I used a Xoom! And...

[ZBoater]

Homescreens: The 5 home screens were kinda awkward to me. As far as I could tell there was no way to know which page you were on at any one time. All the homescreens seemed very cluttered with a lot of information. Kinda reminds me of how someone described the yahoo homescreen a few years ago "like the internet threw up all over it". I also REALLY didn't like not having the dedicated dock down at the bottom. There are some things (email, internet etc) that you want to have access to at an instant and not need to go hunting around. it all just seemed disorganized and confusing to me.

This is where Android really shines. Don't like the home screen? Customize it. Custom launchers are big in Android. LauncherPro works and gives you a dedicated scrolling dock. Plus visual queue of which of the seven homesceens you are at. Don't want seven? Set it to three. Don't want your dock to scroll? Set it to fixed. And this is with a launcher designed for the phone (dock icons are tiny). I expect a tablet version of a custom launcher to address this.

There is something to be said about the straightforward approach of iOS. You either like it or you don't. And if you don't, we FINALLY have a viable alternative, albeit one that is a work in progress. I love competition!

 

[MrWillie]

This is where Android really shines. Don't like the home screen? Customize it. Custom launchers are big in Android. LauncherPro works and gives you a dedicated scrolling dock. Plus visual queue of which of the seven homesceens you are at. Don't want seven? Set it to three. Don't want your dock to scroll? Set it to fixed. And this is with a launcher designed for the phone (dock icons are tiny). I expect a tablet version of a custom launcher to address this.

There is something to be said about the straightforward approach of iOS. You either like it or you don't. And if you don't, we FINALLY have a viable alternative, albeit one that is a work in progress. I love competition!

Yippie, I (well you at least) can customize a screen. What about Android security ?

Still don't have viable alternative because Honeycomb is, well it's STILL Android.

 

[ehoui]

"took me at least a minute to find the wake from sleep button"
"learning curve"


Observe the Mac user in its natural habitat. Baww I'm too hurf durf to figure it out, I give it a hipster rating of C-.

And what does it say about you who uses ad hominem attacks to express your point of view?

 

[panzer06]

I can't stand my HTC evo phone or the android OS. It has taken the form of permanent hot spot with its 4g connection

I don't feel that strongly about the mytouch 4g but I bought if for the free wifi hotspot and not the phone. In playing around with android I think it's ok, just not quite there in usability. using the on screen keyboard is a chore compared to the ios version. Tons of mistakes and it offers a choice for each one, doesn't fix it automatically. Perhaps there's a setting for that but the settings screen related to the keyboard is not as intuitive as I'd like. Voice control is great but the service is frequently unavailable (I suppose it's on-line because the processing power for voice recognition isn't available on the handset).

Anyway, I almost bought a BN Nook Color since you can load honeycomb on a SD card and boot it w/o any hacks. A $249 test bed that let's me read my books isn't bad. Just no camera and some of the fancy Moto hardware.

I guess I'll wait a few months to try some of the other choices - after I buy iPad 2 today.

Cheers,

 

[fertilized-egg]

This is where Android really shines. Don't like the home screen? Customize it.

The problem I have with Android is that no matter how much I customize it - and I spent hours and hours trying out different ROMs and custom launchers - it doesn't approach the same smoothness and polished animated UI of iOS. Customization is great, but we shouldn't discount the value of good solid default setting that works out of box.

 

[Gix1k]

I have to say this about the Xoom...It's a tab heavy and Honeycomb takes some getting used to, if you familiar with the original Android OS. I bought one on launch day and have been using it quite a bit. I will admit it took me a few minutes to figure out how to turn it on as well. I never expected the power button to be there. What I really like is the widescreen form factor in relation to the iPad. It's a bigger screen, but seems smaller.
Also, I hate the fact Apple's need iTunes to do ANYTHING! I was an iPhone fanboy. When I traded up to the EVO, I refuse to own another Apple device. I can attach my Xoom or EVO to any PC and drag/drop. I can dump word, excel, powerpoint docs to it, access the file system and manipulate the UI in almost any way I want. Apple and their locked down crap is getting old.
With this being the new age of tablets, people using for business purposes...If i'm a sales rep and visit a company and need to give data or take data to present, I gotta install iTunes to do so. Just stupid!

Customization is great, but we shouldn't discount the value of good solid default setting that works out of box.

LOL! "Out of the box" is all Apple has unless you jailbreak. I waited a very long time before I rooted my EVO. Mainly because I could customize it in so many ways w/out needing to. There is a certain smoothness to Apple's iOS, but Android is smooth as hell, too.

 

[tkingart]

On one hand this kind of "discussion" is getting a bit old.

But it also means that the competition is also seeing potential in a mobile platform with focus on the user experience. That is absolutely fantastic from where I'm standing, both for mobile computing and quite possibly for the future of computing in general.

Waiting a few seconds extra when all I want to do is to fill in a friend's personal details on a mobile device is pain. I could have produced a pen and a paper and gotten halfway through by the time the device is ready.

The hardware and software developers are finally doing something about this. It's not about the hardware itself but how it's utilized. The tablet is the software/GUI revolution. (Whether we will like it on a more traditional desktop UI remains to be seen, if that's even relevant to future devices)

Calling an interface anyone can learn in minutes (even if they haven't touched a computer in the last decade) "dumbed down" is so ignorant I don't even know where to begin. I'm not talking about the limitations of a given mobile OS but how man/machine interaction is finally starting to make sense from a user experience perspective.

