How would you change the palmOne LifeDrive?
By Barb Dybwad 
posted May 20th 2005 3:58PM
posted May 20th 2005 3:58PM
Maybe you've got your mitts on one already, maybe you're just contemplating, or maybe it'll be a cold day in hell you'll get one until they change "______" on the palmOne LifeDrive. Well, here's your chance. What would you change about the LifeDrive?
Add a amd opteron and that'll be sweeping in buyers!! haha.
It could do with more flash memory a bigger "hard drive".
shouldn't theses things be running longhorn by now?? haha joking.
The Life Drive needs to have a replaceable battery!!!
Well, I purchased a LifeDrive for my partner on Friday, and we both absolutely love this device. I have a history of PDA use dating back to the original Newton, but I am not a PDA nerd: we use them as they come 'out of the box' and add tools like ePocrates or PocketQuicken. This unit replaces a five-year-old HandEra 330, with the expectation of using the file transfer capabilities back and forth from the office [some of which will be quite large]. I use a T2, which has served me very well.
There is no significant 'lag' when launching anything [nothing that bothers either of us, anyway]. The quality of the audio MP3 player exceeds our iPod Minis [I have no idea why]. The ability to quickly check email without turning-on the desktop computer [or from the cafe at breakfast this morning] is fantastic: quick, easy to read, and effortless. The design is clean, solid, and it feels fantastic in the hand. The T5 feels cheap compared to this, probably because it is made of plastic. We have NO regrets on this purchase.
First of all the LifeDrive cannot replace the T or E series PIMs. There IS a 2-3 sec delay when accessing apps. For me that means no more pressing a hardware button and instantly getting my calender or getting notes so I can jot down a phone number or even just pressing the center button on the 5-way and getting the time like on my TT. There will be hardware/software problems. I have 1400+ ebooks and apparently I cannot put them in the HD as the file structure can't handle that many. And I've started to have weird power on glitches. Turn it on and get a black screen...Wait...Nothing happens..Turn it off then on and get a white screen...Wait...Nothing...Turn it off/on and finally get the menu screen. Those are just a few gripes with an otherwise fine machine. It's new. I haven't learned all the ins and outs. And the OS (Is it upgradeable or just patchable?) might be improved later.
Decrease the form factor to fit into a shirt pocket comfortably. Performance is fine the lag time is not that pronounced. I have used the LifeDrive enough to asertain that. It seems to me that most of the negative comments come from people who do not really use PDAs for anything important. As a RN I make a lot of decisions based on information garnered from software on my PDA. Even with the spin-up time of the HD factored in, I can still access critical medication information and contraindications while a pocket pc user is navigating to the initial access screen. GF-2 is not as fast as GF-1 and I would consider replacing it. With that said -- I am the default recorder in many recuring meetings and have no real problems keeping up with peoples dialogue using my stylus. It just takes a little practice. I would never give up the reliability of the Palm OS for a crash prone Pocket PC. I currently use a T-3 and have a navman gps module which also works well. I have been all over the world with my PDAs and really appreciate the pragmatic operation of the PalmOS
I may consider getting the Lifedrive but it is a little big for my purposes.
1. Linux w/ PalmOS Cobalt
2. A Cornice SE (http://www.corniceco.com/products/) versus SMD.
3. A larger display (VGA or better) would be nice.
Apart from the above three things, this PDA is near perfect. Excellent battery life, dual wireless, and an incredibly easy to use interface with well written applications. I'll be purchasing one with the hope it will be upgradeable to Linux/PalmOS Cobalt - though past experience warns me not to hold my breath. Possibly user-driven updates in future, I guess.
Go faster stripes down the sides... perhaps that will deal with the horrible lag when switching apps... I didn't realize what a speed demon I'd become.
Needs:
Reasonable PDF support! The current implementation (like on my T3) is awful, slow and mostly unreadable. Native pdf support required.
Bigger hard disk - my camera already has 1gb - to back it up on holiday probably needs 10gb - so I need 20gb
Haven't tried this (but I bet its the same as my T3) - the ability to easily lookup "Notes" like Contacts. e.g. Enter a few characters and have it narrow down the list (I don't want to always use search)
If its true there is no vibrating alert - thats plain silly (it would replace my Palm T3)
Nice to have:
a Bit thinner
Don't need:
phone, camera, keyboard
A lot of the comments I've been reading about the LifeDrive are quite ridiculous. They seem to be written by 12 year old's playing "I'm gonna get a........" rather than normal human beings! I've ordered one, and I'm not without good reason. Surely the reasons I explain here are the same reasons the majority of users will buy one (and indeed I'm sure we'll fit into Palm's target market exactly):
I want to use it mainly for business when I can't or don't want to lug my laptop around with me. I don't want a phone in it, because how can I use the information on the screen during a phone call when it's pressed up against my ear? A customer calls me, he's just sent me an email, he needs me to approve a PDF of a contract he's just sent me ASAP. I can log in via WiFi while I'm one the phone (WiFi being quicker and cheaper or free depending on how you connect), get my mail, open the PDF, reply back to him with an extra sentence to be added - all the while discussing the matter with him on my separate cell phone. I can then surf the net a bit outside a cafe while I'm waiting for my friend to show up - for free. While on the train on the way home I can listen to some music (of course any modern PDA will allow this), watch a video, or use any of the other leisure focused features. Maybe I can practice my Powerpoint presentation. Or when my laptop freezes in the middle of a meeting, I can use the LifeDrive to give the presentation to my customer. I won't give an example for every feature, but in short, I can use this device practically for my real world business needs. Also it happens to be fun for leisure too. Great. It hasn't got a camera - Halleilujah!! It's got a simple OS that works (I don't want 100 features to confuse me that I'll never need). The only real downside for me is more limited Mac interaction, but that may be fixed later on. I think Palm have created a device that will genuinely give me a more hassle free life. All those 12 year old kids - please stay out of these forums.
