HP iPAQ h6325 and Palm LifeDrive

The PDA market is in a bit of a slump (see Backspace in this issue) but that’s not stopping manufacturers from launching interesting devices.

The iPaq h6325 competes directly with BlackBerry-type devices. The quadband phone makes it a traveling companion that can also handle e-mail as well
as all the typical PDA functions. It also has a camera and ships with a snap-on keyboard for data entry. It sells for $499.99 after rebate with a three-year contract from Rogers Wireless.

The LifeDrive offers all the standard Palm PDA features but also sports a huge 4GB hard drive, so you can carry 1,200 office documents, plus 6,000 e-mails, plus 1,000 photos, plus 300 songs, plus 2.5 hours of video, plus 10,000 appointments, plus 10,000 contacts, plus 50 voice memos. And if at $699 it’s on the pricey side, there really isn’t much you can’t fit on it. The LifeDrive is the first in a new category at Palm called the Mobile Manager.