1SRC Podcast TwentyFive

[Jeff Kirvin]

* Special Double-sized Silver Edition Podcast! 47 minutes of Palm-powered ranting!
* Tech Talk with Alan Grassia. If you haven't listened, you really should. In this week's 'cast, Alan shines the harsh light of perspective on the T5 "find bug" and uses the word "wingnuttery." w00t!
* The official 1SRC Podcast LifeDrive Fondle Report! (with corrections)
* Corporate machinations at Palm. DevCon, Nagel's gone, PalmOne is Palm again, what's going on?
* Living out of your Palm: a week on the road away from my PC. Was my T5 all the computer I needed? Sort of. [details (http://www.1src.com/?m=show&id=1068)]

[tungsten t5]

I like how you talked about the 5gb and 4gb lifedrive pre-released modles and didn't tell everyone I told you about that :(

[Jeff Kirvin]

I like how you talked about the 5gb and 4gb lifedrive pre-released modles and didn't tell everyone I told you about that :(
Sorry, Mitch, I forgot where I heard that. I take in so much info it's hard to keep track of what came from where.

[JAmerican]

No matter if 5 or 4GB, The 4GB is still laggy. Imagine the 5GB, OMG. I saw the LifeDrive and tested it. It doesn't take 6 seconds but it takes some time. It took about 2 seconds to open an app. With WiFi. It's even slower. Graffiti lags as well. Not trying to be pessimistic, just telling it as I saw it. The light on the top also blinks constantly and is very annoying. Imagine at night using your device. While I was trying to take the skin, using Palm Insider Pro, it gave me corrupt "PalmOne Skin.prc" files. As for the hard drive being erased, couldn't there have been a switch next to the reset button? One side is to clear HDD, the other side of the switch is to keep HDD data secure. The 5-way D-pad is cool. But yet, it does also lag while using the web browser. I was wrong about the Bluetooth and WiFi. I admit. I rush tested the Wireless. That point you made about the price of a dual wireless handheld is true. I must agree with you on that. If the lag was gone and it had a keyboard, I would consider the LifeDrive. I understand the keyboard is a personal issue but just my 2 cents. As for the merger, won't that close any using of Palm OS on non-PalmOne devices or non-Palm OS on PalmOne Devices? Was this going anywhere? The podcast was somewhat troublesome last week but thanks for making one while on vacation. Way out of the call of duty :). Drive Mode is cool on the T|T5. That was one thing I wanted the T|T5 for till I got Softick Card Export II. Really cool.

JAmerican

JAmerican

[Jeff Kirvin]

Oy...

Well, the PalmOne PTunes skin obviously trapped a lot of us. Only Sharky has been able to extract it.

The lag, such as it is, simply didn't bother me. Maybe I'm more mellow than most people. I do live in Colorado, after all.

Blazer performance seemed no different on the LifeDrive than it does on the T5. Again, expectations. Coming from a T5, it seemed okay. Coming from a Clie with NetFront might feel different.

The re-merger. I don't see why it should matter. Palm licensed Palm OS to other companies before the spin-off (like Sony).

Yeah, drive mode saved my butt. I love my T5. The drive back would have been so much longer without Air America podcasts to listen to...

[JAmerican]

Oy...

Well, the PalmOne PTunes skin obviously trapped a lot of us. Only Sharky has been able to extract it.

The lag, such as it is, simply didn't bother me. Maybe I'm more mellow than most people. I do live in Colorado, after all.

Blazer performance seemed no different on the LifeDrive than it does on the T5. Again, expectations. Coming from a T5, it seemed okay. Coming from a Clie with NetFront might feel different.

The re-merger. I don't see why it should matter. Palm licensed Palm OS to other companies before the spin-off (like Sony).

Yeah, drive mode saved my butt. I love my T5. The drive back would have been so much longer without Air America podcasts to listen to...

I might start doing that. Whenever I have a plane ride, stack up a whole bunch of DVDs on my 1GB MSes. Since the UX has bad battery life. I'd bring my Battery pack (which has given me 7+ hours of WiFi usage on my UX50) aka my EB50.

