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COMPUTING UNPLUGGED FIRST LOOK
A first look at the LifeDrive
By David Gewirtz
There are two things you need to know about palmOne's newly announced LifeDrive handheld PDA, shown in Figure A. One, it's got a 4GB hard drive (3.85GB is useable by you), and two, it's $499.
FIGURE A
 
Are you excited by the LifeDrive? Roll over picture for a larger image.
Although we haven't yet gotten our hands on one of these beasties for an in-depth review, we did get a special pre-announcement briefing this week, which gave us enough information to form first impressions. To be honest, my strongest first impression is that I wish they didn't play it so safe.
"The LifeDrive is a compromise product."
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Let's give palmOne some kudos
First, let's give palmOne some kudos. This is the first consumer PDA available, out of the factory, with a built-in hard drive. PalmOne has included some nice software, called the Camera Companion, for photo backup (unfortunately useful only if you've got an SD card camera and only if those SD cards have very small capacity), and, given palmOne's recent history providing exceptional color screen quality, this device's screen is sure to be beautiful.
I also really like the name LifeDrive. I am concerned that, without added awareness, it won't be obvious to non-palmOne fans that this is a PDA and not just an external hard drive. That said, it's a very catchy name.
The device also comes with non-volatile RAM, first introduced in the Tungsten E2 a few months ago. What non-volatile RAM means, in reality, is that if your battery runs out, your data doesn't go poof. Very nice, and very important, especially if you're doing a lot of traveling and might not have time for a recharge.
The LifeDrive also comes with folder synchronization software, which is nice. This will allow you to sync up folders on your PC with folders on your LifeDrive.
Are we excited?
Let's be fair. Building any PDA, let alone one with a large color display, a hard drive, and good battery life is nothing short of an astounding act of human innovation. In fact, hard drives are astounding acts of human innovation themselves. That said, what have you done for me lately? Is the LifeDrive innovative enough for 2005, in a market full of astounding innovations?
In a word, no.
This is a product I would have been wildly excited about in 2002, not 2005. Hard drives in mobile devices have been around for years. The iPod, of course, is the most well known -- and it's in its fourth or fifth generation. So let's compare. A 60GB color iPod photo is $449. The LifeDrive, with about 5% of the storage, is fifty bucks more.
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