I refuse to even consider anything made by Apple such as the Ipad as it is totally proprietary, and locks you in to iTunes even for simple file transfer.

I was considering waiting for the HP 2760p “convertible” notebook, but at 4 times the price (and weight) for the top end model, which isn’t even available yet, decided that the 32GB Motorola Xoom would do everything I wanted, as I already have both a 10″ Netbook and a 17″ Notebook (top
end Dell). I didn’t buy the 3G version as I will ‘tether’ to my smartphone via Bluetooth.

First task was to update with the ‘pushed’ Honeycomb 3.1 release of Android (3.2 is supposedly available already but is not showing as an available update yet, but I hope it will be soon). With 3.1 installed, the external swappable SDHC card slot is enabled, and, on plugging the Xoom in to a PC’s USB port, you are given a choice of internal 32Gb “SD Card” or external SDHC card (slight disappointment that you have to select one or the other, and unplug to switch, but a minor issue in practise). You can then easily drag and drop files to and from the Xoom and PC to install your music/video collections (I believe Motorola also provide some software to ‘sync’ these items, but I haven’t even opened the CD paper sleeve).

The in-built Browser works well, the Android market has a wide selection of Apps, and, using one of them -File Manager HD – I can access any PC or any of my three NAS attached Terastations on my network directly and transfer files in either direction – I don’t think you can do that with an iPad!

I have had the very occasional crash and auto-reboot, but not often enough to be an issue, and mainly when I’m running a lot of Apps at the same time (the iPad2 also crashes in use as often seen on the Sky News channel!).

Built in GPS works brilliantly, and can acquire over 6 satellites whilst I’m sitting in my lounge (and 9 or so outside), and works brilliantly with Google Maps, and with a ‘Star Map’ App that I downloaded. Wi-Fi works perfectly, though restricted to a 32bit key, but that equates to 256-bit AES so is more than secure enough (another free app shows which channels are in use so you can
pick the best one for home use).

It also runs FLASH!!!

The App store may not be as ‘well-stocked’ as the iTunes one, but I’ve found everything I need including a complete Outlook Sync App to supplement the Gmail account used by the inbuilt email client, and numerous video playback Apps to cope with just about any format, as well as a good number of games using the tilt/accelerometer mechanism.

As you can probably tell, I think the Xoom is simply BRILLIANT, and I would recommend it unreservedly to anyone wanting a tablet? It’s EXACTLY what I’ve been waiting and searching for!

If you are purchasing the Xoom I suggest at: Amzoffer.com/MOTOROLA-XOOM

Good Luck!

I think after one day of using the iPad, I’d pretty much know what it can and can’t do.  Pretty much the same as my iPod with some other stuff.  It’s kind of like playing checkers.  You get to know the game pretty quickly and can feel good about yourself playing opponents.  But the Xoom is like playing chess.  It takes awhile to learn but once you’ve got the idea, you will have a much deeper, personal and helpful-for-life experience.

There are more people working on Xoom apps now than iPad apps.  The reason is simple.  Competition.  Already there is the Amazon app store, the marketplace, and now the Opera store … all competing in the app market.  By December there will be more apps than are available for the iPad, which has had five years to work on apps and interface.

I travel a lot.  320 different beds last year.  I do presentations constantly.  I love the Xoom’s HDMI port.  I love that my other bluetooth stuff works with it.  I love that I can have wallpapers of my children .. in HD video.  I love that I can interface with Google docs … for free and not have to pay for my yearly MobileMe crap anymore.  I guess I love the versatility.  I like seeing flash websites – I can actually edit my own, from my Xoom.

Every time I use it – I am more impressed with what it can do.  I don’t think I’d have that experience with the iFad II or even III and probably IV.

And yet. I need a solution, not a shiny thing. The iPad is way too restrictive. The Flash situation, although it’s getting better, is still a problem (I should point out that my wi-fi only UK bought Xoom is running Flash 10.2) but worse for me is future-proofing. The iPad has no way to increase storage – all that beautifully presented and portable HD video is a space vampire. Do they expect me to upgrade my tablet every 18 months? Perhaps. I want my music on there, and my photos too – the iPod I bought has hundreds of Gigs for that very reason. Another thing affecting the portability is the lack of connectivity. No USB, no HDMI – only Apple’s proprietary connector, so to even play my videos, photos or presentations through another screen I need a custom accessory. K’ching!

Personalisation of the iPad is also locked down; you’re gonna get very bored of that grid layout, it’s already looking dated on a machine that’s just out. Maybe future upgrades from Apple will address that and keep it fresh, but the point is it’ll be how Apple want it to look and behave – Honeycomb let’s you use the desktops as you like.

The biggest howler for me though is…..iTunes. I will be Apple’s bitch to a limit. I grew to live with iTunes with my iPod. But, similarly, the iPad needs it’s little umbilical cord to mother iTunes to keep it beating, and that means it’ll never be an autonomous device (and we all know how we feel when software tells us what we can and can’t do with the media we own and paid for with our hard earned).

That said, and I say this in slight disagreement with the reviewer), the star of the Xoom show is perhaps not the Honeycomb platform. Yet. It will get better – it HAS to, as does the Android Market for tablet-specific content. But it’s still a bit rough around the very glossy edges. What made me plump for the Xoom is that they ticked the hardware and performance box in (almost) every category, and even although the screen performance is trumped by the iPad, it is still lovely and more than sufficient. The software and firmware can be refined over time but, with a tablet, the hardware is what it will always be.

Motorola, if you could have somehow allowed me to charge my device via USB, I’d have come over all warm and fuzzy, but, honestly, that’s a small point. Generally, I remain optimistic (and slightly hopeful!) that I made the right choice. Let’s see.

PS: Android – please – sort out the marketplace.

And yet. I need a solution, not a shiny thing. The iPad is way too restrictive. The Flash situation, although it’s getting better, is still a problem (I should point out that my wi-fi only UK bought Xoom is running Flash 10.2) but worse for me is future-proofing. The iPad has no way to increase storage – all that beautifully presented and portable HD video is a space vampire. Do they expect me to upgrade my tablet every 18 months? Perhaps. I want my music on there, and my photos too – the iPod I bought has hundreds of Gigs for that very reason. Another thing affecting the portability is the lack of connectivity. No USB, no HDMI – only Apple’s proprietary connector, so to even play my videos, photos or presentations through another screen I need a custom accessory. K’ching!

Personalisation of the iPad is also locked down; you’re gonna get very bored of that grid layout, it’s already looking dated on a machine that’s just out. Maybe future upgrades from Apple will address that and keep it fresh, but the point is it’ll be how Apple want it to look and behave – Honeycomb let’s you use the desktops as you like.

The biggest howler for me though is…..iTunes. I will be Apple’s bitch to a limit. I grew to live with iTunes with my iPod. But, similarly, the iPad needs it’s little umbilical cord to mother iTunes to keep it beating, and that means it’ll never be an autonomous device (and we all know how we feel when software tells us what we can and can’t do with the media we own and paid for with our hard earned).

That said, and I say this in slight disagreement with the reviewer), the star of the Xoom show is perhaps not the Honeycomb platform. Yet. It will get better – it HAS to, as does the Android Market for tablet-specific content. But it’s still a bit rough around the very glossy edges. What made me plump for the Xoom is that they ticked the hardware and performance box in (almost) every category, and even although the screen performance is trumped by the iPad, it is still lovely and more than sufficient. The software and firmware can be refined over time but, with a tablet, the hardware is what it will always be.

Motorola, if you could have somehow allowed me to charge my device via USB, I’d have come over all warm and fuzzy, but, honestly, that’s a small point. Generally, I remain optimistic (and slightly hopeful!) that I made the right choice. Let’s see.

PS: Android – please – sort out the marketplace.

You could blow through your $50 data plan in 2 hours easy. Rediculous, they just want one excuse after the other to suck more money out of their customers.

–
Comments
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Bill

One big knock people have been pushing against the Xoom on the net is lack of apps. This is very misleading.

First, if I’m not mistaken, Honeycomb runs a full version of Chrome thus should be able to take advantage of Chrome Web Apps-currently a few thousand, though I wouldn’t say they are great apps myself. Also, this will allow Android tablets to use Google’s new portable native client for apps.

Secondly, flash will allow this full version of Chrome to take advantage of all the great web apps, including those that need flash. See: http://www.web20links.net/ for a very long list.

Therefore, out of the box Honeycomb has lots of apps (literally thousands) at its disposal to do most everything you need, and PC/console games are being ported over for the Tegra 2 chip–these are high quality games that no other mobile device can run currently.

Honeycomb is a first generation OS and no doubt has a few bugs and I’m sure Google will push it just as hard as they have Android in general to be up to speed asap.

However, it’s nice to see first gen hardware that isn’t skimping in an attempt to milk customers–it comes with all the bells and whistles you can image. And for people that want a cheaper tablet there are lots of inexpensive Android tablets available, just not as many bells and whistles and probably not the build quality of the Xoom–at least we have a choice!

I saw a little of that in the video review posted, but not enough to sway me away from this. The hardware looks solid and as soon as the wifi version comes out, I’ll being buying one.