Motorola Xoom

[Stu]

Re: Motorola Xoom

Anyone get a wifi xoom? Got one from amazon and delivery should be wednesday. This will be my first android device. Any must have apps/widgets? Any general tips, advice, or good xoom forums to look through?

I picked up the wifi Xoom on Sunday and am loving it so far.

http://www.xoomforums.com is the best forum I have found. XDA developers is also a good resource.

In terms of must haves:

- The Thumb Keyboard is well worth the ~ $2.
- There are some settings in the browser you need to change to get the forums to display in a full browser format instead of mobile format. Xoom forums has a few posts that outline the steps.
- if you're using it for movies I highly recommend dvd catalyst as a tool to convert movies into a Xoom friendly format and size.
- Tapatalk for browsing forums

There aren't a ton of apps that are optimized for tablets yet but more are being added every week. Most of the apps I had on my phone work fine except for a few such as ESPN scorecenter that automatically switch to portrait mode instead of landscape.

There are a few other odd bugs such as the Facebook widget force closing but there aren't that many of these issues that I've found.

I'm still getting used to things but enjoying it so far. let me know if you have any specific questions.

[mudtiger]

Re: Motorola Xoom

Thanks, just got it out of the box. Got the amazon app store installed and poking around the settings. Liking what I'm seeing so far

[Pared]

Re: Motorola Xoom

Someone mentioned there were only 17 tablet specific apps currently available. Is that true?

[mudtiger]

Re: Motorola Xoom

Looks like about 50 now.

Thumb keyboard definitely worth the 2 bucks. Thanks Stu.

[Stu]

Re: Motorola Xoom

Someone mentioned there were only 17 tablet specific apps currently available. Is that true?

Like mudtiger said there's about 50 right now that are tablet specific. I've only found a handful of phone apps that don't work correctly on the tablet though.

[mudtiger]

Re: Motorola Xoom

I got mine mostly to be a couch surfing tool so I don't have to squint at my iPhone, so the current lack of tablet specific apps isn't going to bother me too much.

After 4 hours getting accustomed to android, I'm really starting to like it. Also that thumb keyboard needs to be a tablet app out of the box. Can't imagine trying to type without it after one night with the zoom.

[Stu]

Re: Motorola Xoom

I'm in the same boat. Mostly use it for web browsing, movies and as an ereader. I'm going to Ireland in a few weeks so will really put it to good use on the flight.

[Pared]

Re: Motorola Xoom

How is the battery life?

[Stu]

Re: Motorola Xoom

How is the battery life?

Excellent so far but I haven't really had an extended period of heavy use. I'm at 1d, 5h of battery time right now and the battery is at 78%. Most of that time has been in airplane mode with the screen off though. Probably only around 3-4 hours of actual usage.

My trip to ireland will be the true test as I'll be watching movies and reading for an extended period of time.

[Pared]

Re: Motorola Xoom

That's much better than what I've read elsewhere.

Did you do some allowances like turn everything off, etc?

[Stu]

Re: Motorola Xoom

That's much better than what I've read elsewhere.

Did you do some allowances like turn everything off, etc?

The only thing I've done is put it in airplane mode which shuts off the WiFi and GPS I believe. It barely uses anything when in airplane mode and the screen is off. Only dropped 1% in the last 5 hours. The screen is by far the biggest drain on the batter from what I've seen. 60% of my battery usage is from the screen.

I'm thinking I'll get about 12-15 hours of moderate to heavy use.

[Pared]

Re: Motorola Xoom

Hey if you can (I don't know your usage habits) can you give me an idea on the life of wifi browsing?

Don't necessarily need to have flash on (if it's available) just want to know how long it would last on one charge ONLY web browsing.

Thanks man.

[mudtiger]

Re: Motorola Xoom

3-4 hours last night browsing, customizing, installing and trying various apps, I think I maybe dropped to around 50%. That was straight out of the box and I wasn't at 100% to start with.

After charging overnight, then about 3 total hours of use during the day and tonight, I"m at 70% on the battery.

[mudtiger]

Re: Motorola Xoom

After another couple hours I'm at 54% so I could believe 7 to 10 hours battery life. I have very little running in the background.

[hogfan]

Re: Motorola Xoom

The Asus EEe Transformer is suppose to be released this month. It was up initially on Best Buy's website for $400... Very similar specs to the XOOM. It will also have a keyboard dock that comes with a battery itself to help double battery life that can be purchased extra(rumor has it around $100). It also closed like a netbook/laptop with the keyboard attachment unlike the iPad 2(from what I've read).

Early hands on impressions have been very favorable.