Android Honeycomb Tablet OS is official. This does not suck! (1 Viewer)

[DaveF]

You underestimate my frugality (I'm disinclined to spend another $15 / mo on another data device.) But practically, for my specific uses, my iPad will be used almost solely at home. The occaisional business trip or vacation might need 3G for me, but I don't see it as that big a deal and even then there's free wifi almost everywhere on such trips. My wife, however, will need 3G for in the car on vacations. Depending on how that goes, it's not hard to imagine paying for 3G six of every 12 months for her device.


But I am thinking of getting a Verizon iPad, as hedge against our AT&T iPhones.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Originally Posted by Hanson Yoo


_Man_

 

[DaveF]

I'm assuming (predicting?) there will be a CDMA iPad 2 that works identically to the current 3G iPad. No mifi. No contract. A la carte data, but on Big Red's network. If not, I'll be with AT&T 100%.


As for the Xoom: it's out this Thursday? Think BestBuy will have demo units on the floor? Or will they treat it with the same care and concern they give their flagship phones: an inoperable plastic dummy, zip-tied to a kiosk.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Is the Xoom really coming out this week? Guess the launch date hadn't really sunk in for me yet.


I'll need to go check it out at the V store that's located in the same shopping center as the nearest (new) BB. So Costco's carrying it asap too? Maybe that's the better way to go if for no other reason than a potentially better return policy, especially if you wanna try the WiFi-only option.


_Man_

 

[Sam Posten]

It's on sale now and the reviews are out, generally positive but kinda meh...

“ RT @Gartenberg: Like many products, Xoom would be a killer device in a world where Apple was bought by Sun in 1996”

 

[DaveF]

Engadget has a nice review.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/23/motorola-xoom-review/


Lots to like. Some UI oddities. Suffers a lack of native software. No detail on how a la carte 3G works with Verizon on the Xoom. But generally, getting that UI guy from Palm is now paying off and coupled with Motorola's competent hardware, it's a nice device.



But on behalf of all iPod and iPhone owners, I wish to apologize to you Android users who will now be suffering with a Coverflow-like experience in your music player.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

I'm probably gonna see about checking it out at a local V store in the coming week or two.


BTW, Costco still offers a 90-day no-questions-asked return policy on this kind of item near as I can tell, so that would likely indeed be the best way to go, if anyone wants to give one a good trial run before committing to the purchase, assuming of course that you have Costco membership (or was already considering one)...


One thing. I wonder how the contract thing is handled though, if you decide to return it after 30 days, since V itself usually only allows 30 days for returns. Probably not an issue for the WiFi-only version or if you simply go w/out contract.


_Man_

 

[DaveF]

I was wondering how the Xoom would view its own website. Now I know


http://www.flickr.com/photos/26574892@N07/5475257624/lightbox/

 

[DaveF]

Hanson was right: Moto was desperate to ship the Xoom before it was ready. * Flash not ready * microsd not functional until a pending firmware update * 4G requires requesting the upgrade and shipping it back to Moto for week http://www.droid-life.com/2011/02/23/official-details-of-the-4g-lte-upgrade-process-for-the-motorola-xoom/

 

[Hanson]

Originally Posted by Sam Posten

It's on sale now and the reviews are out, generally positive but kinda meh...

Both Moss and Engadget go into detail about the price disadvantage between a $499 wifi only iPad and the $799 off-contract Xoom seemingly unaware of the $599 wifi only Xoom and the $599 3G Xoom with contract. I know a lot of these reviews are written well before the street date and published just as they hit the stores, but you would think they would quickly revise the article in light of the new pricing that came out just before Xoom dropped.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Given the various skewed price comparisons, I gotta wonder what kind of marketshare goes to the 16GB wifi-only iPad.


Are there really all that many people who'd spend that kind of $$$ on an iPad (plus whatever apps, accessories, etc.) and not just spend the extra $100 on the 32GB instead? Afterall, it's not like you can upgrade the memory later like you can w/ a traditional computer (or w/ other non-iOS devices).


