yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Xoom General] hi_its_ryan:
I'm not sure I understand why in some people's mind Motorola should have manufactored a bunch of 3g Xoom's and just sat them in a warehouse whilst twiddling their thumbs and squandering the market advantage they could have over Samsung, RIM, HP, HTC, etc instead of releasing said tablets at the pricepoint that they clearly intend the 3g/4g 32GB Xoom to be at in their full lineup.

You ALWAYS release the flagship version first in cases where production is limited (as it will pretty much always be when launching on a new OS platform with cutting edge hardware). ALWAYS. This has been a standard practice in the tech industry for decades.

No one is forcing anyone to buy now kids. No one forced me to buy mine.
[Xoom General] tsekh501:
And you know what? Pick a random mom on the street, get her to the Apple store. You don't even have to consider the Xoom as an option. Put iPad 1 and 2 together, tell her what's new on the iPad 2, how much faster and better it is. She probably would still get the $399 16GB WiFi-only iPad 1. That price is killer.

Motorola may throw in a 16GB WiFi-only Xoom to match the 16GB WiFi-only iPad 2 $499 price. But I don't think, in the near future, there will be ANY non-crappy Honeycomb tablet that can match the $399 iPad 1 price. Not with that build quality anyway. Heck, I highly doubt that Motorola can even afford to match the $499 price. They would probably do $549 or $599 for 16GB WiFi-only.
[Xoom General] Poloasis:
The only reason I don't have a Xoom yet was because of today and I'm all set for my next tablet purchase. As an owner of the first iPad, never own an iPhone and a current Fascinate user and I'm going with the Ipa...oops, my bad the Xoom lol

You can clearly saw what they did at the beginning of the event is to display that Honeycomb has only 100+ apps. This is not a fair comparison since the 1st gen iPad had about that much too when it first ship. But lets wait about 3 to 5 months, the count will be in the thousand if not more.

Just to summarize, this is just a faster first gen iPad.
[Xoom General] muyoso:
Not to mention that Apple is selling iPad1's refurbished at $349 right now. And their refurbished products are top quality. Its insane how much they are killing Android tablet makers with price.

I think the reason is that they have confidence that they will sell millions while Motorola and Samsung do such limited manufacturing runs that they have to keep the price high to compensate. Sad.
[Xoom General] muyoso:
Actually the first gen iPad had over 2000 apps the day before launch. They didn't rush it out the DAY after the SDK was released like Motorola did.
[Xoom General] gogol:
+1 on this, agreed.

Spec does not really matters on high end device like iPad vs Xoom.

They are "more than enough" to use and enjoy.

Like SD card, it is nice to have ... but I like the 64GB internal storage.

Don't forget the nice IPS display, Xoom display is pathetic.

Google should concentrate on the "function", like video, entertainment, games. Apps, apps, apps and apps QUICKLY! Real tablet apps, especially those entertainment apps.

Right now, my only hope is the upcoming Samsung 8.9" which will be announced next March 22:

http://www.samsunghub.com/2011/03/01/samsung-8-9-inch-tablet-set-for-march-22-unveiling/

That's my hope ...

8.9" seems right, not too big and should be lighter than Xoom.

And really really really hope it has nicer display like SUPER AMOLED PLUS.

And 64 GB model (and/or SD-card)

If that's happen ... bye bye Xoom / iPad 2 :)
[Xoom General] funnycreature:
Has anyone who owns the iPad any experience with the Office programs they offer? They sound like powerful little tools... Once this is available for the Android community it will be perfect! Who cares about GarbageBand and iShmovie?!?! ;)
[Xoom General] jkat797:
I have the ipad and have experienced 3 different android phones. Although the xoom is awesome, if u already have an android, ipad all the way!
[Xoom General] Jrockttu:
According to rumors around these parts, Best Buy employees pay around $550. Back when I worked a BBY several years ago, the employee discount was BBY's cost +5%. This leads us to believe that Motorola had room to work with in setting the MSRP at $799. They chose not to compete with the iPad on price, and thus they sealed their own fate.
[Xoom General] hi_its_ryan:
'Sky is falling' posts are even better than the 'not enough honeycomb apps' posts for pure entertaining stupidity
[Xoom General] Lady756:
What's wrong with doing that? You have different tiers of products. I would buy a Xoom in a heartbeat if it had lower resolution cameras, no 4g, lower memory (my hairdryer has more memory than my iPad, but my iPad works great), no built-in HDMI. It's a bunch of specs that I don't need/want and I'm sure a lot of other people don't need/want half of it.
[Xoom General] hi_its_ryan:
Because you ALWAYS lead with your flagship product if you can't produce multiple lines right off the bat.
[Xoom General] muyoso:
The thing is, they wouldn't have to drop pretty much any features to hit the same price points as the iPad. Drop the storage down to 16gb and drop the 3g/4g and you could easily hit the price point. They use a cheaper screen (at least it should be) than the iPad and they don't use aluminum throughout which has to be more than the plastic especially considering manufacturing costs.
[Xoom General] mjpacheco:
Same replay I heard 9 months ago for phone apps. I do not hear that story anymore, and it will soon be true in the Android Table ecosphere.

