A Xoom Retrospective

[oldblue910]

Hey everyone,

I figured some of you might find this a good read. Since the Xoom is my favorite Android device of all time, I decided to finally sit and write a retrospective on the OG Android tablet. I'm interested in feedback and comments.

Thanks!

http://www.randomphantasmagoria.com/the-motorola-xoom-a-retrospective/

 

[matt4321]

Good read,

The Xoom is defiantly my best ever investment, I use it more than my laptop purely because it's light, easier on the lap, more manoeuvrable!

I personally think though the Nexus 10 probably is the successor, I don't think it's as good purely because of Android 4.2 onwards, the tablet UI is really inconvenient in the middle I find. Custom roms compensate for this, EOS include an option to have the softkeys 4.1 style which is far easier and simpler.

I still find it really interesting that google didn't open source honeycomb!

 

[oldblue910]

I still find it really interesting that google didn't open source honeycomb!

They did eventually. They released the Honeycomb source the same day they released the Ice Cream Sandwich source. According to Google at the time, the reason they never open-sourced Honeycomb was because of the fact that it was designed specifically for tablets. They were afraid that the development community would begin trying to shoehorn Honeycomb onto phones. This had a large potential to create horrible user experiences since they'd basically have to create a phone interface from nothing. Once ICS launched, that risk went away since ICS ran seamlessly across phones and tablets, therefore open-sourcing Honeycomb was no longer an UI/UX liability.

I remember a group of people trying to take the SDK build of Honeycomb and port it to the Nexus S. They found there was a phone interface built into Honeycomb but it was only half there and was basically unusable. It's pretty well known that Honeycomb wasn't a finished product.

 

[matt4321]

They did eventually. They released the Honeycomb source the same day they released the Ice Cream Sandwich source. According to Google at the time, the reason they never open-sourced Honeycomb was because of the fact that it was designed specifically for tablets. They were afraid that the development community would begin trying to shoehorn Honeycomb onto phones and creating horrible user experiences since they'd basically have to create it from nothing. Once ICS launched, that risk went away since ICS ran seamlessly across phones and tablets, therefore open-sourcing Honeycomb was no longer an UI/UX liability.

I remember a group of people trying to take the SDK build of Honeycomb and port it to the Nexus S. They found there was a phone interface built into Honeycomb but it was only half there and was basically unusable.

Oh yeah, I remember them doing it once ICS was open, bit pointless really.

Yeah the ZTE blade had an sdk port, was terrible though, nothing worked, more of a proof of concept thing

 

[Mandelbrot.Benoit]

Brought back some painful memories! But in the end I guess it all worked out. I still don't need a new 10" tablet so after 2 1/2 years I guess she's earned her keep. I did get the new N7 but its a completely different experience so I don't consider it cheating.

Even if the Xoom ends up on 4.2.2 it will continue to be a great tablet for my family for years to come.

 

[IbukiSuika]

Very nice. Thanks! :good: