Palm LifeDrive Mobile Manager

i have owned this unit for almost 3 years now, and I love it beyond estimation. i admit, i do not use it that often any longer as I used to in the begining, but I do still use it from time to other. the reason for not using it that often has no relation to the performance of the unit itself, but more because I have 3 Smartphones (Blackberry, IPhone and PPC) attached to my belt at all times, so there is seldom any space left to attach my Life drive to.

the unit itself has certain drawbacks, but then again, everything does. In the beginning, when I acquired it, it was primarily due to the size of the harddisk (4GB) which was a great improvement to my HPC with only 128MB shared memory. the palm unots does have a drawbwck in terms of software compatibility and availability, but not to the extend that it can't be overlooked.

as it is at the present, I use it for primarily infield presentations to clients, as the Bluetooth and WiFi makes it easy for me to distribute files over a LAN.

the idea at the time to use it as a portable Entertainment unit was appealing too, as beside the HDD it had the opertunity to insert SD Memory cards too, which were a bit more expensive back then compared to now a days. but ever since My wife got me the IPOD Classic 160GB, the appeal for the Life drive as an entertainment unit has declined.

but as a closing remark, just because I don't use the unit that often any longer doesn't mean that I don't love to use it when it does get its turn.

Honestly, buying the lifedrive is one of the worst investment that i made. Mine died down for no apparent reason. I should have not bought any palm device anymore (that was the third one). I'm thinking on buying a windows based device soon for my clinical practice. Everything about the lifedrive is disappointing. I will never recommend it to anyone.

If you are caught between a TX and a Lifedrive--go with the TX. While the LifeDrive has more room, it is lacking in speed when compared to the TX. The TX is seamless when switching between applications. The LifeDrive will hang and freeze, when switching between applications, for what will seem like an eternity no reset is needed--just patience. Many claim that the system has hard reset many times, wiping out the internal memory, in the time that I've owned it, this has not happened. Ranking order for those wanting a Palm device: LifeDrive is good, E2 is better, TX is best.

I made the mistake of purchasing this product when it came on the market (and paid approximately $400). I was attracted by the capacity of the drive and the large display. Within weeks of using the device it began to freeze up and crash intermittently resulting in repeated data loss. At times the screen would go blank/"white" for no apparent reason when turned on and would require a system reset. The system reset occasionally would wipe out all of the software I installed on the device requiring me to reinstall everything and re-enter all of the product keys (this required hours of time). After several months of this and MANY hours on the phone with technical support the mini hard-drive completely failed: when the device was turned on it made clicking noises but would not boot (in case you're wondering, the device was handled carefully and had a nice Rhino metal case with foam padding: it was not dropped prior to this event). Technical support from the manufacturer was again useless and after returning the device and receiving a "repaired" version I was faced with the same problems. I was informed that a major "software update" was available ("2.0") which would fix many of the issues: after applying the update stability improved - for a while. However, after two months the hard drive once again failed. This time I was one month outside of the one year warranty (the warranty was not extended despite all of the problems with the device). I was informed that I would need to spend approximately $150 if I wanted to have it repaired. After reviewing my options and thinking about all of the misery I experienced with the device I decided it was not worth the cost of repair. I kept it for a while in the box in my closet, but it made me angry each time I looked at the box: eventually I simply threw the useless item away and purchased a Sony Clie UX-50 (wow, what a difference!). While the UX-50 was discontinued in the US, the hardware is VASTLY superior to that of the LifeDrive (I've had it now for two years without a single problem). It has an earlier version of the Palm OS which is more stable and, although it lacks some of the fancier features of the LifeDrive, I'd never go back. There were rumors that a version of Linux was in development by Palm to replace the unstable/horrible operating system on the LifeDrive - in the end I guess they were just rumors. How corporations like Plam get away with selling junk like the LifeDrive is difficult to understand. My next "PDA" will be an iPhone.

I've been using Palm products since the original Palm Pilot, and I was thrilled with this when I received it. Then it failed. Customer service was consistently superior to Dell's or HP's, but the refurbished replacement they sent me failed. The next refurbished replacement was defective. The refurbished replacement following that was also defective. They finally sent me a new replacement. That one has just failed, but now it's out of warranty. I will not be buying another Palm product again--ever.