Category: Xoom

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Putting it to the test

For me, testing a device on the road is critical. Seeing how it reacts in various mobile networks and testing coverage in a larger geographical space are key.  But testing on the road also forces me to test it when I’m least forgiving.

So I was off to a weeklong business travel excursion hitting over 5 cities in 7 days, balancing work and fun events. I went taking 4 devices to test: The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, The Samsung 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot SCH–LC11 hotspot, the Droid Bionic and its Lapdock.

As a seasoned traveler who is addicted to technology, I was happy to have such great tools at my disposal.

 

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1

I love that when interacting with facebook and twitter from this tablet I never get “Unable to view” message. It just works. When I reviewed the Xoom, another android tablet, I was smitten with the android tablet’s ability to work no matter the website I was trying to view. This tablet is much slimmer than the Xoom and has a sleek, stylish look and feel. The textured gray backing is just begging to be held. Camera specs, 4G, and ease of access to Google products made this a hit for me.

To be fair, I was also packing an iPad. For a head to head comparison, they each had their own qualities that made me want them for professional use.

 

Bionic

No comparison! People who know me know that have been completely smitten with the Thunderbolt. I am always keeping it in hand while testing the other phones that have been sent my way.  This phone was tested to the fullest, while my Thunderbolt took a vacation.  The Droid Bionic is sleek and has a very pleasing feel when using it as a phone. This may not seem like a big deal to some, but when you’re not zipping through the social scene, or keeping up to date with your work on the go, and actually using it as a phone, it matters. The sound quality, both outgoing and incoming, are superb.

Favorite things:

  • Sound quality
  • 4G and processing speed
  • Screen clarity and touch screen reaction
  • Camera quality

Cons:

  • Camera speed: This was the most disappointing feature. Click and wait. This seems to be one of the hottest topics on the droid forums regarding this phone with no resolution as of this post.

 

Lapdock:

I was so excited to get my hands on this little slice of geek pie! The ability to interact with your phone, with the ease of a full keyboard, mouse, and screen, seemed very appealing.

Day one with any new phone always starts the same. I hop onto the Android store, and send all my apps to the new phone. Then I usually spend the better part of a day logging into the various accounts that I have: facebook, twitter, lightbox, dropbox, evernote. For even the seasoned touch screen typist, this is a tedious process. With the lapdock, this was a breeze!

The honeymoon was over quickly. After a few trails of texting and answering e-mail with the same ease of a laptop, I drifted to web browsing and trying out some of the featured web apps.

Error: Low Memory

This device runs on the processors of the phone, but at the end of the day, it is a phone. It is not strong enough to run complex websites and apps.

Glorified Charging Station

For me, at the end of the day, all this accessory was good for was a glorified charging statin.  But, it did that really well! Yo’ve been there. You’re at a conference or an all-day meeting. You’re tweeting, taking notes, and answering urgent e-mails. Then, your battery is dead before lunch. You have to move to sit near an outlet or do without while it charges. Not me, not this trip. I slapped the phone on the dock and kept on notetaking. After a short while, the phone is charged and the battery on lapdock is still close to full.

A more practical application

While this is not my next purchase, it has potential for a large number of people. For the aging population, for the non texting generation with texting teens, and people with impaired eyesight, this tool is worth the money. Being able to use the full keyboard to keep up with the lighting speed of the texting teen, and utilizing the full screen size will be a big help to many.

 

Hotspot:  Samsung 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot SCH–LC11

Staying connected while traveling is really important to me. Many airports and hotels have WiFi, but at a not-so-convenient price.  Enter the hotspot. I had my laptop, iPad, and phone, as well as a second laptop connected to this one device and still had normal web surfing speed. I connected to the hotel’s paid wireless and found the speed of the hotspot to be almost double. This is definitely something that needs to be in  my stocking this Christmas. Well worth the money.

If you have a can’t live with out tech device you travel with, please share it in the comments!

 

These devices were sent to me to demo free of charge by Verizon. I was not paid, nor did get to keep any of the items, so feel free to add a few of them to your Christmas list for me. ;0

 

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Just a Girl Looking for a Phone

I shared with many of you my decision to leave AT&T as a cell phone customer. This was not an easy decision, as I have been an AT&T customer for a very long time. Once I made the decision to go to Verizon, many people assumed I would jump right to the iPhone 4, which is now also available through Verizon. But as my friend Andrew would say, I’ve decided to make the jump to the “dark side.”

As with many major life changes — like getting fat or going bald — we don’t really actually notice them when they’re happening. I was falling in love with Androids.


How did this Happen?

Out of the blue one afternoon I was contacted by a representative from Verizon seeking my honest opinion. She offered me the opportunity to play with and provide feedback on some Verizon devices. This feedback would be published on my blog and / or the Evansville Business Journal.

Play with tech toys? Naturally I said yes.

