Customer Reviews

Palm LifeDrive Mobile Manager

5 star:		(44)
4 star:		(41)
3 star:		(20)
2 star:		(23)
1 star:		(65)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

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!"

Good or bad, this marks the beginning of the microDrive convergence into PDAs and cellphones. Yes, South Korea, China, and Japan have had microDrive PDAs for awhile now, but this is the US debut of real storage, and a definitive shift away from HotSync to a more-generic external drive model.

Think about that for a moment. Even Microsoft PowerPCs don't support a pure external drive model of synchronizing. This allows you to just connect to a central data store (via Bluetooth, WiFi, or USB) and bring your MP3 files over. Or Word documents. Whatever. It's not the data storage that's most impressive here, it's the final surrender of Palm's HotSync methodology. That's the big news here.

Of course, this device represents a compelling upgrade for older PDA users. Storage at near 4Gb means the iPod mini or Zen Micro are less attractive electronics, by virtue of their single-function purpose. The OS has been ramped up, and it still runs most of the legacy Palm apps (you will find that more and more apps are not migrating, though). The extra treat of Bluetooth and WiFi radios means you can use a Bluetooth keyboard, connect to a BlueTooth cellphone, maybe stream music to your Bluetooth BMW.. or use WiFi to stream to a WiFi stereo system, receive that stream and playback, grab MP3s from your basement machine, and so forth.

I can see this being used as a web pad in most homes, allowing for some web browsing, some MP3 playback, and more importantly, remotely viewing another PC on a home network (maybe to shuffle music playback or check email). Of course, having WiFi or Bluietooth in a PDA is not groundbreaking; having both isn't either, but it's impressive and long overdue.

The sum of features makes this a worthy addition if you're looking for a new PDA, or if you want something much more than an iPod mini or Creative Zen Micro. However, if you hang on a few months, maybe to Q4 2005, Nokia will have a cellphone with a 4Gb (maybe 6Gb by that time) microDrive, and then the electronics landscape changes forever, because no one will want "just an MP3 player" ever again (unless they really don't want a cellphone or handheld computer).

Fred

I've been intrigued by handheld computers for years, but was never convinced that they could be truly useful. Last year, I was thinking of buying an MP3 player, especially for use on long trips. Then I saw some dual-function players that also served as photo viewers, and thought maybe I'd get more use out of something like that. Still, I didn't buy anything, as it seemed as though none of these devices really lived up to its potential.

Then I saw the Life Drive last spring and decided to get one. I have to say that I've got more pleasure out of this device than from any other electronic purchase I've ever made. I can use it to listen to music or to show off photos, but I also have found many other uses for it that I hadn't even imagined. I carry it with me everywhere and use it multiple times a day.

I now use the Life Drive as my only reminder system, keeping it synchronized with Outlook on my desktop. If I'm walking down the street and remember something I have to do, I pull out my Life Drive and enter it in my Task list. The next time I synchronize (recharging the device at the same time), the task gets added to my Outlook tasks. If someone gives me their email address, no more writing it on a paper napkin! I enter it in my Life Drive contacts, and the next time I send an email, it's already in my Outlook address book.

The Life Drive has a 4 gig hard drive, which is a lot of storage. I never used an older handheld, so I can't compare it to what older models had. However, it holds a lot of stuff! I have the Oxford Compact English dictionary on it, a very complete Italian-English dictionary, the Britannica concise encyclopedia, the CIA World fact book, the entire Bible, and my entire recipe collection. (Have you ever been in a supermarket and can't remember what you need to buy to make tiramisu?) There's still plenty of space left! If 4 gigs isn't enough, you can put more stuff on an SD storage card. These come in sizes up to 2 gigs.

The Life Drive comes with a version of Office software, so you can put Microsoft Word files on it, as well as Excel and Access files, and modify them on the road. There is also a version of Acrobat Reader,which has a desktop companion that will convert normal Acrobat files to a format more suited to the small screen.

I didn't think I would like using a stylus for input and was planning to buy a keyboard. However, the Graffiti 2 hand-writing recognition system is very intuitive and quick. I just started writing without reading the instructions for forming the letters, and the only one I had trouble with was the letter "x". I found out on my own that Graffiti 2 will recognize many more ways of writing a letter than they officially claim.

I bought a text-completion program (by Teal) so that it suggests words before I finish writing them. The one problem with this is that I use both English and Italian; the program recognizes both, but I have to manually switch vocabularies before beginning to write, which is a drag. I wish it could figure out which language I'm using and switch automatically, as Microsoft Word does with its spell checker. Teal also makes a useful program (Teal Glance) that displays a daily to-do list with a clock when you turn on the Life Drive. However, some programs override the Teal Glance screen if they were the last program you used before turning it off. (Usually the Life Drive picks up right where you left off when you turn it on.)

