All I wanna do is xooma-xoom-xoom! The Xoom was overclocked to 1.5GHz shortly after its US release. Now, thanks to a recompiled version of Tiamat 1.4.2, Moto’s Honeycomb tab hit 1.6GHz. That added clock speed was enough to earn the overclocked Xoom over 4000 points in the benchmark app, Quadrant. My stock 3.1 Xoom only scored 1500. Of course the faster clock speed also kills the battery and users on XDA have reported bad to horrible battery lives. But think of the speed! The speed! [XDA via hdblog] → Read More
If you’d asked me a week ago what I thought about Honeycomb, the tablet version of Android, I would have said that it was in very bad shape and that it would be several months before it could even hold a candle to the iPad 2. Because despite my excitement to see Android take on Apple’s ridiculously successful iPad, my experience with the Motorola Xoom — the first Honeycomb tablet — has been decidedly poor.
From day one things were off to a bad start. At first, Android Market would crash literally every time I opened it. The Android team fixed that pretty quickly, but the OS was still riddled with weird bugs: swiping between home screens is laggy, widgets go blank and need to refresh, and there are myriad other glitches that pop up at random. And even beyond the bugs, there are weird quirks in the OS that feel poorly thought out (seriously, why does the ‘Home’ button look like an Up arrow?). But now I’ve had some time to test out the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, the new tablet that was given to Google I/O attendees and will be available in stores beginning June 8. And after spending the last couple of days using it around my apartment, I’m much more optimistic. In fact, I’m guessing this device is going to do very well, and that it foreshadows a bright future ahead for Honeycomb. → Read More
Motorola officially stated the WiFi Xooms would get Android 3.1 in “the coming weeks” but some owners are already seeing the update. Clearly YMMV but here’s our take on Android 3.1. Moto’s press statement on the matter is after the jump. → Read More
Google announced Android 3.1 earlier today at I/O. More surprising than the OS itself (which was expected, really) was that it was rolling out to Verizon Xooms today. Google failed to announce when it was hitting other devices beside Google TV, which will get it this summer, and the Galaxy Tab 10.1, which will get it in the next few weeks.
As announced, the UI is much the same. You can’t tell 3.0 from 3.1 visually. One of the only noticeable differences is that the widgets can be resized. Previously, widgets such as email and bookmarks had a preset size — now they can be stretched and morphed to better fit a user’s preferences. The home button also returns you to the previously selected homescreen rather than the main center one. → Read More
According to a Motorola filing, the company soldshipped 250,000 this quarter, more than the targeted 100,000 predicted a few months ago but still far less than any other tablet. To put this into perspective, the iPad 2 sold 300,000 units in the first weekend. → Read More
The Motorola Xoom isn’t exactly off to that hot of a start, but maybe Sprint can push a few more out the door. The wireless carrier just posted a fact sheet on its website touting the Xoom specs and features. Curiously said fact sheet is void of anything pertaining to Sprint. There’s no talk about WiMax, the launch date, or the price (assuming it’s going to be different than VZW’s) Sigh.
Update: May 8th it is. → Read More
Those owners that decided to ride the Xoom’s early adopter boat should see an update later today. The patch should fix some of the issues with WiFi connectivity as it address proxy supports well as WPA Pre-Shared Key passphrases for mobile hotspots. The Xoom will play nicely with SSL-encrypted websites and Google Widevine video DRM. The update also allows the Xoom to see and use any ol’ Bluetooth mouse and adds Bluetooth headset support to Google Talk. Sadly, there’s no mention of adding LTE support just yet. Verizon previously stated that it was coming this spring, which makes the deadline ’bout a month a way. [Verizon via DroidLife] → Read More
Are you a proud, strong Xoom owner? Good for you! But one thing iPads have that you don’t is a case with a Buetooth keyboard baked right on in. You won’t be waiting long, though: Droid-Life has discovered a Verizon advertisement for an official keyboard case — price and date to be determined, but it’s on the way. Incidentally, I almost wrote “Keyboard Cat” in the headline. The internet is destroying my mind! → Read More
It’s ridiculous that the Xoom’s microSD card slot doesn’t work out of the box. I don’t understand it at all. No matter, the good ol’ XDA boys figured took it upon themselves to unlock the port. It requires a custom kernel, which in of itself requires the Xoom to be jailbroken, but the whole process is like jailbreaking any other Android device. (read: just follow the instructions) Hopefully an official update enables the device natively but Moto has so far been mum on the whole subject — which is also ridiculous. [XDA via Phandroid] → Read More
The Motorola Xoom is currently only available on the Big Red V, but that might be changing soon. A Xoom protective case was found in Sprint’s retail system and apparently stores are receiving boxes of accessories either today or tomorrow. The only thing missing is, well, the Xooms. → Read More
