This device has been tipped to be coming out on Verizon’s network with 4G LTE intact, this making it the first 7-inch LTE device on the market – just so long as it comes out before the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 this spring. The image above indicates that this tablet is refined up to a point where it can be tested and soon sent out as review units with a release soon after. Whether or not it will actually be released on Verizon is still not know, but it does appear likely given the amount of ZTE that’s been coming to big red lately.

The price is still a mystery, as is the release date, but we’re guessing that this tablet will be coming in right at or around $300. This puts it in range with the upcoming ASUS MeMO which thought it has much more powerful specs will be released for a mere $249. This device will likely be showing up next month in Barcelona where we’ll be sending you some hands-on looks at it straight from the events themselves. Seeya there!

[via Android Community]

We first spotted the new smaller sibling just a few days ago, rumored to be a 7″ tablet but now we are hearing it will sport an 8.2″ IPS display instead of the usual 7″ form factor. From what we heard earlier in the initial leaks these tablets should both feature a sleek design and come in round 9.3mm thick, basically as thin as the iPhone 4.

Next, shown in the images above, we have been able to gather a few details although most of the revealing aspects have been covered to protect the identity of the tipster. Both tablets are currently running on Android 3.2 and are “buggy as hell” so most likely still very much a work in progress and a little farther away from a market launch than we’d have hoped. They are also being reported as sharing the “Fleming” codename. While we did learn they both have 4G LTE inside, the rest of the internals are still unknown. Motorola used the NVIDIA Tegra 2 in the original but recent devices have all shipped with Texas Instrument dual-core processors. I’m still hopeful that one may indeed come with a quad-core Kal-El but that might just be wishful thinking.

Who likes the curved edges and unique rear casing? These look nothing like an iPad so Motorola appears safe from lawsuits for now.

[via Engadget]

The ACER A501 follows the same footsteps as the original Iconia A500 in every way imaginable, nothing here has changed so you can expect the same good build quality, stellar performance, and crisp bright screen. The one deciding factor here is AT&T 4G comes included with the A501. One of AT&T’s first fully capable 4G tablets running on Android Honeycomb although I must mention this is not the next-gen 4G LTE, instead we have HSPA+ speeds but more on that below.

ACER Iconia A501 hands-on and unboxing video

Hardware

To start the video above should give you a great idea of the hardware but I’ve got some specs and pictures for everyone too. What we have is the standard sized 10.1″ Android tablet — powered by Android 3.0.1 Honeycomb, the NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core processor we all know and love chugging along at 1.0 GHz, 1GB of RAM, 32GB of internal storage, a rear 5MP camera with LED flash, 2MP up front for those video conference users and a slew of ports as well.

Along the left edge we have a simple and elegant design with the power button, 3.5mm headphone jack and the lone micro-HDMI port. The power button does have an LED for charging and power indication that pulses when in use.

Then if you cruise around to the right side of the ACER A501 we have a reset pinhole, a full size USB port, micro-USB, some labels and the power port. Having a full sized USB and a HDMI-out makes this tablet one of the few that stand out over the rest as many feature one or some of these but not all, and we have 4G too.

On bottom we have a 30 pin docking port but this doesn’t charge the device so I’ve yet to use it. Up top is where the magic happens. We have the volume up/down rocker, a screen orientation lock then the all important port for 4G. We have a door that opens to the microSD port for expanded storage and the full-sized AT&T sim card for 4G HSPA+.

On the backside we have a well designed and sturdily built tablet with a brushed aluminum design. A nice chrome accented ACER logo, 5MP camera with LED flash and stereo speaker grills. Audio quality is loud and clear and was surprisingly better than most the tablets I’ve used thus far.

We know plenty about the hardware and the software but for even more details check out the full review of the original A500 as they are identical in that regard. Full review here

Software and Performance

On board we sadly only have Android 3.0.1 Honeycomb. I was hoping for an out of the box OTA update to Android 3.1 or even 3.2 like the brother A500 has received but we had no such luck here. Most likely Android 3.2 for the A501 is coming shortly but no direct details were available. Performance is snappy, fluid, and smooth although 3.2 would really help. We all should be plenty familiar with the performance of a Tegra 2 dual-core tablet as they all perform pretty similar at the moment.

Shown in the gallery above is the AT&T broadband settings as well as the H symbol in the icon tray. Sadly there is no 4G LTE here and while we wish there was, I didn’t notice much difference during use compared to the Galaxy Tab 10.1 LTE version by Verizon. The speedtest results might be slower from AT&T but overall browsing wasn’t an issue and kept right up.

For a look at the 4G performance I’ve done a few speedtest runs to see how the HSPA+ network handled on the ACER A501 and just as I expected it was about average for a 3G/4G network of around 3500 kbps down. The sad part was the upload speeds were severely low and some of the worst I’ve seen yet, this may impact video uploading and similar tasks for some but I myself didn’t try. Basic overall performance of browsing, downloading and updating apps, and viewing YouTube videos was the biggest concern but the performance was stellar other than the occasion hiccup in connection.

Benchmarks

As far as benchmarks the same rule applies here, we have the NVIDIA dual-core and performance should be close to many others although each manufacturer makes their own small changes. I’ve found the A500 and A501 from ACER perform quite well and seem to slightly outperform other Tegra 2 tablets available. I scored almost 2500 on my A501 completely stock. Here are a few benchmark results below for those interested.

Vellamo tests overall device performance across a wide array of things. From Javascript, HTML, browser load times, network stress tests, scrolling and more based around browsing. The ACER A501 scored a bit low here and most tablets are slightly below the Galaxy Tab 10.1 but here we had a surprisingly low result. I ran it twice with similar results. Network held its own but rendering seemed to really suffer here.

Battery Life and Camera

The ACER A501 features the same internals as the original and battery life seems about average for a tablet. I’ve played plenty of games over the past 12 or so hours, ran benchmarks and probably watched about 45 minutes of TRON streaming with the micro HDMI to my HDTV and I’ve still got a decent 47% remaining. It’s been off and on so straight usage will be much lower but who uses their tablet for 7 hours straight anyways right?

We have a 5MP camera on the rear along with a large LED flash. The lens is capable of 720p video capture but it’s nothing to write home about. Full 1080p would be preferred but for the odd moment you’d like to capture video with the A501, you’ll be just fine.

AT&T 4G HSPA+

Now this is not a 3G device, what we have is 4G although it’s not LTE. Technically some might say 4G shouldn’t be called that unless you have true 4G but honestly I don’t feel it matters all that much what we call it — so long as it performs well enough and doesn’t hinder our usage. While I’d love for this tablet to offer the amazing price and awesome specs and ports and come with 4G LTE, that just isn’t the case and we’ll have to make due with HPSA+ or buy the ridiculously overpriced HTC Jetstream.

Performance over 4G was a non issue. With a large network covering almost the entire U.S. you’ll have zero problems finding coverage just about wherever you go. AT&T HSPA+ might not be everywhere but dropping down to 3G I still was able to stream video and do anything else I’ve needed this week. Occasionally I’d have a time-out with my network connection but it never lasted more than about 5-10 seconds and has only happened twice. the 4G is everything you’d expect and works just as you’d think — quick and stable.

Wrap-Up

Is this the tablet for you? Are you an ACER fan and just love the brushed aluminum design, or have you been waiting for a 3G/4G tablet that wont break the bank like the Xoom? While there is many tablets on the Android market that are thinner, prettier and even have 4G LTE the ACER Iconia Tab A501 is a complete package. ACER has spared nothing and offers outputs and connectivity, performance, portability and more all in a decently sleek package that is highly affordable. The ACER Iconia Tab A501 with AT&T 4G is priced at $329 with a new, two-year data agreement, or offered at $479 for the 16GB contract-free version. I don’t know about you but the HTC Jetstream and it’s $600+ price tag seems a bit much right about now.

Apple and the iPad may have a huge grasp on the tablet market but Android is continuing to grow and expand. Getting everything in one package here from ACER without buying add-ons and adapters makes this a win-win for someone looking for a cheap, yet powerful alternative. This bad boy is full of brushed aluminum and looks different from every other tablet, I doubt ACER will have to worry about silly lawsuits anytime soon.

The ACER A501 might not be as thin or light as, say, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, but it does offer a few unique features that the Galaxy Tab and a few other tablets don’t. Everyone should be well aware of this tablets spec sheet but just in case we’ll go over what’s under the hood before getting to the video.

We have Android 3.0.1 Honeycomb out of the box, a 10.1″ 1280 x 800 resolution display, NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core 1.0 GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, 32GB internal storage, AT&T HSPA+ 4G connectivity and more. Then like most tablets we also have a 5 MP shooter on the rear with LED flash, 2MP up front for video, and a host of inputs and connections for all your various needs.

Like mentioned above, it might not be the thinnest nor the lightest but the input options make up the difference. We have a dock connector on bottom as seen in the photo up top, as well as full sized USB, micro-USB, and micro-HDMI pictured below. Then your usual power/wake and volume rockers and screen orientation lock. We have a full in-depth review of the twin brother the ACER A500 you can see here for more details. This is about the AT&T 4G so I’ve gone ahead and ran a few speedtests and I’ll post those below.

Powering this device we have AT&T 4G connectivity but sadly it’s only the HSPA+ and not the next-gen LTE networks. While this may be a deal breaker for some I’ve noticed reasonably decent speeds that rival almost every other carrier except for that of Verizon and their LTE of course. I have however noticed that since this is not the new LTE network, and is the very capable and wide reaching HSPA+ network I’ve had zero issues having service everywhere I go, and I always have a full chart of network bars. My Galaxy Tab with Verizon 4G LTE didn’t have that same luxury as they are still slowly expanding that network.

4G performance was pretty stable and reliable, I’ve yet to see it switch between two different types so I’ve not had a single hiccup with anything I’ve done thus far. Speedtest results were about average and I’m getting around 3500 kbps down and sadly the upload speeds are the weakest link. Overall browsing seems stable, fast, and almost as quick as Wi-Fi and the AT&T network seems to be holding its own very well.

We’ll get deep into the product, hardware, software, and performance in our full review so for now I’ll tease you with a few 4G speedtest results posted above and leave it at that. Feel free to look over the gallery below as well as my full hands-on and unboxing video. Check back soon for our full review.

ACER Iconia Tab A501 hands-on video

From the official press release we can tell you this is a 10.1″ Android 3.2 Honeycomb tablet measuring only 7.7mm thick, making it one of the thinnest tablets to date and could be a real treat not to mention thinner than Samsung’s current offering. As usual the 10.1″ display as a 1280 x 800 resolution and this ultra-thin device is powered by a dual-core TI OMAP 4430 processor at 1.2GHz and 1GB of RAM. We are hearing 16, 32, and even a 64GB flavor will also be offered by Toshiba.

According to the press release we can expect to see a 5 MP camera on the rear with LED flash, and a 2 MP shooter up front for video chat. As usual we have micro SD, micro USB, and even mini HDMI-Out. Toshiba is promising 8-10 hours of battery life too. The entire tab will come with a brushed aluminum back and it does look pretty. No pricing or official release date was given but we can expect to see the device before the end of the year.

Stay tuned, We’ll be back with some hands-on soon.

According to CNET, a source familiar with the company’s plans for the S1 and S2 tablets, says that the duo will be available in both 16GB and 32GB models. The S1 tablet will have both a Wi-Fi-only model as well as a Wi-Fi and 3G model. The S2, however, will only come in a Wi-Fi and 3G capable model.

Additionally, the source points out that the S1 will feature a 9.4-inch IPS display with TruBlack and Bravia display technologies as well as a full-sized SD card slot. And when probed about battery life, the source mentioned that the S1 is “comparable to the iPad 2.” Accessories such as a dock and at least one Bluetooth keyboard are planned for the tablet with the keyboard designed such that it can be clipped to the bottom of the S1 when not in use.

The S1 is the 10-inch tablet that takes on the form of a folded-back magazine, while the S2 is the smaller clam-shell tablet that folds open to reveal dual 5.5-inch displays. They will both be PlayStation Certified devices running on Android 3.0 Honeycomb with a customized interface that integrates some of Sony’s existing services such as Qriocity for music and movies.

The tablets are expected to launch in Europe in September, but release information for the US has not yet been revealed, except that the 3G versions will likely get service through AT&T, which is also the exclusive carrier for Sony’s PS Vita portable gaming device.

[via CNET]

The A100 will feature a 7-inch display with 1024×600 resolution powered by a dual-core NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor, and 512MB of RAM. It will have a 2-megapixel front camera, a 5-megapixel back camera, 8GB of internal storage, microSD slot for up to 32GB additional memory, and support for WiFi and Bluetooth.

The tablet will come with Android 3.0 Honeycomb, not 3.1, and is currently WiFi-only, no support for 3G. There were reports that the A100 launch has been delayed due to incompatibility of some Honeycomb-specific apps with the 7-inch display. Originally thought to launch in May, the tablet is now slated for the second half of 2011 without an exact date or price given yet.

[via Wireless Goodness]

New Features

This newest update to Android’s tablet-centric mobile operating system is one that’s not especially expansive but still has major improvements to some of the most visible elements including the row of apps you’ve got open and their scrollability and the resizability of widgets. Have a peek at this video filmed by yours truly showing the various elements you’ll be seeing in this new OS:

USB Enhancements

One of the lower visibility items on the docket here with this newest system is the enhancements made for USB support. Where before it was a big deal noting that you could use a keyboard or had hacked your device to be able to use a gaming controller, now it’s par for the course. You’ll be able to use an Xbox controller to play Cordy as they did at Google I/O, you’ll be able to roll out with a mouse for clicking through games from several feet away instead of using your thumbs, and you can finally play all those Nintendo emulator games with a real controller. More on this when we’re fully in for the long haul.

Widget Enhancements

The ability to take widgets and make them as large or as small as you like is arguable the most significant addition to this iteration of Honeycomb. While there aren’t that many widgets at present that make use of this ability quite yet, the possibilities are staggering. The example I like to use when speaking about the future of this functionality is Google’s Music Beta, acting similar to what you’ve been using Winamp and iTunes on your desktop for for years now – how about a full homescreen window dedicated to music in a nice UI? Check out our full review of [Music Beta] to see what I mean. Totally excellent.

