Tipping the scales at just 6.8 ounces, the new LifeDrive mobile manager is at least several pounds lighter than most laptops. When used in with palmOne’s wireless keyboard, the combination can provide weary road warriors with a way to pack formidable power without having to lug around a bulky laptop.
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At the expense of the venerable PDA, business professionals have started turning to smartphones to fulfill their mobile-computing needs. Now, palmOne is attempting to turn the tide.The company has launched a line of wireless-enabled LifeDrive devices that offer business professionals a convenient method for transporting, filing and managing a vast array of digital information — from documents and e-mail to music, images and video.
Under the Hood
Measuring 4.76 x 2.87 x .74 inches and weighing in at 6.8 ounces, the LifeDrive mobile manager sports a highly capable 416-MHz Intel XScale processor together with a 480 x 320 TFT display that is capable of displaying 65,000 colors. In addition, the unit”s 3.25 x 2.2 inch screen can be flipped to the user”s choice of portrait or landscape orientation at the touch of a button.PalmOne”s new wireless-enabled PDA platform also features a built-in expansion slot that offers support for several card formats, which means that users will be able to expand the unit”s capabilities to keep abreast of future technologies. For example, the expansion slot will accept memory cards from most popular digital cameras, which means users can easily move photos to the LifeDrive to free up memory for more photos.
The handset”s built-in Bluetooth chipset can be used to exchange files with compatible laptops, printers and other devices. The user can even link up with a Bluetooth-compatible cell phone to transfer files to and from mobile handsets.
The LifeDrive”s built-in Wi-Fi chipset offers wireless broadband access to the Internet at thousands of hotspots in hotels, cafes and airports around the world. The LifeDrive even integrates a hotspot-scanning tool as well as the requisite dashboard for tweaking Wi-Fi performance and configuring wireless security.
On-the-Fly Data Storage
The handheld”s built-in 4-GB hard drive features 3.85 GB of usable storage and supports a maximum sustained data-transfer rate in excess of 7 MB per second. A USB 2.0 port also is onboard to connect the unit to a desktop PC or notebook computer, in which case the handset”s files and folders can be accessed on the other computer”s screen simply by clicking on the LifeDrive icon.
Through the USB interface, LifeDrive users can drag and drop thousands of files from a conventional PC or laptop right onto their handsets while retaining the original structure of the folders and subfolders they choose to duplicate.
Users also can select the work files that they need to keep in sync with their office PCs. The designated folders, together with the individual files and subfolders they contain, will be automatically updated whenever the LifeDrive is synchronized with the user”s primary computer. Moreover, Mac users will be delighted to know that the LifeDrive features the ability to sync with any Apple platform running Mac OS 10.2 or higher.
Onboard WiFile software lets users retrieve documents wirelessly from a remote computer when both terminals are connected to the same network. A “drive mode” capability also is on tap to let users edit documents without having to transfer the files off the LifeDrive. Any changes made to the document will be saved automatically on the handheld rather than on the host computer.
Software Capabilities
In addition to running a plethora of Palm OS apps, the LifeDrive mobile manager is capable of viewing and editing Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files by way of the supplied Documents To Go software from Dataviz.
The new handheld device also incorporates an Exchange Server ActiveSync program that offers users the ability to access corporate e-mail from enterprise servers running Microsoft Exchange Server 2003. In addition, the LifeDrive incorporates the Blazer Web browser, which has been designed specifically to render Web pages quickly on mobile devices.
The LifeDrive integrates a Personal Information Management (PIM) suite that includes contact, calendar, notepad and tasking capabilities. Moreover, the handset”s built-in voice recorder allows for hands-free notes or personal narrations to accompany slideshows and PowerPoint presentations.
Highlights and Drawbacks
I liked the fact that the LifeDrive”s internal memory will keep information intact and safe, even if the device”s battery loses its charge. Corporate users also will be pleased to learn that the LifeDrive sports password protection as well as 128-bit encryption for keeping sensitive business data safely stored on the device. Moreover, the LifeDrive gives users the option of deploying an intrusion-protection capability that will wipe all data from the device in the event that somebody tries to access the device a certain number of times.
Tipping the scales at just 6.8 ounces, the new LifeDrive mobile manager is at least several pounds lighter than most laptops. When used in tandem with palmOne”s wireless keyboard, the combination can provide weary road warriors with a welcome way to pack formidable computer power without having to lug around a bulky laptop. In the absence of the keyboard, however, the user must use a stylus to enter text and numbers, which in my estimation is an inefficient data-entry mode for working on the road.
The device”s lack of voice-communications capability is another major drawback. Hopefully, the manufacturer will redress this glaring deficiency by adding a softphone to the Palm application arsenal in the near future. It also is unfortunate that the LifeDrive ships with a rechargeable lithium ion battery that is not removable, which means that the user cannot conveniently swap batteries while on the go.
The Bottom Line
Sporting an estimated street price of US$499, palmOne”s LifeDrive mobile manager remains a good choice for business professionals that need a greater storage capacity than what today”s smartphones and PDAs typically provide, even if it does require them to relegate their voice operations to a dedicated phone.
In this respect, I believe this new product eventually will succeed in carving out a niche for itself in a market long dominated by smartphone and PDA products that lack anything more than a rudimentary storage capability. On a scale of 1 to 5, I give palmOne”s LifeDrive mobile manager a 3.8 rating.BC subscribers from a central location, Parker says.
