Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 6-10 of 186
 Great PDA and GPS May 26, 2008
D. Miller
I have been using this for a couple of years now. Great email, GPS with TomTom receiver and software - through Bluetooth. Decent MP3 player. br /Adequate spreadsheet and word viewing.
 Problems, Problems May 14, 2008
Scott M. Bouton (Cleveland, OH)
Owned my Lifedrive for just a couple months when it started to have problems. Had it back to Palm under warrantee 3 seperate times and they couldn't fix it. Finally they just replaced the unit with another that was "reconditioned". Just a few months later, I have the same problem again (device will not turn on).... and now the warantee is over! I know of two other lifedrive owners, and one of them is having the exact same problem. Stay away from Palm!!!
Somebody should file a class action lawsuit against Palm April 26, 2008
L. H. Nguyen
Somebody should file a class action lawsuit against Palm for selling the defective Palm Lifedrive. My second (a replacement) Lifefedrive just froze in the middle of use, just like the first one. I had the same problem with the first one after only 2 days, got the second one. I figured the Hotsync caused the problem, so I never used the Hotsync nor additional softwares on the second and it lasted about a year. Shame to Palm for selling junk product and offering no support. Negative 4 stars for this product and Palm customer service.
 3 yrs and still going..... March 29, 2008
P. Minor (Indiana/USA)
I've had my LifeDrive since it came out and love it. Sure, the wifi is slow but I don't use it that often. I imagine the newer models are faster if you really need it for the internet. I have had times when it froze on me but I was able to track down the fixes on the discusssion groups and get it going again. The problems were usually caused by my installing incompatible software. I just recently lost the ability to use the stylus for input making the unit unusable. But I kept messing with it with resets and reboots and was finally able to get the stylus setting software to take the input and it's working great now. I know that it's just a matter of time tho as none of these things last forever and I was sad to find they aren't making it still. Guess I'll have to go for the TX when at last my beloved LifeDrive dies.
I own a "good" one. March 20, 2008
G. Morrison (OKC, OK)
I was one of the few lucky ones with this item. br / br /The Good: br / br /1. Works well with Franklin-Covey Plan Plus software. br /2. Works well with Bluetooth keyboard. br /3. Wifi and bluetooth work. br /4. Hard drive space. br /5. Documents-to-go software works well for me. May be too simplistic for some.... br /6. Holds many tunes. br /7. Music sounds very good--I don't need an Ipod, and Palms manipulate data, also. br /8. Syncs very well. br /9. Battery is very good, I think. br /10.Can view photos very well. br /11.Most updated Palm software works. br /12.Very good screen. br /13.Huge selection of software for Palms. br /14.Persistent memory on all Palms from Tungsten E2 and better. br / br /The Bad: br / br /1. Soft reset requires an agonizingly long time (many minutes). br /2. Often requires soft reset if hasn't been used for a few days. br /3. Versamail now crashes because of too many messages (may be my fault--shouldn't do this, though--may be software flaw, also). br /4. Headphone jack is in wrong place (on bottom instead of top), and it becomes loose. br /5. Picky about SD/MMC cards. My older ADATA 2GB MMC card won't work (it did work in the Tungsten E). As I understand it, SD/MMC cards that work currently are limited to 2GB. I haven't really needed them, however. br /6. Not very good at multitasking. May automatically soft-reset. br /7. Included Blazer web browser software is out-of-date and limiting (warnings to update the browser from servers may appear). As far as I know, upgrade is not yet possible. br /8. Wifi uses up battery much more quickly. br /9. Sync cable uses stupid proprietary short and insecure connectors for both syncing and charging. br /10.Can be pokey. br /11.Most useful software uses up my wallet--not much useful freeware is available for Palms. br / br /The Ugly: br / br /1. I can't believe that anyone obtains a rich experience in web browsing with any PDA or PDA/phone. br /2. Bulky and heavy. br /3. Good physical protection is essential. br /4. I fear the inevitability of battery replacement: Palms always require unsoldering leads of old batteries/resoldering leads of new batteries to the PCB. Obviously, Palm wants me to buy a new Palm product when the battery dies: This is bad for the environment and my finances. Battery replacement is risky. Fixing a Palm (out of warranty) is equivalent to purchasing new in costliness. br /5. Palm's branded accessories are pricey and often inferior (their pricey keyboard still uses infrared instead of bluetooth). br /6. The Lifedrive before it was discontinued was really pricey. br /7. The consensus is that the Palm T|X is superior, and, it always was cheaper than the Lifedrive before the latter was discontinued. br /8. I wouldn't trust my Lifedrive to store important photos and then to delete photos on my camera memory card for more space--I would use the Lifedrive soley as a backup and keep the good photos on my card as well. br /9. It's definitely best to check for compatibility of software before purchasing and installing. Not all Palm-compatible software is compatible with Lifedrive. br /10. Palm replaces faulty units with refurbs. br /11. Bundled 3rd party software for Word, Excel docs, etc., is not absolutely compatible: Such docs are not "native." br /12. Very difficult to get Linux on these or even to sync with Linux. (I could sync with the Tungsten E in Linux.) Definitely, neither action is straightforward for Lifedrive. br /13. It's best not to sync with legacy Palm apps (from an old Palm). Many people said this ruined their Lifedrives--again, check for compatibility and upgrade to the latest versions. br /14. I'm not sure that I would trust a refurb Lifedrive; prices are getting tempting, however. br /15. Pocket PC users are correct: Graffiti (Palm's shorthand for writing data with the stylus into a Palm doc) is "baggage." Yeah, I'm "biased": I can do it, but I'm not very good at it! Graffiti definitely has vocal adherents--I congratulate them for successes! The Lifedrive uses Graffiti 2 (What's wrong with simply writing in plain hand or cursive?) br / br /OK. It seems that PDAs (from both Pocket PC makers and Palm) are among many complex but flawed devices that have many advocates, detractors, lemons, and successes: They are all flaky, at least to some extent. Palm was right (finally) to pull the Lifedrive (they waited far too long). They should instead upgrade and enhance the T|X so that larger SD/MMC cards are usable (such as 4GB and 8GB and even larger). Even more to the point: Perhaps, Palm should combine many of the consumer-friendly concepts of the Lifedrive with those of the relatively reliable, much better liked T|X, to create a new, better, more reliable, and more consumer-friendly Palm (one that's lightyears more powerful than the Z22 that's also aimed at consumers). Successfully achieving this would make the Lifedrive a distant memory (admittedly, a really painful one for many). The Lifedrive originally was a good concept that, unfortunately, failed miserably in execution: It was a noble attempt of Palm to reach out to ordinary consumers and their common needs as well to those of its normal business-oriented clientele.... br / br / br / br / br /
|