Multitasking Improvements

While the set of tasks in rectangles had been available in the first version of Honeycomb, the simple addition of scrolling and a bigger limit of 18 apps open for switching between at once makes a big difference. While I do say “infinite” in the video above, I assure you it’s 18 – but how many more apps do you think you’re going to want open at once? That noted, you’ll supposedly never have to close another app in order to open a new one again – your memory is handled like a pro by Android’s guts.

Benchmarks

Below you’ll find a few benchmarks as performed directly after the demo was filmed, each of them played out in kind on this device which we reviewed what seems like so very long ago. Do the results of these benchmarks get a whole lot better? No, not really. In fact they get a bit worse. Is it worth it to you to have a bit more of your system taken up while using those new features? We’re hoping it’s just a temporary thing:

This update is said to be a performance increase of some sort or another, but if we’re going by the numbers, it doesn’t seem to add up. Head back to our XOOM Review or our Honeycomb 3.0 Review for more information on how this system acts before it’s upgraded.

Wrap-Up

This is definitely not an update that should be blowing your mind beyond recognition, nor should it really be influencing your decision to purchase an Android tablet or not. What it really acts as is an enhancement for those already working with the setup they’re used to. If you’re an every day user of Honeycomb in its 3.0 form, you’re going to have a fun time seeing the additional features in 3.1. If you’re not especially attuned to the system as it is before the upgrade, you probably wont notice the difference outside the widgets.

Once the USB support ramps up with compatible devices, hacks, and the like, you’ll see this version of Honeycomb really take the show and run with it.

Hardware

The Galaxy Tab 10.1 has had a complicated inception. Samsung first outed the slate at Mobile World Congress in February, running NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 dual-core processor with a 10.2-inch 1280 x 800 display, 8-megapixel rear camera and 10.9mm thick chassis. At the time Samsung was talking about a March release, which has obviously since slipped; that’s because, in the meantime, Apple announced its iPad 2.

The second-gen Apple tablet was significantly thinner than its predecessor, at 8.8mm, and sent Samsung scurrying back into its labs to rework their rival to better compete. The end result – along with its smaller Galaxy Tab 8.9 sibling – arrived at CTIA 2011 in March, a waifish 8.6mm that bested the iPad 2′s bulk by a scant 0.2mm. In the process it lost some megapixels, taking the camera down to 3-megapixels though still with autofocus and flash. The original tablet was rebadged the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1V, a Vodafone Europe exclusive.

The Galaxy Tab 10.1 Limited Edition still keeps the 1GHz dual-core processor, a choice of 16GB, 32GB or 64GB of internal storage, WiFi a/b/g/n (dual-band), Bluetooth 2.1 and a 2-megapixel front-facing camera. Initially there will be WiFi-only models, with 3G versions arriving later in the year. It also has the excellent display of its siblings, with bright colors, strong contrast and great viewing angles.

Unlike the aluminum iPad 2, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 uses all plastic in its construction. The regular model will be dark grey, unlike the white of the Limited Edition, though both measure in at 256.6 x 172.9 x 8.6 mm and 595g. That makes it slightly longer and slightly narrower than the Apple slate, as well as 5g lighter. More importantly, perhaps, it’s thinner and lighter than the XOOM (13mm/730g), G-Slate (12.8mm/630g) and Eee Pad Transformer (13mm/680g). Despite the plastic build it’s reasonably solid and flex-free, and the Gorilla Glass front leaves us fairly confident it could survive being tossed into a bag without a case to coddle it.

Ports include a dock connector on the bottom edge – which will support 1080p HD with the right adapter, unfortunately absent – along with a 3.5mm headphone jack, though no dedicated HDMI or even USB. That leaves owners relying on whatever adapters Samsung offers for hooking up a wired keyboard and mouse, or using Bluetooth peripherals. Stereo speakers are on either side, rather than on the bottom edge as in the 10.1V. Physical controls are limited to power/lock and the volume rocker on the top edge. A microphone is on the bottom.

Software

We’ve already thoroughly reviewed Android Honeycomb, Google’s tablet-centric OS, finding it a platform with plenty of promise though its fair share of rough edges. What sets this special edition Galaxy Tab 10.1 aside is that it comes without Samsung’s TouchWiz UI adaptations. The eventual commercial release in June will see the Honeycomb interface tweaked with various widgets and other components.

That given, we’ll have to wait until retail units are available to find out exactly how well Samsung’s customizations play out. From what we’ve seen already on various Galaxy Tab prototypes, it looks to strike a solid balance between usability enhancement and still leaving Honeycomb roughly intact. There are Live Panels, with weather, calendar and other content, a Mini Apps Tray for quick launching favorite apps, and the Social Hub app – pulling in Twitter, Facebook and other social networking content – familiar from the Samsung Galaxy S II. Finally there are the Reader, Media and Music Hubs, Samsung’s download stores for digital content.

We’ll revisit how well Samsung’s custom software works when the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is officially released.

Performance and Battery

With the same processor as the other Honeycomb tablets we’ve reviewed, it comes as no surprise to find the Galaxy Tab 10.1′s performance broadly in line. That means generally snappy reactions, though some periodic lag or hiccups that may well be Honeycomb in need of finessing. Benchmarking tool Quadrant came in with a total of 2107 with a CPU result of 6367.

With no USB ports, you’re stuck using the supplied Samsung cable to hook up the Galaxy Tab to your computer. We had issues getting it to play nicely with OS X, with the Tab getting stuck in Kies – Samsung’s management app – mode and, while claiming to be connected, not showing up on our Mac. That put a limit on what we could side-load, and left us envious of the USB host support ASUS and others provide.

The 3-megapixel camera has autofocus and an LED flash, while the front-facing webcam musters 2-megapixels.

Neither is going to replace your point-and-shoot, or even your regular smartphone camera. Images from the main camera tend to be low on detail and high on noise in all but the best lighting, sufficient for Facebook but not exactly keepsake-quality.

Video, meanwhile, is reasonable, pumping out 1280 x 720 clips that are relatively blur-free and show none of the gruesome dropped frames the Eee Pad Transformer. Samsung has tweaked the camera interface on its regular Tab 10.1, but you get the UI as Google intended it on this Limited Edition version.

Battery life is, again, much the same as on offer from the XOOM, G-Slate and other Tegra 2 tablets. That means sufficient for a day of heavy use, or several days of mixed standby and browsing, media playback and general app use.

Pricing and Value

Samsung’s first Galaxy Tab suffered when it came to price comparisons with the first-gen iPad. Cautious and conservative carrier subsidies in North America left the 7-inch tablet looking unfavorably expensive, especially with its voice call capabilities excised.

It hasn’t let the same mistakes happen again. So far we’ve only seen pricing for the WiFi-only Tab 10.1, but Samsung has sensibly hit the same price-points as Apple. The 16GB Galaxy Tab 10.1 will come in at $499 while the 32GB model will be $599; Samsung hasn’t confirmed the 64GB, but we’re guessing at $699.

Of course, since Samsung confirmed those figures, ASUS has launched the Eee Pad Transformer. A surprise bargain at $399 for the 16GB model (factor in another $149 for its clever Keyboard Dock with the integrated battery) and so popular ASUS is struggling to keep it in stock, it undercuts both Galaxy Tab 10.1 and iPad 2 by a cool Benjamin, despite offering a beautiful 10.1-inch IPS display.

Samsung’s slate is obviously thinner and lighter than the Eee Pad, but battery life is broadly similar (from the tablets alone, at least) and there’s more connectivity on the ASUS too. While the Transformer’s camera is, on paper, better than that of the Galaxy Tab, in practice it pumps out glitchy video and underwhelming stills, and so Samsung keeps the advantage there.

If Samsung can negotiate competitive subsidies for the 3G versions then it could gain back an edge, and we can’t help but feel it’s a more polished all-rounder than the Transformer slate alone. Nonetheless, $399 is hard to argue with.

Wrap-Up

With Honeycomb the common factor across the 10-inch Android tablets we’ve seen so far, differentiating between the slates comes down to more personal preferences. Weight, shape, thickness and material all play a huge part in how you feel about a tablet, something intended to be grabbed for a quick email check, curled up with on the sofa for an idle browsing session, or dropped into a bag for use on the move. It’s no surprise that Apple spent so much time at the iPad 2 launch detailing the physical changes of the second-gen tablet: this is a segment where tactile attraction goes a long way to help justify what’s usually an emotional rather than rational purchase.

On that front, the fact that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is such a slight slate earns it a disproportionate amount of our approval. Yes, it lacks the ease of wired connectivity other Honeycomb tablets offer, and it doesn’t have a clever battery-equipped Keyboard Dock like the ASUS, but the vast majority of the time it’s bulk – or lack of – that makes the difference. Samsung has made a tablet that feels like a tablet should: science-fiction thin, quality display and lightweight.

The somewhat plasticky chassis reminds us of Samsung’s recent smartphones, though is the inevitable compromise to the sub-600g weight, and Android still has its tablet-scale flaws, but overall it’s the hand-feel, which convinces us on the Galaxy Tab 10.1. In fact the biggest competition on that front may be Samsung’s own Galaxy Tab 8.9, offering the same screen resolution in a more compact form factor, which arrives later in the year. Feature-chasers should probably opt for the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer, but content-consumers looking for the most easily toted tablet will find plenty to like in the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1.

Our “crazy” Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 unboxing ceremony:

Exclusive unboxing ceromony by Vic Gundotra, Google’s Sr. VP of Engineering:

Relate: Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 hands-on at MWC2011 [Video]

The guys over at DroidLife were tipped with some Verizon inventory screen images that showed four mystery SKUs with model numbers and specs that suggested they may be the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. The tablet is listed as SCH-1905 which falls inline with Samsung’s typical model numbering and looks to be coming in both white and black as well as in two storage capacities of 16GB and 32GB.

In a second and third image we can see clearly that the SKUs in question will come running Android 3.0 Honeycomb and be a 4G LTE tablet. Currently, there are no details on when this device would be ready, but since Samsung has scheduled a big press event for May 26th, it’s highly possible that a Verizon 4G LTE Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 slate gets unveiled then.

[via DroidLife]

Each new device, Google says, will not be receiving the newest updates for 18 months after their release depending on if their hardware will allow it. This means that devices will no longer be left in the dark after they’ve been out for a tiny amount of time. This has been a problem for Android device users in the past and this change is definitely going to create a net for those wishing to have the support they desire for the future. Android is stacking up!

Keep your eyes peeled to both SlashGear and our sister site Android Community for all the I/O announcements you’ll ever be able to bare! See our bigtime portal and keep your shorts on because this is only be beginning!

They tout that the update makes Earth look better than ever. Improvements include a new action bar up at the top of the screen that enables easier access to search, the option to “fly to your location” and layers such as Places, Panoramio photos, Wikipedia, and 3D buildings.

They’ve also added support for fully textured 3D buildings, so that fly-arounds of 3D modeled landmarks will look much more realistic. The above picture shows a view of the 3D Colosseum in Rome, Italy. What’s also happening in that interface is that photos from Panoramio can pop-up in front of the 3D fly-around and you get options to choose which layers you want to browse on that screen.

The updated Google Earth is available for free download at the Android Market. It is compatible with Android 2.1 and above for smartphone devices, and compatible with Android 3.0 Honeycomb and above for tablet devices.’

[via Android Community]

Inside both devices pack the Tegra 2 dual-core processor. The S1 appears to be geared more toward a media tablet as its design has a slight curve to it and is packed with front and rear facing cameras. The S1 can apparently be used as a remote for other Sony gear and is also PlayStation certified meaning that certain PlayStation titles and other PlayStation network content will be accessible.

The second device the S2 is a bit more creative of a design for tablet as it sports two screens in a clam shell form factor. Both screens size in at 5.5 inch’s and have a resolution of 1024 x 480. This device appears to be more of a pocketable form factor. Both the S1 and S2 are WiFi and 3G/4G “compatible” according to Sony and will be available globally this fall

Check out the video teaser below which will sure to be circulating the web in the hours to come.

[via Engadget]

Press Release:

Sony Announces Optimally Designed “Sony Tablet” with Android 3.0 that Complements Network Services for an Immersive Entertainment Experience

～Also strengthening VAIO in expanding PC markets～

Sony Corporation (“Sony”), announces “Sony Tablet” that delivers the perfect combination of hardware, content and network with seamless usability for a high-quality, engaging entertainment experience. Based on decades of engineering heritage, Sony is developing two tablets with unprecedented design, including S1 (codename) which is optimized for rich media entertainment and S2 (codename) which is ideal for mobile communication and entertainment. “Sony Tablet” will become available in the global market starting in fall 2011.

“Sony Tablet” is equipped with the latest Android 3.0 which is designed for devices with larger screen sizes, particularly tablets. Both tablets are WiFi and WAN (3G/4G) compatible and users can not only browse the internet or check e-mail but they can also smoothly access digital content including videos, games and books through Sony’s premium network services and more, on-the-go at any time.

S1 has a 9.4-inch display for enjoying the web and rich content on a large screen. Its off-center of gravity design realizes stability and ease of grip as well as a sense of stability and lightness, offering comfortable use for hours.

S2 has two 5.5-inch displays that can be folded for easy portability. In contrast to existing tablets, its unprecedented dual screen presentation and usability allows its displays to be combined and used as a large screen or for different functions such as playing video on one screen while showing control buttons on the other.

“‘Sony Tablet’ delivers an entertainment experience where users can enjoy cloud-based services on-the-go at any time. We’re aiming to create a new lifestyle by integrating consumer hardware, including ‘Sony Tablet’ with content and network,” said Kunimasa Suzuki, Corporate Executive, SVP, and Deputy President of Consumer Products & Services Group.

“Android 3.0 is a new version of the Android platform with a new holographic user interface that is designed from the ground up for devices with larger screen sizes, particularly tablets. I’m excited about “Sony Tablet” as it will further spur the development of applications and network offerings which users are looking for.” said Andy Rubin, Senior Vice President, Mobile, Google Inc.

