I've long waited for PDAs to incorporate hard drives. I have one of the old Compaq iPAQs, and the 64MB of dual purpose Storage/RAM Memory is totally impractical for media use.
Hopefully now, the others would follow suit; but I still wish Sony had put a hard drive in the PSP, that would have made it much more useful as an Entertainment device.
This device is still lacking OS 6, the vaunted new media OS that never was. I guess it still too slow for anyone to use, eh PalmSource? Why else do you think Sony just up and quit the PDA business, besides the lacking sales? This is why PalmOne is making their own OS and is licensing MS PocketPC OS.
I personally don't think this device will go anywhere. Sure, it has a 4GB drive, but people have had the option of buying IBM Microdrives for PDAs for a long time and using expansion cards for their PDAs, but yet PDA sales are still falling. A drive hyped by PR firms won't make the public purchase something they don't need. What PalmOne should do is put a harddrive in their Treo 6xx line and tout that as the iPod killer. Their phones sell like mad, right? Put Ogg Vorbis support in there so it will get geek approval and watch the everyday consumers get jealous and follow.
...What is the battery life? I bought the Zire 72 with the intention of having it double as my music/audiobook/podcast player. The playback quality and software is terrific but, alas, the battery is woefully inadequate.
This product looks great but I'm not real optimistic battery-wise, considering it now has to spin a hard drive in addition to everything else.
Hopefully now, the others would follow suit; but I still wish Sony had put a hard drive in the PSP, that would have made it much more useful as an Entertainment device.
I personally don't think this device will go anywhere. Sure, it has a 4GB drive, but people have had the option of buying IBM Microdrives for PDAs for a long time and using expansion cards for their PDAs, but yet PDA sales are still falling. A drive hyped by PR firms won't make the public purchase something they don't need. What PalmOne should do is put a harddrive in their Treo 6xx line and tout that as the iPod killer. Their phones sell like mad, right? Put Ogg Vorbis support in there so it will get geek approval and watch the everyday consumers get jealous and follow.
This product looks great but I'm not real optimistic battery-wise, considering it now has to spin a hard drive in addition to everything else.