It so weird to see the Microsoft - Apple wars play out all over again, and we know how that ended.

Open environment will always prevail over closed. Yes, is messier and crazier but always more fun... except for grandma's.
[Xoom General] Bizdady:
Xoom justs needs to hurry up with their wifi only model so they can compete.
[Xoom General] boingboingbilly:
This. Love my Xoom, but without the good content it is not really all that great. Specs, schmecks - it is about the experience and the one on the iPad is better right now.
[Xoom General] PeterC1031:
A recurring mantra with Android users is: "wait and see... it'll come." You never know how long you're going to wait or if it will ever come... it's mostly speculation.

Apple's strategy today was: "here's what we've been working on... and you can have it as early as next week!"

There, too, was a lot of speculation about the iPad2 before today but the announcement today showed what was real and what wasn't. But the biggest things are that their device is fully functional as far as their intentions and will be available soon.

With the Android tablets, the Xoom was released before it was ready, hence the lack of apps, flash, and even a working SD slot... probably due to trying to beat Apple's iPad 2 release. But things arene't fully working, there are bugs to work out, and not enough apps... but many are optimistic that it will come, just wait and see. The Android is clearly better... yet, no one hasn't been able to articulate what makes Honeycomb clearly better than iPad. What can it do better? How is it more productive? How is it more like a PC vs the iPad which is more like a big phone? Etc? Many statements are made or we are told to do the research ourselves but there are no clear distinctions...

Apple, on the other hand, has shown their product, produced nice videos demonstrating both the product, it's apps, and their tablet being used.

For those who like to tinker and learn things for themselves, that is fine... but people like that, people like us, are very few and far between. Make it easy to understand for the common person. Make it easy to explain to other people. Make it easy to show how it works.

Also, by the time Android tablets are in a place to "take over" the iPad, you could buy and enjoy the iPad as early as next week and use it until something better comes out, and sell it at a good resale value just because it is an Apple product.

So, please, don't talk about what may be in the future. Show me how it's better now and it makes my life easier, better, faster, more enjoyable... The cutting edge is all about what's going on now and changing and adapting to the fast-changing landscape of technology. Please show me how/why Android is better.

I am looking for a laptop replacement for my wife and want what's best for her. Every time I ask why Honeycomb is better, I am given generalizations and no specifics. I keep asking because I want to resist Apple for as long as I can but I'm not getting much help here... so please help :)
[Xoom General] joshua.lyon:
I have to admit, I agree with PeterC1031.

People will buy the iPad 2 in hoards... The Xoom is awesome and it's a great start for Android Tablets. It will push up the level of competition and force both sides to innovate, but it honestly doesn't do much more than an iPad does (at this point in time) and it costs a lot more.

That being said, I'm really looking forward to the Wifi Xoom coming out. My Notion Ink Adam has tided me over, but I'm a bit jealous of my friends with Xooms.
[Xoom General] clandest:
Peter go to Verizon store and play with one of the displays. They have xooms and the first Gen I pad. You know what you are looking for so when you are using the display model, look for those things. Honeycomb is a more desktop feel then the ipad. But go to their store and spend 30 min actually getting to know tthe device and compare to the ipad that would be 5 ft away.
[Xoom General] Eclair~:
After looking at the games iPad page: http://www.apple.com/ipad/from-the-app-store/games.html#internal-nav

I think this is the first time I've been somewhat jealous of the device =/
[Xoom General] HorsexD:
two words, Tegra Zone
[Xoom General] ashura3:
Some great, rational posts on what makes an iPad 2 pretty attractive compared to a Xoom right now. I'm satisfied with my Xoom for now and am keeping it, but I'm definitely jealous of:

The multitude of tablet apps the iPad has right now. The length-of-time-it's-been-out argument is BS because, as it's been noted several times, Apple released the SDK way before the product came out leading to about 2000 tablet apps at launch.