Also, in the mobile computing category, the market for PCs which realize high productivity is expected to steadily grow, particularly in emerging markets. Therefore, Sony will also remain committed to strengthening its VAIO brand and introduce increasingly compelling products which offer new value propositions to the market.

“Sony Tablet” features.

■Designed for portability and intuitive gripping
With its off-center of gravity form factor, the 9.4-inch S1 offers stability and a sense of lightness, offering comfortable use for hours.
The dual screen S2 comes with two 5.5-inch displays which can be used together as one large screen to browse websites and more. They can also be used for different functions as users can watch a video on one screen and input commands on the other, or check email on one screen and use the other as a soft keyboard.

■Seamless Usability and Performance
Through Sony’s knowhow for combining hardware and software, “Sony Tablet” realizes optimal usability and performance. Because of Sony’s rapid response technologies, users can perform smooth, quick touch-screen operations and enjoy fast and efficient website loading. The keyboard arrangement is also optimized for the large screen, making email and SNS communication a breeze.

■Rich entertainment experiences through various network services
Through Qriocity1 music and video services, users can enjoy rich video and music content. Also, through PlayStation®Suite, users can immerse themselves in high quality first generation PlayStation® titles. Additionally, users can easily download ebook content from Reader™Store2 and use both tablets as digital reading devices. The integration with various services allows users to take their entertainment experiences on-the-go. Furthermore, “Sony Tablet” is equipped with functionality that organizes content for easy access.

■Remote access functionality with AV devices
Through “Sony Tablet”, users can control home entertainment devices as well as enjoy content in new ways. S1 uses infrared technology and works as universal remote controls for a variety of AV devices starting with . Users can perform functions like turning on their TVs, changing the channel and adjusting the volume. Also, through DLNA functionality on “Sony Tablet”, users can “throw” personal content to large screen televisions or music to wireless speakers.

In 2010, Sony launched a network platform called “Qriocity” which connects many of Sony’s network-enabled devices, and has been expanding its services into global markets. Also, Sony Computer Entertainment has been providing various contents and services for PlayStation users through PlayStation®Network, which now has over 75 million registered accounts (as of March 20, 2011) worldwide.

Simultaneously, Sony will continue to announce various devices which leverage these services. Starting in early 2011, Sony Computer Entertainment announced the next-generation portable entertainment system (codename: NGP) while Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications brought “Xperia™PLAY” to the market. Sony is introducing “Sony Tablet” to deliver an entertainment experience which integrates hardware with network services that deliver rich content.

With the establishment of Consumer Products and Services Group in April 2011, Sony will focus on accelerating the development of innovative next generation products and aim to deliver a new lifestyle by strengthening the integration of hardware and network services.

1 In markets where service is available
2 In markets where service is available

“Sony Tablet”, “Qriocity” and “Reader” are trademarks of Sony Corporation
VAIO and are registered trademarks of Sony Corporation
PlayStation is a trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.
Xperia is a trademark of Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB.
Android is a trademark of Google Inc.

*It’s a little bit unclear as to what comScore means by “media tablet owners” in that what I would think of when I hear the term is an iPad, a XOOM, a G-Slate, etc. What they might mean is every device that runs Android or iOS or WP7, and the rest. If this is indeed just tablets, this test will certainly be skewed toward the iPad and therefor Apple. If tablets here mean all mobile devices, then the test is still fair.

What comScore has found is that of the 28.9 users of Apple’s iOS platform in the EU5, 16.1 million of them use the iPhone. Comparatively, there’s a total of 13.4 million combined Android OS installed base, says comScore, this including both tablets and what they’re calling “connected media devices” aka tablets such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab.

They go on to note that their research suggests that owners of iPads are not only Apple’s loyal customers. They mention that although the iPhone is still “well represented” in the iPad users primary mobile device category, other phones also have a “substantial percentage” of this market. The following chart shows the different major manufacturers of phones on the left, then the percentage of users who use them in the study in the next column. In the column after that, the people who own each smartphone are asked whether or not they own an iPad.

Therefor what you’re seeing below is that of all the people polled in this study, 41.7% of them said they used Nokia, while 26.4% of those Nokia smartphone owners also answered that they owned an iPad.

comScore says that this chart “This data clearly illustrates that the Apple ecosystem extends far beyond the iPhone, but it also shows that there is significant penetration of iPad users amongst owners of other handset manufacturer’s devices,” this discovery noted by Jeremy Copp, comScore vice president of mobile in Europe. He also notes that the low numbers of people owning iPads in the RIM (BlackBerry) category may well be because they’re waiting for the BlackBerry PlayBook – brand loyalty?

The next findings show the age of all the people in the study as well as what gender they might be. Total number of females is larger by about 2 percentage points, but smartphone ownership is 15% higher in males, and iPad ownership is also around 24% higher for males. Furthermore, they note that the average age for a smartphone owner is right between 25-44 (imagine that!) and essentially the same for iPad – moved only by a few percentage points.

[via comScore]

According to a report by Forrestor analyst Sarah Rotman Epps, an Amazon tablet would be the ultimate iPad 2 competitor because Amazon has the ability to compete on price subsidized by its content offering, and the ability to compete on distribution. And over the last few months, Amazon has indeed been quietly building up its arsenal to battle against Apple and the other tablet makers.

Amazon recently opened doors to its Amazon Appstore for Android apps, even scoring an exclusive deal with the popular Angry Birds Rio title. Modeling itself after Apple’s Appstore, the Amazon Appstore aims to elevate itself above the Android Marketplace by providing a less spammy experience with a $99 charge to developers for listing and with a review and approval process.

But certainly Android apps are only a small portion of the content Amazon can now distribute to its own tablet. Amazon already has a popular e-books delivery platform for the Kindle (soon to add library e-book borrowing support), but also recently switched on a video streaming service for its Amazon Prime subscribers. And further add to that their Amazon Cloud Player streaming service announced late last month, which is an online digital media locker that can store and share music, video, documents, and photos.

They have quite a lot going for them and if it all pans out with Samsung, the tablet could be a good kick in Apple’s arse and a mighty threat to all other Android tablet makers. Whether or not Amazon will go with a vanilla Android 3.0 Honeycomb OS is another question folks are pondering. Talks of tightening up the Android tablet OS has people thinking that Amazon could possibly attempt to develop its own platform. Although, developing its own interface layer atop of Android seems more likely—something similar to what HTC has done with their Sense 3.0 would be pretty awesome. Amazon has recently been hiring on Android developers, but have stayed mum on any such Android tablet developments.

However, could an Amazon tablet possibly arrive by end of Summer? That’s what veteran tech editor Peter Rojas seems to think over at Gdgt. What are your thoughts about an Amazon tablet?

[via Business Insider]

Hardware

This tablet joins the still small ranks of approximately 10-inch tablets, this one measuring in at 10.1-inches in the face surrounded by a 10.24 x 6.97 x 0.52-inch (260 x 177 x 13.3-mm,) 25.75-oz (730-g) heavy (display included) body. From there you’ll want to notice that the entire back section is made of a thin, light aluminum while either side of the device is made of plastic. There’s a removable cover at the top (or the side, however you’d like to look at it,) that reveals your SDcard slot and future functional slot for LTE SIM card. You can jam up to 64GB of memory on an SDcard in that first slot, while the SIM card slot remains inactive for now.

The form of this device, you’ll come to notice quite quickly, is what sets it aside from the rest of the tablet pack. It also has a lovely Dolby speaker system that’ll blast your eardrums out – except, like all tablets STILL do for some inane reason, the speakers blast outwards from the back of the device. That’s not to say though that you cannot hear their awesomeness, because you definitely can. The TRON test was performed upon this test and it passed with flying colors.

Software

This tablet runs Android 3.0 Honeycomb, a system which, if you’re unaware of, you can learn all about back in our gigantic Honeycomb Guide (SlashGear 101), or see our Honeycomb Review. Besides all the regular bells and whistles you’ll always find in your Google-approved Honeycomb layout, you’ll find a few extra games and demos that’ll whet your appetite for more NVIDIA collaborated-upon high-powered games and fabulous applications.

Other than that, there’s a slightly unique organization app that’ll help you keep track of your apps if you wish, this system taking advantage of Honeycomb’s lovely ability to add a different wallpaper to each panel. There’s an app that goes by the name of Clear.fi that Acer has out, one that’ll let you wirelessly connect to and from other devices in your home network so that you might share your media. It’s an excellent concept and one that’ll be gaining some steam very soon I would educatedly guess. THEN it’s basically nothing but Honeycomb and no obstacles between you and benchmark topping glory. See the performance section for more info.

Camera

This device comes with a front-facing 2-megapixel camera for video, photo, and video chat, and a back-facing 5-megapixel camera for video and photos. As always, I’ll mostly let the media do the talking:

The 2-megapixel front-facing cam is about as good as you’re going to get on any tablet these days, while the back-facing camera definitely could be better. Both the G-Slate and the XOOM tablet have 8-megapixel cameras, while the iPad 2 camera is still up to debate if you ask me, but definitely isn’t better than a 6 (in my best guess, that is.) Definitely an alright camera on both sides, but not perfect.

Performance

Our sister site Android Community has a review with several benchmarks on this device, but we’ll leave those sorts of numbers to them. What you’ll need to know from the SlashGear perspective is that it’s no better and no worse than the rest of the current NVIDIA Tegra 2 suite of devices. A couple of examples: Motorola XOOM and T-Mobile’s LG G-Slate.

If you’re unused to using all of these tablets on a regular basis, you’d be hard pressed to know the difference between the operating systems. They’re all the same and they’re all running NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 dual-core processor. The difference is in the attached apps that, each of them in turn, tell you what the manufacturers and carriers want you to experience. Performancewise, if you’re not going to be testing exact numbers via benchmarking systems, this tablet is the same as the XOOM. If you’re comparing to the iPad 2, to be honest, I’ve experienced more bugs in the Apple tablet due to imperfect tablet interfaces (I’m looking at you, Netflix.)

Battery

The battery on this beast is magnificent. If you plan on doing a full day’s work on this device alone and that means a medium workload, you’ll be set for a full workday. If you want to use it heavily, meaning you’re going to be recording and playing video for example, you’re looking at more like 8 hours. On an average day, give this tablet 24 hours before it runs out of juice.

Wrap-Up

This is a tablet that you’re going to decide on purchasing based on your love for the brand Acer, your love for the unique light aluminum back end, or your dislike of the rest of the Android tablets on the market. If I only owned this tablet and an iPad 2, would I use this tablet more often than the iPad? Personally, yes, but that’s because I’m hardcore Android Community and I’ve gotta represent. Might someone else use the iPad 2 more? Probably. Apple has a much more massive hold over the world’s perception of what a tablet should be, and if people would have to choose on the spot, they’d listen to the one that they know other people will love them for.

But if a consumer had both an Acer A500 and an iPad 2 (or heck a, iPad 1,) and wanted to avoid appearing to have the same technology as everyone else, what then? Acer’s made a tablet that looks like none other, and it’s got a nice sound system on it, and it’s mostly metal, and it’s light. And it feels nice to hold, and there’s a USB port in it. And the SDcard port works. What other reason do you need?

10. iPad 2 international launch on March 25th. Check out our iPad 2 review. (iPad 2 lines images from Huffington Post).
iPad 2 international sales open with long shipping estimates
UK iPad 2 online delays mean queues the only hope for early-adopters
iPad 2 Review

9. ASUS makes official announcement for their ASUS Eee Pad Transformer.
ASUS Eee Pad Transformer official: 16hr battery in Honeycomb iPad 2 rival

8. Color Real-Time Image Sharing app.
Color image sharing app sorts by location (& gets privacy zealots worried)
The Color App May Serve a Purpose After All

7. Amazon launches Appstore for Android.
Amazon Appstore launches today
The Disruptive Potential of the Amazon App Store

6. Google delays Honeycomb for open-source.
Google Keeping Android 3.0 Honeycomb Closed For Now

5. RIM announces support for Android Apps on their BlackBerry Playbook tablets, and confirms pricing and date.
RIM To Support Android Apps For BlackBerry PlayBook

4. T-Mobile announces LG G2X smartphone, featuring glasses-free 3D display and 3D camera.
T-Mobile G2x by LG gets official: 3D Tegra 2 smartphone

3. Sprint announces HTC EVO 3D and HTC EVO View 4G.
HTC EVO 3D Revealed at Sprint Event [CTIA 2011]
EVO View 4G Revealed at Sprint Event [CTIA 2011]
HTC EVO 3D Hands-On
EVO View 4G Hands-On

2. Samsung unveils Galaxy Tab 8.9 and new version of Galaxy Tab 10.1.
Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 and Galaxy Tab 10.1 official
GALAXY Tab 10.1 & 8.9 Hands-on [CTIA 2011]

1. AT&T to buy T-Mobile.
AT&T Acquires T-Mobile for $39 Billion
AT&T and T-Mobile Acquisition Makes Sense
AT&T: We’d use T-Mo AWS spectrum for LTE plus double some 3G coverage

Product Reviews:

1. HTC Incredible S

2. Nintendo 3DS

Unfortunately Samsung’s CTIA 2011 samples were so hot off the prototyping line that we weren’t allowed to turn them on. The company demonstrated its newly updated TouchWiz UX for Honeycomb on a hands-off prototype, and thankfully it doesn’t appear to be the wholesale reskin that we’re familiar with from Samsung smartphones – and which generally slows down core OS updates – but rather a new set of dynamic homescreen widgets and controls which slot into Honeycomb.

As Motorola did with recent versions of MOTOBLUR on Android smartphones, the TouchWiz UX widgets can be resized more flexibly, as well as intermingled with regular Google widgets and shortcuts. As long as it doesn’t impact subsequent OS upgrades, we can see it being a popular interface.

