When we met with Samsung in late May, company representatives didn't seem entirely sure that the company would meet the rumored June 8th ship date here in the US, but lo and behold, it's done just that. The tablet's launching at noon today at the Best Buy in New York City's Union Square, and if you can't make it up to the Big Apple, it'll hit the rest of the nation on June 17th. But here's the real question: is it worth making an effort to snag it on either date? The Galaxy Tab 10.1, much like its Limited Edition sibling that we reviewed last month, is ever-so-slightly thinner than the iPad 2, a slate that most sane individuals (and competitors, for that matter) would confess is the market leader today.
Naturally, everyone and their sister is gunning for Apple in this space, and Honeycomb's the first mobile OS we've seen that has the potential to put any sort of damper on Cupertino's ongoing rave. By and large, the consumer version of the Tab 10.1 is the same as the device launched at Google I/O, but there's two key differences that we'll focus on here: the tamed design, and the thoroughly different OS version (v3.1 here versus v3.0 before). Head on past the break for an in-depth look into both of those, but be sure to first take a gander at our Limited Edition review to wrap your noodle around the basics.
Hardware and design
You're going to hear this a lot throughout the review, but every opinion we drew from using the Tab 10.1 Limited Edition applies here. Every. single. one. Why? The consumer model is is a spitting image of the LE variant, save for the motif on the rear; the one you'll pick up this month has a glossy white plastic rear, while the LE model had a glossy white plastic rear... with an Android army adorning it. Weight's the same, size is the same, build quality is the same. It's a tremendous thing to hold, and it truly oozes quality from corner to corner.
Outside of the color scheme on the rear, nothing is different this go 'round. We promise.
Andy Rubin, Google's (GOOG) top mobile-phone executive, likes to talk about everything being "Android-ized." Android has become the top smartphone operating system in the United States, but Google's ambitions for it go well beyond tablet computers and smartphones, even beyond the mobile Web.
With its forthcoming Google Wallet payment service, an Android smartphone will become a credit card. Now Google says Android can also become the first mass-market bridge between the virtual world and the physical world, allowing smartphone apps to control light bulbs, home appliances, and even medical devices.
At its annual I/O developer conference last month, Google announced a program called Android@Home, a system that will allow Android phones and tablets to turn on household lights, activate speakers in a wireless stereo system, or analyze the calories burned on a gym exercise bike. The first Android@Home products are LED light bulbs embedded with technology that can be controlled by an Android device. Built by a Florida company called Lighting Science Group, they will go on sale by December.
But Android's executives say their ambition goes beyond turning a smartphone into a universal remote that could switch on the kitchen coffeemaker from your upstairs bedroom.
That’s a Micro USB-to-USB female adapter, which is required if you want to utilize Honeycomb’s new USB hosting feature on the Xoom. It’s obscure enough that your local Best Buy probably won’t carry it, but I managed to swing one on Amazon for less than the cost of shipping.
I whole-heartily recommend Motorola Xoom owners pick one up, because USB hosting is one of the main features Honeycomb has over Apple and iOS. Honeycomb 3.1 users can now plug in and use external mice, trackballs, keyboards, and game controllers – really, any USB-powered peripheral. And it works really well.
As I mentioned in my ASUS Eee Pad Transformer review, I'm no fan of navigating Honeycomb via cursor, but the update does well enough to make it an intuitive experience (mouse clicks take the place of finger taps) that I can understand its appeal. Also, it will work very well when used with remotedesktop apps like LogMeIn Ignition. The same goes for keyboards. There is now no need to invest in a Bluetooth keyboard (which Honeycomb 3.1 also supports); any old USB keyboard will now work.
Gamepad support portends good things for Android as a gaming platform. We’ve said it time and again on TabletPCReview that great gaming requires buttons. I easily connected my XBOX 360 controller to the Xoom, and Google claims it will work with others, like PS3 controllers and generic PC gamepads.
This far into the release, most games I tested, including Gun Bros and Dungeon Defenders aren’t properly mapped to an external controller, but the one that was, Cordy, played like a new game. When I first reviewed the Xoom, I dismissed Cordy because the touch-based control scheme was far too clunk for the platform puzzler, but with the XBOX controller, I actually enjoyed the freebie app.
More than 5,000 iOS developers are in San Francisco for Apple's big party at the Worldwide Developers Conference, but a new report says the hippest place to be is the Android Market. The study, from Bluevia and Vision Mobile, found that 67 percent of developers code for Android, while iOS trails at 59 percent.
The percentage of developers working in each platform increased this year - Android from 59 percent and iOS from 50 percent.
The two leading mobile OS giants continued to capture developers' attention, but a major surprise was the fastest growing platform -- mobile Web apps written in HTML or JavaScript. More than 55 percent of developers are working in the platform, up from 40 percent last year. The report attributes that growth to an influx of non-mobile developers.
Mobile Web developers kept Microsoft out of the top three, but that could soon change, according to a section of the report that looks at which platforms developers are planning to use. The "Developer Intentshare Index" says 35 percent of developers are looking toward Android and 32 percent are looking to add more Windows Phone work to their portfolio. ChromeOS, iOS and Meego round out the top five, in that order.
There's a lot to like about Honeycomb-and a lot that's annoying. Here are five things Google needs to address to make its tablet operating system a star.
Make no mistake: Google's tablet-optimized Android 3.0 represents a huge improvement overall over previous versions of Google's mobile operating system. But that's not to say it gets everything right. After extensive use across multiple tablets, I've identified five things that Google needs to address in Honeycomb.
1. Improve Image Rendering
Photos viewed in Android 3.0's Gallery app appear fuzzy and washed out when compared to when you view them on other devices As I photographer, I noticed this problem immediately upon loading my own pictures on the Motorola Xoom. Ultimately, the problem comes down to Honeycomb's apparent inability to correctly render images in the image Gallery-and elsewhere. After weeks of back and forth, a Google spokesperson acknowledged the problem, but couldn't give a timeline on a fix. Thus far, there hasn't been one.
Read the other four and the rest of the article here from PCWorld.com
The two leading mobile OS giants continued to capture developers' attention, but a major surprise was the fastest growing platform -- mobile Web apps written in HTML or JavaScript. More than 55 percent of developers are working in the platform, up from 40 percent last year. The report attributes that growth to an influx of non-mobile developers.
