The LifeDrive, as the Milpitas, California-based company calls it, runs the Palm OS operating system (specifically Garnet v5.4) on an Intel XScale processor, and is aimed at the professional and ‘prosumer’ market, said Colin Holloway, PalmOne’s marketing manager for Northern Europe.

This is not a PDA because it does audio and video, nor simply an external memory drive, because it has file management capabilities, Holloway went on. It comes with the Documents To Go software, licensed from DataViz, enabling the user to handle Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. Adobe files can also be manipulated on the device.

That said, users probably won’t want to be working on extensive Word documents. There is a separate keyboard with a cradle, but the screen size (that of a typical Palm device) is such that much more than a few emails will be too taxing on the eyes.

The LifeDrive is not being pitched as a complete replacement to laptops, Holloway argued, but as a convenient way to carry files around, and at the other end you’ll always be near a desk- or laptop.

The 4GB microdrive from Hitachi GST is clearly one of the main attractions, together with the fact that it can take in a wide variety of file formats, from the likes of MPEG, MOV and QT on the audio side to BMP, GIF and JPEG in the graphics arena.

The LifeDrive can take data from a PC or laptop over a USB2 connection or Bluetooth, as well as having WiFi connectivity. It can handle email, using the company’s VersaMail software and has the ActiveSync technology that means it can receive Exchange files, as well as POP3 capabilities for synching with the leading providers in each country.

The device has neither direct phone capabilities nor a digital camera, however, as either feature would severely impact the price. As it is, it retails for $499 in the US, and would clearly be heading up towards the $1,000-mark if they were added.

PalmOne’s pitch here is still very much to the individual end user, who it hopes will dash out and buy the product as a gadget for the whole family, said John Walker, senior systems engineer for the company in Northern Europe. The corporate IT department isn’t going to be interested in a device that holds lots of music or holiday snaps. Of course, as it has no phone capabilities, it also means it is selling as a second device for use alongside one.