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I got my hands on a Motorola Xoom. Any questions? Ask them here and I'll do my best to answer them!
Only had it for a couple of days, but so far I'm liking it.
I've been happy with the battery life. Seems better than the Galaxy Tab so far.
Non-3.0 apps have been a mixed bag. A few I've wanted to install simply aren't available through the Android Market for installation, while others don't scale well on a larger screen. Apps that have been updated, like Gmail and Calendar, for example, are awesome. Having a native Gmail app on a tablet is really really nice.
Non-3.0 apps have been a mixed bag. A few I've wanted to install simply aren't available through the Android Market for installation, while others don't scale well on a larger screen. Apps that have been updated, like Gmail and Calendar, for example, are awesome. Having a native Gmail app on a tablet is really really nice.
Battery life is superb, comparable to the iPad. But I've run into a whole bunch of apps that don't run properly, and there aren't many native apps yet. I'm certain this will change, but the software situation right now feels like a beta, and this is a production unit running production code.
hows it speed wise?
Any lag while switching between apps or while running apps in the background?
Have you done any testing of the gchat video calls... and if so how is the usability?
Any lag while switching between apps or while running apps in the background?
Have you done any testing of the gchat video calls... and if so how is the usability?
Speedwise it's pretty good! Apps fire up really quickly, and app switching is fast. The touchscreen isn't as responsive as on the iPad and screen rotations are a touch slower, but overall I've been pleased.
Did some video calls with GTalk and they worked well over 3G. Picture quality isn't amazing over 3G (that's just a function of the limited bandwidth), but it actually worked, and on the first time I tried, too. Totally unlike using Qik or Tango, neither of which I've been able to get working reliably.
Did some video calls with GTalk and they worked well over 3G. Picture quality isn't amazing over 3G (that's just a function of the limited bandwidth), but it actually worked, and on the first time I tried, too. Totally unlike using Qik or Tango, neither of which I've been able to get working reliably.
I'm interested in battery life, while running full-screen video, with Data and WiFi off... (have some long international flights coming up :) )
Is Zinio preinstalled and/or available on the Market? (Have several active mag subscriptions left over from when I had an iPad)
Has TweetDeck updated to take advantage of the larger screen? (i.e. show multiple columns)
Is Zinio preinstalled and/or available on the Market? (Have several active mag subscriptions left over from when I had an iPad)
Has TweetDeck updated to take advantage of the larger screen? (i.e. show multiple columns)
I'd guess with all the radios off you'd be able to get about eight hours of video.
Zinio is not preinstalled, and I was not able to access it via the Market.
TweetDeck has not been updated for Honeycomb, and while I have been using it, it's clearly not optimized for the large display and could really use a multiple columns view. You have to increase the font to its maximize size to make things useable. Oh, and some stuff, like search, can only be used in portrait mode.
Zinio is not preinstalled, and I was not able to access it via the Market.
TweetDeck has not been updated for Honeycomb, and while I have been using it, it's clearly not optimized for the large display and could really use a multiple columns view. You have to increase the font to its maximize size to make things useable. Oh, and some stuff, like search, can only be used in portrait mode.
The one thing that really stands out about the new UI to me is that it feels like landscape is the preferred mode. It's not that portrait doesn't work or anything -- though there are some apps, like the Android Market, that only work in landscape -- it's just that everything feels optimized for landscape, and the 16:9 aspect ratio makes the Xoom a bit more awkward to hold in the hand in portrait mode.
Is it a tool that is incites productiveness? Is it easy to work on spreadsheets, document files and all those office files? maybe connect it with a PC so as to use it for presentations?
Hmm, that's tough to answer. Apple's iPad versions of Keynote, Numbers, and Pages are definitely easier to use and more powerful than the mobile versions of Google Docs, and to be honest I haven't spent any time with any of the Android productivity apps -- and as far as I know, there aren't any optimized for Honeycomb at the moment. I have a feeling that in six months there will be.
The Kindle app does work, and text is a bit crisper on the Xoom than on the iPad because of its higher screen resolution.
That said, I do think Amazon needs to come out with a Honeycomb-specific version of the Kindle app. There's no way to adjust the margins of the text, and so text fills up the screen of the Xoom in a way that is suboptimal for reading. I've been reading a Kindle book on the Xoom, so obviously you'll live, but I definitely want to be able to tweak things.
That said, I do think Amazon needs to come out with a Honeycomb-specific version of the Kindle app. There's no way to adjust the margins of the text, and so text fills up the screen of the Xoom in a way that is suboptimal for reading. I've been reading a Kindle book on the Xoom, so obviously you'll live, but I definitely want to be able to tweak things.
appreciate the response, best buy just opened here in mountain time, gonna run over and take a look
In applications like the Kindle app on the iPad the chrome completely disappears and the whole screen is filled with the page you are reading. Is this possible on the Xoom? From the video on Engadget it appears that while the OS's various buttons disappear the bar they are held on remains. Did I see that right? Does it appear that there is any way for a developer to utilize the entire screen?
Engadget's Xoom review with aforementioned video:
www.engadget.com/2011/02/23/motorola-xoom-review/
Engadget's Xoom review with aforementioned video:
www.engadget.com/2011/02/23/motorola-xoom-review/
I just checked, and in the Kindle app the little toolbar at the bottom remains. I couldn't find a way to make it disappear/go fullscreen.
It may that because there are no physical buttons (apart from volume buttons and the on/off switch) that you need to keep that bottom toolbar for navigation. Though I suppose you could do like a tap to bring all that stuff up.
It may that because there are no physical buttons (apart from volume buttons and the on/off switch) that you need to keep that bottom toolbar for navigation. Though I suppose you could do like a tap to bring all that stuff up.
I know it isn't that big of an issue, but I tend to be nitpicky. It seems to me that it is a waste of pixels. I love the boost in resolution over the iPad but when you have part of the screen always displaying a navigation bar it detracts from that quality. While they need to keep it easy to understand for users I don't see how making the navigation buttons disappear is any better than just hiding the bar altogether.
Edit: Does the bar remain during video playback? I would assume not, but then again I would assume not for books as well.
Edit: Does the bar remain during video playback? I would assume not, but then again I would assume not for books as well.
Interesting, on the Engadget video at the 4 minute mark the buttons disappear while viewing a book in Google Books. I would definitely prefer the whole bar to hide in a number of situations, but it does make sense to make them consistently present from a UX standpoint.
Well, I suppose it's best to ignore my comment on consistency from before then.
The next question I have for you is more usage based. Are there currently any apps available that let you mark up documents, like iannotate on the iPad? Also on the note of apps do you have or can you point a list of let's say the top ten apps designed for android 3.0?
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