Samsung GALAXY Tab 10.1 and 8.9 Hands-on

Physically, the tablets are everything you’d want from a portable slate, with the 8.9-inch Galaxy Tab being particularly appealing for its balance of size and high resolution. At 1280 x 800 it gets the same number of pixels as its 10.1-inch brother, which will make for a rich, dense screen in a bag-friendly chassis. Samsung isn’t talking specific chips for its 1GHz dual-core processor, which leads us to assume that it could be the same mixture of homegrown Exynos and NVIDIA’s Tegra 2.

GALAXY Tab 10.1 vs GALAXY Tab 8.9 vs iPad 2 vs. XOOM

Much will rest on pricing, and that’s still left unconfirmed. If Samsung can bring the new Galaxy Tab models in at under the iPad 2, complete with higher resolution cameras front and back, and slimmer/lighter construction, that’s a fair amount of marketing value to play with. We won’t know that until later in the year when the two models go on sale, however.

Inside this lovely phone, you’ll find a 1.2GHz processor that’s yet unnamed, a big huge 8-megapixel camera on the back, and a tiny camera on the front for video chat sized to the tune of 1.3-megapixels. The back also features autofocus and a single LED flash. The display on this phone is a 4.3-inch Super-LCD touchscreen with 960 x 540 pixel resolution. Also inside you’ll find Wifi along unknown bands, Bluetooth of an unknown version, and a suite of apps we imagine won’t be unlike its close relatives.

Let’s discuss for a moment what this phone having Android 3.0 Honeycomb could mean for the user. First of all, Honeycomb was designed with fragments, these fragments for all intensive purposes making Honeycomb a diverse enough situation to be able to work on this small a phone, but, as a person who’s used this operating system on a tablet, I must say it’ll be a little odd having it function on such a small screen. Buttons meant to be big, and all that. On the other hand, it might just be that the original source for this information added 3.0 instead of 2.3, which would be Android 2.3 Gingerbread, which would make a whole lot more sense.

We shall see!

[via Android Community]

Grab it! It’s in the featured list, super easy to access all day long (and forevermore!) We’re hoping that this move will make it even easier than it’s been in the past for everyone to grab the largest amount of excellent Android news from us on Android Community. Of course this isn’t the only place you can grab your Android Community news – the site looks great in your smartphone screens of any size, then we’ve got our own app as well! Type in Android Community in the Android Marketplace or head on over to the following link [AC on AM] on your phone or on your desktop to access it directly.

Take a peek above and below at how lovely the app looks whilst displayed on the Motorola XOOM, a tablet we’re taking close looks at over on Android Community. We’re very stoked about this addition, as should be very apparent, and we’re working our hardest to make our way to the frontscreen of your Pulse readers from now until the end of time! We’ll see you there!

OH and if you don’t have Pulse News yet, get it [here]

Lets begin with the XOOM: This Motorola produced tablet is being carried by Verizon currently and runs Google’s first tablet-specific Android OS, Android 3.0 Honeycomb. This tablet was made by Motorola who worked closely with Google to produce what they’re pushing as the perfect platform to show off the capabilities of the Honeycomb OS. The dimensions on this device are 9.80 x 6.61 x 0.51 inches (249 x 167.8 x 12.9 mm) and the weight is right around 25.75 oz (730 g) depending on what you’ve got inside. On the front is a 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 pixel resolution WXGA display capable of delivering HD 720p video playback (AAC, H.263, H.264, MP3, MPEG-4, ACC+ Enhanced, OGG, MIDI, AMR NB, AAC+). Around the display is a black metal bezel, on the back is either a black metal cover (USA) or a silver metal cover (EURO.) There’s also a special edition floating around out there with a slightly more gold tinge to it. As for the processor you’ll find a 1GHz Dual-core NVIDIA Tegra 2. Also inside you’ll find memory up to 32GB for storage. Accelerometer, CDMA800 /1900 LTE 700, Rx diversity in all bands connection, GPS, headphone jack, Wifi 802.11 a/b/g/n, microUSB, HDMI out, Bluetooth 2.1, and over 8 hours of heavy-use battery time, with 24 hours of standby (with supposedly a max at 14 days.) Cameras include a 2 megapixel webcam on front and a 5 megapixel 720p-capturing photo and video camera on the back with dual-LED flash. Access to Android Marketplace and Google’s collection of standard apps. We’ve got reviews on Android Community [here for unboxing] and [here for a massive Q and A] as well as on SlashGear [here].

Next, the iPad 2: This is Apple’s new big fish, with the iPad 1 being one of the biggest devices in the tech universe in 2010, a second generation of this tablet must be on the ball to follow up, especially since the Android universe is responding in kind this year with a wave of opposing tablets. This new iPad comes with everything in the original plus it’s running the latest version of Apple’s iOS, version 4.3. The iPad 2 comes packed with a dual-core A5 processor.  Apple included dual-cameras, a VGA webcam up front, and a 720p camera on back – both of which we’re unsure of as far as still photos go. There is the same 9.7inch LED-backlit LCD display, but with a 33% thinner and 15% lighter frame than the original. Apple is claiming up to ten hours of battery life, even with the reduced weight. They are offering models with up to 64GB of internal storage and Wi-Fi and 3G are both supported. There’s a built in gyro, HSUPA support for enhanced 3G uploading speeds on AT&T. They also put in HDMI mirroring for your iPad so you can mirror your iPad screen on any HDTV.  That looks like a good package for some amazing online games, both on the go, and at home. In just a few minutes we’ll have a full hands-on look at this brand new device so you’ll be able to judge it your nicest or harshest in the correct amount of light.

EDIT – for those of you who prefer a more list-like and less paragraph-esque sort of look at these two tablets, here’s this:

OS Android 3.0 Honeycomb
Display 10.1-inch WXGA 1280 x 800 Pixel Resolution Touchscreen
Weight 730 g
Dimensions 9.80 x 6.61 x 0.51 inches
Color Black [USA], Silver [EURO], Gold [SE] – all variations in back panel
Cameras – front, -back
Processor Dual-Core NVIDIA Tegra 2
Battery 8 hours heavy use (so says we), up to 14 days standby
Price $799 Verizon, $600 Verizon Wifi-Only, £499.99 Euro Wifi-Only
Connections accelerometer, CDMA800 /1900 LTE 700 (4G), Rx diversity in all bands connection, GPS, headphone jack, Wifi 802.11 a/b/g/n, microUSB, HDMI out, Bluetooth 2.1, mic, 3.5 mm stereo headphone jack, miniUSB

OS iOS 4.3
Display 9.7-inch LED-backlit IPS LCD 1024 x 768 Resolution Touchscreen
Weight 613g [AT&T], 607g [VERIZON], 601g [WIFI]
Dimensions 9.5 x 7.31 x .34 inches
Color Black or White – both variations in front bezel
Cameras VGA Webcam (unknown quality) – front, 720p Video (additional qualities unknown) -back
Processor Dual-Core Apple A5
Battery 10 hours heavy use (says Apple), up to 1 month standby
Price $499 16GB, $599 32GB, $699 64GB, $629 16GB+3G, $729 32GB+3G, $829 64GB+3G – all models include Wifi
Connections gyroscope, accelerometer, ambient light sensor, digital compass, HUSPA support, HDMI out, Wifi 802.11a/b/g/n, 3G, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR technology, mic, 3.5 mm stereo headphone jack, 30-pin dock connector port, GPS and Cellular location on 3G models

One thing we should mention here is that neither of these devices are fully released just yet. There’s certainly testers out there for the XOOM, but the iPad 2 has been under HEAVY wraps for some time now. Once we get the chance to put the iPad 2 through the same hoops we’ve been pushing the XOOM through, we’ll know for sure who mister victorious is.

For now though, we’re content having both pads in our backpack.

User Interface

Android’s UI has gradually evolved into the multi-desktop icon and widget layout we’re used to on smartphones today, and Honeycomb pushes that paradigm to suit larger displays. The homescreen is a horizontally scrolling array of five panes, each accommodating an 8×7 grid of icons and widgets. As on handsets, the smallest icon is a 1×1 square, but various other sizes of widget are available, and usually offering greater interactivity than previously seen. So, for instance, the Gmail widget not only shows the most recent three messages (whether in your inbox or sorted by label) but can be scrolled to show older emails as well.

Gone are the hardware buttons for home, back, menu and search, replaced by on-screen controls on the persistent Action Bar (at the top of the screen) and System Bar (at the bottom of the screen). The action bar changes contextually depending on which app is in use; at the desktop, for instance, there’s a Google search button, Voice Actions trigger, Apps menu button and homescreen editing button. Other apps can use the space for software-specific buttons, such as search or share in the YouTube viewer. If you highlight a word or sentence – in the same manner as you would on an Android phone, tapping a word and then dragging out the selection using pull-tabs at either end – then the copy, paste, share, web-search and local find options show up in the action bar, rather than in a floating menu next to the highlight. It’s consistent, but it does lead to more reaching around the display.

The system bar, meanwhile, replicates the functions of the hardware buttons on phones, with back, home and the app switcher on the left and notifications, statuses, clock, wireless status and battery on the right. Although always on-screen, it dims in a “lights out mode” during full-screen apps, such as video playback. Tapping pulls up a more comprehensive status display, showing date, which wireless network you’re connected to, and a shortcut to volume settings.

Android’s notifications system has always been reasonably good, but the Honeycomb system is more comprehensive again. The extra screen space allows for more information in each alert, so messages and missed calls show caller ID as well as a contact photo if available, while music playing in the background has play/pause and track-skip controls so that you can navigate your tracklist without having to leave the app you’re currently in. Notifications can be individually cleared, too, rather than Android 2.x’s universal “Clear All” option. It’s not as discrete as, say, webOS’ system, but it’s far preferable to iOS 4.x’s clunky pop-up notifications on the iPad, and it fits in a lot more control and information than on the HP TouchPad.

The app switcher, too, is a solid improvement on Android phones and iOS, offering preview images of each app’s status as you left it rather than merely icons. Tap the app switcher button in the system bar, and list of software pops up along the left edge of the screen, showing up to five titles at any one time, and scrolling to show others. Google is keen to point out that this is “true” multitasking, and as such apps continue running – unlike the iOS system – even when they don’t have focus. That makes for an easier time for developers, who don’t have to work with a specific set of background process APIs, but it does leave Android responsible for managing the polar demands of battery life and multi-app performance.

Text entry is via the new on-screen keyboard, following Apple’s example of shifting the number row to a secondary layout, but managing to fit in a dedicated Tab key for shuttling between text boxes. There are also contextual keys depending on the app you’re in, so the browser offers a dedicated .com button (which can be pressed and held for other suffixes) or emoticon button, depending. Thanks to the simultaneous multitouch display you can hold down one button – say, shift – and tap others; alternatively a double-tap on shift sets Caps Lock. We had no problems inputing text (you can pair a Bluetooth keyboard if you want to do more intensive entry) and the autocomplete system works well, suggesting URLs in the browser and words (with an easy to use method of adding to the dictionary) everywhere else.

In most places, Google has stretched out the standard Android interface with some added extras. Searches, for instance, not only query your browser history, apps, contacts and music, but can look through third-party apps like your Kindle ebook library, Dropbox files and Evernote notes. Alternatively, you can tell Honeycomb not to search through any particular app, to bypass personalized searches, and whether or not to take into account your current location.

Searches themselves throw up results as you type, with a predicted list of auto-complete terms on the left and the apps, contacts, Google search and others on the right. On the XOOM’s Tegra 2 processor there was no lag in waiting for results to arrive.

Voice Actions use the same system as on Android phones, and you can use the same natural commands to load apps as well as trigger basic searches. So, you can say “Listen to…” and then name an audio track for the media player to play, or “Navigate to… ” and a destination for Google Maps to locate. As usual, the processing is done server-side, not on the Honeycomb tablet itself, and so you’ll need a data connection if you want to use voice commands.

Everything is wrapped up in a slick, elegant theme, which doesn’t dumb down the tablet experience but which isn’t unduly intimidating for the first-time user. Buttons pop up as you need them and dash away when you don’t, and the consistency between apps – even third-party titles, more on which later – should silence many previous criticisms of Android feeling disjointed in comparison to iOS. Animations and effects are neat, without delaying navigation, and there are little touches – like icons leaving their exact outlines behind when you’re dragging them around the homescreen – which show Google has paid real attention to the overall feel of Honeycomb.

Browser

Most tablets will be predominantly used for web browsing, and so the Internet experience needs to be good. The Android 3.0 browser gains tabs rather than the smartphone version’s windows, and supports the usual multitouch pinch-zoom gestures. On the XOOM’s Tegra 2 it’s fast, too, rendering pages with little delay and scrolling cleanly.

Some of that speed may be because of the absence of Flash, however. While Adobe has confirmed that Flash Player 10.2 for Honeycomb is in the works, it won’t be available at launch. That means no in-page animations, streaming video or other Flash content, just as you find on the iPad. HTML5 is supported, at least, and Motorola says it will only be a matter of weeks until Flash Player is available for Android tablets. We’ll update this review as soon as it’s released.

Private browsing with “Incognito” windows is supported, bypassing the combined bookmarks and history pane (as well as cookies), and there’s the option for bookmark synch with Google’s Chrome browser. There’s also the option to automatically sign into pages requiring Google credentials using the user ID and password Android has on file, which can save time (though isn’t much use if, say, you have separate Google accounts for business and home).

More useful are the Quick Controls, an option turned on in the browser’s settings. Triggered by a finger-swipe from the left or right edges of the display, they’re a crescent of shortcuts for easy access to forward/back, page refresh, Goto, menu, bookmarks and add-to-bookmarks. If your thumb is long enough, you can navigate back and forth through pages while still holding the tablet in your hand, though of course URL entry or picking from a list of bookmarks requires you to tap elsewhere on the screen. A set of directional arrows and a selection key would be a neat addition to the Quick Controls array.

Messaging and Calendar

Android’s potentially confusing dual email apps continue in Honeycomb, with Gmail getting separate software from all other email types. If you rely on Gmail then you can use the dedicated app, with support for push-messaging, labels and multiple accounts. The standard Email app, meanwhile, has POP, IMAP and Exchange support. Both get a multi-pane layout that’s new to Android 3.0, splitting out the list of headers on the left and a conversation view of the messages themselves on right.