Sounds a bit more like some bloggers making something out of pretty much nothing all that meaningful unless there's actual data to warrant the whining... I mean concern...


_Man_

 

[Sam Posten]

It's their fault that Moto and the carriers can't get their shit together to put out a cohesive storyline? AI covers pricing a bit better than either of the two you list...


http://www.suntimes.com/technology/ihnatko/3992213-452/hands-on-review-how-does-motorola-xoom-compare-to-ipad.html


BTW, here's the Money Quote from Ihnatko's review:

But the state of the tablet world is still a simple one from a consumer perspective. Any tablet without an Apple logo on it has to provide a fast and clear answer to the question “But why would I buy this instead of an iPad?”

And other than poorly defined 'Open source' philosophical hand waving, we don't have a good answer...

 

[DaveF]

I've said this ad nauseum, so forgive me My dad wants an Android tablet because we're informed there will be true Remote Desktop support, which he can use for work. And presumably it will be a good match to his Droid Whatever. So while I'm Apple Man , I'm watching the Android tablets to help him choose one.


And so now we've got a real contender. Except I can't recommend it because it obviously shipped three months before it was ready, and there's no 3rd party software or services for it. So I'm trying to find an Android tablet for my dad to buy, and there's still nothing even after a big launch.


I'll probably have my iPad 2 and can investigate Remote Desktop apps well before there's a worthwhile Android tablet to recommend to my dad...and maybe give him a good reason to buy an iPad instead.



When the Xoom gets its Flash and 4G and microSD support and developers have made some nice native apps, it's going to be quite intriguing. And hopefully the likes of Andy Ihnatko will do a Rev B review. But that's going to be this Summer when out-of-box units are the "real" device with no post-purchase rework needed.



Until then, if anyone buys an Android tablet and finds a great Windows Remote Desktop app for it, please let me know so I can check it out and tell my dad about it

(Or, if there's a true iPad RD app that doesn't require a third-party helper app, I'm keenly interested.)

 

[mattCR]

Originally Posted by DaveF

I've said this ad nauseum, so forgive me My dad wants an Android tablet because we're informed there will be true Remote Desktop support, which he can use for work. And presumably it will be a good match to his Droid Whatever. So while I'm Apple Man , I'm watching the Android tablets to help him choose one.


And so now we've got a real contender. Except I can't recommend it because it obviously shipped three months before it was ready, and there's no 3rd party software or services for it. So I'm trying to find an Android tablet for my dad to buy, and there's still nothing even after a big launch.


I'll probably have my iPad 2 and can investigate Remote Desktop apps well before there's a worthwhile Android tablet to recommend to my dad...and maybe give him a good reason to buy an iPad instead.



When the Xoom gets its Flash and 4G and microSD support and developers have made some nice native apps, it's going to be quite intriguing. And hopefully the likes of Andy Ihnatko will do a Rev B review. But that's going to be this Summer when out-of-box units are the "real" device with no post-purchase rework needed.



Until then, if anyone buys an Android tablet and finds a great Windows Remote Desktop app for it, please let me know so I can check it out and tell my dad about it

(Or, if there's a true iPad RD app that doesn't require a third-party helper app, I'm keenly interested.)

Well, while the Android may also get it, I have several clients who use iTap with no issues for RDP support.


http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/itap-rdp-remote-desktop-for/id317062064?mt=8


IF iTap can upgrade and support RemoteFX, now that it's part of SP1 for 7/Server2008R2, it could be some pretty cool stuff down the way...

 

[DaveF]

Thanks, I'll look at it. The five or so apps we tried over Xmas required a helper app on the client computer. And it required the user to already be logged into the client computer. None could reach out to a computer with that was fully logged-out (and/or sleeping) and connect as true RD can.


If this does it, it's what my dad wants. Hopefully they've got a demo version I can try out.

 

[mattCR]

No. Itap requires no helper app. Just straight RDP, works fine with 2003/2008 server or desktops if they have port forwarding etc. enabled.

 

[DaveF]

Thanks. They've got an Android version too, I see


When tax season is over, I think he'll be interested in playing with this again. I'm bookmarking iTap to revisit.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Originally Posted by Sam Posten

It's their fault that Moto and the carriers can't get their shit together to put out a cohesive storyline? AI covers pricing a bit better than either of the two you list...


http://www.suntimes.com/technology/ihnatko/3992213-452/hands-on-review-how-does-motorola-xoom-compare-to-ipad.html


BTW, here's the Money Quote from Ihnatko's review:



And other than poorly defined 'Open source' philosophical hand waving, we don't have a good answer...

Nice, nuanced review although not quite complete since it doesn't touch on one of Honeycomb's potential killer apps, ie. latest 3D/smart-caching version of Google Maps/Nav. Also, it sounds like a thoroughly complete review of any of these tablets should require spending a good deal of "live-in" time, including using it on-the-go a lot in different settings. And since no mention is made regarding Google Maps/Nav (nor all that much else that clearly resembles on-the-go usage), I'm guessing the reviewer did not really do that (all that much anyway).


And although I can "see" what he means about the vertical screen real estate problem of using it in landscape mode for web browsing and such, I gotta wonder if that's really the best way to use a tablet for those things anyway. Seems like it might be more natural to go portrait mode much of the time, including web surfing, if you're going to use any tablet at all. Of course, the iPad's aspect ratio might still be better in that regard (outside of watching movies and such).


I guess given the size and pixel res of these tablets, there's always the temptation to try to use them like conventional laptops and stick w/ landscape mode -- and stick w/ web surfing at 100% magnification. Since I haven't spent any substantial time w/ a tablet myself, I'm not too sure how I'd end up using one either. Maybe I too would rather just stick w/ web surfing at 100% magnification instead and thus feel forced to stay in landscape mode for that (to avoid a lot of horizontal scrolling). OR maybe I'd be fine surfing at 100% even in portrait mode (w/ just 800 horizontal pixels) and live w/ the amount of scrolling I'd need to do (like now on my Blackberry running Bitstream Bolt browser). OR maybe ~75% magnification makes a plenty good compromise, ie. my usual ~1024 resize down to 800.


Even for something like turn-by-turn driving nav w/ Google Maps/Nav, I wonder if portrait mode wouldn't actually be better for something this size. And if that actually makes Google Maps/Nav that much more of a killer app, then I just may be sold on it.

Originally Posted by DaveF

I've said this ad nauseum, so forgive me My dad wants an Android tablet because we're informed there will be true Remote Desktop support, which he can use for work. And presumably it will be a good match to his Droid Whatever. So while I'm Apple Man , I'm watching the Android tablets to help him choose one.


And so now we've got a real contender. Except I can't recommend it because it obviously shipped three months before it was ready, and there's no 3rd party software or services for it. So I'm trying to find an Android tablet for my dad to buy, and there's still nothing even after a big launch.


I'll probably have my iPad 2 and can investigate Remote Desktop apps well before there's a worthwhile Android tablet to recommend to my dad...and maybe give him a good reason to buy an iPad instead.



When the Xoom gets its Flash and 4G and microSD support and developers have made some nice native apps, it's going to be quite intriguing. And hopefully the likes of Andy Ihnatko will do a Rev B review. But that's going to be this Summer when out-of-box units are the "real" device with no post-purchase rework needed.



Until then, if anyone buys an Android tablet and finds a great Windows Remote Desktop app for it, please let me know so I can check it out and tell my dad about it

(Or, if there's a true iPad RD app that doesn't require a third-party helper app, I'm keenly interested.)

