LifeDrive

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

LifeDrive

Manufacturer Palm
Type PDA
Connectivity Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, IrDA
Retail availability 2005
Media 4GB Hitachi Microdrive (3.85 GB accessible to user) with 16 MB Flash ROM, 32 MB RAM for running programs
Operating system Palm OS Garnet at 5.4.8
Input Active Input with Graffiti 2
Camera N/A
Power 1660 mA·h 3.7 V rechargeable lithium ion Non-Removeable Battery
CPU Intel PXA270 at 416MHz with Intel XScale Technology
Display 3.9" 320x480 Rotatable Transflective TFT color touchscreen with 16-Bit (65K) Color and "One-Button Flip" Portrait-to-Landscape-and-Back feature
Touchpad Touchscreen with Stylus

The LifeDrive is a Palm OS-based handheld device that was produced by Palm, Inc. (then PalmOne). This was the first device released by palmOne in its new device category of "Mobile Manager".

It features a 4GB hard disk drive (most PDAs use Flash memory or RAM), with a data partition accessible and usable in the sense of a portable disk drive. It also includes Bluetooth and Wi-Fi wireless connectivity, and is the first handheld produced by palmOne to include both. It also includes eReader, Documents To Go, and WiFile in its software package.

Palm does not support the Lifedrive device under the Windows Vista operating system. Palm has not indicated that any support using Vista is forthcoming.

Although the LifeDrive uses a hard disk which was selected for fast spinup speed, some have noticed delays in application launching which were greater than those in previous non-hard disk based handhelds. Reports from users often conflict in regards to the length of the delay, and it is believed that many early reports of the delay from reviewers are due to a slower pre-production hard-drive.

A user applicable ROM update was subsequently released by PalmOne in December 2005, which addresses the majority of the key complaints it had from some of its users.

It is possible to replace the stock 4GB Microdrive with a 4GB Compact Flash card. This replacement can improve battery life, because of lower power consumption of flash compared to mechanical hard drives and speed up application switching. [1] Besides being the first Palm device with a hard drive, the LifeDrive introduced other new first time features for a Palm device as well, like a three-position power switch (on, off, keylock) and a dedicated screen rotation button.

As of January 31, 2007, the LifeDrive has been discontinued. [2]

Built-In Wireless Bluetooth 1.1 Compliance
Wi-Fi 802.11b Certification
Size 4.76h x 2.87w x 0.74d in
121h x 73w x 19d mm
Weight 6.8 oz (190 grams)
Expansion SD, SDIO and Multi Media Card support via built-in expansion card slot. Supports available, separately-sold peripherals via the "Athena" Multi-Connector
Audio Stereo audio headset via 3.5 mm stereo audio jack. Speaker and microphone on device.
Indicator Light Notification for various functions:
  • solid amber: battery is charging
  • solid green: battery is fully charged
  • flashing amber: hard drive is active, be careful
  • flashing green: alarm or pTunes is active
Hardware Buttons Top: Three-position power switch

Left side: Voice Memo, Screen rotation

Front: Home, Media, Files, Star, 5-way navigator

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Languages