JAmerican

[JAmerican]

I also understood the economics as well. For if CompUSA buys it for $400. They keystoned the price from $200 or less, or PalmOne would be killing themselves. Imagine though, a LifeDrive for $200. OMG. Anyone got any good Wholesale spots and a Tax-redemption form. :)

JAmerican

[Yorker]

No matter if 5 or 4GB, The 4GB is still laggy. Imagine the 5GB, OMG. I saw the LifeDrive and tested it. It doesn't take 6 seconds but it takes some time. It took about 2 seconds to open an app. With WiFi. It's even slower. Graffiti lags as well. Not trying to be pessimistic, just telling it as I saw it.

This sounds no different to my E2. seriously.

[Dick Tracy]

This sounds no different to my E2. seriously.
Ditto. Must be NVFS,

[Jeff Kirvin]

And the Graffiti lag is more perception than reality.

In older Graffiti 2 devices, the device showed everything immediately, then corrected for dual-stroke characters. K would first show up as an L, then automatically backspace and write a K on the second stroke. Because the characters keep displaying, this seemed pretty responsive.

The problem was is royally screwed up autocomplete apps like Blazer and it confused shortcut interpretation. So in the newer devices, dual-stroke characters work differently. Now when you write a stroke that could be the beginning of a dual-stroke character, display is deferred until the system knows for sure what character should be there. An I doesn't show up until it's dotted because it might be an L or the beginning of a K. The "lag" is waiting YOU to finish the stroke.

How to avoid the lag? Simple. Keep writing at your normal speed and the Palm will keep up. The folks really complaining about lag do so because they're waiting on the Palm to display each letter, while the Palm is in turn waiting on them to keep writing.

[Alslayer]

I accidentally posted this at writtingonyourpalm but here is what I wanted to say.

Too bad you couldn't record and upload your podcast from the T5. You can with the Sony U750 but who can afford that pda?

[Cyker]

Thoughts:
Jeff, we REALLY need to get you a theme tune for your podcast! :D
Any budding composers/trackers/sequencers wanna try? :p

Delay:
Good for the confirmation! 6 seconds was nuts, and even 3-4 seemed quite high. 1-2 is more par for the course.
I must admit, for me that'd still be long enough to irritate me - Delays like that are what pushed me away from a PPC...
It's nice to know it's only for not-oft used app's 'tho - That makes it a LOT less of a deal-breaker.

Reset:
30-55s? Not too bad. My TH takes between 5-10s (10s is when the RAM needs defragging), my T665 10-20s. My compy takes 5s (Win98), 8s (Linux) and 5mins (Win2k :eek: ).
I must say, 55s for a full 64MB defrag is very fast for a hard disk!
It would be too much for me 'tho - I run lots of OSS softwares (pilotdb, pssh etc.) which do cause resets occasionally, and with all the hacks I run on my TH not helping, those 55s resets would add up...

Hard Reset shred:
Okay, my critical skeptic engine has kicked in again. I mean, come on! The LD was supposed to be targetted at the iPod crowd - The thing is a self proclaimed multimedia oriented device! Why the heck would a government-type even look at it? This thing was supposed to be in the same genre as an iPod or Archos!
But even if this silly HD-wipe thing was on purpose, ostensibly for government use, I tell you now that *no one* who knows a thing about security would use a HD-based device to store data that was sensitive enough to warrent a deadman switch.
Out of all the modern storage mediums, a harddisk is one of the *easiest* devices to recover data from (Relatively speaking ;)). I've seen Data Recovery companies work near-miracles on hard disks, recovering significant amounts of data from a drive that got run over by a truck, and managing a total recovery from a null-written formatted hard disk! Admittedly it takes time (Truck one took two months, format one took a week), but if this data is so valuable in the first place...
To be honest, only a real RAM based device would have any semblence of security.
If the LD meets government security standards, I'd be really worried.. well, unless this is like, the lowest most pathetic level security standard they have...
However I agree that (hopefully) this will be a moot point for most people. I have only had one hard reset with my old T665 and haven't had any at all on my TH55 (Yet... touch wood...!).
The biggest pain here 'tho, is that if *I* owned a device like this, the fact that it erases everything would FORCE me to take regular backups for the ENTIRE 4GB disk, instead of occasional backups of my TH55's 1GB MS and reguar backups of the internal RAM that I currently do. *Even* 'tho the chance of a hard reset is so low...
Ack, didn't mean to write such a large chunk of crap here... apologies! I can't help it, data loss is like, my nemesis... ;)