Someone got a nice little deal. One of the gold Xooms given out as Oscar swag ended up on Ebay last week and sold for just $1,525. That’s actually not a bad price when you add it up: $800 for 32GB/3G Xoom, $50 for the standard dock, and lets say $150 for the limited edition Lodis Leather custom folio. (which I want) All that adds up to just $1000 meaning someone paid just a $500 premium for the very limited edition gold paint job and the feeling of owning something a celebrity might have touched. But it’s also a bit sad as if it was an Oscars’ golden iPad 2 the ending price would have been more like $15,000 or $150,000. [Ebay via BeGeek] → Read More
With the rise of devices like the A500 and similar Honecomb-powered tablets, the Xoom has a very short window of opportunity to cash in on any potential sales. To remedy that, it seems that Verizon will be pushing out an LTE 4G 16GB Xoom tablet for what we can only assume will be considerably less than the $600 the 32GB Xoom costs currently. → Read More
The comments on yesterday’s post concerning the Xoom’s bungled launch stated loud and clear that people want inexpensive Android tablets — or at least that the high MSRP was the Xoom’s undoing. The thought is that if you’re going to spend over $500 on a tablet, the iPad is the only choice, which therefore makes the $800 Xoom a no-sale. I sort of agree with that even though I still feel the Xoom is a fantastic tablet. Still, I feel the poor marketing and product placement doomed the tablet rather than the price alone. Motorola never publicly justified the price. That said, the Xoom would be a similar, but still different fail whale even if it launched at $300. It wouldn’t be the same Xoom. The dual core CPU, lovely screen, and abundant amounts of memory would be the first options on the cutting board. From there Moto would have probably slash the build quality from solid to cheap along with opting for a weaker battery. A lower-priced Xoom tablet would not be a more successful tablet. The vertical iTunes ecosystem opens up a huge revenue stream that allows Apple to price products different than most Android tablet makers. It’s not fair, really. Still, it’s disingenuous to say companies are ignoring the low-end Android tablet market. It’s actually alive, well, and more than thriving. But please, don’t call the tablets after the jump iPad or even Xoom competitors. They’re not even in the same league. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t worth a look. → Read More
Few folks seem to remember that it was a just a few years ago that a consortium of handset manufacturers got together to form the Open Handset Alliance, an effort to create an open, free platform. This effort would eventually become Android and, back in 2007 when the OHA began, the platform’s success was far from secure.
Between 2001 and 2007, phone manufacturers had a problem. They had very few options when it came to operating systems and Windows Mobile and Symbian were in the catbird seat when it came to popular smartphones. Palm OS was still kicking during that period but if you wanted “smartphone” or, more precisely, “PDA phone” features you went with one of those two platforms. → Read More
Here’s a fun tidbit for you: I really like the Motorola Xoom. The web browsing is fantastic, email is great, the notification bar is tops and, well, Verizon’s service rocks. It’s tad pricey but in my mind it’s still a great tablet. Is it better than an iPad? Well, not really, but it scores major bonus points for advancing the user experience of a tablet thanks to Google’s Honeycomb.
However, it doesn’t matter what I think. Apparently it’s not selling well with early estimates putting the Xoom’s sales numbers around 100,000. That’s about how many iPad 2s sold the first couple minutes it was available. The whole thing just smells of failure from all angles. This wasn’t just one man’s fault. Everyone had a hand on pushing the Xoom over the edge and into the barren world of niche gadgets. So who killed the Xoom? Everyone. → Read More
According to Pacific Crest analyst James Faucette, quoted in Forbes, sales of the Motorola Atrix and Xoom devices, darlings of the CES rodeo, have been “disappointing.” Ironically, the very devices designed to bring Motorola out of its 2010 slump have added to its doldrums and Faucette believes that the company must “quickly adjust and refresh its product portfolio” in order to remain competitive. → Read More
Now, this isn’t exactly groundbreaking stuff, but it does really demonstrate the fact that all tablets (especially the more recent and hackable ones) are just small computers. Anything’s possible — convenient, perhaps not, but if you’re looking to take full advantage of the hardware you’ve just bought, there are definitely ways to go about doing that. → Read More
Yesterday, Motorola announced the WiFi-only Xoom would be hitting stores March 27th; but they never mentioned anything about pre-orders. Well a few retailers have answered the question of many and put up pre-orders..right now. Head to Amazon, Costco or Staples to jump on the pre-order, no need to hurry though, they won’t be running out any time soon. → Read More
The wait is nearly over, Android fans. The WiFi-only flavor of the Xoom is set to hit a bunch of retailers in just over two weeks on March 27th. Amazon, Best Buy, Costco, RadioShack, Staples, Walmart, and select Sam’s Club locations should all offer the tablet both in stores and through their respective online services. The WiFi-only flavor packs everything found in the 3G counterpart besides the obvious missing cellular modem. The dual cameras, the 32GB storage, 10.1-inch screen, and tasty Honeycomb OS remain. This is the model that the Android crowd has very loudly stated online can stand up to an iPad 2. But did it hit too late? → Read More
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