LifeDrive - A Guide to PalmOne's new PDA.

Things you can do with your LifeDrive.

2006-10-08T23:00:00.000-07:00

The Internet is full of list, a lot of them are really usefull. Here is our version of a list just for the LifeDrive.

What you can do with your LifeDrive

1. Watch Videos/Listen to Music
2. Download Podcasts
3. Use it for Navigation
3. Bar Code Reader
4. Mobile POS ( Point of Sale )
5. Lie detector ( Sadly the software is not free )
6. Update your blogs.
8. Play Games
9. Monitor your kids or spy on people.
10. Remote Control.

My list can go on and on... If you have a list of your own send them to me!

Palm LifeDrive Prices Falling

2006-09-27T23:03:00.000-07:00

Currently the LifeDrive can be bought for as little as $220 dollars in ebay. Thats a price drop of almost $200 from the original price of $425. The Palm TX is also getting huge price drops from ebay sellers. You can get one for around $180 - $200. I still can buy a new PDA unless my Tapwave Zodiacs finally gives up on me, but as long as it works I will stick to using it. I'm aiming for a second lifedrive as a backup.

Palm lowers LifeDrive Price

2006-01-14T07:04:00.000-08:00

As of this month the Lifedrive is now $450 thats $50 lower than the original retail price. According to recent surveys from different PDA magazines, the LifeDrive still offers a lot of features users want to get, but the main stopper is the high retail price.

The drop in SD card prices has certainly stopped a lot of people from going for the
Palm LifeDrive, but Palm is fighting back with continuously releasing new updates that is even improving the performance of the device.

The LifeDrive is the first PDA with an HD, its here to stay and people want it!

Are You too Cheap to Buy some New Software?

2005-12-15T17:43:00.000-08:00

You dont have to spend anything this Christmas to get some software for your LifeDrive. All you have to do to get some really great free software is to check out the the biggest open source portal in the Internet.

Sourceforge has all the essential utilities you will need for free, from secure password storage software to a checking and bugeting programs. I have started trying the programs in my LifeDrive and all of them run without any problems. Almost all of these programs are updated frequently and some even have their own forums .

Put some open source software on your LifeDrive: Sourceforge

LifeDrive Software Update

2005-12-13T17:48:00.000-08:00

There's a new update on the LifeDrive which I tried out right away. I did notice faster processing for all mp3 and wma songs I have on my machine. Its great Palm is getting out all the improvements regardless of them being late. Another improvement from the update was the Wi-Fi performance but I did not notice any noticable improvements. I did ask Palm about this and according to technical support, there's a lot of factors that affect performance and its hard to get a clear picture unless I try it out on different hotspots.

Link: LifeDrive update- international version of the LifeDrive 2.0 update.

Orphaned PDA

2005-08-29T22:10:00.000-07:00

One of the worst things that can happened to a company is having to give up a product. The term orphaned PDA comes in when the company no longer supports that PDA. A lot of buyers consider this as a no buy signal, but there are a certain hardy group of people who are looking for such a device. Looking at ebay, people brave enough and are still buying a PSION REVO, a PDA which has been abandon by PSION for a quit some time.

Today the same events are happening, companies are giving up great products due to low sales or from investors giving up on the company. When Tapwave recently closed their doors on their first and only product the Zodiac, a big drop in prices were giving people reasons to buy of what was left in the market. In fact people are more excited about all the great value offerings that I dont think retail stores will have any problems getting rid of any old stock they have.

The Zodiac is a great device comparable to the PALM T5 and even carries half its price tag. A word of warning to any Orphaned PDA buyer, Tapwave no longer supports this product and that means customer support and warranty should not be expected.

Yahoo LifeDrive Group

2005-08-16T21:02:00.000-07:00

There's a great group dedicated to the LifeDrive in Yahoo. A lot of the post are very informative and could add something to your LifeDrive experience.

link: LifeDrive Yahoo Group

Taking Advantage of AvanGo?

2005-07-22T19:44:00.000-07:00

Its been many years since AvantGo has provided so many mobile users with content tailored especialy for small screens. I remembering loading my first AvantGo on my Palm IIIe and reading mobile versions of my favorite newspapers. It has totally change how we view our PDA and push it to another level of use, more than just an organizer.

The LifeDrive is what I call the king of all ebook devices. If you get tired of reading ebooks you can always listen to your audio books library , thats something only the lifedrive can do today.

But the LifeDrive is not perfect like all device out there, I want to get rid of the myth on the extremely long lag time people are talking about, since the New York Times review came out.
Doing my research, I found a great article by PocketFactory about the LifeDrive's lag time complete with videos showing some applications that slowed down the LifeDrive.

One of the power hungry software that slows down the LifeDrive is sadly Avantgo, which take some time to load even with the case of my LifeDrive. But not as long as the video by PocketFactory, the guy must have beyond the normal Avantgo content to get a lag that long.

This is not the end everything, there are alternative to Avantgo which are still free like Plucker. Plucker works very well on pulling out you favorite websites and converting them to mobile versions. I've been exploring plucker and had never experience any problems using it in my LifeDrive, but I still keep Avantgo on my machine regardless of the lag which I dont mind.