Encryption:
Now this is more like it! The encryption thing would be a much bigger deterrant to an expert data thief. Assuming the encyption isn't something really weak...

Cable/Cradle:
Totally agree with you - They should have done what Sony did with their OS4 Clies: Give users both a Cradle AND a cable!! :D
(Admittedly even Sony cheaped out and went cable-only later, e.g. with the TH and (I think) the UX... :()

Vibrating alarm:
Noo! They should ha*SLAP!* Ow!
(j/k :p)

Sharky Kudos/BT+WiFi:
Yay! More Sharky Kudos! Go dude! :D
This BT+WiFi news is an extreme plus! For the exact reason you say Jeff - Mmm... if only they'd used Opera too...
I personally think this well kept secret is really the killer feature of the LifeDrive, not the HD.
(The future of PDA's is connectivity baby!)

Casing:
"Tasted" like plastic...? :eek:
And this report is called a 'fondle'? You scare me dude...
(j/k :p)


Nagel:
So they now have a SmartPhone guy running Palmsrc? Me=Worried...

Re-merger:
IMHO, very unlikely, but if they did I don't know what would happen.
I always thought the split was what caused so many problems, with Palm1 hacking PalmOS in ways Sony did, but with a lot less elegance.
If Palm1&src merge again, that would help restore the fantastic symbiosis Palm had between their hardware and software from the old days (Which would be a Good Thing - Speed and Stability!)
However, I think Palmsrc are intending to drift from the PDA market and more deeper into the smartphone market. Palm1 OTOH have a very confused direction at the moment.


PDA Downloads:
If you had WiFi you could have done everything on your T|5! :D
In fact, I DL'd your Podcast via NetFront directly to my TH at the station, and am now typing this with my Stowaway BT on the train while listening to it (That's why there's so much. This journey is boooriiinnng...)).


Anyhoo, great 'cast again! :D
Dude, you make an awesome tech-talk radio guy. Kinda like Leo Laport and his TWITcast (Except you're less insane and more neurotic :p)

[Jeff Kirvin]

Whew. Thanks.

After listening to Colligan on a 'cast from DevCon, I'm thinking Reggie and Joel should've sent me out there with a Treo for live photoblogging and mini-podcast interviews. Maybe next time.

[strider_mt2k]

I think I've already heard the music Jeff would use...

However we ARE petitioning John Williams to do a theme especially for Mr. Kirvin's 'casts.
(clip from the pitch meeting)
"...something like Jurassic Park meets AI meets Indiana Jones, yeah I like that..."

Actually I haven't listened to the 'cast yet. My sched is a shred due to wifey's B'Day this week.
Will chime in later...

[Jeff Kirvin]

BTW, how cool is it that DevCon has a blog and podcasts? I take partial credit for that. PalmSource's web guy Dave Garr caught some of my enthusiasm for blogs and 'casts when I was out the to interview... PalmSource.com has moved very quickly from a brochure site to an interactive community resource.

[timepilot84]

Too bad you couldn't record and upload your podcast from the T5. You can with the Sony U750 but who can afford that pda?

You can with the LD, too... :p

Actually, I downloaded and listened to the last two podcasts directly on my LD. Hmm, maybe I'll write one of those programs to automagically download podcasts for the Palm.

[strider_mt2k]

For the limited stuff that I do, living on my TH55 while on the road is quite acceptable.