For Music, the Life Drive has two programs: Pocket Tunes and Rhapsody. Rhapsody is great for organizing music on your desktop and digitalizing your CD collection, but it has some kinks in it. It also transfers music to your Life Drive, but I find it quicker to just drag and drop the music directly onto an SD card (using a USB card reader). Pocket Tunes organizes and plays the music once it's on the Life Drive. I've noticed that if I'm listening to music and want to use the Life Drive for something else simultaneously, there is a pause or click in the music whenever I touch the menu with my stylus. I had read that this could be avoided by keeping the music on SD cards, but I still hear the click. I also read that installing and updated operating system from the Palm web site would address this problem, but it hasn't. However, that's a minor complaint, because usually when I'm listening to music, I don't multitask.

The Life Drive has both Blue Tooth and Wifi incorporated. I haven't really used either. There is an email package, Versamail, that looks pretty straightforward, and also a web browser called Blazer.

I've also installed a few games to amuse me in the dentist's office and while waiting for trains. There is an enormous amount of stuff available on the web.

I've heard rumours that Palm will be abandoning the Life Drive, or replacing it with something else. I really hope not. One of the things I've heard is that the Treo cell phone will replace the Life Drive. I have no desire for a big cell phone that does everything, and the Treo doesn't have the hard drive. Plus it costs a lot more. The functions that the Life Drive already has are plenty for me. I had been planning to buy a new laptop, mainly for travelling, but I don't think I will need one. If I can find a wifi hot spot, I can check my email with the Life Drive, and also look up train schedules and the like on the web.

There are other features that I haven't used much yet, such as the voice memo. This allows you to dictate a reminder into the Life Drive if you don't have time to jot it down with the stylus. You can later attach an alarm to the memo. I don't know if these can be synchronized with Outlook. You can also use this to record a lecture.

I find that the battery lasts for several days without recharging, more than my cell phone for sure. There is a dual cord that will charge and synchronize at the same time. The only complaint I have is that this cord seems to have a weak attachment. When I press the synch button, sometimes the connection with my computer gets broken and I have to straighten the cord out, press the button carefully and lay the device down carefully. Probably I should get the cradle with built-in cord to avoid this, but it would be nice if the cord that came with the device worked better. Some people complain about the case (or sleeve might be a better word) that comes with the device, but I think it's sufficient and haven't thought of getting a real case.

I can only say that if you're thinking of getting the Life Drive, go for it!

Like many others, I am profoundly disappointed with Palm's latest release, the Life Drive Mobile Manager. There are many positive reviews posted here, but the majority of them are from users who are relatively new to the Palm PDA line.

As a power user, and having owned nearly every model they released, I can say with confidence that if you are a power user, you will be returning this unit within two weeks. The majority of the third party apps that I used to use are not compatible with it and that causes fatal errors and random soft resets. When the app is uninstalled, the error stops, but because the unit boots off of the hard drive memory and not flash memory as all previous models did, a soft reset takes approximately TWO MINUTES 16 SECONDS from start to being ready to use again. It is unbelievable. You should really drive down to play with one to look at the lag time BEFORE you order it here at Amazon. I promise you - it will be time well spent.

The power switch on the top of it is a slider that is made of plastic, looks very cheap and I'm guessing will last maybe 3 or 4 months tops before it needs to be replaced.

If you are thinking of buying this for watching videos and playing MP3s or as a replacement for your iPOD, keep your iPOD. Sometimes I wish Apple would buy Palm. Maybe then we'd start seeing some quality.

No cradle - a flimsy breakaway plugin to charge it.
The hard case looks sexy and sleek, but you will soon tire of having to pry it open several times a day with your thumbnail. And if you don't have any thumbnails, you're out of luck. Don't get the hard case or you'll never be able to open it.

Overall a big disappointment for me. I made the mistake of selling my T3 and putting the proceeds toward the LifeDrive. I still have time to return it - and I likely will - but am having a huge problem trying to decide what to downgrade to from the LifeDrive. T5 didn't get much better reviews and T3 is a few years old now...

If you absolutely MUST buy this unit, please wait until the LifeDrive 2 and LifeDrive 3 come out later this year or in early 2006. Remember the T, T2 and T3? My guess is the same thing is going to happen to this one. They would have saved themselves a lot of headaches if they waited until it was ready to be released as a quality product.

Now I don't know what the heck to buy to replace it. T5 maybe, but still nothing compares to the T3 thus far.

