We’ve heard both ways concerning Verizon’s LTE data plans being more expensive/the same as their current plans. So this could very well be true. As for the actual release date â€" we’ll have to wait and see. For now, we’ll have to take the Best Buy manager’s word with a grain of salt, regardless of how confident he is. Either way, we want one sooner rather than later.
Tags: Android HTC smartphone thunderbolt Verizon vzw
S^4 was shelved several months back, but the refreshed UI has been ported down to S^3. As far as looks go, it’s still very 2004ish, but honestly it is much better than the current paint Symbian users make do with. Overall, new icons, widgets, pull down notification shades, and plenty of other small tweaks are baked into this new update.
As of now, Nokia hasn’t and won’t provide specifics as to when we’ll see this revamped S^x released or what devices will receive said update. Nokia users, it is what you’ve hoped and dreamed for, or are you focused on the future with WP7?Via: All About Phones
Tags: mobile Nokia os Symbian s^3
With two of the market leaders â€" Amazon and Apple â€" already years ahead of RIM when it comes to catalog size as well as pro-consumer policies in regards to music content, it’s highly disappointing to see RIM start the PlayBook off on such a bad footing out of the gate and not make use of their competitors previous follies. Hopefully RIM can work their magic and re-write the offending licenses and deals neutering their PlayBook music store or flat out find a new partner to deliver the goods. As it stands now, 7Digital is a shackle to an otherwise seemingly great tablet.
Via: Inquirer
Tags: 7digital digital rights management drm playbook RIM
Author: Mike visit my websiteGadget lover, smartphone collector, and beer connoisseur. I've been writing about gadgets for three years now and loving every minute of it. Outside of the digital landscape, I enjoy being active outdoors. I'm always up for a good conversation, so feel free to drop me a line!
Source: Win7ChinaVia: BlogTechnical, Hardwareheaven
Tags: Microsoft windows 8
Author: Mike visit my websiteGadget lover, smartphone collector, and beer connoisseur. I've been writing about gadgets for three years now and loving every minute of it. Outside of the digital landscape, I enjoy being active outdoors. I'm always up for a good conversation, so feel free to drop me a line!
Of course, the phrase “current webConnect plans will be grandfathered…†leads us to believe we could see a price increase and or data allotment decrease â€" far from an ideal scenario. In that light, we’d say hurry up and pay your way in to lock out any immediate price changes. Stay tuned…Via: TmoNews
Tags: broadband tmo tmobile USB web connect
Author: Mike visit my websiteGadget lover, smartphone collector, and beer connoisseur. I've been writing about gadgets for three years now and loving every minute of it. Outside of the digital landscape, I enjoy being active outdoors. I'm always up for a good conversation, so feel free to drop me a line!
There’s no denying that the Motorola XOOM is a sleek device. The cold, dark metals bring a sense of strength and power. At first, the added weight (730g vs. iPad’s 601g) was a slight turn off. But over the course of 24 hours we actually came to enjoy it.
When we say that XOOM is sleek, we mean it. There aren’t many openings in the sides of the device. Starting at the top and moving clockwise we have a sole SIM card slot and headphone jack. Moving to the right side reveals a sparse, barren wasteland of black that seems to go on for miles, eventually leading to the next corner. Down below is where the action happens â€" it is here you’ll find the XOOM’s microUSB and miniHDMI ports as well as contacts for a dock accessory. Swing ’round to the left and final side, a pair of volume up/down buttons signal that the end of the journey is near. If you consider the back in your voyage, you’ll find the XOOM’s 5-megapixel rear-camera w/ flash and two speaker cutouts. The speaker, for those who care, is loud â€" as in really loud. And finally, a power/sleep/lock button.
Overall, the hardware itself is nice. It’s sleek, one of the most powerful tablets on the market, and has a nice, weighty feel to it.
PerformanceIf you had any doubts about single-core 1GHz tablets of 2010, you can be sure that the tablets of 2011 and beyond are completely different machines. Dual-core (now) and quad-core (later) are quickly relegating the typical desktop PC into much smaller parts of our lives. The Motorola XOOM is a perfect example of how a tablet should be hardware wise â€" 1GHz dual-core processor.
And yet, with all of that power system slow downs, lag, and other stutter problems were seen throughout the OS numerous times. Even something as simple as scrolling to the bottom of an email list (with no other apps running) served up rather copious amounts of lag and choppy scrolling. From a bleeding edge tablet with bleeding edge hardware, this is worrisome and disappointing. A first generation iPad with half the memory and cores manages to operate more smoothly through a variety of similar instances without any noticeable lag.
The only thing we can lay blame on is Android 3.0 not being perfectly optimized for this tablet. Hopefully future iterations of 3.x can improve upon this apparent speed issue.
With that opening story, you’d think that everything about the XOOM was slow. But it’s not. More times than not, transitions from screen to screen and app to app were smooth and lightening quick, adding a bit of disbelief and confusion regarding the lag we had been seeing. How could something so powerful perform so well in one instance, and then something as simple as a scrolling list of text get so out of hand? Moving on, the camera and video capture/playback was notable for it’s 720p nature, though not immediately apparent. Video/photo buffs: you won’t be giving up your dedicated gear anytime soon.