The only thing close to a hassle is that the WiFi range of many hotels doesn't extend into rooms, due to policy or technical restrictions of their system and/or the fact that I'm using a handheld. So I hang out in the lobby or the restaurant and surf a little or send off a quick e-mail or something.
Otherwise it's reading an EBook with an mp3 playing in the backround or some light gaming.

When you mentioned the fear of a hard reset on the road it made me glad that my copy of BackupBuddy VFS works on the TH55. As long as my MS doesn't fail I'm pretty much good to go.

I hope that a good solution becomes available for the new PalmOne devices.

One thing that's become clear to me (okay late perhaps) is that the new generation of PalmOS handhelds is not going to be as friendly to tweaking with hacks and such, or at least will require very different methods to do so.
That's a bummer, because I enjoye(d) that about these Palm thingies from the start.

I don't see any reason why someone couldn't record a palm-oops-podcast on a handheld with voice recorder facilities and sufficient memory, although mp3 conversion would have to happen off-machine I guess.
My TH55 generates a .wav file when it makes a voice recording, so maybe conversion and posting could be automated on a remote computer somehow, allowing remote palm-oops-podcasts to be made from anywhere that allowed a fast enough connection to upload the resulting file?
I dunno, just blue-sky dreaming it.

[Jeff Kirvin]

I know there's direct-to-MP3 recording programs for Windows Mobile, so someone should be able to write one for Palm OS. The hardware's the same...

[JAmerican]

I think that my UX50 is perfect for travel. My Bluetooth phone allows me to access the forums easy. My Mobile Power Pack gives me endless hours of video playback and web viewing (7+ hours on WiFi to be exact). My keyboard makes it easier to rush and type at the same time with little to no errors. With Card Export II, as stated before, makes it easy to change my device into a Flash Drive. The new FAT32 update by Dmitry to my device makes the Card Export II software run faster in connecting to random PCs and transfer files quicker as well. These features don't let me worry much about the LifeDrive.

But some cons to my device that the LifeDrive does surpass is that WiFi connects much faster. Not sure as to the wear and tear over a long period of time but my device no longer has WiFi. Its beginning its stages of death. The LifeDrive does have a 4GB hard drive which is cool as well. No fumbling of memory cards. I like this internal drive feature for it reminds me of my UX. Although II wish they would have thought about everyone. Not just the FEDs. They could have placed a switch on the bottom to clear the HDD or secure the contents on it. That way, you use your stylus and select which option you want to perform. Then reset. That would have been wise. I understand hard resets don't happen often but imagine being out in the middle of the road or at work or at school (for me), and your device crashes due to software you installed some time ago and you open a new app and it crashes your device. You try to warm reset but it doesn't work. Situations like this have happened to me where my device whould just have an issue and I had to hard reset. Being that NVFS is also not as stable as we like it to me with Third-party apps, this makes the device more vulnerable. I have Backup Media in my UX to restore a backup, the LifeDrive does not, what do I do? I'd have to restore backup from my SD but what about the data on the 4GB. Lets say I had a presentation on it? See, stuff like this is not a matter of it is not likely to happen, its a matter of it can happen. If it does, your screwd. It would be cool if Sharky could override that command someway in that when you press reset, the event to clear the HDD is skipped and the device's RAM clears. But I doubt it due to the HDD's intergration into the Unit. Overall, I do agree with Kirvin that for WiFi, Bluetooth amd 4GB, $500 is a great deal. Look at the Zaurus SL-C3000 and it didn't have WiFi and Bluetooth.

JAmerican

[ucfgrad93]

Hey, Jeff, my T|3 is 14 months old and still has all of its screws. Maybe its because it stays in my Rhinoskin hardcase all of the time.

This past Monday, I purchased a Lifedrive. With protection plan, it cost $641! :eek: It went back, unopened, on Wednesday. For me it came down to 3 reasons.

First was cost. Over $600 is way too much for a handheld device. For $50 less (after mail-in rebate ;)) than the the price I paid for the Lifedrive, I was able to purchase a T|5 and an iPOD mini for my 8th grade daughter's graduation.