Personally, I wouldn't let that stop me from considering the Xoom -- don't let your iOS bias influence the decision too much. Those issues may not really matter much, if at all, to your dad. Going iPad wouldn't give him 4G/LTE service at least as far as we know nor would it give him memory expansion support (nor Flash).


Maybe he'll find that he doesn't actually need 4G/LTE at all and can take his time w/ doing the free upgrade, if at all. And if V does actually charge more for 4G/LTE (or offer less at the same price) or it ends up killing battery life or have other issues, then it may not be all that desirable anyway. The other stuff seems to be just software upgradeable and won't require spending time w/out the tablet.


In the end, it's probably still best to simply guide your dad toward the actual solution(s) that suit *him* best. Maybe that's the iPad (and whatever add-ons), but maybe the Xoom (or some other Android) is still the best for *him*...


_Man_

 

[DaveF]

Originally Posted by ManW_TheUncool


Personally, I wouldn't let that stop me from considering the Xoom -- don't let your iOS bias influence the decision too much. _Man_

I can't recommend a product that's shipped obviously incomplete. I'm not wired for that If it comes up sooner than later, I'll suggest waiting a bit to see how the Xoom fares after its updates and what other tablets come out. I think by the time he's ready to buy, the Xoom will have Flash and the microSD slot working. The 4G may not be a concern.


He really liked the iPad. But we couldn't find a sufficient RDP app that worked as needed (or like the one on his Android phone), and we were informed by family friend who's IT savvy that the iPad would never get a proper RDP solution (but Android tablets would). Based on Matt's recommendation, our friend may have been misinformed or had outdated info.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Originally Posted by DaveF

Google Maps is a great utility, and the revisions will only make it better. But is 3D city views and smart caching a "killer app"? Who is the person that buys a Xoom because it can show 3D city maps a bit faster than an iPad? (FWIW, I think Android phone's killer apps are Voice Nav in Google Maps and integrated Speech Recognition for all text input.)

My point was the reviewer completely ignored this aspect of the Android solution, not just the specifics of the latest Google Maps (and what comes w/ it). It just doesn't sound like he spent quite that much time w/ it for on-the-go usage. And no, I'm not saying the 3D thing is what would make it "killer" either (although it probably adds to a more subjectively impressive, finer experience, which is probably part of the equation for many) -- the smart-caching (w/ vectorized data), OTOH, certainly would make it that much closer to becoming a potential killer app though.


Now, I'm not saying the 10" Xoom is actually ideal for that anyway -- as Hanson already begged to differ and feel 7" is better -- but it just doesn't seem like that reviewer has actually broken away enough from a traditional/conventional outlook on computing devices to make full use of the tablet and thus provide a very complete review of the Xoom. It's still a nice, nuanced review like I said -- and he does seem to touch on some tablet-centric aspects -- but not really all that complete IMHO.


Another thing I'd like to know is how do all these different tablet solutions perform when doing concurrent tasks like videophone + something else you might actually want to do while on that call. The iPad doesn't have FaceTime yet, but when it finally does, will it actually handle that smoothly or be limiting (essentially falling back to single-tasking)? And the Xoom? Afterall, videophone + something else (like writing a few quick notes, emails, etc) would seem like a potentially important aspect of the tablet experience. You can do videophone on a smartphone, but you can't really do anything else while on that call on the smartphone. And videophone hasn't really taken off w/ the advent of the netbook either, so will tablets seal the deal for that?


Part of the reason I ask these things is that they are not easy to assess in the store. I tried checking out Google Maps/Nav on a Droid X in a V store, but that won't get one very far since you can't actually go anywhere w/ it inside a V store. Likewise, trying to test out videophone capability at the store isn't easy since I don't yet know many folks who can test it out w/ me from the other end of a call -- probably would be easier though if it was the iPhone at an Apple Store since I imagine they may well have things set up just for that while other smartphone/tablet stores may be much more lacking in that respect...


_Man_