PalmOne's LifeDrive is real, and has had its second outing ahead of next week's formal launch on 18 May, courtesy of US publication Laptop Magazine.

Of course, LM could just be flying a kite, but the inclusion of high-resolution pictures suggests PalmOne conived in their publication. Magazines frequently get kit early, in order to allow them to meet their months-in-advance printing deadlines and still release news in a timely fashion.

LM's brief coverage is clearly timed to coincide with this month's LifeDrive launch - the piece is in the magazine's Arrivals section.

However, it's sufficient to confirm the PDA will indeed sport a 4GB hard drive, boast a 320 x 480 LCD, run Palm OS 5.4 'Garnet' on a 416MHz Intel XScale processor, and provide both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi wireless connectivity.

The magazine reveals the device will weigh 193g (6.8oz) and measure 11.8 x 7 x 1.9cm - so it's no iPod. And confirming Amazon.com's leaked price-point, LM says the LifeDrive will retail for $500.

Other pictures show it will ship with email and browser software, plus a new app, called Companion. Like the Tungsten T5, the unit can appear to a host PC as a removable drive on the USB bus.

PalmOne last week confirmed it was about to launch a new product category, the Mobile Manager, pointing to a release later this month. ®

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