Liberal use of folders and labels is made, and there’s now drag & drop support for pulling messages out assigning them to the different categories. Any sort of jerkiness or lag would be a real issue here, but thankfully Honeycomb coasts along slickly with no problems whatsoever. You can use both apps simultaneously, of course. Altogether it’s one of the best interpretations of email on a tablet device that we’ve seen, bringing across some common-sense desktop behaviors but not losing the finger-friendliness a slate demands.

New with Honeycomb is Google Talk support for video calls as well as IM conversations, taking advantage of front-facing cameras such as the Motorola XOOM’s 2-megapixel webcam. Individual contacts can be placed on the homescreen, with indicators showing their GTalk status. Calls are initiated from a text conversation; hit the camera icon and the video call rings.

By default Honeycomb uses the front-facing camera, but – assuming the tablet has one – you can also switch to the rear camera by tapping the screen and choosing the camera-flip icon. As well as Android 3.0 slates, GTalk video calls work with the Mac and PC desktop app, a free download. Picture quality was strong over WiFi and 3G connections (assuming the latter had a decent signal), though the call setup takes a few extra steps compared to Face Time on iOS devices.

Like the email apps, the Honeycomb Calendar has been boosted to take advantage of the larger screen size. In day and week views, a pinch-zoom gestures changes the grid layout; multiple calendars can be synchronized with a single view. Even with a week’s layout on-screen, there’s still room for a date-grid for the entire month, with the different calendars listed underneath (and easily toggled on and off). It works just as you’d expect from Google Calendar in the browser. The one odd omission is an agenda view, all the more surprising given that calendar search results are pulled into a brilliant, comprehensive list with pop-out details. We’re not sure why Google didn’t offer this list as an alternative view.

Camera

Android’s smartphone camera UI is one of the less successful interfaces, so we’re glad to see Google bringing Honeycomb up to date with a refreshed layout and controls. The preview window dominates the screen, with the controls clustered on the right hand side of the display. Zoom buttons are at the top, with a button to flip between front and rear cameras, and a toggle for photos or videos, at the bottom.

In-between is the new circular control wheel, with the shutter-release in the center, surrounded by a ring of effects, scene, focus and other settings. These include flash (on, off, auto), white balance (auto, incandescent, daylight, fluorescent), color effect (none, mono, sepia, negative, solarize, posterize), scene mode (auto, action, portrait, landscape, night, night portrait, theatre, beach, snow, sunset, steady photo, fireworks) and then a settings menu with controls for focus mode, exposure, picture size and picture quality. The most recent photo is shown as a thumbnail in the lower left hand corner; tapping it opens up the gallery.

Image quality will of course depend on the camera itself, but browsing stills and video is a more enjoyable experience thanks to the updated gallery. As usual there’s a folder view, splitting shots up into those downloaded, those taken with the camera and any particular sets you’ve set up yourself. Tapping into them gives you a full-screen view and a smaller timeline of shots along the bottom, which scrolls along in a suitably silky manner. Up on the action bar there are buttons to kick start a slideshow – useful if you’ve got a dock or stand of some sort – along with the Android sharing button to send out the current image via email, message or another route. If you have an Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablet with an HDMI connector – like the XOOM – then you can hook up the slate to your HDTV and browse content on the big screen. There’s a mirroring option that replicates the display on both the touchscreen and the external screen for easier control.

Multimedia

If the regular Android camera UI is unloved, then the music app has traditionally been even less appreciated. Happily Google’s engineers have given it more than a fresh coat of paint for Honeycomb, with plenty of eye-candy that, thankfully, doesn’t slow down actually browsing through tracks. There’s a tilting, twisting 3D wall of albums and artists – flipped between with a drop-down menu in the top left corner – together with a New and Recent view with a timeline of the latest content you’ve loaded.

Alternatively there’s a songs view – which presents tracks in a straightforward list, sorted alphabetically, by album or by artist – and a genre list, while you can also create playlists on your tablet. There are two ways of doing so: either by creating a blank playlist and then filling it with tracks, or by tapping the “Add to Playlist” option in any individual song’s context menu. The now-playing screen shows album artwork, artist, title and album name, as well as a responsive scrub-bar and shuffle/repeat buttons.

Video playback works from a straightforward grid or list view of files, though Google is yet to significantly boost the list of codecs Android supports. In Honeycomb there’s H.263, H.264, MPEG-4 and VP8, in .3gp, .mp4 and WebM containers, which is a pretty poor showing considering the multimedia ambitions – and capabilities – of the sort of processors to be found inside Android 3.0 tablets. We turned to RockPlayer and vPlayer, found in the Android Market, to fill in the gaps, and these worked well, playing full-screen on the XOOM and outputting high-definition video via HDMI.

As on Android phones, there’s a dedicated YouTube app for streaming video, useful given the lack of Flash support at launch. This has also had a makeover, with a new 3D wall of videos to choose from. It’s more to show off Honeycomb’s 3D acceleration than anything else, but it works and there’s channel and search functionality along with options to filter by video age. Given the bigger screens, it’s useful to be able to change the font size for captions; you can also force Honeycomb to stream in high quality even when on a cellular connection.

Plug an Android 3.0 tablet into a PC and it will show up as a removable drive for managing content, but as of Honeycomb there’s a new OS X sync tool. Once installed (on OS X 10.5 and above systems) Android File Transfer loads automatically when you plug your Honeycomb slate in via USB, and allows you to browse files and folders, and copy content between computer and tablet (as long as they’re under 4GB in size). It all works, but we can’t help but wonder when Google will offer some sort of proper media sync app, similar to iTunes or Microsoft’s Zune manager.

Google Maps

As we saw in the most recent Google Maps update on Android smartphones, Google has done a lot of work slimming down data use for its mapping app, and that’s carried over to the Honeycomb version. The app renders dynamically, rather than using vector-based imagery, which adds up to quicker graphics and less data traffic. As a result, there’s now room to cache common or frequently searched journeys, allowing you to browse those routes even without a data connection. It might not be so useful on a tablet as on a smartphone, but it still works well and Google’s 3D buildings look great on a bigger screen.

Boosted gesture support allows you to tilt the map using a two-finger slide, and then rotate it with a chiral-twist movement. If your tablet has a digital compass – as we imagine they all will – then you can synchronize rotation to the direction in which you’re facing. There’s also far smoother zooming, and Street View looks incredible at this scale.

Apps

It’s not enough to have a single platform now; you need to have a full ecosystem, with apps and an active developer community. Google has those for its smartphones, following only Apple in terms of the sheer number of titles available in the Android Market. The good news is that most existing apps should work on Honeycomb tablets, even if they were written for smartphones, just as long as the developer followed Google’s guidelines for best code practice.

Unlike the screen doubling on the iPad, Android apps run full-screen natively in Honeycomb, and general usability is good. Most titles work just as you’d expect from a handset, though some graphics can be blocky. The bigger issue is layout and how software uses screen real estate: an app designed for a roughly 4-inch smartphone display doesn’t make the best use of space when viewed on a 10-inch tablet like the XOOM. Developers will have to go back to the drawing board to create tablet-centric UIs, at least, even if their core software is functional. To help with that, Google released the official Android 3.0 Honeycomb SDK this week, complete with the final APIs, so we should start to see refreshed software coming through the pipeline soon.

Google provided three Honeycomb-optimized apps for us to look at, the Body app demonstrated at the Android 3.0 launch, Grocery IQ from Coupons, and a new version of the Pulse news reader. Body is utterly amazing, an educational title that allows you to strip back the human form to muscles, organs and skeleton, with labelling and search functionality. Grocery IQ is much the same as the Android phone version, allowing you to create and manage shopping lists on your device and sync them with the web and to other phones and tablets.

Pulse looks all but identical to the iOS version for iPad, with straightforward sharing tools that hook into Facebook, Twitter, email and other routes. However, it’s actually a good example of Honeycomb’s new Fragments addition to the API, which allows developers to build app UIs from multiple interchangeable and rearrangeable modular panes. In the case of Pulse, the preview window and the side-scrolling headline window are different fragments, with the blocks pieced together in different ways depending on whether you’re reading in portrait or landscape orientation, or indeed on a smartphone or on a tablet. Fragments means developers will have to do less UI work to make apps that are usable on both platforms.

Finally, there’s also a Books app, to manage your Google Books ebook collection, though we imagine most people will use Amazon’s Kindle app or Barnes & Noble’s NOOK app, which each worked as expected.

Security and Connectivity

With tablets making increasing strides in the enterprise, it’s little surprise that Honeycomb has at least a nod to business and security. As usual you can set a lock on the homescreen – though only with a passcode or PIN, since Google has done away with the pattern-based unlock from Android for smartphones – but now you can also encrypt the entire tablet. Google warned us it would take some time, and they weren’t wrong: we hit encrypt as soon as we got the XOOM out of the box, and it took over an hour to complete. It’s worth noting that, should you subsequently forget the PIN, the only workaround is a complete hard-reset (and losing all your data). There’s also support for remotely wiping Honeycomb, should you or a member of staff lose your tablet.

As for connectivity, Android 3.0 has mobile hotspot support for sharing 3G/4G data with up to five WiFi-tethered clients, thought you’ll likely have to opt for a more expensive data package before the carriers will let you do so. There are three sharing options, USB tethering, portable Wi-Fi hotspot and Bluetooth tethering. As on Android phones, it works well, though battery life takes an inevitable hit.

Wrap-Up

To describe Android 3.0 as a significant division from the versions we’ve seen up until now is an understatement. Word from inside Google is that Honeycomb is one of the biggest undertakings for the Android engineers so far, and that effort demonstrates itself in the platform’s consistency, completeness and efficiency. There’s no sense at almost any point that functionality has been sacrificed for aesthetics, and yet the overall Honeycomb experience is still eased through with neat animations and all the gloss demanded of a modern platform.

It’s also clearly not just a smartphone OS blown up to suit a bigger screen. All of the core apps – as well as the menus, homescreens and structures that fit around them – have been updated to suit the tablet form-factor. At times that can leave it feeling almost not Android-like – no familiar pull down status bar, the shift to all-onscreen navigation buttons – but everything works as you’d want it to and, when you dig in a little more, the same familiar dialogs and menus are there. Yes, perhaps a physical Home button might offer a lifeline to first-time users, but the onscreen version works just as well, and the straightforward layout and thumbnail app switcher makes Honeycomb one of the easier platforms for new users to get to grips with.

The consistency certainly helps there, and third-party developers have some work to do if they’re to match the overall polish of what Google’s coding team has produced. That will come in time, however, and until then regular Android apps work with few issues when downloaded from the Market. That puts a big fat tick in the backward-compatibility box, and should help keep Honeycomb ahead of webOS, QNX and other tablet upstarts.

Honeycomb’s biggest strength, though, is the speed at which Google has demonstrated it can move. Considering Android 1.0 only hit the smartphone market in late 2008, and now the platform boasts a comprehensive and convincing tablet OS just a few years later, there’s every reason to expect iterative updates to further polish the user-experience at a rapid pace. It starts that process at an incredibly strong position, passing the baton to manufacturers to match Android 3.0 with suitably class-leading hardware. The first batch of Honeycomb slates may have some wrinkles – the missing Flash and paucity of video codec support being two examples – but 2011 definitely looks to be the year that Android tablets will come of age.

NOTE: also take a look at our Motorola XOOM tablet review and a post by our sister site Android Community: a Q&A style review of both the tablet and the mobile OS!

Hardware and Performance

Motorola’s design is sober and discrete, and where the iPad shows off its brushed metal the XOOM seemingly prefers to let the 10.1-inch display do the talking. It’s a 160dpi, 1280 x 800 WXGA panel with a capacitive touchscreen supporting multitouch gestures, and while it doesn’t use the same IPS technology as the Apple slate, it still manages decent viewing angles. We’ve had no issues with touchscreen responsiveness, though at 9.8 x 6.61 x 0.51 inches and 25.75oz it’s a somewhat heavy device, and one-handed use can get tiring.

Inside, NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 is calling the shots, a dual-core 1GHz SoC paired with 1GB of DDR2 RAM and 32GB of integrated storage. Although the XOOM has a microSD card slot, currently the tablet doesn’t support it; similarly, there’s an LTE SIM slot – filled with a blanking card – but that won’t be used until Verizon updates the tablet to 4G in Q2 2011. Instead, you get EVDO Rev.A, WiFi a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, along with USB 2.0 and mini HDMI ports. Motorola is readying a WiFI-only XOOM, but that isn’t expected until later in the year.

We’ve seen sensors of various types proliferate on smartphones, and the XOOM ups the ante. As well as GPS, an accelerometer, digital compass, ambient light sensor and gyroscope, there’s a barometer for measuring air pressure. So far there’s no actual use for it in Honeycomb, but since it’s available for third-party developers to tap into via the Android 3.0 APIs, it’s only a matter of time before somebody takes advantage.

On the front is a 2-megapixel fixed-focus camera and a tricolor notification LED, though no physical controls, while on the back is a 5-megapixel autofocus camera with a dual-LED flash. It’s flanked by stereo speakers and the power/standby button. The only other hardware control is the volume rocker on the left hand edge. A 3.5mm headphone socket is on the top edge of the slate.

Benchmarking Android devices is something of an inexact science, with various tools – synthetic and real-world – in common use and lingering issues around multicore compatibility. We ran Quadrant on the XOOM, and the Tegra 2 based slate scored 2,126. Meanwhile, in Linpack the XOOM managed 36.166, and BenchmarkPi crunched through in 559 milliseconds.

Perhaps more importantly, however, the XOOM whipped through everyday tasks with hardly a pause. Panning through the 3D-style homescreen was lag- and jerk-free, the app menu opened without delay, and apps themselves sprang to life as fast as we’ve seen on an Android device. In comparison, the single-core 7-inch Galaxy Tab feels sluggish. The healthy chunk of RAM meant that heavier webpages still rendered successfully and panned/zoomed without protest, even with multiple tabs open.

