XOOM - 9/13 - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Mar

No More Rumors, It's Official: Wi-Fi XOOM Will Be $599 Starting March 27

Posted by Will Shanklin in News, XOOM

It's another day, and we have yet another bit of news about the Wi-Fi-only Motorola XOOM. Only, this time, the news is nothing less than concrete and final, as Moto themselves announced that the carrier-free version of the the 10.1" beauty will be hitting store shelves on March 27 for $599.

The manufacturer lists the retailers who are lined up to carry the slate later this month, including:

Amazon.com
Best Buy
Costco
RadioShack
Sam's Club (select locations)
Staples
Walmart

While they tell us it will have a $599 price tag, we would recommend keeping an eye on Costco and Sam's Club (if you have a membership already), as they generally sell their goods at lower prices than other retailers.

Mar

Pre-orders For Wi-Fi-only XOOM Live On B&H For $599

Posted by Will Shanklin in News, Rumors, XOOM

A couple of weeks ago, word popped up of a UK site starting to take pre-orders for the Wi-Fi-only version of the Motorola XOOM, being available in early April. Not long after that images leaked of the same model showing up in a Sam's Club training center with a price tag of $539. Not to be outdone, yet another story arose saying office retailer Staples would be supplying the slate for $600 with employee training starting on March 23. Today the rumors take another step into becoming reality, as site B&H is now taking pre-orders for the Wi-Fi model of the Honeycomb debut for $599, making them the first American site (to our knowledge) to offer pre-orders on the carrier-free model.

Mar

[Download] Retro Style BIOS Boot Animation, Now Customized For The Motorola XOOM

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Development, Motorola, News, XOOM

Yesterday, in the first part of the new Boot Animations series here at AP, we posted 5 boot animations that replace those boring stock snoozers your carrier ships your Android phones with.

One of the animations, called N1Bios, showed a BIOS boot screen so nostalgic to all PC owners, customized with some Nexus One info. Yesterday, xda member ihtfp69 created something similar for the Motorola XOOM, complete with XOOM system specs, the word Motorola, and an ASCII Android logo.

Have a look at some screenshots, then proceed to our download mirror, and installation instructions (hint: to save you some time, just rename the downloaded file to bootanimation.zip and copy it to /data/local/ on the XOOM - no root required with this method).

Mar

Adobe Flash 10.2.155.67 For Android Leaked, Includes Honeycomb Compatibility - Download It Now!

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Applications, Gingerbread 2.3, Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, Motorola, News, Verizon Wireless, XOOM

Remember that new version of Flash we reported on this morning? Yeah, well it's still scheduled to roll out on March 18th - one week from today - but thanks to BBCrackman from My Droid World, you can download a leaked copy of version 10.2 now.

Just as promised, it (finally) includes support for Honeycomb, meaning you can now watch South Park, Conan, or any other Flash video on your XOOM. Artem and I briefly played with it on our XOOMs, but unfortunately, we discovered that the experience wasn't without its flaws - video quality wasn't exactly top-notch, some controls were hard to utilize, and no, Hulu still doesn't work.

Mar

[Update: Rooted? Roll Back To Stock] First Motorola XOOM OTA Update Will Prepare It For The Upcoming Flash 10.2 Release; Rollout Starts Tonight

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, Motorola, News, XOOM

As you may know, one of Motorola XOOM's current biggest drawbacks is the absence of Adobe Flash, necessary to view Flash-powered websites and play Flash games. While this feature is widely advertised, Motorola warned us that the tablet would actually ship without Flash support bundled in, but will be updated to include it in a few weeks.

Well, the "in a few weeks" part is almost here, as @Motorola just tweeted that the XOOM's first over-the-air update is slated to start rolling out tonight to get the device fully ready for Flash 10.2. This doesn't mean the Flash Player application will be rolled out - it will likely just show up in the Market when it's ready instead, but it does mean that your XOOM will be ready to have it installed right away.

Mar

Wi-Fi-Only Motorola XOOM May Be Hitting Staples Stores On April 3 [Update: Employee Training March 23]

Posted by Will Shanklin in News, Rumors, XOOM

The latest in a string of rumors about the upcoming Wi-Fi-only version of the Motorola XOOM comes from the team at Droid Life, who say that the carrier-free model may be hitting Staples stores on or around April 3. The same folks are also now reporting another leak from Staples which shows that employees will get the slate in their hands to begin training on March 23.

This dates come from a tip offered up by a Staples insider. Take it as you wish, but this would be consistent with recent postings from UK site PC World, citing early April as the availability date for the UK market.

Mar

Motorola XOOM + Android 3.0 Review: Sweet As Honey

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, Motorola, Reviews, Tablet Reviews, Verizon Wireless, XOOM

Last Updated: February 8th, 2012

The Motorola XOOM: Ever since it was first teased at D: Dive Into Mobile, the Android community hasn't been able to take its eyes off the tablet's dual-core processor, gorgeous 10.1-inch display, and - last but certainly not least - Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) operating system.

Well now the device has officially gone on sale, and I've been ~~testing~~ falling in love with a review unit for the last few days. Typically, I end up hating devices that I adore at first blush, but the XOOM is an entirely different story - the device is far from perfect (where are the tablet apps?), but I have yet to find anything truly upsetting about it.

Mar

Missed The 25% Off XOOM Deal? Hurry And Save $100 From Motorola Now

Posted by Will Shanklin in Deals, News, XOOM

If you are frustrated that you missed the (accidental) $200 off coupon that Motorola temporarily honored for XOOMs last week, we now have something half as good. A coupon code for $100 off ($700 total) is now available to be used at the Motorola online store.

What's that? Stop yakking and tell you how to use it? Okay:

Head over to the Motorola store at this link
Add the XOOM to your cart and begin checkout
When prompted, enter coupon code motoxoom
Wait for your shiny new XOOM to show up in the mail

There's no indication how long this deal will last, so if you're interested, you might want to scoop it up quickly.

Mar

WiFi-only Motorola XOOM Headed to Sam’s Club, Possibly Priced at $539 - Droid Life- A Droid Community Blog

Wi-Fi-Only Motorola XOOM To Cost $539 At Sam's Club?

Posted by Will Shanklin in News, XOOM

It seems like only yesterday we were watching Steve Jobs reveal the second iPad and wondering how Android tablet manufacturers would react (actually, it was yesterday). Now we have news that the Wi-Fi-only version of the Motorola XOOM will be priced at $539 at Sam's Club.

Previous rumors suggested the price for the non-carrier version of the tab would be $600, so this is a bit of a surprise. Of course, wholesale warehouses like Sam's and Costco are usually able to sell for much less than other retailers (they rely mostly on memberships for profit), but this is more of a discount than would typically be expected.

Mar

Wi-Fi XOOM Pre-Orders Now Live in UK: Available Next Month

Posted by Will Shanklin in Honeycomb 3.0/3.1/3.2, News, XOOM

Following an eerie silence regarding the Wi-Fi-only version of the Motorola XOOM after the launch of the Verizon model last week, we heard that it would (at some point) sell for £449.9 in the UK. How quickly things change: it now appears, in a new listing on PC World, that the price has been jacked up to £499.99. Pre-orders are now a go at the UK site, and they promise an availability date of "the first week of April."

Only UK customers can reserve their XOOM now, as we attempted to order from the US, and under the country code option, the only possible entry was "United Kingdom" (no surprise there).