones with *some* similar functions. I loved Palm once, now they're like a bad country song...
But questions, questions... Yes, PDF support is a must for me. Not handling large Word docs? That could be a killer. What about Excel? I noticed you cannot edit PPT files.
Also, is there any Java support?
What happens to pages with plugins? I am still shocked and appalled that Palm ignores or refuses to license Flash. Sony put it in their Clie's (licensing the PalmOS), so what's the deal here?
A nice how-to would be getting video files of all sorts onto the device. I've heard good reviews of Kinoma's software (used to convert videos), but how would that integrate with iMovie? Can you make an Automator workflow to ease the pain?
That's all I can think of for now... Too sunburned to think clearly...
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6-16-2005 @ 4:20PM
Henry said...
Regardless of whether your wearing your watch on the right side or not you still living in the past according to this article: http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000107038796/
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6-18-2005 @ 12:17PM
Jeremy Marx said...
How has the battery life been? I've read that it only gets a few hours between charges..
Also, do you think it's as fragile as they say it might be, what with it not being solid-state and all?
I'm so close to buying one, but these are my concerns.
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6-27-2005 @ 3:50PM
devinened said...
I've owned Palms for at least 6 or 7 years but haven't upgraded beyond IIIxe models (am using my 4th IIIxe). Refurbished units are so inexpensive now that I don't usually feel terrible when I crack a screen or even lose one.
Having said that the PalmDrive sounds very compelling. Will a PalmDrive accept beamed Datebook, MemoPad and ToDo files from old OS 4.1 Palms?
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8-20-2005 @ 3:09PM
S Ekker said...
Do you have any time for an update after a couple month's use? Does the machine seem slow? Any troubles with Tiger?
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