The weight and size. I really wish the Xoom was lighter.

That awesome looking, super thin, functional case.

The price.

The IPS screen. I use nothing but IPS monitors at work and home and have an SAMOLED screen on my phone so I'm used to amazing viewing quality and black levels. Not having that experience on my tablet is a big bummer and I can definitely notice the difference.

The first and last points are probably my biggest issues. Like I said, I'm keeping my Xoom. My life is already very google centric and I have no intention of tapping into the Apple ecosystem. Plus, I was able to get in on the $650 deal and my thinking might be different if I had to pay $800+. But definitely lots of things to be jealous about.
[Xoom General] lstrike:
Uhhhh...the Xoom is aluminum. The upper portion where the camera sits is soft touch plastic.

I really love post full of fiction. A few BS half assed blogs said it was plastic and now people who haven't held one parrot that as if it is fact.

The device feels great in the hand. Say what you want about Honeycomb being half baked but the hardware is really nice. That being said Apple is a marketing machine and the Ipad will certainly outsell the Xoom but it won't be because of plastic...

I own a couple of Ipads and a Xoom. The ipads screen is better at angles but brightness is very close. Hardware wise relating to cost, bonus of 4g upgrade, SD card slot and higher spec cameras slighter higher Res screen. It really probably isn't all that bad for the extra 70. Also the wifi only spec will have GPS on board whereas wifi only pad doesn't.

Both are nice devices the Xoom has tons of potentially even over what was delivered.
[Xoom General] skullvet:
Look how long the iPad has been out. Look how long iOS has been out. Android has made leaps and bounds on Apple in a short time. Apple is limited to one device, Android is all over the place on every carrier all over the world. Apple did the same thing to themselves in 1984. Android will catch up with Apple as far as apps go and will most likely pass them up within a year or so.
[Xoom General] PeterC1031:
Besides Honeycomb, what are you jealous of the Xoom over the Adam?

Up until today, my first choice was the Adam for the Pixel Qi (debatable to many people), weighted curve for lighter feel, USB ports, and the swivel camera. Now I'm at a toss up between the Adam and iPad2.
[Xoom General] Paradox5582:
...and according to iFixit the frame is magnesium.
[Xoom General] lstrike:
Things that are better for ME about stock Honeycomb vs iOS (I have both)

-notifications

-widgets

-tighter integration with services. Example is if I am in the gallary and want to upload a pic to picassa no problem share brings up the service, along with twitter and other photo sharing services, that type of integration is not built into ios. Sure I can still to that using a seperate app but it is not as eligant or fast a process.

-ability to use the device as a mass storage device to load whatever I want.

-torrenting software available for uh....stuff this of course speaks to the open nature of the os

Just a few of the things that make me prefer honeycomb right now. That being said honeycomb could still use some polish and man I miss netflix. I keep the I pad for now just for that...
[Xoom General] lstrike:
Meant the back cover which was being called plastic.
[Xoom General] stanglx:
Finally someone who is not tainted and gives an honest, pragmatic assessment..

I would like to add to that thought... I just sold my GTablet... By far right now the most hackable of all the Android tablets... I have a development background (Java, C, .Net, etc.) and also have a strong Linux background... as you have already realized probably why I gravitated towards the android platform as my first tablet.... Now you ask "why did you just sell your GTablet?"

1. It had a horrible screen - biggest factor

2. Even though I loved the hacking and developing I found my self doing that more then actually using the tablet.

3. I got tired of chasing these minor issues (crashing, components just not working to spec, etc)

4. Limited applications - and this was running Froyo not optimized for tablets

5. Limited applications - Most applications in the Google Market are crap. 20% I would consider high quality, unique, user friendly applications.. The rest should have never been allowed to be posted

6. Fragmentation of the platform - I found numerous times even when doing some of my own prototyping of the SDK inconsistencies - especially when It came to the implementation on various devices. This is now further seen with the fragmentation of the tablet and phone platform. This can be a killer..

