I've said for a long time that what was most interesting about the iPod was the fact that Apple had made it cool for us to carry a hard disk in our pockets or bags. If it wasn't for the whole digital music thing, relatively fewer of us would be willing to walk around with hard disks in our pockets.
The LifeDrive takes that concept to another level, adding a nice screen and support for wireless technologies. Now you can have a hard disk in your pocket -- which means you can carry a non-trivial amount of data, documents and multimedia files with you -- as well as your contacts, e-mail, calendar, photos, music and so on. Plus...with the wireless access built in, you've got a big enough display for serious Web surfing using near-ubiquitous WiFi service. (Que Sera Sera, the cajun restaurant and bar across the street from my office, is advertising free WiFi.)
This is a cool trick because it's more than just a gimmick -- it's a near-complete desktop replacement. Right now when I go to a film festival meeting in our local indy-movie-rental-store-slash-coffee-and-sandwich-shop I take my PowerBook in order to connect and look things up. With the LifeDrive, no need. Plus, someone can ping me with e-mail. Very nice.
If it were an iPod, all the better, as I'm constantly striving to replace my current pocket and portable devices with one all-in-one (or, at the most, an all-in-one and a mobile phone), and I haven't gotten there yet. Palm makes good stuff, and the LifeDrive looks like a neat move in the PDA space. Apple could so pull this off, and with a larger disk and more Apple-friendly stuff, to boot. Oh -- and let it stream tunes to an AirPort Express. Yowza.
The only thing would be what to call Apple's version. The iPod PDA? iPod Life? iPod WiFi? The iPod AirPort? The iPod Everything?
3 comments:
ipod already has all the features of a PDA that home/casual users want ...
PDA is a dead end except for data mavens and corporate use.
Sub-notebooks/notebooks usurp the need for a 3" screen if you have the space and don't mind a slighter larger weight for a full scale processor and screen.
Smartphones fill in another gap, the ipod fills in one the "fun" end.
a PDA is the ruggedized of portables - useful and a market but not a growing one and always (now) a niche market. ZERO Need or mass market want of an Apple PDA.
I'm not sure I agree with that. All the iPod Photo would need right now to become a "PDA" in this sense is some method for input and an AirPort capability, which would allow it to fulfill the primary mission of streaming audio to an AirPort Express and playback on the stereo, etc.
And then there's another logical step -- the iPod Extreme (I'll call it) should be able to accept input. Why? So that people can shop the iTunes Store from the iPod Extreme's wireless connection.
Now, with AirPort access and an input method, you could surf the Internet, accessing .Mac mail, work with contacts and appointments that are synchronized via .Mac. But all that would be something that came along for the ride, piggybacking on a totally logical and appropriate next step for the iPod -- streaming and WiFi iTunes Store access.
So, no, it's not an Apple PDA in the sense that it's marketed that way, but I think it could effectively become such a device with relatively minor tweaks. (A bigger color screen would be nice, too.)
There are two traits which I highly value in most Apple products:
* Products are focussed on one primary task and their complexity is hidden if it is there at all.
* Software and hardware products work together (iSync, Applescript, Automator, Address Book database, etc...)
You loose a lot by making a device accomplish too many tasks (like a "desktop replacement" in an iPod form factor). You loose the ability to upgrade one element without purchasing all the others. When the company's development effort, budget, and marketing effort are spread out, none of the individual features will be as good as a product that has to stand on it's own two feet providing one primary function.
When I walk my dog, I don't need e-mail and phone, but I would like music so I bring my iPod. When I am working at a remote office and need to be in contact with my customers, I bring a cell phone. Each device is optimized for that particular task, I don't want them combined. This is what Bill Gates doesn't get... It isn't about making your products white!
Give me simple, focussed, and well designed products that can work together as I choose.
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