Android 3.0 & Apps
However, the new shiny paint and eye candy don’t come without one serious drawback â€" lack of apps. This is more of a problem with tablets and their higher resolutions in general than it is with Android 3.0 not working with an older app. Nevertheless, there’s something very frustrating and disappointing in the fact that there are only a laughable 16 total tablet apps in the Android market. Today. In 2011. If this were the first Android tablet, I could understand that. At the very least though, the Samsung Galaxy Tab should have gotten developers and Googles’ collective efforts on track. As it stands now, the hardware and software of Android are top notch. The lack of 3rd party software at launch is not.
Building on that last paragraph of disdain, we must stress how at this stage in the game, the XOOM excels at web browsing and a few select apps. That’s it.
Music Player and GalleryPerhaps not deserving of its own section to some, many Android and non-Android consumers alike will agree that the stodgy gallery and media player was in dire need of a re-design. Android 3.0 delivers with a new media player that is simply gorgeous. Scrolling through your library can now be done via a Cover Flow-esque method that in our eyes, blends in a bit of Windows 7′s design flare to boot. Listening to music and watching video is now more bearable that the respective apps have caught up.
Verizon 3G (and 4G)Verizon’s network has been tested with every phone review, so there’s no need to beat the skeletal remains of the poor horse. With that said, we must admit we are excited for LTE capabilities in the XOOM. We are not fans of Motorola’s half-baked attempt to rush the XOOM to market with only 3G radios inside, and requiring users to ship said tablet back to them to swap in an LTE radio. Even worse, the process takes an entire week from start to finish. Motorola does regain some points though as the LTE upgrade is completely free of charge.
Battery lifeOn a more positive note, battery life is one aspect of the XOOM that really left me surprised. All too often a great piece of hardware is marred by abysmal runtime whilst away from a power outlet. The first gen iPad uses a single core A4 processor running at ~1GHz. The XOOM uses a dual-core Tegra 2 processor by Nvidia also running at 1GHz. Twice the cores twice the power consumption, right? Wrong. In fact it’s very wrong. The last time we had the XOOM plugged in was yesterday at 4pm and with 95% battery remaining. Today (the next day to us) roughly 19 hours later (and after a multi-hour gaming/web browsing session the night before) our XOOM is still showing 33%. WiFi and 3G are on and the last 6 hours have been spent in a virtual wireless pit meaning both radios are crying out for some wireless lovin’.
Impressed and excited: That’s the Motorola XOOM’s battery life.
Conclusion: Should you buy it?This is a hard decision for a number of reasons. For starters, the XOOM costs $800 off contract, which to us is absurd. $500 on contract is a bit more manageable, but then you’re left to deal with a cellular contract for the next two years â€" also not ideal. Compare this to the iPad’s starting price of $499 for the 16GB iPad and you can see where this is going. The iPad has over 12,000 iPad apps â€" exponentially more than Android. Though at the same time, it’s understood that the same app explosion that happened for smartphone Android apps will happen for tablets too. Time is the only question at this point.
Another thing to consider is your preferences for either OS: Android or iOS. Both are visually dynamic (Android 3.0 at least) and rich. Android is more customizable and “in the users’ hands†whereas the iPad is more of a hands off approach in the same category. The iPad has more apps to entertain you for when the internet, movies, and music get boring.
Accessories play a big roll in deciding larger electronic purchases such as this, and even more so if you’re opting for the VZW-subsidized XOOM. Tablets look like they’ll stick around a bit longer than your typical smartphone (which is ~18 months), and as such accessories will play a deciding factor. There will soon be two different physical models of iPad by the end of 2011. Android tablets: dozens.
Another thing to consider is the whole 4G/LTE mail-in thing. It would have been much better for Motorola to hold off on shipping the XOOM until all the hardware was in place, as these buy it â€" ship it back for upgrades â€" return are far from ideal. Motorola does do right however, and is making the LTE upgrade free.
In the end, we come away from our time with the XOOM on the fence. It is hands down the best looking and performing Android tablet to date. It showcases everything that is awesome within Android 3.0 and some things that are not. The hardware itself is powerful, and yet lag and slow downs still crop up here and there more than they should, signaling to us a misstep somewhere in the hardware or software.
So where does that leave us now? On the fence, really. If you want the honest truth: Wait. There will be many more Android 3.0 tablets to launch this year, and all are pinning for your money. In actuality, it all keeps coming back to apps. The lack of 3rd party “things to do†really shortens the amount of time you can hold the XOOM before getting bored. In 6 months, that story could be very different. Of course, in 6 months we’ll already be on to the next “big thingâ€. Such is the way the consumer electronics world works.
Like*If you have any specific questions, feel free to drop a line in the comments below and we’ll do our best to accommodate you…
**Yes, We left the shipping screen protector on. This XOOM is not mine and I am but one of many who will have the opportunity to wrap their gadget-loving hands around it. As such, I want to keep it as nice as possible for everyone invovled.
GalleryTags: Hardware moto Motorola tablet Verizon xoom
TmoNews has received a letter from T-Mobile to Sidekick owners detailing the exact Sidekick “upgrade†process: 50% off all Samsung phones or a waived ETF. It’s certainly a nice gesture on T-Mobile’s part. But is it enough to retain Sidekick users from the temptations of other carriers and their offerings? Sidekick owners: Sound off!
Via: TmoNews
Tags: danger Microsoft Samsung sidekick smartphone tmobile
Author: Mike visit my websiteGadget lover, smartphone collector, and beer connoisseur. I've been writing about gadgets for three years now and loving every minute of it. Outside of the digital landscape, I enjoy being active outdoors. I'm always up for a good conversation, so feel free to drop me a line!
