Xoom Xoom goes the tablet!

Once again I find myself wanting to like a new piece of tech and I assure you that I REALLY wanted to like it.  Of course I am referring to the new Xoom tablet by Motorola.  I was able to get my hands on one of these puppies and started to play with it to see what my first experience with Android’s new Honeycomb operating system would do for me.   When looking at the Xoom I tried very hard to use and evaluate the system on its own merits and not against other tablets.  Notice I said try, oh well.  Here is my 2 cents on the Xoom.

Physical:
Although it comes in heaver than the IPad I generally use, I really liked the feel of it in Landscape.  It felt very solid in my hand and in landscape I could still type and reach all the areas on the screen.  What was strange to me is that holding in portrait (normal) it felt very awkward and when I had to actually let go to reach the top of the unit.    For the most part, most of the apps that I used could be used in Landscape mode, so not a big issue, just a minor annoyance.  SCORE – 3 / 5

Interface:
The interface itself is pretty neat.  You have the ability to put live wallpapers in the background, (The Thurnderstorm app was pretty cool), widgets on the page to see live data such as email, weather or pretty much anything you want made it different and more useful.  I found myself putting it on the pedistal and keeping it up to see what was going on without very much difficulty.  Overall setting up and using the interface was pretty easy and worked.  SCORE – 5/5

Apps:
So next I tried to load apps from the Android Marketplace.  Accessing the market was easy enough, but not terribly clean.  I definitely had a hard time finding apps So I started with the basic apps, Netflix, Facebook, Twitterific, Flipbook, and Skype.  I understand that Xoom is based on a new operating system and it will take time to get apps but this is where I have the biggest problems with the Xoom.  No Netflix, could not keep Facebook running, no Flipbook and problems with Skype.   The fact that Video with Skype does not work is very frustrating and doesn’t make sense, since Google Video does work.   Come on SKYPE keep up!!!  On the other hand with no Flipbook, I started using Pulse which is pretty cool!  Score: 1/5.

General Thoughts:
The worst thing on the Xoom is the charging mechanism.   You HAVE to use a plugin since a USB cable will NOT charge the unit.   I didn’t think about this until I was at the office and it was out of juice and I could not charge it since I left the custom cable at home.   Geez Motorola, products have to be convenient!   One more thought on this is the media aspect.   To get media on the system you have to manually copy data over from wherever you have you your music/movies.   This doesn’t seem like a very serious issue, but its a bear to keep things in sync or organized and upload time are considerably more.  For my test I upload 254 Songs from my library.  On my new IPad, syncing of this music took 1:42 while getting the same music took 11:31.   Back to the convenience factor and I won’t even talk about the differences in copying over my movies!

I am not even going to talk about the camera, which is inadequate to the point I couldn’t even figure out how to focus it on a picture and became frustrated!  Audio is better on this than the IPad and the video seems to be a bit better than the IPad but I really can’t compare since I have to redo all my Apple movies  (Watch for another rant on this!) but this isn’t enough to save this.  Although I went in wanting to really like the Xoom, I believe I will letting some other folks start their experience with this device and try checking  out the next platform and hopefully next years model will be better and there are more apps that actually work!

Final Score 3 out 5 Bones!

New MicroCell

Communications is the key to modern society, pure and simple.  If your phone or email fails or becomes unavailable people freak out.  The ability to remain in touch is key and especially when you work at home.  If I can’t connect to the outside world via the internet or my cell phone, I am pretty much screwed and “working” from home just doesn’t work.  I am one of those people who get upset so when my horrible AT&T service cut me off from a customer three times in 10 minutes I had to get a resolution.  So what am I to do, well low and behold, AT&T has just recently released a MicroCell appliance  that puts a mini cell tower in my house.

So a trip to the local store and $150 bucks later I get it home and try to figure out it all out.  Well technically its just a 3G reciever which converts the 3G signal into Voice Over IP and through my Internet connection, it connects to the AT&T network to communicate with the rest of the world.  Actually pretty cool, I can start calls in my house on the Microcell and then leave and the call will automatically go to the next tower just as if I was moving.  To install turns out its fairly simple, go to the web site and register the appliance, associate the cell phones that are allowed to connect to it (Yay, a little security, not much but a little!), connect it to my Internet connection and power it on.  Wham Bam an hour later it synced up with the satelitte systems and all my home phones connected with no issues as shown in the picture.  Will keep everyone updated on the performance charateristics and the affect that it has on my local network.

Woof!

Technology Lists

I figure that since I claim to be a geek I should share some of my geekness with you.   Without massive advances in technology in the last 25 years, I don’t even think I can fathom what my life would be like.  I wouldn’t have an Electronics Engineering degree and I know that I wouldn’t even have an MBA.  I can say that since I have this degree due to my current job based on what I can do with making technology work together.  I guess I would probably be a lawyer or something like that.  Anyways, I wanted to share with you my top 5 pieces of technology that allows this dog to get his geek on!

5)  Laptop – and I make the distinction between laptop and desktop machine.  The laptop has enabled me to remain productive at work, on travel and at home while still maintaining contact with the family in the same room.  I know I am still ignoring them, but it makes me feel better that at least I am in the same room as everyone!

4) High speed home connections – Without competition between DSL and Cable operators speeds that we all connect to from home or anywhere for that matter has greatly increased from the old 300 baud (300 bits/sec) modems 20 years ago to the Fiber Optic (~20,000,000 bits/sec) connection that I have in my house today!  This has enabled me to work from home just like I was at the office (of course I don’t but that is a different topic), waste many hours playing WoW and enabled to do stuff like this!

3) Digital camera – The ability to digitally store, send, print and make into books has allowed me to better capture my life, the places I visit and of course the growth of my family.  Growing up, pictures were not common, it was a special circumstance, or we were on vacation or something like that.  In addition it was a one shot and done, you had to hope that you got the picture and then move on.  It was expensive to get bad pictures developed!  Now I take 2 or 3 pictures to make sure I get one shot that looks good.  I can instantly see whether the picture is good and try again.  I only print the pictures that I want and I can make the pictures better!

2) Smart Phone – Although the cell phone has been important, in my world it wasn’t anything special.  It never made things easier or different, however with the introduction of smart phones like the Crackberry and the iPhone, these devices make you more productive and act as an entertainment platform to keep the rugrats busy learning or just watching a cartoon!

1) Lithium Battery – This is a weird number one, but let me defend it.  Without the Lithium Battery NONE of the above things would not be possible.  The ability to disconnect from the power grid and do stuff like make calls, type, watch a movie or play a game is all dependant on the creation of the Lithium Battery.  Although there are environmental and social factors in the production of this chemical, the importance of going portable cannot be under valued!

 Woof!

The Geek In Me

I have been wanting to create a sort of geek blog and tech reference guide and with today being Geek Day, seemed like as good as time as ever. With me getting on in age and becoming slightly forgetful I guess I should start documenting the little factoids that I find out or just come across.

However I want to follow the 10’s of other sites that I have come across where people can post up problems or scenarios that they need help with and with my vast experience with google, come up with solutions that work. I would like to focus on a couple of areas however which include Home Automation, digital media distribution, IT security and finally IT solutions and architecture.

So please if you want to know how to digitize and watch your movie collection or want to know how to secure your infrastructure let me know and hopefully I am not to full of crap and can help!

Pooch