Help UPDATE: Temp Adobe Flash workaround (WAS: Flash not enabled on Xoom at launch).

[Don S]

Heres my take on it....
Hardware was done last year.. Honeycomb availablity delayed the launch.
Xoom is launching only 2 weeks after Honeycomb Final was provided to them by Google.
Xoom 4G modem hardware finalized a month ago but all Xooms have 3G cards anticipating a 2010 release so rather delay the launch.. ship and sell all devices with 3G.. let some more 4G cities lite up.. offer a free upgrade in a couple months then offer 4G standard in all newly built devices.
Adobe 10.1 player doesnt work on pre release honeycomb xoom software versions.. ( I have one) Yes, while it is in the market.. it doesnt install at least on mine.
Adobe controls the availablity of their Flash Player.. not google, not motorola. I think they were trying to make the aggressive launch but since Honeycomb final is only 2 weeks old, there is some internal testing that has to happen before its certified.. most likely why the Playbook isnt out yet either.. flash player is not final yet...

This is my opinion based on the info available to me..

Mad

Thanks for the info. How do you like your XOOM? !!

 

[dwboston]

Interesting post from the Moto support forum:

" Xoom storage space
Yes Sir, received it today. Here are my readings with all of my apps and settings automatically transferred over. Total internal storage is 28.78gb., 698 mb. media, 518 mb. applications and 27.60 gb. available. There is an external sliding door for the external microSD card and SIM tray that will allow for the Verizon 4G LTE card when both are available in a future software upgrade. The external microSD card, when enabled, will support up to 32 gb., as I had thought. --- Dan"


Looks like there is only 1 partition on the internal microSD, and the LTE upgrade may just be adding a SIM?


https://supportforums.motorola.com/thread/45325?tstart=0

 

[Don S]

Interesting post from the Moto support forum:

" Xoom storage space
Yes Sir, received it today. Here are my readings with all of my apps and settings automatically transferred over. Total internal storage is 28.78gb., 698 mb. media, 518 mb. applications and 27.60 gb. available. There is an external sliding door for the external microSD card and SIM tray that will allow for the Verizon 4G LTE card when both are available in a future software upgrade. The external microSD card, when enabled, will support up to 32 gb., as I had thought. --- Dan"


Looks like there is only 1 partition on the internal microSD, and the LTE upgrade may just be adding a SIM?


https://supportforums.motorola.com/thread/45325?tstart=0

Thanks.

Edit: Never mind, just realized app allocation must have been for apps actually on that XOOM, not total space available for apps

 

[melantus]

Im confused so are they confirming sd card slot is going work out the box?

 

[dwboston]

Im confused so are they confirming sd card slot is going work out the box?

No - "The external microSD card, when enabled, will support up to 32 gb."

There is an internal sd card as well - that's where the 32GB of on-board storage is.

 

[BiggestManEver]

Looks like some Xooms will come with Flash 10.2, some will have it delayed.

So relax hipsters.

Yesterday, there was a bit of a fuss when it was discovered that the Motorola Xoom tablet wouldn

 

[ghodzilla5150]

Thank Adobe? Ha, that's a laugh....I'd be willing to bet money that Adobe has been promising Motorola and Google for months that they'd have a working Flash player on the Xoom in time for launch. I only fault Moto and Google for believing Adobe and not warning us earlier that this might happen. Personally, had I known that 10.1 would not be Honeycomb compatible and that we would be depending on Adobe to get 10.2 working on the Xoom in time for launch, I would have assumed it would not happen, just based on Adobe's track record.

I have never agreed with much Steve jobs has ever said, but when he called Adobe LAZY, he was straight up telling the truth.

Steve Jobs: Adobe Is Lazy, Blu-Ray Is Mess and Google Wants to Kill iPhone - X-bit labs

Mark my words: this will not be the last time Adobe lets the Android community down.

Exactly. I don't think these guys understand how Adobe works. You take what Adobe says with a grain of salt. Mark my words, Flash WILL NOT be ready in a couple of weeks. Probably a couple of months. Hopefully I am wrong and Adobe stays on schedule. Don't be shocked when another announcement comes out in a couple of weeks saying that they are still trying to maximize the experience and it will take a little longer.

 

[melantus]

Lol that adobe release makes no sense. So there are "golden ticket" xooms coming this thursday? Ones that will have adobe 10.2 but if you dont get one those lucky xooms your waiting?

 

[dwboston]

Lol that adobe release makes no sense. So there are "golden ticket" xooms coming this thursday? Ones that will have adobe 10.2 but if you dont get one those lucky xooms your waiting?

It doesn't mean that at all. Flash 10.2 will not be pre-installed on any Xooms, but will likely be pre-installed on other tablets that come out after the Xoom, once Flash 10.2 is available.