7. Im not a fan of the development tools but I am spoiled with the Microsoft tool set..

For all of this I felt at least the GTablet is not what I wanted... I figured I would by the XOOM. I love JAVA, I LOVE the android platform (openness mostly). BUT I was very upset to see they did not have the WIFI version and the price was astronomical being the underdog. That put me on the fence for the iPAD 2.

I have to think to myself - Do I buy the tablet to tinker or use? In my life I deal with enough software tinkering... Do I need another tinkerer to just rob me of my daily life? Maybe... (I am a geek at heart)...

Soo.. I listed my priorities:

1. Screen - must must must

2. Performance - Must be smooth, no hickups, plays your average game at a decent frame rate.

3. Applications - must must must - I want QUALITY applications - not high school hacker applications (yes the Google Market is filled with these)

4. Portability - Light enough, large enough

5. Support - I want regular updates, I want to know when there is an issue I dont want to have to fix it myself OR beg a xda developer to fix it.

6. Value - It must be value add... It must be competitive... It must be reasonable priced.

Sooo.. the more and more I look at the priorities TODAY the Ipad 2 is the better fit... Tomorrow maybe not... Maybe Motorola will change my mind in the next few weeks.. Lets see.. But the Ipad meets my list above - the XOOM meets most but not all.. and fails in some.

Net net is... XOOM is just good hardware with an OS that has great potential.. today that is it... the Ipad 2 is truly a well tuned, mature, overall well vetted platform.

Im still on the fence...

Motorola - Apple just said check... Whats your next move?
[Xoom General] Paradox5582:
I wasn't disagreeing with you, I was just adding info. It definately is not cheaply made.
[Xoom General] brucewilsonpa:
Steve said Mar 11 but according to the Apple site Mar 11 is when it can be "pre-ordered" with delivey dates left blank
[Xoom General] Old MuckenMire:
Hey Einstein, the Moto Xoom back IS made of Aluminum...

http://www.mobiletechreview.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Number=40078

http://www.bgr.com/2011/02/16/hands-on-with-the-motorola-xoom-video/
[Xoom General] brucewilsonpa:
But there were a lot of duplicates with the initial I pad apps and I never did like'the iPhone apps on the i ipad whereas a lot of older Android apps work OK on Xoom. I agree the Xoom is hindered by the rush to market but I can see why Motorola & Google did it - a maketing decision to have a 80% Xoom in a lot hands before Apple could intro IP2
[Xoom General] lstrike:
Cool, agreed the device is solid. Motor did a good job with the hardware but Honeycomb could use some optimising to really make it amazing. It is pretty good as is but could use some smoothing out.
[Xoom General] brucewilsonpa:
Lots of flaming back and forth but why do see Android proponents as "sheep"? you're sounding a lot'like a fangirl!
[Xoom General] Old MuckenMire:
Okay dude, you're wrong too!

The back of the Xoom is ALUMINUM! It's list under step 6.

"While the larger lower portion is made of aluminum, the upper part is made of plastic."

http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Motorola-Xoom-Teardown/4989/1
[Xoom General] Eclair~:
Oh wow. So... we already have an aluminum Android tablet.
[Xoom General] DatterBoy:
That's how you know who the real winner is. iPad is winning. Don't see android doing much to win that war yet.
[Xoom General] DatterBoy:
For me it is the last point. My Nook Color has IPS and it is far more beautiful and bright than the XOOM is. For what you are paying, this is a travesty and side by side cannot compete with IPS.
[Xoom General] CB620:
I have a xoom and I'm still getting a ipad2
[Xoom General] justabrake:
where did you get that the ipad2 had only 512 Ram ?
[Xoom General] serialtoon:
Xoom doesn't have ios though. Lol win?
[Xoom General] lstrike:
He said the frame. The frame is magnesium the back cover is aluminum the upper portion of the back is soft touch plastic.
[Xoom General] Lady756:
I don't believe I was talking about "Android proponents". I believe I was talking about Android sheep. There's a difference.
[Xoom General] Old MuckenMire:
You have a link regarding this "magnesium frame"?