Second was size. It was pretty thick and would only be worse after adding a case for protection.

Third was unknown battery life. The T|3's short battery life is really starting to get to me. I'm barely making it through my work day. While the Lifedrive may have a longer battery life than the T|3, I doubt it will be longer than the T|5.

[Jempen]

For complete backup methods( for the 3.85Gig partition) you have to check this Knowledge Base Entry! (http://kb.palmone.com/SRVS/CGI-BIN/WEBCGI.EXE/,/?St=3,E=0000000000066595994,K=380,Sxi=4,useTemplate=Case.tem,CASE=39791)

There are enough methods to back it up! :)

[quasar]

I have a zodiac, and I'm hapy with it. What did you find so bad about it?

[Jeff Kirvin]

I have a zodiac, and I'm hapy with it. What did you find so bad about it?
Most of the things I didn't like have since been addressed. When I switched from the Zod to the T5, the Zod didn't support Fitaly or Fontsmoother, and a lot of applications either didn't work or were flaky. The web browser drove me nuts, too, but that's being addressed.

Honestly, as happy as I am with my T5, if I'd just waited, I'd probably still be happy with my Zod.

[archangel]

Got to play with one of these today and it is a nice device. Definitely a step in the right direction for Palm. I agree the lag times are nothing. I'm sure they will be longer on larger programs, but still not a deal killer. Battery life is the only major downside they might make me hold off, but the car charger may be the difference there.

The lack of the cradle doesn't bug me either, however, I was confused about the cradle kit. Jeff made it sound like it was just like the $20 Tapwave cradle that was basically just an add on to your current cable. However, the Palmone site makes it look like its well worth the $50 price. The cradle has audio out, it also looks like it comes with a UBS cable and universal charger.

The one thing I may disagree on is this being an automatic upgrade for Tapwave owners. I just don't know about that one. I'm definitely tempted by the device and will definitely spend some time thinking about switching, but I'm not sold on the fact it can outperform the Tapwave enough to warrant the $500 price tag at this point.

My total cost for my Zodiac 2 with 1GB SD card and Wi-Fi was close to the $500 price of the Lifedrive so it is definitely worth the asking price. However, I'm not sure I want to spend that again. I have never needed more than the 1GB storage card though having 4GB will help you find ways to fill it.

I have to look at what I use a PDA for. First and foremost ebooks. The Tapwave is really made to be used in Landscape mode. The button layout is very comfortable and you can use the shoulder buttons, control stick or game buttons to change pages. I tried using the LD in landscape and it works, but you only have the Navigator for changing pages and it is not as comfortable to hold for long periods of time. Next is Audible.com. The Zodiac has a special version of Audible player that plays type 4 audio books and supports background playback and landscape mode. It seems Palm is still using the older version that doesn't support those features. Gaming is obviously going to be better on the Zodiac due to the button layout and the Tapwave is a landscape device. The Lifedrive supports it, but is really meant to be used Portrait. Web browsing used to be better on the Palms, but with Nweb that gap may be closed as well.

So basically, I'm liking the Lifedrive more and more, but I just don't see it as an automatic upgrade from the Zodiac yet. BTW it would have been if Tapwave hadn't finally got fontsmoother support. The Zodiac can still do many things no other PDA can. Maybe if Palm had put Cobalt in the LD I would feel different, but currently I'm still not 100% sold on it.

[archangel]

BTW, I do want to stress that this is a great direction for Palmone to go in. Many of us felt they should have gone this way long ago and it looks like the early strong sales are proving that point.

[Jeff Kirvin]

A couple minor notes...

Got to play with one of these today and it is a nice device. Definitely a step in the right direction for Palm. I agree the lag times are nothing. I'm sure they will be longer on larger programs, but still not a deal killer. Battery life is the only major downside they might make me hold off, but the car charger may be the difference there.

Real-world usage reports from actual customers are coming in now that indicate that the LD battery life is on par with the T5. Of course, leaving WiFi on drains both devices quickly.