That quote was very poorly worded.

 

[ghodzilla5150]

There are ideas floating around that the reason that Flash will not be on launch Xoom's is because it will make the Xoom slower and consume much more battery and Moto does NOT want reviewers giving the Xoom a bad review because of this. BTW - How come we have NOT heard anything on battery life. Me thinks it won't be that great and with Flash running, it would be alot worse. Food for thought.

 

[rushmore]

Interesting post from the Moto support forum:

" Xoom storage space
Yes Sir, received it today. Here are my readings with all of my apps and settings automatically transferred over. Total internal storage is 28.78gb., 698 mb. media, 518 mb. applications and 27.60 gb. available. There is an external sliding door for the external microSD card and SIM tray that will allow for the Verizon 4G LTE card when both are available in a future software upgrade. The external microSD card, when enabled, will support up to 32 gb., as I had thought. --- Dan"


Looks like there is only 1 partition on the internal microSD, and the LTE upgrade may just be adding a SIM?


https://supportforums.motorola.com/thread/45325?tstart=0

Seems like not much app storage space then? What is the actual free app device storage? Example for Gtablet:

Out of box 16gb internal:

1. 1.86gb device app storage
2. 13.02 space for media & data (mapped as microsd 1)

First off, how is the internal space mapped? This is VERY important, considering no microsd until Moto patches Honeycomb.

 

[rushmore]

There are ideas floating around that the reason that Flash will not be on launch Xoom's is because it will make the Xoom slower and consume much more battery and Moto does NOT want reviewers giving the Xoom a bad review because of this. BTW - How come we have NOT heard anything on battery life. Me thinks it won't be that great and with Flash running, it would be alot worse. Food for thought.

Gtablet works well with Flash and I have no sense of need to be near a power socket, like I am with my Incredible. If you set Flash to "on demand" it is not a problem, anyway. Even on the Incredible. Tegra 2 is MUCH better with power management than Snapdragon.

 

[dwboston]

Seems like not much app storage space then? What is the actual free app device storage? Example for Gtablet:

Out of box 16gb internal:

1. 1.86gb device app storage
2. 13.02 space for media & data (mapped as microsd 1)

First off, how is the internal space mapped? This is VERY important, considering no microsd until Moto patches Honeycomb.

From that same thread in the MotoDev forum:

"There is no limit to the space allocated for apps. As long as there is space available, you can put apps in it. (However, it takes space to install apps, too, so if you are down to a few MB, you can't put an app of equal size in that space, if you catch my meaning.)"

I think Honeycomb maps the space differently than the Gtab. All space is available to install apps, media, etc.

 

[OxygenD]

My two cents - I really want one of these tablets. Just what I've been looking for. And truthfully I'm fine with waiting a few weeks for flash. And I suppose it's ok to stagger the wifi only release date.

What's not fine is motorola's effort at a big rollout. They should have rolled the devices out together or announced the separate dates themselves. They should have mentioned the flash thing IMMEDIATELY so it's not slowly leaked and blogged and sprung on an unsuspecting group of potential buyers as a ha ha! How can these billion dollar corporations not know rule #1 of PR? Control the message people.

It looks like a great product. Honeycomb looks wonderful. I don't mind waiting a few weeks for wifi, card support, or flash. I do mind that it didn't come from the source openly and confidently. They spent a zillion dollars on product development and commercials and then they let the three stooges stage the rollout of the actual product. The whole thing has been extremely ham-handed.

And the wi-fi only release date? Why the gag order? It's ridiculous. What possible advantage can be gained by not telling the consumer when it will come out? If it's just to sell a few more 3g units and phone contracts I must say that's extremely short-sighted thinking - penny-wise and pound foolish when we're talking about a product that's supposed to be a game changer.

 

[OxygenD]

Dang!
Seems this stuff will hurt consumer perception, regardless of when fixed- after release.

Agreed. This is what kills me - Apple can release a device that's half as functional.... but the rollout is perfect. Moto creates a killer device, rushes it, and completely botches the rollout. When will they learn....

 

[Air Force One]

There are ideas floating around that the reason that Flash will not be on launch Xoom's is because it will make the Xoom slower and consume much more battery and Moto does NOT want reviewers giving the Xoom a bad review because of this. BTW - How come we have NOT heard anything on battery life. Me thinks it won't be that great and with Flash running, it would be alot worse. Food for thought.

Yeah I don't buy that theory at all. Flash has never caused my Nexus One any issues at all. It only runs the battery if you're using it. But, Google Maps/GPS runs the battery if you use it, so that's just the way it goes. Using features costs battery life and Flash in my experience is no worse than any other streaming medium.

