To LifeDrive Or Not To LifeDrive

[stuXstu]

Hello to all, been lurking for the last month or so. Really like the info here, but I am so lost as to whether to buy a LD or not.

The reason I like the idea of a LD is the drive size. Wifi is nice, bluetooth is important (for BT phone). But the drive is what I really like. So let me explain my use of a PDA so the group can give me an idea of whether it will fit my needs. A small HD lag doesn't bother me.

I'm an Industrial salesman. I primarily use a PDA for a PIM. 4000+ contacts. Keeping track of sales projects and meetings.

Want to add in GPS navigation to get me from appointment to appointment.

Use very few additional programs. Conversion software is daily use (length, force, weight, ect.).

What I would like to be able to use the LD for is carring my catalog and my competitors catalogs. Maybe download mine and competitor websites (offline viewing). Video of the machinery I sell, in use. So I will have 2-3g of PDF files, catalogs, websites and video.

Plus some custom marketing DB software will be eventually ported over to a PDA.

Where the LD concerns me is the crashes. I can not have a PDA crash daily or weekly. Once in a blue moon is within the norm, but daily? That would kill me. It is extremely important that I have a reliable device.

Currently playing with a Ipaq 2210 just to see if I like a PPC. Not "thrilled" with the PPC so far.

So here is my question. Will the LD be stable for my requirments?

stuXstu

[sleepy600]

i've had my ld for about 2-3 months now and i can safely say that it has only crashed 2-3 maybe 4 times since i've had it. as i have written before, i believe that the crashes people experience is due to the software they transferred from their previous pdas, beta software, and stuff that was just not meant for the ld.

my ld is very stable. i use it daily to read ebooks, listen to mp3's, i used tomtom navigator 5 gps, a currency converter (which also does what you mentioned you needed), a graph calculator, games, word/excel documents, web browsing (this is what i believe caused my crashes), imap e-mail to an exchange 2000 server (can't get exchange sync to work), i use the PIM capabilities (contacts, calendar, notes/memos, etc), i use it to watch movies via tcpmp, noviiremote to control my home entertainment system, perform backups via riscobackup (sp?)...

as you can see, i utilize my pda quite a bit and as i mentioned previously, it has hardly crashed. i speculate that it is blazer (web browser) that causes my ld to crash, but i have been browsing the internet lately, via wifi/bluetooth, and i have not had my ld crash. maybe i'm just lucky, but my ld is quite stable and i like it a lot. as for the lag, i do not notice much of a lag. maybe because this is my second pda and my first was a dinosaur (palm m130).

i believe that i have touched on most of the things you would use the ld for. i do not have a db besides my contact list, so i cannot elaborate on that subject. one thing that i do notice that might hinder you is the fact that you can not download things through blazer; or so i've read. and typing/poking is not very fun when you have large amounts of data entry.

[stuXstu]

i believe that i have touched on most of the things you would use the ld for. i do not have a db besides my contact list, so i cannot elaborate on that subject. one thing that i do notice that might hinder you is the fact that you can not download things through blazer; or so i've read. and typing/poking is not very fun when you have large amounts of data entry.

Sleepy600,

Thanks for the reply. It is mostly all the "LD crashes" posts I have seen here and on other sites that cause concern for me. I've read a few of your posts in the last month. I think you are onto something with the "not checking to make sure the software works with the LD" idea. But there is an avalanche of crash posts that keep me hesitant.

My purposes for the LD would mostly just carry data. A "Super PIM" if you will. I would only write a few notes here and there on PIM applications (Agendus maybe). As for marketing data, it would be viewed only. It is a DB of purchases from my company. The who, where and when information. I don't plan to enter anything in that DB.

Thanks again for the reply Sleepy600..... anybody else have an opinion?

stuXstu

[Joel]

Welcome to 1src, stuXstu. I have an LD for two weeks now and I sync it with OS X. Basically it's a good device and sleepy600 is among many of the happy users out there.

I have to warn you though, 1src is a community of tinkerers! Haha. So if you read complaints about Palm devices, it's only because most of the members knowingly (or unknowingly) do acid tests. Nevertheless, 1src is a great community! :cool:

[lbugnion]

Hi,

Given your requirements, I would go with the LD. The 4GB are just great to carry documents, and it's extremely easy to synch them to the HD, even over wireless (just have to set a few "exchange" folders up, then copy the files to these folders on the PC, and make a hotsync over WiFi). If you don't add much additional software, and don't "experiment" too much, the stability will be better. Keep in mind, though, that the applications causing soft resets most often are Versamail and Blazer, two included softwares. Maybe an update will fix that. Note that these are only causing soft reset, so what you lose the most is... time ;-)

If I were in your position, and given my own experience, I would go with the LD.

HTH,
Laurent

[louisho]

What you should concern is about opening PDF files. PDF on Palm OS does not maintain as much detail as on PPC. You will need the Acrobat Reader for Palm OS to convert the files before you can open them in the Palm device, where as you may open a PDF file directly in a PPC (although it may be hard to reade, the file can be opened directly). If you really need to open PDF files often, you may be really frustrated.

I used the iPAQ 2210 as well and was turned to LD. I prefer the LD to the iPAQ. However, just concentrating on the PDF, the iPAQ beats the LD by far. As PDF is not my real concern, I did not drill deep to find other solutions. Maybe someone here could help.

[Ezikial Anta]

I found my LifeDrive to be very stable, and this from one of the very first devices shipped.

I don't have it anymore, but for reasons unrelated to reliability. If I had the money for another, I would deffinatly buy one again.

[wailly]

Have been living with my LD for almost a month now, and franky, the crashes and reboot so far are only limited to web issue. Never have problem with other software.

Use it as a heavy PDF reader: The acrobat reader that LD comes with just not very good at it even though it is actually from Adobe. I currently use Repligo as my PDF reader, and it's much better. In any case though, you will need to convert files on a desktop and then move it into LD for viewing. Maybe there's one that can handle native PDF files; if not, I'd hope there's one coming out soon.

[SKreme]

I have been using a LD since June. I had initial problems due to installing programs from my clie that were not compatible with the LD. I ended up doing 2 hard resets and installing appz one by one. I now have a pretty stable device. I do install and try out many apps and games. Truthfully, I have not had any problems with blazer causing a reset (and by the way, contrary to what a previous poster said, you CAN download using blazer. I think you may need an SD card to download onto as I could not figure out how to download to the HDD but the point is that you are able to download.) I have however had problems with docs to go causing resets and I have not fiddled around with it enough to say that it is not remediable. Since others seem to have no problem with it, I wouldn't worry about it. I LOVE my LD!!! I have surfed the web via both wifi and bluetooth and both work fine. I have watched movies (plenty of room for those!), play mp3s on a regular basis, open pdf files and use many other programs. I would definitely recommend the LD if you don't mind slight lags between applications. (With sharkcache or another prog that locks apps into cache only about 2-3 seconds.) To me, it is totally worth the wait for the capabilities that the LD offers.

[stuXstu]

Thanks to all for taking a minute and answering my question. I think I will investigate a little more before purchasing. But I think it will work for me.

stuXstu

[lbugnion]

Hi,

Don't hesitate to post or email if you're having questions or trouble. I became a big fan of the LD, but it took me a few days t figure out what I was doing wrong.

Greetings,
Laurent