The only good thing the LifeDrive has going for it is a lot of storage and internal WiFi; HOWEVER, the version of wifi they chose to install is the slow version - it crawls; and I have no idea what all the fuss is about people being able to use this as a 4GB USB drive.

Yes, it works as an external drive. It's slow but it works. Big Hooey. Go down and get yourself a 1 GB USB flash RAM drive (tiny) if you want that level of portability. For me as a longtime Palm user, the ability to use this as an external drive is NOT a huge deal. I've been using USB flash drives for years to do what this does.

Perhaps the biggest annoyance - and primarily the reason why I am returning the unit - is the lag time switching between apps. You click the stylus on an app and since it is no longer booting from the flash drive, there is a two second noticable lag time before the app launches. It's ridiculous. They say that putting a hard drive in a PDA is an achievement that will allow for a great deal of things to come.

It would be. If they had left the unit booting to flash ram and used the 4 GB for storage only. Big mistake. Bad Developer. No cookie for you.

This crashes as often as a PocketPC, but it is much slower. That's the best way I can describe it.

Hope this helps!

Adam Boettiger

UPDATE: 22 AUG 2005 - Wanted to add a post script to this to let readers know that I did in fact return the LifeDrive to the store and purchased the Tungsten T5 and some accessories instead. While the T5 is not everything I want in a PDA, in my opinion it is the best unit Palm has on the market - primarily because it has fewer problems than the LifeDrive.

After setting it up last week, I've had no problems with the T5 since. As a longtime Palm user, it was nice to see the zippy flash drive again, with no two-second delays in switching between apps, no Fatal Exception errors, etc. It just worked.

If you must upgrade now, buy the T5. If you can wait 4-6 months, hold out for the OS 6 devices due out in Q1 or Q2 of 2006. You'll probably be glad you did.

Hope this was useful.

Adam Boettiger

I bought the LifeDrive to replace my Zire 71. I hoped that the unit would help do all of the following; give portability to my office documents, room to back up e-mail from outlook, listen to Audible books, and carry some music on trips.
First the unit size is not as nice as the Zire. Sure it's only a little bigger than the Zire but that little bit makes a big difference when I had it in its case and tried putting it in my pocket.
Also the LifeDrive needs administrative rights to work on the Office XP computer. My IT guy was not happy.
Office documents worked when I got the administrative rights, but I liked the non-wireless keyboard I used before.
The e-mail wasn't the Palms fault but the Docs-to-Go Premium will not look at subfolders in Outlook.
My biggest gripe is with the audio applications. I have static between every track transferred to the palm. When I go to the support site I find a forum complaining about this issue. The static also showed up while listening to a book. The battery life while using the audio was sub-par compared to any MP3 player.
So you may ask why I haven't sent the unit in for repair. Well, I did and the unit is still bad and now the stylus does not stay in when it should.
If you get one be prepared to do a quick erase and a secure erase. You'll learn what they mean. If I could return the unit I'd get a different Palm and a separate MP3 player.

Update: I'm on my third lifedrive and spent over eight hours talking to customer service. I've been complaining about the quality of the audio. Every lifedrive emits a hiss at low volumes. Jim, at Palm corporate told me it was a software problem. I sent Pocket Tunes his comments and they tested the device finding it was a Lifedrive problem. I sent the comments from Pocket Tunes to Palm today, Palm called me tonight and admitted it was a Palm issue. They told me they never advertised the unit to be a good as a digital MP3 player,(they have an analog output). When I asked him to downgrade me to a different Palm, since this doesn't fit my needs, he told me to sell it on ebay.

End result of months of phone calls and e-mails -- Palm Wasted My Time with poor customer service.

I purchased the Lifedrive to use for my Nursing classes. There is a lot of Nursing software that is available to purchase for students and professionals. Unfortunately the added space for the programs does not make up for the constant resets and freezing of the handheld. I too, have had two refurbished Lifedrives sent to me for a replacement and my Lifedrive was only two months old. The refurbished Lifedrives sent to me were defective so finally Palm decided to send me a new one in the box. Guess what the new one in the box reset itself right away and froze. I have purchased software that the companies say is compatible with the Lifedrive and I have had nothing but trouble. My friend bought the Tungsten E2 and has the same software as I and she does not experience any problems with resets or freezing and her Tungsten E2 is faster than my Lifedrive. Nursing students should not purchase the Lifedrive because of all the problems with the software issues not compatible and the resets. It is very frustrating to experience all the problems I have and they are not resolved, even with the 2.0 update version from Palm. The technical help is located in India, and it is absolutely useless.