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Feb

Wirefly Unboxes Motorola XOOM: "The Next Generation In Tablet"

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Motorola, News, Verizon Wireless, XOOM

OK, so unboxings aren't exactly the most exciting videos on the web, but when they involve a certain tablet called the "Motorola XOOM," they're definitely worth a look. Such is Wirefly's latest creation:

Items of note:

Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) - boot times seem really fast
10.1-inch 16:10 display - larger than an iPad
1GHz dual-core Tegra 2 processor
32GB of internal storage
2MP front camera
5MP rear camera capable of recording 720p HD video

Interestingly, the video mentions a slot for a 4G SIM card, which is odd since Verizon and Motorola say the XOOM will require a ~~hardware~~ software upgrade to connect to LTE.

Feb

Motorola XOOM Will Cost $599 On Contract, Launching On February 24th [Official]

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Motorola, News, Verizon Wireless, XOOM

Verizon's latest press release confirms rumors that the Motorola XOOM will cost $599 with a 2-year contract and $799 without (though we already knew the latter price thanks to Verizon's website) when it launches this Thursday.

Data contracts will start at $20/month for 1GB of data, with Verizon confirming once again that the XOOM will be upgradeable to 4G LTE in Q2 of 2011 at no extra charge.

Read more about it in the official press release:

MOTOROLA XOOM TABLET TO BE AVAILABLE ON THE VERIZON WIRELESS NETWORK ON FEB. 24

“Best of Show” Winner at 2011 Consumer Electronics Show Delivers the World’s First True Tablet Experience, With Upgrade to 4G LTE in Q2
BASKING RIDGE, N.J., and LIBERTYVILLE, Ill.

Feb

[Updated: Nexus One & Desire] Android 3.0 SDK Preview Ported To The Droid Incredible, EVO, Desire HD - Actually Looks Like Honeycomb

Posted by Zak Stinson in Desire HD (Ace), Development, EVO 4G (Supersonic), Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, Incredible, Videos

Update: If you're a Nexus One or Desire owner and you're feeling a little left out of the Honeycomb SDK fun, I have some good news. The folks over at XDA managed to get a port running on both devices over the weekend. Hit up the links below to check them out and remember, these ports lack the basic functions of a phone and should only be used by people who know what they're doing. Enjoy!

Desire: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=962759

N1: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=961994

(Also, Brian gave the N1 port a shot. He only made it a few minutes before flashing to a normal ROM.

Feb

[Updated] Wirefly Opens Pre-orders For Motorola XOOM: $799.99 With A Month-To-Month Contract, $599.99 2YR

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Motorola, News, Verizon Wireless, XOOM

Last Updated: February 23rd, 2011

Wirefly just opened pre-orders for the highly anticipated Motorola XOOM, the world's first Honeycomb tablet, and like Best Buy, they'll be selling the device for $799.99 on a mandatory one-month contract that will cost a minimum of $20 (oh, and what's up with the "Switch My Existing Wireless Number to my new MOTOROLA XOOM" option?).

In related news, Wirefly lists a February 24th shipping date, though they note that this is "subject to change." Additionally, if you pre-order an unreleased phone along with your XOOM, your whole order will be held until both items are ready to ship (as opposed to something like Amazon's model, where your orders are shipped separately).

Feb

Motorola XOOM User Guide Leaked, Now Available To Download

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, Motorola, News, Tips & Tutorials, Verizon Wireless, XOOM

Sure, you've already spent hours salivating over the Motorola XOOM, checked out some apps built for Android 3.0, and even played with the Honeycomb emulator, but obviously, the one thing you've really been longing for is the XOOM's user guide.

Thanks to Droid Life, you can now sift through that clumsy collection of instructions you never would have read otherwise. Nonetheless, go ahead and download the guide if you so desire; we didn't discover anything previously unknown during our preliminary reading, but who knows - something new and exciting could be contained within!

Download link

Source: Droid Life

Feb

[Rumor] Toshiba's Honeycomb Tablet To Be Called "Antares"

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, News, Rumors, Thrive / Regza / Antares / AT100, Toshiba

Last Updated: April 16th, 2011

Toshiba has already spend a good deal of time talking up its forthcoming Honeycomb tablet, but one thing the company hasn't mentioned - yet - is the device's name. However, if you believe Dutch website TabletGuide.nl, NVIDIA might have spilled the beans - at its MWC booth, the chip maker reportedly showed off a prototype of the tablet loaded with stock Android 2.2. And in the "About phone" section of the Settings app, the tablet listed "Antares" as its model number.

It's worth noting that this may not be the name of the final retail unit - not to mention the fact that a handset's model number isn't always the same as its title.

Feb

Sanjay Jha On Motorola XOOM Pricing: 3G Version Will Cost $799, WiFi-Only Model To Retail For $600

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Motorola, News, Verizon Wireless, XOOM

Told you so - the price of the XOOM will indeed be significantly less than $1,200 (at least according to Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha). In fact, if you decide to take the WiFi-only route, the tablet will cost just $600 - half of the price Best Buy put up (and subsequently took down). 3G connectivity will come with a $199 premium (jacking the price up to $799), though it's worth noting that the XOOM's radio will see an LTE upgrade sometime down the road.

Of course, there's probably one question on your mind: "How does this look next to Apple's pricing?" Well the cost of the WiFi-only model actually compares favorably - a 32 GB WiFi iPad costs $599, so the two tablets will be neck-to-neck.

Feb

LG Announces The Optimus Pad, 8.9 Inches Of Pure Honeycomb

Posted by Brian O'Toole in LG, News, Optimus Pad / G-Slate, Videos

Yesterday's announcement by Samsung of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 might have seemed like something of an echo of the Motorola XOOM. Well, with LG's recent unveiling of the Optimus Pad at MWC, we can still see some resemblance but with a few alterations making it worthy of further attention.

First up, the Optimus Pad refrains from the somewhat popular 10-inch screen diagonal seen on both Motorola and Samsung's tablets. If you have doubts about the handiness of a 10-inch device, it seems that LG shares your sentiments: the Optimus Tab scales the display back to 8.9 inches, while maintaining a similar 1280x760 WXGA resolution.

Feb

[Rumor] Android 2.4 Coming Soon To A Smartphone Near You

Posted by Abhiroop Basu in Gingerbread 2.3, Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, News

Pocket-lint has been told that the Viewsonic ViewPad 4 smartphone will be the first device with Android 2.4 when it launches in April of this year. Android 2.4 was confirmed over a month ago; however, this rumor lends credence to the fact that the update will not be a major release. Instead, the update will augment Android 2.3 (Gingerbread), allowing dual-core apps specifically designed for Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) to work on single-core devices.

Earlier last week, we heard that Honeycomb was designed exclusively for tablets and not for smartphones, though some of its features will be carried over to smartphones. This appears to be in line with Pocket-lint's rumor today.

Feb

Honeycomb's Boot Screen Looks Just As Amazing As The Rest Of The OS

Posted by Nate Kimmey in Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, News, XOOM

It's pretty much universally agreed upon that Honeycomb's UI overhaul looks awesome, with its Tron-inspired holographic UI touching just about every part of the operating system. But what about the boot screen? It turns out that looks just as slick - TechCrunch managed to grab a video of it, and - despite the poor lighting - we can see that it looks nothing like previous versions of Android, which featured the Nexus "X" animation. Check it out in the video below: