Palm Launches LifeDrive

If the PDA is on its way out, Palm—the company formerly known as PalmOne—doesn't plan to go out quietly. The company has announced a new product called LifeDrive, which includes a slew of multimedia features, including a built-in 4GB hard disk. The device is the company's first PDA with a hard disk, which lets it easily store and use digital media, ranging from photos to videos to music. LifeDrive also includes all the features you might expect from a PDA, such as a digital organizer, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi. The new handheld comes at an interesting time for the PDA market, as it battles for its place in pockets versus an assortment of other full-featured devices such as cell phones, MP3 players, and portable game players, such as Sony's PlayStation Portable (PSP). Palm isn't known for releasing devices with multimedia capability, leaving that to Sony, with its recently discontinued line of PDAs, and its Windows Mobile-based competitors. The LifeDrive is the first in a new family of products the company plans on releasing.