The lack of the cradle doesn't bug me either, however, I was confused about the cradle kit. Jeff made it sound like it was just like the $20 Tapwave cradle that was basically just an add on to your current cable. However, the Palmone site makes it look like its well worth the $50 price. The cradle has audio out, it also looks like it comes with a UBS cable and universal charger.

No, the Palm cradle kit is a good value for what you get, but would it have killed them to include just the saucer section of it with the unit? You already get the cable and charger with the LD...

Next is Audible.com. The Zodiac has a special version of Audible player that plays type 4 audio books and supports background playback and landscape mode. It seems Palm is still using the older version that doesn't support those features.

Actually, the latest Palm version of Audible does support full screen, background playback and landscape. The only feature the Zodiac version still has that the Palm version doesn't is format 4.

[archangel]

No, the Palm cradle kit is a good value for what you get, but would it have killed them to include just the saucer section of it with the unit? You already get the cable and charger with the LD...
.

I agree it wouldn't have killed them at all, but it probably would have cut into cradle kit sales. :) Personally I wish they would have put the 64MB of flash memory in so you wouldn't have to use the HDD for anything but a big storage card, but that would have been even more expensive than the cradle. But yeah, that cradle could have been thrown in for probably an extra $5-$10 of cost to Palm. They are trying to make money on accessories and that is okay I guess. I want Palm around so I defintely what the LD to be a success whether I get one this time out or wait for the next version.

As far as battery life, yes I agree the more I hear from real users the better things are sounding. At first it seemed like the thing only had 3-4 hours of battery life total, but that is looking to not be true. I would get a car charger with mine and have no worries. The car charger is an option I will probably never get with my Zodiac.

[Cyker]

Oh yeah, I forgot you had a Zod Jeff! :D

I'm about to buy one for gaming, (Mainly because I think all the PSP and DS games suck, and will not get any less sucky. Espescially since they cost almost as much as a 512MB MS!).

There anything about 'em you think I should know?

I'm gonna get a WiFi stick for it too since they've got working drivers for it now. I'm hoping this will work the same time as the BT, but frankly I doubt it can.

archangel: Man, that sucks... Right now, you can get a Zod2 and a buncha other stuff for about the same price as a LD :p

[Jeff Kirvin]

Oh yeah, I forgot you had a Zod Jeff! :D

I'm about to buy one for gaming, (Mainly because I think all the PSP and DS games suck, and will not get any less sucky. Espescially since they cost almost as much as a 512MB MS!).

There anything about 'em you think I should know?

Not really, but I've brought this point to the attention of Josh, my partner on Solo Media, who is still an avid Zod user. He might have some comments.

[Jeff Kirvin]

As far as battery life, yes I agree the more I hear from real users the better things are sounding. At first it seemed like the thing only had 3-4 hours of battery life total, but that is looking to not be true. I would get a car charger with mine and have no worries. The car charger is an option I will probably never get with my Zodiac.
Car chargers rock. I cheated with my Zod, in that I used a wall charger and a power inverter, but the real DC charger I have for my T5 is so much more stable on turns.

[timepilot84]

Car chargers rock. I cheated with my Zod, in that I used a wall charger and a power inverter, but the real DC charger I have for my T5 is so much more stable on turns.

I rigged up a charger for the SL-6000L that would allow me to charge it with 4xAA NiMH batteries, and picked up a couple sets of 2400mAh batteries. I just ordered a multi-connector dongle for the T5/LD and it fit perfectly with my home made SL-6000L charger, so now I have a portable power supply/charger for my LD and/or T5.

Here's a pic of the dongle:
http://pc-mobile.net/dct65.jpg

Here's a link to where I bought it (http://pc-mobile.net/pt5.htm)

Don't bother with the AA battery extender they have on that page. I bought one of those, too, and it doesn't work right. The cable that plugs into it keeps popping out of it's jack.

Gotta free up the car lighter for my Sirius Satellite Radio. They've got your Air America.

[evildude]

That dongel looks a hell of a lot like the Nextel Ixxx interface. If anyone has a Nextel phone and a T5/Lifedrive compare the two. I wonder how original palm's newest connector is.