Besides, the original comment that started this was that the iPad was made of Aluminum and the Xoom cheap plastic, which is incorrect. Period.

and I just re-read the entire ifixt tear-down again and I don't even see a reference to a frame on the Xoom, let alone a magnesium made one...
[Xoom General] Eclair~:
Hmmm, for those who must have an IPS display.. you're going to be sticking with the iPad for some time. No upcoming Android tablets have IPS screens. Hopefully the screen Samsung provides on their Galaxy Tab 10.1 will suffice.
[Xoom General] PeterC1031:
I did go to Best Buy yesterday to check out the Xoom for the first time. I was excited to try out Honeycomb. I've played with an iPad a little bit before and I've been watching videos and reading about Android... I don't have a smartphone.

Anyways, I liked playing around on the Xoom, swiping around different screens, and trying to get to know what the Xoom was like.

Besides the pretty and futuristic looking GUI, there was nothing that made me go "WOW!" Maybe because I didn't know what to do on the thing... no one can give me specifics as to what is so cool about Honeycomb except that it is very open and customizable... what in the world does that mean exactly?

I found the star gazing app and that seemed cool. You can move the Xoom around and see the constellations move around... I would like to be able to play with that program outside at night and see how accurate it is. But the app made me smile.

I read about the sound breaking out at high volume. I found the music player and played one of the songs that was on it, I think by Kelly Clarkson. There was a lot of distortion when volume was full blast and I had to put the volume at less than half until the speakers stopped blowing out. :(

Then I went to the App Store to look for apps.... I only looked at the free apps and didn't really see much of a selection...

So I looked for the apps on the Xoom. I found a game on it that sucked but I tried to clear the first level to give it a chance. No fun gameplay at all. It looked 3D but the gameplay sucked.

I wish I would have been able to see the Google apps integration and see how everything is stored on the cloud and access my email, calendar, docs, etc.

By the way, can you access your Google docs if you don't have an internet connection? Is there any way to store a copy on the tablet for offline viewing and editing?

Also, does the GPS work without an internet connection like a Garmin?

Again, I've never owned a smartphone so I am new to all this.

I like the potential of Android and I like their intentions but as many have said, Android is like a newborn baby that is still developing and has yet to walk, run, and take off... I can't wait for Android to take off!
[Xoom General] lstrike:
Right from ifixit teardown :

"There are 17 [!] screws holding the front panel to the magnesium framework.

We didn't explicitly test the metallurgical nature of the framework, but we are pretty sure it's magnesium...

While the larger lower portion is made of aluminum, the upper part is made of plastic."

http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Motorola-Xoom-Teardown/4989/1
[Xoom General] Old MuckenMire:
Well they don't know what it is, second that has NOTHING to do with what has been discussed here, namely the large back panel. When people try and say the ipad is aluminum and the xoom plastic, they are referring to the back panel, how we got onto frames , I don't know.

Thank you for the link tho, I couldn't for the life of me find the word magnesium. :)
[Xoom General] lstrike:
I think the big difference I am seeing with the screen is not so much a brightness issue as a color issue. From I supply component pricing they list the screen as a 262k tft display. So we have a 16bit display I am pretty sure the ipad has a 32 bit display. Colors definately pop more on my ipad.

Man I just can't believe companies would take a chance with display tech. That was the major hit for the viewsonic g tablet for me. After 5 hours of trying to convince myself it was OK I took it back. This display on the xoom a is much better since the viewing angles are actually decent although not ipad good. Thing is on a tablet the screen is it...I mean why risk with an ordinary screen? Idk...even the nook colorwith its IPS screen was impressive the first time I saw it. More so in many ways to my shine new xoom.
[Xoom General] lstrike:
No sweat.

Dude that said it was plastic was implying cheap. I referenced the aluminum backing and the other poster added it had a magnesium frame all pretty much shooting down the cheap build nonsense. The ipad unibody construction is all aluminum and ifixit being pretty sure it is magnesium is pretty much a yes but regardless it is some form of metal.

It has alot to do with the discussion as folks are pretty much discussing, comparing and contrasting specs and stuff. Bottom line build quality on both devices = good stuff neither is cheap.