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05/18/2005, 11:35am, EDT

Wednesday, May 18th

palmOne's new LifeDrive challenges PocketPC

palmOne today introduced the LifeDrive Mobile Manager, the handheld maker's answer to PocketPC. LifeDrive features a 4GB hard drive and built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless. It can edit Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents from Microsoft Office, store and play music, video, and photos, and record audio. It features a 65,000-color, 320x480 Transflective TFT display that can flip between portrait and landscape orientation. The LifeDrive is powered by a 416MHz Intel XScale processor, and costs $500. Unlike devices powered by Microsoft's PocketPC which require third-party software to work with Macs, the LifeDrive is compatible with Mac OS X out of the box.


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OOOHH
0
05/18, 11:50am, EDT
This looks interesting.
Mac Elite
Joined Sep 2003
User is offline
This is where....
0
05/18, 12:31pm, EDT
Apple should be headed with the iPod photo. Forget the video and the document editing if you want, I don't think I'd use them, but to have all of the contact info, music, a big color screen for photos....

On second thought, you could market concert videos to go with all of the audio...

Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined Jun 2004
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Not so compatible
0
05/18, 12:59pm, EDT
You can't edit PowerPoint presentations and it's not clear if your contacts and calendars will sync completely. You can't import Mac Entourage contacts and settings...
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined Jun 2004
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Beat Apple to the Punch
0
05/18, 1:07pm, EDT
It really is the next gen iPod for functionality assuming you are looking for something more than a music player.

Will be interesting to see what performance is like.
Mac Elite
Joined May 2001
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Nice but expensive
0
05/18, 1:33pm, EDT
These look nice but for $100 more, I can get a notebook PC. Handheld devices need to be under $300 IMHO...
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined Mar 2000
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Apple Should
0
05/18, 1:44pm, EDT
Apple should license it's drm to Palm for this device. For Apple to introduce, this would complicate the iPod's interface which is a big part of it's success. This way techies could get the "do everything, this is so simple device", give added intensive to folks on the fence b/w this and a Pocket PC thereby helping palm challenge M$, and all at limited risk to Apple. I like the idea of challenging M$ on many fronts at once. PS3, iPod AAC, OS, and palm computing. But what do I know.
Mac Elite
Joined Oct 1999
User is offline
Apple Should
0
05/18, 1:45pm, EDT
Apple should license it's drm to Palm for this device. For Apple to introduce, this would complicate the iPod's interface which is a big part of it's success. This way techies could get the "do everything, this is so simple device", give added intensive to folks on the fence b/w this and a Pocket PC thereby helping palm challenge M$, and all at limited risk to Apple. I like the idea of challenging M$ on many fronts at once. PS3, iPod AAC, OS, and palm computing. But what do I know.
Mac Elite
Joined Oct 1999
User is offline
Looks Great
0
05/18, 2:00pm, EDT
Looks awesome, oh, and for the guy who says he can get a notebook for a $100 more, well I can get a desktop PC for $100 less, cmon.
Dedicated MacNNer
Joined Jan 2003
User is offline
Well....
0
05/18, 2:53pm, EDT
First of all for the notebook for $100 more .... so what!

Second, if Apple thinks this market segment is so small, why NOT sell drm to Palm. If Apple is so confident in this, might as well have Palm "waste" its time in the market and no skin off Steve's nose.

And finally for the naysayers to mobile video, Flash and MTV and short format animation could be the market segments that have the greatest chance to increase in the near future. Imagine having a season of the Simpson's with you at all times, to run off a TV or to have even in a 4" screen. That is worth pioneering, especially for a company like Pixar.

Performance and picture quality are the keys, not market segment, because the market will be there if Apple creates it.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined Apr 2004
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Addendum...
0
05/18, 2:57pm, EDT
I should have said, "...for a company one degree of seperation from Pixar."

Also the one problem I have with this device is that it still looks like a pda, not an iPodVideo. The icons look like they were designed for Windows95.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined Apr 2004
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