With gigs available - the Lifedrive NEEDS to be able to capture video with sound! What else are you going to put on it when an entire movie can already be compressed down to 300MBs and be very viewable.
Why dont we try the device before we bash the device? Most of you make stupid irrelevant points. The LifeDrive is a great unit, and the LD2 is going to be even better.
A Psion-5Mx type keyboard - how come so few people mention this, it's essential! ( and obviously a screen format that flips to landscape)
why would i want to change from my t3?
it's nice & compact (rather than 'brick-like') plus it'll do everything the 'lifedrive' will do!
i've added a battery sled (about 7 hours of intensive use) for those long journeys. also added a wifi card couple of gigs of sd & a folding keyboard.
(hey, i didn't say it was cheap!)
Hi Guys,
I read a lot of things here that are not quite ment fot the lifedrive (example "add-phone")
If you want a phone with palm-os, but the treo. that's what it is designed for.
Same thing with "4 gig ? , itt should have been 20 or more gigs !!" What do you think that kind of drive wil do with the battery and weight? Not much good and he, I haven't seen an Ipaq with 4 gigs.
The option I would really like is the ability to play windows movie files an realvideo. I hope someone is building this soon.
greetings,
Vin
JD is EXACTLY right! The device is EXACTLY right! PalmOne has nailed what the tech-saavy business professional needs and wants this device to do. (And NOT do.) As to the PalmOS? I'm guessing the complainers are mostly PC users who run Windows at home, NOT, as implied, Mac and Linux users, and they want a Windows machine. So buy a Windows machine! For those of us who LOVE the PalmOS, this machine is just about perfect. Kids, the music, movies and games are just a side benefit!
This PDAs nice i like it but heres the things Palm should add:
1# A damn camera!! And none Of this 1.2 meg. or VGA crap make it adleast a 5.2 meg. Make it easer instead of this _____ Camera campainon shit......... Really Dumb
2#Lower Price $299 would be perfect
3# Docs to Go 8.001 Better Then 7.000 pro Or palm should make there own Docs....
4# Phone added on nice because its already got a voice rec. All it needs is an annt.
5# More Gb. Ive seen Micro Drives up 2 20 gb put that in BUT SOLID Mem.
6# Add an App plus a cable that can hook up to a hard disk may sound really messed up but good incase your PDA slows down from Gb loss
7# Insead of Cam. Compainon add Media Compainon to connect to a multimedia device like a T.V. and have an app that downloads Tv shows lol that would be soo sweet :P
8# It may make it bigger But try and put a P4 chip in there it would be blazing fast.
9# Removable Microdrive so incase you get a 50 gb microdrive you can upgrade
Thats it
The fact that it's running Palm OS?
A much larger hard drive.
I would like to ad a phone to it
Add a phone - perhaps VZW will carry by 2019
Display to VGA.
Put PalmOS 6.1 on it and I'd snap it up.
Maybe a slightly higher resolution to keep up with the Dell Axims, but mainly the PalmOS 6.1 thing.
VGA screen. User swappable battery. Garnet.
Come on, Palm finally offering a PDA with a hard drive and it's only 4GB??!!! They need to offer options of 20, 40 and 60 GB hard drives at the very least!
Better desktop software, more apps (that are actually useful)
Umm ... why didn't they just design the device for landscape use? why design it in "portrait" format and then show every picture with the screen rotated sideways? It just screams "compromise" to me.
And the CEO quoted in Forbes yesterday as saying that the LifeDrive was "aiming at the iPod" as if some bloated overpriced PDA that will appeal to my dad and his golf buddies has any chance in hell of becoming the next portable media phenomena? The industry is getting SO much iPod envy these days it's making me sick -- why can't anyone just make their own device so cool I want to own it, rather than take jealous swipes at the iPod and only remind me why there are so very few devices I would actually pay good money to own?
The LifeDrive would have been revolutionary if it were out in 1999. Right now it seems like an overpriced too-little, too-late last gasp attempt to be "cool" ... if Palm were to be really innovative, why not PARTNER with apple and integrate iPod functionality into the device? Then I'd believe their hollow claims that this thing might be a great way to listen to my music collection.
This thing smells like a loser to me. I think it will go down as Palm's last gasp.