Software

We’ve already covered Android 3.0 Honeycomb in our separate review of the new tablet OS, and – in keeping with a Google Experience device – Motorola has left the software well alone on the XOOM. It’s a sensible decision, given Honeycomb’s degree of polish. In fact, the hardest part for most people has been finding the power button, which Motorola has put on the back of the slate.

The untampered OS should also mean that, as Google rolls out newer versions of Android, the XOOM is hopefully first in line to receive them, something that can’t be said the same for Motorola’s smartphone range. Considering the attention Android fragmentation gets, that’s a big element in the XOOM’s favor.

Cameras and Multimedia

Motorola has outfitted the XOOM with two cameras, a 5-megapixel unit on the back, complete with auto-focus and an accompanying dual-LED flash, and a 2-megapixel fixed-focus camera on the front that’s primarily intended for video calls. They take advantage of Honeycomb’s new camera app, complete with various effects and shooting modes, and are easily controlled with the new circular shortcut wheel (though there’s no dedicated camera shortcut key on the slate).

Stills from the 5-megapixel main camera are good, though not outstanding. The biggest surprise was how comfortable taking photos is on a tablet; while the 7-inch Galaxy Tab felt like a somewhat ridiculous, oversized smartphone, the 10.1-inch XOOM doesn’t feel awkward, and the large on-screen controls make it straightforward. Currently the Motorola tops out at 720p HD video recording at 30fps, though an update to support 1080p HD is promised at some point in the future. Clips are on a par with Motorola’s smartphone range, with generally jerk-free footage that only shows smearing on faster pans. The dual-LED flash can be used as a video light, but it’s only really of use in mildly darker environments.

As for the front camera, while it can be used for stills and video, it’s unsurprisingly not adept at either. Motorola has tuned it for video call duty, and in that it does well, producing a reasonably crisp picture that manages to keep detail even when compressed for a 3G stream. The fixed-focus does mean you lack sharpness, however, not so noticeable in video but making vanity shots unimpressive.

Photos, video and audio can be played back either on the slate itself – with the XOOM’s stereo speakers proving underwhelming for all but the most casual of listening – or, using the HDMI 1.4 output and bundled cable, on a nearby big-screen TV. The entire interface is mirrored on both the external display and the touchscreen, making for easier control, and the XOOM can handle up to 1080p Full HD playback. We’ve commented on Android 3.0′s paucity of native codec support in our OS review, but thankfully there are various third-party media players in the Android Market that do a better job with video content other MP4, WebM, 3GP and H.264/H.263. Footage is crisp, as you’d expect, and with 32GB of onboard storage there’s a decent amount of capacity for media. It’s worth noting that, if you’re a Mac user, you’ll have to install the new Android File Transfer tool, since Honeycomb won’t be recognized by OS X as a USB drive without it.

What you don’t get, at this stage, is Flash support. Adobe is busy working on Flash Player 10.2 for Honeycomb, but right now there’s not even 10.1 for backward compatibility. It’s another reason the XOOM feels somewhat rushed to market, and it knocks an important selling point from the Motorola’s roster. Yes, Flash is on its way, but with the iPad 2 launch imminent, Motorola really needed all its strengths in one place to take on the iOS slate.

Connectivity and Battery

The XOOM isn’t short on connectivity, with EVDO Rev.A, WiFi a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR and USB 2.0, along with a 4G LTE update in the pipeline, but it’s worth noting that it won’t make voice calls. Verizon’s agreement is for data only, which means that if you want to actually talk with someone using the XOOM you’ll have to pick a VoIP client. Still, with Skype, Fring, Qik and others in the Android Market, and Google Talk preinstalled in Honeycomb, most users should find something to fit that gap.

As well as using the 3G connection for onboard surfing, Honeycomb comes with a mobile hotspot app that can be used to share the data out with up to five WiFi-tethered clients. It’ll likely incur a surcharge, however: Verizon has only said that data access will start from $20 per month for 1GB, and we’re assuming that, like the carrier’s phones, hotspot service will be a higher-tier package.

Verizon is also yet to detail the 4G update, which means we don’t yet know how early-adopters of the XOOM will convert their 3G tablet into an LTE one come Q2 2011. It’s possible that this is a modem firmware update, which could be released OTA or as a sideloaded install, or alternatively owners may have to take their XOOM into a Verizon store or even send it off. Still, Verizon has said it will be a free update, though it hasn’t confirmed whether there’ll be a 4G surcharge on top of the regular 3G data package.

Battery life, meanwhile, has been very impressive. With very heavy use, the XOOM lasted over 14hrs – over 8hrs of which the screen was on – before shutting down. Bear in mind that’s undergoing testing for this review, meaning a combination of browsing, media playback (both using the XOOM’s display and via the HDMI output), both WiFi and 3G connections, streaming media and photography. With more casual use, especially if predominantly browsing, we’d expect to see 9hrs or more. That’s a little less than an iPad, certainly, but still enough to be considered a strong showing in our opinion. A full recharge takes around 3.5hrs.

Accessories

Verizon provided two official accessories with our review unit, the Speaker HD Dock and a Bluetooth Keyboard. The dock is, surprisingly, more basic than that offered for the Motorola ATRIX 4G, having only power and mini HDMI connectivity. It will charge the XOOM and allows you to have a wired connection to your HDTV permanently hooked up, but we’d have preferred it if Motorola had used a full-sized HDMI port. We’re guessing the choice of a mini connector was so that the cable bundled with the tablet could be used with the dock as well, but given most users aren’t going to want to keep swapping a single cord between their bag and the dock, opting for the more common (and cheaper) full sized HDMI would have been a more sensible decision. The integrated 5W stereo speakers are more powerful than the XOOM’s own, which makes for stronger audio during video playback together with more easily audible video chats.

As for the Bluetooth keyboard, that also works as you’d expect it to, hooking up wirelessly with no issues and then allowing for easier text entry than the on-screen ‘board. It’s worth noting that, since the XOOM supports the standard Human Interface Device (HID) protocol, you can use a non-Motorola Bluetooth keyboard you might already have. Motorola’s ‘board is actually the same as offered for the ATRIX 4G, which means it adds in shortcuts to various Android apps. It’s also reasonably comfortable to type on.

Motorola also offers a Portfolio Case for the XOOM, though we didn’t have that on hand to test. As with similar examples for other tablets, it basically allows you to prop the XOOM up for easier on-screen typing or watching videos, as well as folding around to protect the display during transport. Finally, there’s a Standard Dock, which props the XOOM up and recharges it, which we also didn’t have in to test.

Pricing and Value

Cost is likely to be the XOOM’s most contentious aspect. Verizon and Motorola have priced the slate at $799.99 without a contact or $599.99 with a new, two-year agreement on a data-only plan. With the cheapest data package Verizon offers – $20 per month for 1GB – that adds up to almost $1,080 over the course of the contract.

In contrast, Apple’s 32GB iPad WiFi + 3G is $729. That’s less than the unsubsidized XOOM, but more than the on-contract version; however, AT&T allows iPad owners to activate and deactivate 3G service as they see fit, rather than locking them into a monthly commitment. You also get more for your money on AT&T, with iPad 3G plans offering either 250MB per month for $14.99 or 2GB for $25.

The XOOM is likely to fall in price after a couple of months – there’s always an early-adopter premium to be paid – but it’s not the home-run we’d hoped it might be. It’s worth remembering that, even if you don’t want to use Verizon’s data and only rely on WiFi to connect, you’ll still have to pay for a month’s worth of service and the activation fee.

Wrap-Up

Despite the absence of Flash support and the absence of 4G, there’s a lot to like about the Motorola XOOM. It’s a solid, discretely handsome slate, with strong battery life and whip-crack performance. Against it are the premium price tag and the ridiculous mandatory first-month data fee; frankly, Verizon have missed a trick by not giving buyers a free first month in the hope of getting them hooked to the convenience of 3G.

Much of the XOOM’s strength comes from Android 3.0 Honeycomb, and there’s little doubting that Google’s tablet-centric OS is the star of the show here. As we found in our full software review, it’s a convincing and polished platform, which brings a highly usable multitasking environment to the tablet marketplace, neatly distinct from the “oversized smartphone” accusations levied at previous Android slates.

Until Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 and LG’s G-Slate reach shelves, the XOOM has the Honeycomb space all to itself. Still, neither Motorola nor Google can afford to rest on their respective laurels. The iPad 2 is expected to debut a mere week after the XOOM goes on sale, and considering the first-gen version is still the benchmark by which new tablets are measured, the second-gen model is only going to raise the table stakes.

Nonetheless, we’re impressed by the XOOM, and by Honeycomb. Neither feels like a compromise, and with the heft of the Android Market behind them, the gap between Android and iOS has narrowed drastically. The XOOM may only be the first Honeycomb slate, but it’s a strong start to what’s going to be a fiercely competitive race.

ALSO have a look at our Android Honeycomb Review as well as an informative post by our sister site Android Community: Motorola XOOM and Honeycomb Review [All Questions Answered].

BONUS: Tricked out!

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A list of 3.0 Honeycomb platform highlights are here, and there’s a breakdown of differences between APIs here. Meanwhile, details on how to download and get started with the 3.0 SDK – or how to check your existing apps for compatibility with the XOOM and other slates  are here.

[via Android Community]

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Burn the Rope 1.2 Bursting Up iPhone Soon
AT&T Rewarding Loyalty With Free Microcell
Android Market Web Store Has Dangerous Security Hole
First Blogger App Now On Android
AT&T Confirms Hotspot Tethering for iPhone
Samsung Galaxy S 2 (I9100) Specs Leak: Dual Core 1.2 GHz Processor?
RIM Announces BlackBerry Trade-Up Program
Samsung Silhouette World’s Lightest 3D Glasses Available March
Apple To Launch iOS 4.3 on February 14?
PlayStation Network Going Back To The Future
Hogs and Kisses, an Angry Birds Expansion, Will Launch Next Week
RadioShack Begins HTC Inspire 4G Pre-Sales
Corning Analyst: 180 Million Tablets Sold, 2014
iPad Game for White Tigers Mimics Kitten Mittens Vibe
SlashGear’s Final Football Matchup Toshiba TV Giveaway WINNER
Android Community Wants Writers!

To see more Daily Slash posts, click here: [The Daily Slash] or here: [SlashGear Morning Wrap-Up]

R3 Media Network

Editor’s Choice
Happy Chinese Android New Year!
USA Today offers augmented reality Super Bowl coverage on Android devices
Motorola XOOM and HTC ThunderBolt Release Dates Confirmed
How Honeycomb and Android Market’s New App Syncing will Sink Apple
Schneider-Kreuznach “working intensively” on Micro Four Thirds lenses
Nintendo 3DS: sturdier than DS Lite and grease-phobic
Massively stupid thief leaves smartphone charging in house he robbed
Texas high school student attends classes using Vgo telepresence robot
LG Optimus Pad a Barcelona lock-in; Honeycomb ahoy!
App Store filtering added as Apple boosts discovery options
Froyo extends Android lead as legacy versions dwindle
The Daily Indexed bypasses News Corp’s iPad paywall

SlashPhone
Verizon iPhone 4 Advertisement Attack AT&T Wireless Connection
Best Buy Free Phone Fridays: Samsung Fascinate, Captivate, and Vibrant
Vodafone & Three Verified LG Optimus 3D
Motorola CLIQ XT Will Stuck With Cupcake Forever
Vodafone Get Pressured by Egypt to Send Propaganda Text-Message
Dell Venue Comes in Android via T-Mobile

Android Community
Happy Chinese Android New Year!
Motorola CLIQ XT to stay on Android 1.5
Call function for Dell Streak 7 dug up
LG Optimus Pad confirmed for MWC 2011 with Honeycomb
USA Today offers augmented reality Super Bowl coverage on Android devices
Froyo on 57.6% of Androids in latest Google distribution stats
Motorola XOOM and HTC ThunderBolt Release Dates Confirmed
Android Ice Cream to Bring Honeycomb to Phones
Dell Venue Unlocked on Sale Now
How Honeycomb and Android Market’s New App Syncing will Sink Apple

SlashGear
Schneider-Kreuznach “working intensively” on Micro Four Thirds lenses
ASUS CEO promises “secret weapon” to vanquish iPad 2
Nintendo 3DS: sturdier than DS Lite and grease-phobic
Verizon iPhone 4 pre-orders set new first-day record in just two hours
Massively stupid thief leaves smartphone charging in house he robbed
Motorola CLIQ XT owners: No Android 2.1 for you!
Nokia commits to “embrace change” as WP7 rumors bump shares
Texas high school student attends classes using Vgo telepresence robot
Pentax K-r Bonnie Pink Model DSLR: limited edition, limited taste
Nokia Bubbles proves Nokia can be innovative, Symbian 1.1 update lands
Hidden voice call function on Dell Streak 7 is hidden for good reason
LG Optimus Pad a Barcelona lock-in; Honeycomb ahoy!
Sony’s Kaz Hirai talks NGP with Official PlayStation Blog
Kenko C-mount camera system and lenses break cover
App Store filtering added as Apple boosts discovery options
Spy Net Video Watch kids gadget will fit adults too
Mitsubishi reminds us all Super Bowl XLV has no Jumbotron
Verizon Presto 4G LTE Hotspot is Samsung’s SCH-LC11, due February 17?
USA Today brings augmented reality Super Bowl coverage to Android and iPhone
Motorola XOOM and HTC ThunderBolt releases dated by Best Buy
Audiovox to acquire Klipsch, Klipschiovox?
GreenPois0n iOS 4.2.1 untethered jailbreak released
Dell Venue on sale in AT&T and T-Mobile flavors
Froyo extends Android lead as legacy versions dwindle
Hotmail disposable email: Would you throw away Gmail for this?
The Daily Indexed bypasses News Corp’s iPad paywall
Apple HDTV rumors reignite: Did Apple spend $3.9bn on displays?
Verizon iPhone 4 pre-ordering closed; first handsets already shipping
Verizon iPhone Commercial Strikes AT&T with Heavy Sarcasm

To see more Daily Slash posts, click here: [The Daily Slash] or here: [SlashGear Morning Wrap-Up]