Link: Plucker
Link: PocketFactory: LifeDrive lag time article

LifeDrive Prices are Falling!

2005-07-11T20:53:00.000-07:00

I did a quick comparison shopping today and I notice a huge drop on the LifeDrive. It has now reach the bellow $400 dollar level to around $389 which was the lowest I found. It still does not make the LifeDrive a cheap PDA but when it reaches a certain level its going to open device to a lot of new customers.
The same thing was about to happened a similar Palm device which was the Tapwave Zodiac but the lack of support from the company discourage a lot of people from investing on the device but still, there was a rise of new users when prices went down.
Palm should learn from auto makers make them cheap so everyone will have one then make some money in the long term from having so many users.

Free LifeDrive Overclocking Utility

2005-07-08T01:24:00.000-07:00

The guys from Mobile Voodoo just came up with a simple overclocking and under clocking utility. I personaly have not tried it yet and the software is in its early stages of development. It's nice to know people are developing free software specifically for the LifeDrive.

Keep up the good work guys!

Please Read this important note from the developer before trying the utility.

Note: I'm providing this utility for free, with absolutely no warrantee or guarantee of fitness for any particular application. Play with it if you want to but do so at your own risk. I accept absolutely no responsibility for any loss of data or damage that might occur through use of this program, nor will I provide any kind of technical support for it.

Click to download the Overclocking Utility

Tungsten T5 Update 1.1

2005-06-22T23:30:00.000-07:00

PalmOne has just posted a ROM update for the Tungsten T5. I'm a big fan of the T5 and gave mine away to my son. The update should increase the stability of the T5, I never had problems with the T5 except when I installed some unstable freeware. I hardly blame PalmOne for that, when I erased the freeware never had a single glitch.

The Update Improves the following ( source; PalminfoCenter)

link: PalmOne Tungsten T5 update Page
New in version 1.1:
Resolves problems caused when synchronizing large databases and files
Fixes problems in the Calendar relating to Birthdays or recurring notes
Fixes an issue with the Find feature and Calculator application
Provides non-volatile file system improvements
Also included from version 1.0 (released October 2004):
Fixes a problem in the Calendar that can cause a crash when
the default view is changed from Agenda to Month View
Fixes an issue in Contacts when using the Menu drop down list for new entries
Adjusts the Palm OS soft keyboard to prevent system instability in certain situations

LifeDrive Software Upates!

2005-06-19T23:53:00.000-07:00

LifeDrive Update 1.0
The LifeDrive Update 1.0 is a small patch that fixes intermittent connectivity issues with these Wi-Fi routers:

Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G Broadband Router

Belkin High-Speed Mode Wireless G Router

I have not personly made any updates on my LifeDrive just yet bec i have not really experience any problems with it so far, but that just me. When people use different systems on their LifeDrive things get complicated and there are bound to be glitches. I'm happy PalmOne came out with one right away.

more info about people experience can be found in PalminfoCenter discussions.

Zodiac 1 Sale!

2005-06-14T19:20:00.000-07:00

There are only a few stores that really offer bargains online. CompUSA is getting rid of their Tapwave Zodiac Inventory, its not a Zodiac 2 but the only difference will be the memory which you can make up for it by buying a cheap SD card ( 128, 256, 512, 1G ).

Click to check out CompUSA Zodiac1 Sale with 4 free Games of your choice!

Another alternative would be to go to Tigerdirect to check out some of their open box Palms which I think is a really great bargain.

Handheld Computers

BrightHand LifeDrive Review

2005-06-08T00:50:00.000-07:00

I have two favorite devices right now and thats my LifeDrive and my Zodiac 2. There were so much quick reviews out there, that now one of them covered the true value of the LifeDrive. This BrightHand review is different and covers much of the LifeDrive's true power.

Bright Hand LifeDrive Review

The new PalmOne LifeDrive is Out!

2005-06-06T23:20:00.000-07:00

PDABargain Review It's no secret that PalmOne has been readying a new model, and that leaks have been coming like rain in Seattle. But now, the hat is off, the non-disclosure agreement has lifted and we can present you with an in-depth review of PalmOne's newest flagship handheld, the palmOne LifeDrive Mobile Manager. The outer casing of the device is partly a flat aluminum, mixed in with areas made of plastic. Though the device itself is rectangular, the back side is curved enough to make holding it more comfortable than would be immediately apparent. Its design is very contrary to the smooth, rounded look of recent PalmOne devices, taking a harder and more squared off styling. The application buttons are broad, flat, and utterly rectangular. They take up most of the bottom front of the device, curving around the directional pad in the center. Their size makes them easy to press despite being pressed up against each other and the directional pad. The only catch about the front buttons is that you can sometimes trigger one of them if you try to tap an object on the system bar with a bare finger, particularly with the thumb. It seems impossible to do, but it can happen, because there's no border between the screen and t he top of the buttons. Or perhaps I just have large fingertips.
Click to go to BargainPDA for the full review