GPS
Make it thinner. I love my Palm Vx. Its always in my shirt pocket. The Life Drive, however is too fat. Anything thicker is too fat.
I would not change any thing this thing is awsome! I want one so bad!
Slow application response time is a killer. We palm users are used to instant responsiveness.
oh yeah, and the UK price! 329 = US$600 !!
This thing is awesome. But the question is what I would change ...
#1 64 or 128MB or REAL RAM or even NVFS, instead of this idiotic "partition" on the HDD that PalmOne calls "memory". Delays delays delays ... if I wanted that I would just get M$ Windows.
... otherwise this is a very impressive device.
The OS is pretty much perfect. What I want is partnerships with the likes of Napster and Movielink so I can quickly and easily download music and movies to the thing. PalmOne really missed the boat by not arranging for some multimedia partners. Oh, and price it about $100 less, please. (Sure, I'd love it if it were $199; I'm just being realistic.)
Add INKWELL from Apple or Transciber like on pocketpc's.
Wriiting notes using handwritting regonition wold be grat in meetings. Using G2 just is painful for long notes.
It needs more phone.
optional animatronic house cat.
I've owned a Zire 72 for a year now and I must say I hate Palm OS. I don't understand how the public feels it is better than Windows Mobile. I've had to load a ton of third party software to make it remotely useful. The only thing I end up using it for is as a ToDo list and occassionally for music (which sucks too because I only have about 2 hours of battery life)...get rid of Palm OS or make it much much much more capable and feature filled. And put in a decent battery to let me use it longer.
The logistics behind Palm OS are just plain ridiculous...then again maybe I've grown too acustomed to the feature filled (dare I side with the devil) Windows Operating Systems
windows mobile 5.0
For the target audience, the lifedrive is just too expensive.
After reading the first line in comment #9, I realized that the whole device should be just the screen. To have no buttons whatsoever would be totally awesome. It already looks great, the extra real estate would be perfect, and with the hard drive, it becomes an instant Portable Media Center. Oh yeah, put WM2005 on it.
Add a cell phone, but if it has microphone, maybe there will be a skype ported to Palm soon
I'm glad you asked that! PalmOne must change the following:
PalmOS 6
VGA display
4GB SOLID STATE storage
Vibrating alert
Palm v/t5 styling and dimensions
Supply with cradle (and a nice one too, damnit)
Removable battery
Strangely enough, my demands aren't impossible to meet. Sort yourself out, Palm!
This device has arrived too late in the game. It doesn't have a phone, and is at least as expensive as some of the latest pda/phone combos from Samsung and other companies. Palm's gonna go down unless they rethink their whole strategy.
Removable battery. I don't mind the battery life really -- it is what I would have expected. However, I would like to have the ability to swap batteries out for those extra-long trips that I just can't stand to stop moving and charge.
It's a great machine otherwise. People say it's too expensive -- it's not: try to find a machine with equal storage or even half the storage that can function as a wireless PDA. It's hard. I'm settling on an iPaq and buying a SD card for it -- still roughly $400-450 in the end, depending on when I buy it and what deals I can get.
It can replace a high end PDA, MP3 player, several USB keys and even a video player in a pinch. It links to your desktop potentially 4 different ways, surfs the web, picks up your email and opens common attachments. 4GB is plenty for portable media, IMO, especially with an SD slot. A diehard music listener who wants mega storage will want a full-function portable media device anyway -- it's not an iPod killer and it wasn't meant to be. It reminds me more of a high end multimedia Clie, but with feet firmly planted on the PDA word.
As a covergence device, it's beautiful... what more could you want? A cell phone! And since only a small cell phone will fit into a itty bitty purse for cocktail parties, etc., I'm not sure I WANT a cell phone in it unless it's detachable.
No camera either, which some have complained about, but my cell phone has a camera; I don't need two. Using it as a portable media bank with my hi-res digital camera sounds useful.
But the thing it really, really needs, is a user-replaceable battery. Not having one really slashes it's portability. Also, I'd happily swap a much more useful on-the-fly hardware volume control for the hardware screen orientation button.
It's the first PDA I've been excited about in a long time, but I've been burned on PDA's before. Still, with the 30-day money back guarentee and free shipping, I'll probably order one anyway.
er... Newton OS?
I'd put Windows Mobile 5 on it. PalmOS 5 is soooo passe. OS6.x is either never gonna get here, or is going to be very late to market. This would be so cool if it had a multi-tasking OS on it that went beyond what Palm has been offering to date.
I would add a PHONE. I couldn't be less interested in carrying ANOTHER device. When the iPod/PhonePod/PalmPod comes out I will buy it. Someone has to be able to do this.
I agree they need to change some things, and I'm sure the LifeDrive 2 or something will be released. However, a phone would certainly not be on the list of things to change/add. I personally prefer to carry a small flip phone. On top of that, I would not want a $500 PDA that is GSM or that is tied to any one cellular network.
I would not say its too late in the game, it just need to tweaking. I am a palm fan and would buy one, but based on my past experience of buying the origina Tungsten T, they are prone to releasing a new model shortly after the first (the T2 being a good example!).
needs more cowbell.