R3 Media Network

Editor’s Choice
TuneLink Auto for Android devices ships
LG Optimus Black Teased on T-Mobile
GameProm Sends Pinball HD for iPad to Mac OS
Xperia Play Commercial Leaked by Norwegian Android Site – TERRIFYING
Sceptre Galaxy Series 24-inch LED HDTVs get new colors
StreetFlyer is perfect for those afraid of heights
Android Ice Cream to Bring Honeycomb to Phones
How Honeycomb and Android Market’s New App Syncing will Sink Apple
Thanko USB Cat Mask makes you look nuts

Android Community
Android Ice Cream to Bring Honeycomb to Phones
Dell Venue Unlocked on Sale Now
How Honeycomb and Android Market’s New App Syncing will Sink Apple
Samsung Fascinate, Captivate, and Vibrant First Free Phones Revealed for Best Buy Free Phone Fridays
Gingerbread Ported to Motorola Milestone
Android Honeycomb Designer HATES Task Killers
XPERIA Play Displays Giant Adjustable Boxes for Testing
HTC ThunderBolt Presales Superbowl Sunday
Pentel Airpen Mini will Change Your Android Life
Words with Friends Coming to Android, Able to Play Cross-Platform
T-Mobile myTouch 4G Price Drop to $30
Motorola Atrix 4G OFFICIALLY Available for Pre-Order on Feb 13
Android/MeeGo Aava Mobile Medfield Phone Confirmed
Xperia Neo Hands on with Gareth Beavis
Motorola ATRIX 4G AT&T Presale Starts February, Releases March
LG Optimus Black Teased on T-Mobile
Xperia Play Commercial Leaked by Norwegian Android Site – TERRIFYING
LG Optimus 3D headed to Vodafone and Three UK
Android Honeycomb Event Available Now for Review
Galaxy Tab returns under 2% in US insists Samsung
eyeSight brings gesture recognition tech to Android tablets
PowerAMP music player for Android gets updated
TuneLink Auto for Android smartphones now shipping
Android-based Cowon D3 PMP/MID shipping today
Dropcam Android app: Feed your CCTV paranoia on the move [Video]
Samsung Galaxy SL GT-I9003 ditches Super AMOLED for Super Clear LCD
Fring for Android updated: Nexus S and Gingerbread support; Smoother audio
HTC Pyramid bringing 1.2GHz dualcore and qHD display to T-Mobile?
Honeycomb Includes Encrypt Tablet Feature

SlashGear
Armani Exchange 3D Eyewear Revealed
Android Ice Cream Next, Will Bring Honeycomb to Handsets
GameProm Sends Pinball HD for iPad to Mac OS
MSI Responds To Intel Sandy Bridge Recall
Dungeon Defenders Updates to 4.0
NASA Discovers Earth-sized Planets in New Solar System
Acer Group Will Fully Support Customers with Intel’s Sandy Bridge Problem
Vodafone Forced by Egypt to Spread Propaganda
British Man Faces Jail Term for Stealing 400 Billion Zynga Poker Chips
Heat Vision for Your Cell Phone Camera
Zynga bringing Words With Friends to Android
Google Offering $20,000 Prize to Hack Chrome
LCD BacPac HD HERO Video – mas awesome
iPad 2 Possibly Revealed Next Week?
No more “big black blot” with a Transparent TV
Motorola Atrix 4G Pre-Orders Begin Feb 13
I Refuse to Buy A New TV Every Few Years [COLUMN]
7-11 Japan Opening 100 Green Stores
Mad Catz to Produce Wireless Headset for XBox 360
Verizon Will Limit Data Speeds of Its Heaviest Users
Apple Files Patent for iPad Stylus
Apple’s iPad to Grow a Kickstand?
Verizon Employees Asked to “Focus on the Customer” – Wait for the iPhone
Aava Mobile Medfield MeeGo/Android phone confirmed
AT&T Motorola ATRIX 4G due March 6: $200 alone or $500 with Laptop Dock
LG Optimus Black coming soon says T-Mobile
Yahoo! IMAP issue affects iPhone too reveals email sniffing
Canon EOS 600D spotted: Rebel T2i replacement ahoy?
JVC GS-TD1 3D camcorder gets pre-release price slash
Verizon threatens bandwidth throttling for mobile data hogs
XPERIA Play advert leaks: Gaming so good you’ll graft on thumbs
JVC GX-PX1 hybrid gets hands-on play: 60fps stills & 36Mbps 1080p
iXtreamer [REVIEW]
Samsung: Galaxy Tab return rate is under 2%
Pouge slips iPhone 4 on AT&T to get tethering on Feb 13
StreetFlyer is perfect for those afraid of heights
Thanko USB Cat Mask makes you look nuts
Sky 3D Lands 70K customers
Hulu and Viacom hammer out content partnership
TuneLink Auto for Android devices ships
Sceptre Galaxy Series 24-inch LED HDTVs get new colors
Best Buy will sell Verizon iPhone 4 on Feb 10
Cowon D3 AMOLED PMP now shipping
PADACS offers up two battery cases for the iPhone 4
iKit unveils new iPhone 4 NuCharge Case
Caseable lets you create your own laptop sleeve
T-Mobile HTC Pyramid to bring the 1.2GHz dual-core love in May?
Verizon iPhone 4 up for pre-order
AT&T Mobile Hotspot plan due Feb 13 as tethering bundle doubles
iPad 2 secret guest at The Daily launch tips dubious report
HP tease webOS tablet/smartphone curves [Video]
Apple in-app purchase deadline March 31 tips developer
Google’s Honeycomb event video available to watch in full
Verizon iPhone 4 [REVIEW]

To see more Daily Slash posts, click here: [The Daily Slash] or here: [SlashGear Morning Wrap-Up]

This evolution does make perfect sense, as questions have been being asked of Honeycomb in this vein since its inception, always to the answer of “sort of,” or “there won’t be any Honyecomb for handsets” always implying something else was there, noone quite being able to place a finger on it. When will this Ice Cream version of Android be released? We’ve got a hunch they’re already at work on it, but have doubts that it’ll be released any time before the 3rd quarter of 2011. We’ve got Mobile World Congress 2011 to go through, this next generation of “superphones” with Gingerbread to look at… just too much to introduce another operating system so fast.

How about that, though, all the lovely features you saw this week from Honeycomb, now on your handset? I’d love to get my hands on that music app, maybe that 3D gallery, and for sure I’d love to get my sync on. All in due time, fellows and ladies, all in due time.

[Via Android Community]

R3 Media Network

Editor’s Choice
Chicks’n’Vixens brings Angry Birds clone to WP7 as Rovio protest [Video]
Fascinate’s Emergency Call Button with software SCH-i500.DL09 May Not Function – Fix on the Way!
HTC ThunderBolt Coming “Sooner Than Expected”
Epsilon Planet L Speakers look like Sputnik
Skin Gun Is Star Wars Level Medicine
The New X-Com Trailer: Better than my Childhood?
TSA testing new software for full body scanners
Cee-Lo No-Show at Honeycomb Intro
Want A Better Signal? Get A Cell Phone Tower In Your Front Yard

Android Community
Honeycomb Port for NOOKcolor Updated
Samsung Bringing Back Sliders with Leaked Android QWERTY for Sprint
Love is in the Air With Angry Birds Seasons: Valentines Day
Fascinate’s Emergency Call Button with software SCH-i500.DL09 May Not Function – Fix on the Way!
HTC ThunderBolt Coming “Sooner Than Expected”
Texas Instruments Holding A Virtual Press Event February 7th, Plans to ‘Transform the Concept of Mobile’
Join Us With Google’s Honeycomb Showcase Stream
Is the Samsung GT-I9003 a Galaxy S with Super Clear LCD?
LG Readying to ‘Rewrite History’ with the Optimus 3D
T-Mobile Activates 8 New HSPA+ Areas, Planning to Push Hard into 4G Market for 2011
Brainchild Kineo Android tablet for schools debuts
Skifta DLNA-certified: Free, easy streaming with an Android remote
Vodafone UK promises XPERIA Arc “coming soon”
Dell Streak 7 up for order with T-Mobile USA
Rightware to show Stereoscopic 3D home screen for Android at MWC 2011
Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc coming to Three in UK
Shooting for the Center – Why the Galaxy S 4G will Win the Mid-Tier Android Wars of Early 2011
Galaxy S 4G Revealed by T-Mobile on Honeycomb Eve
T-Mobile G-Slate Further Detailed, Including 3D Stereoscopic Rear-Facing Cameras
Google’s Honeycomb Showcase Event – What Would You Like To See?
Motorola XOOM Hands-On [Android 3.0 Honeycomb]
LG Optimus V Valentines Root
AT&T Mobile Hotspot App Coming February 13th, $10 per GB
HTC Inspire 4G AT&T Phone Shown Off in Minute-Long [Video]
Google Honeycomb Showcase Wrap-Up
Android 3.0 Honeycomb Hands-On [Motorola XOOM]
SwiftKey Introduced for Honeycomb Tablets
CNN Showcases Exclusive App For Honeycomb
Android Community App Running on Honeycomb, Scaling of Apps Looks Great
Honeycomb Featuring ‘Render Script’ for Hardware Accelerated 3D Graphics
In-App Billing Coming to Android This Quarter
Android Market Web store Announced, Purchase Applications On the Desktop, Send to Phone
Google Talk Video Chat Demoed at Honeycomb Showcase
“Google Body” Coming to Honeycomb
Google Details Honeycomb’s Notification Bar
Honeycomb, Here We Come!
“The Daily” Publication Coming to Android, States “This year and maybe next year belong to Apple”
Dungeon Defenders Updated to 4.0
Motorola Milestone X Coming To Bluegrass Cellular

SlashGear
LG teases Optimus 3D will “rewrite history” [Video]
Nokia DC-14 Bicycle Charger kit now on sale
My Keepon borrows dancing robot’s moves with a toy price tag
LG’s G-Tablet: 3D grail or gimmick? [COLUMN]
Verizon iPhone 4: General reservations Feb 9, Sales Feb 10 from 7am
Chicks’n’Vixens brings Angry Birds clone to WP7 as Rovio protest [Video]
Epsilon Planet L Speakers look like Sputnik
Yahoo! strikes back over Windows Phone 7 email bug: Microsoft IMAP app to blame
Kineo Android tablet from Brainchild ships in March
Panasonic set to redesign some of its lenses
NEC adds new P350X, P350W, and P420X projectors to line
LG Optimus V landing on Virgin Mobile no-contract service
Keyport USB drive gets more storage
T-Mobile Dell Streak 7 on sale now
Hammacher Schlemmer The Camcorder Projector breaks cover
MeeGo superphone bug report tips 1.6GHz Atom & HSPA+
iChair iPad case protects and props
TSA testing new software for full body scanners
Asus unveils new GT 440 video card with Super Alloy Power tech
Cooler Master to show Choiix Power Fort gear at MWC 2011
Amazon Prime subscription streaming movie bundle tipped incoming
Egypt back online: Internet, 3G & BlackBerry reported working
Google bakes Hotpot into search in push for NFC adoption
Toshiba recalls notebooks over Intel chipset flaw; HP & NEC delay launches
Verizon adds OS X support to Pantech UML290 4G LTE modem
Apple denies new in-app purchase rule; Devs must enforce it by June 30?
iPad 2 display reportedly leaks: thinner, lighter & smaller bezel
LG G-Slate Detailed, 3D Recording and Playback This Spring
Galaxy S 4G Revealed by T-Mobile on Honeycomb Day
Honeycomb will Make Android King of Enterprise, So Says Aaron Levie
Verizon iPhone 4 [REVIEW]
Analyst Advises Nokia to Kill MeeGo, Embrace WP7
Verizon iPhone 4 Launches Tomorrow
HTC ThunderBolt Here “Sooner Than Expected”
Lin Jian Feng Presents The Perfect Superphone
China Orders Mandatory Parental Monitoring Protocol For Online Games
Denmark Will Build Underwater Tunnel To Germany
Skin Gun Is Star Wars Level Medicine
The New X-Com Trailer: Better than my Childhood?
Internet ‘Kill Switch’ Bill Hits Congress Again
Android 3.0 Honeycomb hands-on [Motorola XOOM] [FEATURED]
The Today Show Talks About New Fangled Contraption Called The “Internet” in 1994
Android Community App Demoed on Motorola XOOM Tablet [FEATURED]
Cee-Lo No-Show at Honeycomb Intro
Want A Better Signal? Get A Cell Phone Tower In Your Front Yard
Android Marketplace Introduces In-App Purchases, Currency Settings, Additional Giant Apps [FEATURED]
Android Marketplace Changes Detailed – Webstore Now Also Browser Based [FEATURED]
Layar Player Now Available for iPhone – Makes Augmented Reality Your Reality
Chat Program / CNN app Detailed at Google Android Honeycomb Event [FEATURED]
Render Script / 3D Applications Impress at Google Android Honeycomb Event [FEATURED]
New HEX Sport Watch Band for iPod Nano, Nike Plus Compatible
Notification System, App Optimization Detailed at Google Android Honeycomb Event [FEATURED]
Star Trek Mr. Potato Heads Coming Summer 2011
BlackBerry App World 2.1 goes live with in-app payments
Google Shopper Now Available on iPhone
Android Honeycomb Event : Full Pre-Game Review
The Daily debuts new iTunes Subscription agreement [THE DAILY]
Murdoch: “This year and maybe next year belong to Apple” [THE DAILY]
Apple: App subscription system announcement “soon” [THE DAILY]
The Daily gets official: iPad app for “true news discovery” [THE DAILY]

To see more Daily Slash posts, click here: [The Daily Slash] or here: [SlashGear Morning Wrap-Up]

You’ll also note the Menu Bar below the screen able to pop up tasks that are laying in wait, you’ll see the absolute smoothness of the entire system, and you’ll see how visually spectacular even the most mundane actions are. The Motorola XOOM and Android 3.0 Honeycomb appear to be nothing but the best.

This call was a video call made from (and probably to) a Motorola XOOM tablet running a full version of Android 3.0 Honeycomb. Cee-Lo’s new album is called “The Lady Killer” and so was his screenname on the list the Google folks were calling him from. Hello, he said, and then it was over.