[Kevin Flansburg]

Hey Jeff, You said that the lifedrive takes just under a minute to reboot, and that your t|5 takes 20-30 seconds, what do you mean by reboot, becuase when i timed it a standard reboot on both my zod II and my NX70v are only 3-6 sec, Am i missing something?

[Jeff Kirvin]

Hey Jeff, You said that the lifedrive takes just under a minute to reboot, and that your t|5 takes 20-30 seconds, what do you mean by reboot, becuase when i timed it a standard reboot on both my zod II and my NX70v are only 3-6 sec, Am i missing something?

Nope, you're not missing anything. A soft reset takes longer on an NVFS device because it's going through a much more PC-like boot process.

The question is, how often do you really need to reset your device, and is 30-60 seconds too long for you to wait?

[Kevin Flansburg]

ok thanks. I hadnt seen, most of the store displays are broken.

[Alan G]

Ok, I admit that I have only skimmed this thread, however, I do have a question about the palmOne Athena/Mulit Connector cradle kit for the Tungsten E2/T5/LifeDrive. Jeff, in your podcast, you said that a HotSync cable was not included. It is my understanding that a cable is included, and that is one of the main drivers for my decision to buy one shortly. If you look at the details on the palmOne store (http://store.palmone.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1869320) , you'll see that the cable is included. Just to confirm what the website indicates, I stopped by my local Staples to check it out. It does look like there is a cable in the package. I won't know for sure until I actually buy one thou.

Alan G

[Jeff Kirvin]

Did I say the cable wasn't included with the cradle kit? If I did, I misspoke. I know it comes with a cable.

[Alan G]

Ok, now I'm going to have to go back and listen to the podcast again to make sure that I'm not brain dead.

Alan G

[Alan G]

Oh, and just so I don't sound ungrateful, thank you for the Tech Talk podcast plug!

[Alan G]

Ok, I listened to the 'cast again and I have to appologize. It was I who misspoke. You were talking about palmOne not including the cradle with the LifeDrive, and only bundling the HotSync cable. What I misunderstood was that the cradle is not phyiscally hardwired to the cradle like it was with the older Universal Connector cradles, so you have to connect the provided HotSync cable from the cradle kit to the cradle base. So, your point was why the heck didn't palmOne just toss in a cradle base with each new LifeDrive? I have to agree with that. That is kinda cheap. Now that the cradle issue is cleared up, I'm still going to get one, the cradle that is.

Alan G

[Kevin Flansburg]

besides it must have gold or another preciuos metal to cost 50 freaking bucks, even tapwave wasnt that cheap

[Alan G]

I'm not sure it's gold, but its suppose to light up. Wow. That's worth $50.

Alan G

[Kevin Flansburg]

Well that is better than just plastic like tapwave.

[Alan G]

Ok, you have a point there.

Alan G

[Kevin Flansburg]

also though i geuus the life drive cradle has the athena conector and it has one of those audio jacks since tha jack is on the bottom so there is more wireing I geuss and since it is sold seperatley i gause palm wants to cut some profit.

[bstryd]

Oooooooo -- I used to like you a lot better before you smack talked my totally stable, been-dropped-20-times and still working great, rained on, all 4 screws still there, can't break it with a brick T3! :-)

[Alan G]

Ok, I'll allow Jeff the indulgence of less than stellar battery life. I can even conseed the slider screw issue. But I still like the T3. It's metal, compact, and easy to pocket. I also liked the fact at the headphone jack is on the side and accessable when in the palmOne hardcase.

Alan G

[Zaphod B]

The 1-2 second lag doesn't bother me either. Compared to waiting for apps on a desktop machine?? Ptth! Right. The jump from a Handspring Visor to a T2 was nice -- b/c of the screen and speed boost. But the jump from a T2 to LifeDrive is a much larger jump in functionality. The T5 looks like a plastic kids toy next to a LifeDrive. And the LifeDrive screens are dead quiet. No buzzing!