From Steve Patt, head of Stevens Creek Software, a Palm software development company
Who needs podcasts when you can listen to PDAcasts? I just got a new Palm “LifeDrive”, which is their newest model which includes a 4 GB hard drive, as well as WiFi (and Bluetooth). Sitting in my office (i.e., near a strong WiFi connection from our in-house airport), I can download an entire hour show from Democracy Now, 27 MB, in 1 minute and 40 seconds, direct to the PDA, and then immediately listen to it from there (unlike an iPod, the LifeDrive also includes a speaker, and a fairly decent one too (of course it also has an earphone jack).
The LifeDrive comes with MP3 software included. Like iTunes on my desktop, but unlike an iPod, I can also just use the stylus to drag to a specific point in the show, so if I know there’s something I want to hear at 40 minutes into the show, I can do that (on an iPod, you can only listen straight to the entire show). The LifeDrive will also play movies, although at the moment I’ve only figured out how to play .asf files, not .mov files.
PDAcasts rule!
Excellent! Yes, one major flaw of mp3 players like the iPod and the iRiver is you can’t skip to a specific point in an mp3, you must start at the beginning.