Best guest appearance ever.

Radio Disney, Jelly Car, and Tap Tap Revenge are apps coming to the tablet version of Android, each of these having seen some action before in either iOS or a desktop OS. Tap Tap Revenge is the game that’s very similar to Dance Dance Revolution or Rock Band except where you’d click and pick and dance in one, you tap your fingers here in the other. In-app purchasing in this game is very similar to that which the iOS version already has set up for the game’s songs, each of them appearing to cost right around $1. Jelly Car is a game that’s based on the physical movement of the tablet it’s being run on — honestly we’re not sure why it was introduced here. Radio Disney is an interactive panel between a kid and their favorite Disney-based radio station, giving them options like Hannah Montana and the Beebs. Disney Mobile is releasing all three of these (hopefully this means that Disney Mobile is back in the USA and will release their fabulous Galapagos-based phone here – fancy!

Screenshots are still here, more space is allotted for information from the developers, and there’s now a buy button that pops up, asking for permissions and the device you’d like to download the app to. Upon purchasing the app, only two clicks later (or one if an app is free), the app is downloading to your device.

YouTube videos are another form of promotion you can now insert into your app listing, as is a Tweet button that’s added up in the right hand corner of your app listing. Links from Twitter here link you to the right page on your browser, or if you’re on your phone, leads directly to the handheld version of the Android Marketplace. This marketplace is live right now, and you can access it directly by clicking here: http://market.android.com/.

Head stories as well as breaking news are shown instantly via Honeycomb in this CNN app. A CNN rep by the name of Lila shows iReport – a portion of the CNN app that allows people to share videos and photos from wherever they happen to be in the world. This piece of CNN’s master Android plan will also soon be available as an app on the Honeycomb-based tablet. How they’ll avoid all sorts of inappropriate images and videos, we don’t know. This is where CNN gets all of their “on the spot” coverage, like the skit on SNL. They hope that with the combination of all of the different elements they’ll be collecting and spreading with these apps, a new form of news will grow.

A group of game designers step on stage and show the fabulous looking hack-and-slash game Monster Madness. This game is an app made specifically for the tablet and Android 3.0 Honeycomb, and it appears to flow perfectly smooth. This is a game with a gigantic amount of bits that appear to be at PlayStation levels – think of Zelda with monsters coming from all directions. Next there’s a game made to use 100% of the two cores whichever it’s being used on: Great Battles, a knight game that again shows a massive amount of avatars, fighting, and moving bits that’ll surely make good use of whichever powerful device it’s run on. Lots of impressive 3D going on here, lots of action that until now was not even close to being possible on an Android device.

This is one of the bigger items in Honeycomb, this Notification System, as it can occur in front of or behind apps, now helping you have a much more rich experience than you were able in any previous form of Android. One example is getting an instant message, it sneaking up out of the bottom of the screen. The other example is your music player controller popping up when another task presents itself.

Several simple buttons are also able to pop up in the lower right hand corner including airplane mode, power, and the like. Fruit Ninja is the first game that’s presented on stage, a simple slash and chop game you play by swiping your fingers across the screen. This version is a completely unmodified state, yet works perfectly well without any change, but Google wants you to modify your apps to work especially well with this new tablet form.

Fragments and picking up, dragging, and dropping are also featured in this new world for apps, as well as well as the Application Bar which can appear over your apps at the top of your screen if you wish (if you’re a developer). This Application Bar can do many things, or can be nothing at all, if you’ve got no user for it (again, as a developer.)

Find out more about these subjects in our full Honeycomb Guides:
Android 3.0 Honeycomb Full Preview Guide [DEVELOPER FEATURES]
Android 3.0 Honeycomb Full Preview Guide [USER FEATURES]

After reading those articles and columns, it’s on to Android 3.0 Honeycomb for more than tablets says UI head Duarte. Then another opinion/fact splash in Honeycomb will Make Android King of Enterprise, So Says Aaron Levie. Get some knowledge dropped on you in the column What Honeycomb Means for Tablets. And finally grab some ideas on what might be here outside of Honeycomb – Your Entire Music Library in The Cloud, Streamed to Your Android Device, Announced Today?

Get your claws out, they’re about to be dug into your kneecaps!

R3 Media Network

Editor’s Choice
Chicks’n’Vixens brings Angry Birds clone to WP7 as Rovio protest [Video]
Fascinate’s Emergency Call Button with software SCH-i500.DL09 May Not Function – Fix on the Way!
HTC ThunderBolt Coming “Sooner Than Expected”
Epsilon Planet L Speakers look like Sputnik
TSA testing new software for full body scanners

Android Community
Honeycomb Port for NOOKcolor Updated
Samsung Bringing Back Sliders with Leaked Android QWERTY for Sprint
Love is in the Air With Angry Birds Seasons: Valentines Day
Fascinate’s Emergency Call Button with software SCH-i500.DL09 May Not Function – Fix on the Way!
HTC ThunderBolt Coming “Sooner Than Expected”
Texas Instruments Holding A Virtual Press Event February 7th, Plans to ‘Transform the Concept of Mobile’
Join Us With Google’s Honeycomb Showcase Stream
Is the Samsung GT-I9003 a Galaxy S with Super Clear LCD?
LG Readying to ‘Rewrite History’ with the Optimus 3D
T-Mobile Activates 8 New HSPA+ Areas, Planning to Push Hard into 4G Market for 2011
Brainchild Kineo Android tablet for schools debuts
Skifta DLNA-certified: Free, easy streaming with an Android remote
Vodafone UK promises XPERIA Arc “coming soon”
Dell Streak 7 up for order with T-Mobile USA
Rightware to show Stereoscopic 3D home screen for Android at MWC 2011
Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc coming to Three in UK
Shooting for the Center – Why the Galaxy S 4G will Win the Mid-Tier Android Wars of Early 2011
Galaxy S 4G Revealed by T-Mobile on Honeycomb Eve
T-Mobile G-Slate Further Detailed, Including 3D Stereoscopic Rear-Facing Cameras
Google’s Honeycomb Showcase Event – What Would You Like To See?

SlashGear
LG teases Optimus 3D will “rewrite history” [Video]
Nokia DC-14 Bicycle Charger kit now on sale
My Keepon borrows dancing robot’s moves with a toy price tag
LG’s G-Tablet: 3D grail or gimmick? [COLUMN]
Verizon iPhone 4: General reservations Feb 9, Sales Feb 10 from 7am
Chicks’n’Vixens brings Angry Birds clone to WP7 as Rovio protest [Video]
Epsilon Planet L Speakers look like Sputnik
Yahoo! strikes back over Windows Phone 7 email bug: Microsoft IMAP app to blame
Kineo Android tablet from Brainchild ships in March
Panasonic set to redesign some of its lenses
NEC adds new P350X, P350W, and P420X projectors to line
LG Optimus V landing on Virgin Mobile no-contract service
Keyport USB drive gets more storage
T-Mobile Dell Streak 7 on sale now
Hammacher Schlemmer The Camcorder Projector breaks cover
MeeGo superphone bug report tips 1.6GHz Atom & HSPA+
iChair iPad case protects and props
TSA testing new software for full body scanners
Asus unveils new GT 440 video card with Super Alloy Power tech
Cooler Master to show Choiix Power Fort gear at MWC 2011
Amazon Prime subscription streaming movie bundle tipped incoming
Egypt back online: Internet, 3G & BlackBerry reported working
Google bakes Hotpot into search in push for NFC adoption
Toshiba recalls notebooks over Intel chipset flaw; HP & NEC delay launches
Verizon adds OS X support to Pantech UML290 4G LTE modem
Apple denies new in-app purchase rule; Devs must enforce it by June 30?
iPad 2 display reportedly leaks: thinner, lighter & smaller bezel
LG G-Slate Detailed, 3D Recording and Playback This Spring
Galaxy S 4G Revealed by T-Mobile on Honeycomb Day
Honeycomb will Make Android King of Enterprise, So Says Aaron Levie

To see more Daily Slash posts, click here: [The Daily Slash] or here: [SlashGear Morning Wrap-Up]

R3 Media Network

Editor’s Choice
Galaxy Tab sales “smooth” not “small” insists Samsung
Galaxy Tab returns sky-high say analysts: Froyo to blame?
Samsung Galaxy S2 teaser stars an FX blooper [Video]
Notion Ink Adam Blotchy Pixel Qi Screen and Defective Camera Shown Off by Rambler
Android 3.0 Honeycomb ROM for NOOKcolor released [Update: Video]
Google offers speak2tweet to keep Egyptians connected
Puget Systems talks about fix for Intel Sandy Bridge flaw
RadioShack announces Fresh Phone February
Yahoo! Mail cause of Windows Phone 7 phantom data use
Teen Creates Death Ray with Brightness of 5,000 Suns
Google Latitude Check In Introduced
Call of Duty: Black Ops Offers First Downloadable Content

SlashPhone
Samsung Galaxy Player Pre-Order Available on February 4th
Introducing “SG Comics Presents”
BlackBerry Torch 9800 Covered in 18K Gold

Android Community
HTC Inspire 4G due at AT&T Feb 13 priced at $100
Galaxy Tab sales “smooth” not “small” insists Samsung
Linux Foundation offers Android dev courses
Honeycomb for NOOKcolor ROM released [Update: Video!]
Aussie develops software that connects phones directly without a mobile carrier
Motorola XOOM gets football flaunt as Chad Ochocinco shows off slate
Galaxy Tab returns sky-high say analysts: Froyo to blame?
Cowon D3 Android MP3 player hits pre-order
Sony Ericsson XPERIA update released: Multitouch for X10, ANT+ for X8
Samsung Galaxy S2 teaser stars an FX blooper [Video]
LG Optimus 3D official: 3D display & camera, coming to MWC 2011
Notion Ink Adam Blotchy Pixel Qi Screen and Defective Camera Shown Off by Rambler
Dell Streak 7 Review by Ben Bajarin
Google’s Honeycomb Showcase Event – What Would You Like To See? [FEATURED]
Google Maps Updated to Support New Latitude Check-In Features
Xperia Lineup Receives Maintenance Update, X10 Receives MultiTouch
Firefox Beta 4 Released, Faster than Ever
Notion Ink Adam’s App Suite Ported to G-Tab
NOOKcolor owner creates a Case out of a book
Why Google Latitude is About to Crush FourSquare
Android 3.0 Honeycomb Lead Designer Matias Duarte Speaks
Motorola DROID R2-D2 Now Only $99.99
Motorola XOOM coming in 2 weeks? Buccaneer Gerald McCoy says so
Archos 5 Tablet Only $240 Today on Amazon
LG Optimus V – Official Announcement for Valentines Day
Samsung Fascinate’s Froyo Leak Available for Download
43-Percent of Smartphone Purchases Are Android-Based, Android Share Still Growing Exponentially
Your Entire Music Library in the Cloud, Streamed to your Android Device, Announced Tomorrow [OMG]
LG Readying NFC For the European Market, Launching 2012

SlashGear
Google accuses Bing of copying search results
AT&T HTC Inspire 4G hits February 13 for $100
Panasonic LUMIX GF2 priced plus Camcorders & Point-&-Shoots
Samsung: Galaxy Tab sales “quite smooth” not “quite small”
Android 3.0 Honeycomb for more than tablets says UI head Duarte
Android 3.0 Honeycomb ROM for NOOKcolor released [Update: Video]
HTC 7 Mozart headed to T-Mobile USA?
Boxee Netflix delayed again: DRM to blame?
Roku announces official support for USB drives
GSLO gets first shipment of Volt solar iPhone cases for testing
Sony patent app hints at future thin camera design
Samsung Galaxy Tab returns as high as 16% researchers claim
Best Buy offers big screen deals for the Super Bowl
Planar adds new 55-inch LED backlit HD resolution LCD to Clarity Matrix video wall line
Google offers speak2tweet to keep Egyptians connected
Epson unveils PowerLite 915W and PowerLite 905 projectors
Cowon D3 hits pre-order in UK packing Android under the hood
Sony HX100V packs in 30x optical zoom while HX9V offers 16x optical zoom
Puget Systems talks about fix for Intel Sandy Bridge flaw
Free In-flight Gogo Facebook access: Get poked at 30,000 feet
RadioShack announces Fresh Phone February
Satin Silver PS3 is Sony Japan exclusive from March
Sony Move Server project to push PlayStation Move to PCs
Apple blocks Sony Reader app: new in-app purchase rules could scupper Kindle
Netgear CEO apologizes for Apple comments
Yahoo! Mail cause of Windows Phone 7 phantom data use
Samsung’s Galaxy S2 makes unplanned teaser appearance [Video]
LG confirms Optimus 3D ahead of MWC 2011: 3D camera & HDMI
Apple Posts iOS 4.2.6 Firmware – Verizon iPhone Ahoy!
Honeycomb will Make Android King of Enterprise, So Says Aaron Levie
Verizon Educates Users with Fact Sheet About Data Usage
NOOKcolor Owner Creates Custom BOOKcase
Coming Soon: Monty Python Cow Tossing for your iPhone
Intel Completes Purchase of Infineon
Apple Releases Third beta of iOS 4.3 to Developers
Google Exec Missing In Egypt
GoPro Launches LCD BacPac Detachable Screen
Android Smartphone Sales at 43 Percent and Rising
Beatles Grammy Winning Album and Documentary Debuts Exclusively on iTunes Worldwide
Samsung Issuing Refunds for PCs with Faulty Intel Chipset
Google’s Chrome Passes 10% of Market
FarmVille Cake. What’s Next, Mafia Wars Theme Park?
AT&T Allegedly Over Billing on iPhone and iPad Data Plans
Teen Creates Death Ray with Brightness of 5,000 Suns
Google Latitude Check In Introduced
Call of Duty: Black Ops Offers First Downloadable Content
PinkBerry? RIM Releases Fuschia BlackBerry 3G
Traffic Signals on Trees
Notion Ink Apps Ported to GTab
Honeycomb, Galaxy Tab & the 7-inch stumble [COLUMN]
Anybots telepresence robot now shipping

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