How's life with the Life Drive now ?

[Bibles on my T3]

Hi all,

Now it's been out some months and both Palm with the 2 updates and 3rd party app. writers have had time to smooth bugs out so to speak, I'm just wondering how people are getting on with their LD's ? Are you loving them, coping with them or just waiting for funds and or the right unit to replace them with ?

Any views appreciated, thanks :)

(Currently am using a T3 , but it is a 'wind up' quite often in some ways, depsite it's speed..)

[anabolic69]

so far so good. the lifedrive is a laggy piece of metal considering the processor its using! and the screen is nowhere near a 'media-centric display'.

but aside from that, garnet works pretty well, and most programs seem to work without too much problems. coming from a previous dell x51v user, palm's simplicity is refreshingly robust!

[FinnG]

The lag is nothing to do with the processor speed and can be fixed quite easily with SharkCache :).

[Pathdoc]

Update 2 made the device VERY stable in my hands. I am very pleased. The only real complaint that I have is that they did not fix the issue in Blazer that prevents downloads. I have used Sharkdownload to get around this.

With regard to the screen, I find it FAR superior to the screen of the T3. The colors are brighter, it has better outdoor visibility. Superior in my opinion.

As for the lag, I never thought it was significant before and still do not. I tried Sharkcache to see what everyone was raving about and saw no difference with it running or not, other than increased resets. I do not use it anymore.

[Bibles on my T3]

Interesting responses all, appreciated, thanks :)

Posts elsewhere on the web seem to suggest divided opinons on this pda, but clearly it's keeping some users pretty happy now. I wonder when the 'LifeDrive 2' is going to arrive ? Deals on the current LD could get quite good then.... :D

[newT3user]

I don't have any problems with my LD with 2.0 update, except that Blazer DLoad! (Oh well..) Movies are great, so are podcasts. I use the Targus IR KB (which my Palm hardcase fits okay), having no problems. Cut a little on the cradle so I don't even have to take the case off for hotsynching! Drivemode is great. I like it lots better than the T3. Just another screw today on the T3, (Grrr...) So, I'm happy.

[JAmerican]

What about heat? Does the LD get extremely hot?

JAmerican

[Pathdoc]

Does it feel warm, yes. Does it get extremely hot, no. The hotest it gets is when writing a LOT of data to the drive, such as when recovering from a hard reset. Personally I have not had any issues but then again, I am in frosty Minnesota where the average temperature may make it difficult to notice (as well as the mittens you have to wear). ;)

[SoS]

What about heat? Does the LD get extremely hot?

JAmerican


I went through a hard reset routine the other day and prior to that backed up the LD - HD spinning constantly for ~30minutes, barely warm...

[FrankG]

Dittos re update2 stability and also the Blazer download problem. Resets have become rare and my LD is a terrific digital tool. It with the Palm keyboard bring me to the fringes of the "leave the laptop home" zone.

Frank

[Maticek]

The LD is after the update much more enjoyable, resets are very rare. The heat is not a problem at all since it's only noticable when recovering from a hard reset. The screen is just so much better than my T3's used to be, but it's still not in the league of TH55's. The most anoying bugs are probably the download incapability and slow graffiti recognition (there is a patch by dmitry for this).

[JAmerican]

How's battery life on the LD?

JAmerican

[Cyker]

Better than the T|3's, probably better than the UX50's, likely a bit worse than the Zod 2, the T|X and the T|5.

[tianz]

Just LOVE It !

Except for one stuck pixel and buzzing screen

[Maticek]

All recent palm(one) devices have the buzzing screen.

Battery life is good in my opinion, however I was used to T3's low battery life.

[SoS]

All recent palm(one) devices have the buzzing screen.

Battery life is good in my opinion, however I was used to T3's low battery life.

mine doesnt buzz, neither did my old TT!

[anabolic69]

battery life is average considering the whopping battery it packs. fullpower would help tremendously, but so far i haven't had any luck with it.

the form factor of the lifedrive is good though, pretty solid and a pleasant heft to it! i like the reassuring size of it

[tomlouie]

The LD is very stable after 2.0. I've also noticed that a lot of my crashes were caused by older Palm OS programs and malformed videos/emails/websites viewed on the LD.

My wife has the TX, and I like the metal case on the LD compared to the plastic case on the TX. Solid.

[05Edge]

mine doesnt buzz, neither did my old TT!

Mine does :mad:

[ProfJonathan]

My LD should show up this afternoon after being repaired, but I don't plan on using it much longer, since I've already ordered a T|X (thanks, PalmPaysBack points!). My two weeks back with my T|C (cracked back but still functional) have only served to remind me what a difference a RAM-based (as opposed to HD-based) PDA can make. It also reminded me that a 320x480 screen is a lot easier to deal with than the 320x320.

I have been following the T|X boards, and while the unit isn't perfect (I'm a bit leery of how it will be with my Bluetooth GPS, for example), it seems free of the annoying problems of the LifeDrive (non-stop alarm tones, frequent crashes, etc.).

Keep an eye out here and on PalmAddict for my thoughts as I transition to the T|X. {Prof. Jonathan}

[stivakos]

My LD rocks! When I just bought it applied the 2.0 patch. The only program that causes several soft resets is palmPDF. This palm really is hot stuff. I love it.

[SoS]

My LD rocks! When I just bought it applied the 2.0 patch. The only program that causes several soft resets is palmPDF. This palm really is hot stuff. I love it.

great that you are happy! You must have something amiss since I have never has a soft reset from palmpdf, including all of the early beta releases...it is one of the most stable applications on my device....weird!

[p_boucher]

mine doesnt buzz, neither did my old TT!
It's just probably you don't hear it :D. Once my girlfriend was annoyed by a whining sound I couldn't hear. It was my T|T3! I still can't hear my LD though.

[SoS]

It's just probably you don't hear it :D. Once my girlfriend was annoyed by a whining sound I couldn't hear. It was my T|T3! I still can't hear my LD though.


I really tried to hear it and it isnt there...not to say it won't appear at some stage!!

[05Edge]

mine buzzes, and I can hear it, so can my wife, but my dad couldn't hear it when placed up to his ear. (Maybe it's from all those years playing in rock bands.)

[Furball]

Mine's working great -- and no buzzing whatsoever...

I've kept my 3rd party apps at a minimum (only the bare essentials), and it's been stable ever since.

I'm defragging the HDD right now using Drive Mode and Win2k's Defrag... although I don't think there'll be any real-world improvements (since the actual "RAM" is on a different hidden HDD partition..), I just wanted to see if I can do it.. :D

I just wish they'll be able to decrease the lag (a better cache software perhaps?) especially when accessing occassionally used software such as Voice Recorder, etc..

Ciao! ;)

[Mike Chicago]

mine buzzes, and I can hear it, so can my wife, but my dad couldn't hear it when placed up to his ear. (Maybe it's from all those years playing in rock bands.)

Mine buzzes too. It's the well-documented-on-other-devices infamous Palm screen whine. Some people just can't hear it, so it just doesn't bother them. Before this summer, I'm going to take my LifeDrive apart and apply a layer of clear film between the digitizer and screen to stop the feedback.

This is my inspiration: http://discussion.brighthand.com/palmhandhelds/showthread.php?s=&threadid=64429&perpage=10&pagenumber=1