This is possibly the closest we have gotten to a "natural" GUI, and we're just starting out! Because we didn't admit that there is incredible potential until just now, the end user mobile devices have historically been crappy, lag infested battery drainers. I remember making music on Griff on an old Win Mobile PDA and the OS was a dog in so many ways. A desktop OS shoe horned into a slow device with a small screen. Nested pop-up menus on a device with a 3.5" screen? Great idea!

The fact that the, uh... "non-geeks" are buying iPads is great news and shows what the platform can mean on a much bigger scale than "discussing" iOS vs Android vs webOS. It's just another Windows vs Mac OS "discussion". It's all down to preference anyway.

What's more, those iPad owning "non-geeks" I have actually met are not just using the device for Angry birds (which was my fear) during periods of "micro stress" but are actually being productive as well. Wait, that sounds like what most of us use a "computer" for in the the first place.

Bolting on feature after feature on our desktop environments is an evolution that is slowly stagnating. The current tablet GUI/UI development is the revolution needed to take the next step.

I'm stoked we can even debate this. It's like I'm experiencing the second coming of the computer. From seeing the computer getting into homes, to getting connected. From using the network designed for talking and use it for data, to combining it all into the devices that we are just realizing the potential of.

You know that picture of the evolution of man, depicting going from ape to man to ape chained to a desktop? Maybe we'll actually straighten our backs again, in the light of current development.

My only fear is that computing will get more disposable. Call Wall-E?

If you actually read this far, sorry for wasting your time. I'm waiting for my morning dose of caffeine to kick in.

You are 100% spot on (my thinking exactly.)

I wish I could ramble so eloquently before the caffeine intake begins.

 

[MagnumOP]

This is where Android really shines. Don't like the home screen? Customize it. Custom launchers are big in Android. LauncherPro works and gives you a dedicated scrolling dock. Plus visual queue of which of the seven homesceens you are at. Don't want seven? Set it to three. Don't want your dock to scroll? Set it to fixed. And this is with a launcher designed for the phone (dock icons are tiny). I expect a tablet version of a custom launcher to address this.

There is something to be said about the straightforward approach of iOS. You either like it or you don't. And if you don't, we FINALLY have a viable alternative, albeit one that is a work in progress. I love competition!

This may be one of the things that us techies like about android. However, the average consumer does not have the expertise or will power to spend any amount of time doing advanced customizations to his home screen. If the person finds android 3.0 to be messy, cluttered, or hard to navigate they will simply buy something else.

That is why the iPad is a mass appeal device.

 

[HXGuy]

This may be one of the things that us techies like about android. However, the average consumer does not have the expertise or will power to spend any amount of time doing advanced customizations to his home screen. If the person finds android 3.0 to be messy, cluttered, or hard to navigate they will simply buy something else.

That is why the iPad is a mass appeal device.

This is one of the top things that I didn't like about Android when I had a Galaxy S phone for a week. I know it sounds strange but I would change the launcher and try all diffent types of things, keep it for a few hours or a day, then go tinker again...seemed like I was never quite satisfied with how it was setup or was always curious how else it could look. With iOS, I just kind of forget about that part of the device and just use it for it's functions.

Having said that, I did jailbreak my iPhone for a better notification system then what iOS comes with.

 

[ozred]

As Apple propagates iOS to it's line of computers, everyone that uses it will find that ease of use is even greater than before. As a result any new technologies will be off limits since they will require learning. Apple is very clever. They know Americans especially love to shop, spend money, and have no time for much else. This is why one of Apples best move thus far is a gradual transition first into Best Buy, then Walmart.

The new cheaper smaller easier to use iPhone is brilliant. Another example of dumb and dumber raking in the cash for Apple.

 

[Gqkevyn]

I've had the iPad wifi version since launch and I've got to say I'm quite happy with it. Besides the rare random lags when typing (seemed to start with upgrade 4.2.1), I haven't had too many noticeable dislikes. However the Xoom has got me looking into it quite a bit. Playing with it shortly for like 10 minutes I didn't notice any lag that some people have talked about but it was only 10 minutes. I would be willing to give it a try if they hurried and release a wifi only version.

 

[ZBoater]

This is one of the top things that I didn't like about Android when I had a Galaxy S phone for a week. I know it sounds strange but I would change the launcher and try all diffent types of things, keep it for a few hours or a day, then go tinker again...seemed like I was never quite satisfied with how it was setup or was always curious how else it could look. With iOS, I just kind of forget about that part of the device and just use it for it's functions.

Having said that, I did jailbreak my iPhone for a better notification system then what iOS comes with.

Well, I'd rather have the option to set it up how I want to rather than hope that whatever Apple's engineers decided was good works for me. But, like I said, options are good.

On a side note, the keyboard on the Xoom is quite laggy. Not sure why that is, as a keyboard app (Thumb Keyboard, which makes thumb typing on a tablet a joy) has no such lag. I suspect they will fix that in an update.

Also, there is a debug menu in the browser that lets you select the user agent so websites don't send you to their mobile versions when they detect you. Sweetness.

 

[darngooddesign]

I don't think I've read a single "glowing" review yet on the Xoom...

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4191/motorola-xoom-review-first-honeycomb-tablet-arrives

They really liked it.