For two weeks, I tried out several devices, including two phones, two WIFI hot spots and the Motorola Xoom, using them in a variety of settings that included an out of town conference. Like a coffee lover getting a first taste of Starbucks, I was hooked.


Lightning struck

The device that really took my heart was the HTC Thunderbolt. I really love the way the Thunderbolt phone interacted with me (yes, I did just refer to a phone as though it has human characteristics) and the way it looked and felt while I used it.

Thing is, I’m a heavy tech user. While there are many key features of the Thunderbolt that I like, I had some real issues I could not ignore: Heat and battery life. I heard myself saying several times that if you offered me a Thunderbolt today, I would gladly give up my iPhone . But the heat and battery life issues it turns out are deal-breakers for me.


The Search is on
So now here I am, willing to give up my phone, but not sure what to replace it with. So far Verizon has sent me a Droid Pro and the HTC Thunderbolt to take out for a spin. My local Wireless Zone has been kind enough to let me demo an LG Revolution and a Samsung Charge. All have had good features and some not so perfect for me features.


Yeah, I get all the data on the latest phones as they come out, often even before they come out. I know the technical specs, and what they can do — on paper. But a phone is so much more personal; everyone uses it differently. I need a phone that will go the distance with me, one that will bring up data and run multiple apps, remind me when I have meetings, get me there with good directions AND not run out of juice after just 4 to 6 hours.

I am on a quest to find the perfect phone for me. This girl geek, lover of technology, user of all things new and social is looking for lightning to strike twice.

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Xoom Test Drive

(This article originally appeared in the Evansville Business Journal )

With less than a month on the market, I was given the opportunity to test drive a Motorola Xoom. This tablet has a lot of veryinteresting features that make it more desirable in some ways than an ipad2. Ifyou’re an Apple fan, and are used to Mac products, you might be more comfortablewith an ipad.

This tablet is comparable in price, processor and screensize. The resolution on the Xoom is slightly higher, and it has a 32 GB microSD, expandable memory that you can’t get with the ipad2.

The cameras arenotable better.  While the addition of a backcamera with the release of the ipad2 was a big selling point, it was also a biglet down in the quality of camera.  Thefront camera on the Xoom is a two MP and the back camera has a full five MP. Ifthe camera is important to you, the Xoom will win your heart.

Another big benefit ofthe Xoom is its ability to support flash within the web browser. If you do alot of browsing on your tablet, this might be a very important feature for you.Another feature that sets Xoom apart from the ipad2 is the extra ports.

The Xoomhas a micro USB 2.0 and an HDMI out, so if you’re into playing angry birds, youcan connect your Xoom to your 32 inch flat screen, and play some big angrybirds.

While Evansville is not on a 4G network at this time, the Xoomwill be capable of data transfer on this faster network when it does arrive. Ifyou travel, chances are many places you currently go are already equipped withthis faster network.
While we’re talking about the network, you can buy an ipad2 currentlywith no additional contract for a data plan. If you decide you need one you canpurchase it for the month or months you’ll need it. The Xoom isn’t currentlyoffered with a WiFi-only option.

After using this tablet for a few weeks, Ihave to say I really appreciate being on a data plan, as opposed to only havinga device that accesses the information I need when I’m near WiFi. If thenetwork was detected, and I had previously joined to that network, thetransition from 3G  to WiFi was seamless.

There are a variety of ways in which I could use this tabletas an e-reader. It came with an application called “Books.” This was verysimilar to the “Kindle” app, which was also available for this tablet.

The Evansville Vanderburgh Public Library has a system online that allows you to checkout e-books. You have to use their application called “Overdrive.” You simplygo to the EVPL website and enter your library card number. You open the bookwith this application, which is very similar most other readers. If you have atablet, whether it’s an ipad or a Xoom, I strongly encourage you to try thise-book borrowing system.

When the iPad was first released, many of the applicationsin the Apple market would work on their tablet. It took some time for thedevelopers to catch up and create a variety of applications that werespecifically for the larger screen, but it eventually did happen. The same istrue in the Android market. There are currently only a handful of apps that arespecifically designed for a tablet on the Honeycomb system, but just as theApple market caught up, I fully anticipate that developers will have the Androidmarket caught up in no time.

Watching TV episodes, like Fringe for example, directly fromtheir website, was done with ease. The sound and video were incredible, and theoverall use of the Xoom as multimedia player left me very impressed. I wasdisappointed to learn that Netflix, at this time, will not play on Android devices.  They’re working to remedy this issue. You can as of June, watch Netflix on the Xoom!  There are still issues with viewing content from Hulu.

My overall experience with the Xoom tablet left me veryimpressed with this device. If you’re that Mac user who’s more comfortable withApple products, and are hesitant to transfer because of the loss of music, besure to check out Double Twist, the itunes for Android, that will seamlesslyimport all your itunes.