IMO, Flash will make the Xoom a better product, not worse. That's why I'm upset it is not included at launch.

 

[Air Force One]

Exactly. I don't think these guys understand how Adobe works. You take what Adobe says with a grain of salt. Mark my words, Flash WILL NOT be ready in a couple of weeks. Probably a couple of months. Hopefully I am wrong and Adobe stays on schedule. Don't be shocked when another announcement comes out in a couple of weeks saying that they are still trying to maximize the experience and it will take a little longer.

This is what scares me.

Personally? My gut tells me we'll have Flash in about a month. The wildcard imo is Motorola and getting the OTA pushed out. I have never owned a Moto product and I don't know how reliable they are in this regard. It seems weird that it wouldn't simply be a market download the way the original 10.1 was for the Nexus and other devices.

If I fully trusted Moto the way I do Google, I would go ahead and buy at launch. When Google promised that the Nexus would get Flash(although weeks turned into months), I KNEW we'd get it eventually. However, having never owned a Moto product(Xoom is to be my first), there is no comfort zone for me to sit in and be confident in them. In fact, from my experience with them so far, they seem either incompetent, or shady.

I very much hope to buy a Xoom and be happy with it and have a different opinion of Moto...maybe even become a fanboy But like someone else already said: what would Moto say if we wanted the xoom for free right now and when they provide Flash, SD card capability and 4G, THEN I'll pay you for it.

That's basically what they're asking of us: pay for it now in full and trust us to fulfill our promises(but be aware that if we don't ever give you these features, you bought the Xoom "as is", so tough luck)

AND even after all of this, I STILL might break down and buy the damn thing Thursday....it's hard to let go of that excitement I had/have.

 

[marctronixx]

guys if you're scared moto wont deliver in a time frame that suits you.. dont purchase..

you have let all this pre hype peer pressure you into (clearly to me) settling for less. dont do it!!! dont purchase it on thursday. based on your comments of late, you will be disappointed.

 

[Air Force One]

guys if you're scared moto wont deliver in a time frame that suits you.. dont purchase..

you have let all this pre hype peer pressure you into (clearly to me) settling for less. dont do it!!! dont purchase it on thursday. you will be disappointed.

Thanks but we don't need you or anyone else telling us what to do or not do, especially when your advice is steeped in the obvious

I'll personally do what I choose to do thank you very much and If I choose to buy it given what I already know, I will hardly be disappointed.

 

[OxygenD]

Yeah I don't buy that theory at all. Flash has never caused my Nexus One any issues at all. It only runs the battery if you're using it. But, Google Maps/GPS runs the battery if you use it, so that's just the way it goes. Using features costs battery life and Flash in my experience is no worse than any other streaming medium.

IMO, Flash will make the Xoom a better product, not worse. That's why I'm upset it is not included at launch.

I have a N1 as well and my experience has been mixed. Videos are usually fine. Some non mobile optimized websites are terrible and yahoo's fantasy baseball stattracker comes to mind as not working well at all. Hard to know what to pin on the developer and what to pin on the phone's implementation of flash. That said, I'm glad I have it. And with a dual core, bigger screen and a gb of RAM on the xoom I'd expect it to improve quite a bit and approach desktop-level performance. I'd be disappointed if it didn't.

 

[Air Force One]

I have a N1 as well and my experience has been mixed. Videos are usually fine. Some non mobile optimized websites are terrible and yahoo's fantasy baseball stattracker comes to mind as not working well at all. Hard to know what to pin on the developer and what to pin on the phone's implementation of flash. That said, I'm glad I have it. And with a dual core, bigger screen and a gb of RAM on the xoom I'd expect it to improve quite a bit and approach desktop-level performance. I'd be disappointed if it didn't.

Oh yeah I'd be disappointed too. I'm a Flash whore I use it all the time. Actually cannot live without it. I agree with you as well regarding performance. I am fully expecting better performance than on a device such as the Nexus One. I can't imagine it won't be better, especially since it will be 10.2.

 

[ghodzilla5150]

And the wi-fi only release date? Why the gag order? It's ridiculous. What possible advantage can be gained by not telling the consumer when it will come out? If it's just to sell a few more 3g units and phone contracts I must say that's extremely short-sighted thinking - penny-wise and pound foolish when we're talking about a product that's supposed to be a game changer.

The reason for the WiFi gag order is because Moto has more than likely signed (or corporate handshake) a 1 Month Exclusivity agreement in as so much that they will not release the WiFi unit for 30 days. What this does is it prevents all the early customers from returning the $800 unit as their 14 day (30 day at BB) window will be closed and they are stuck with the more expensive unit. I spoke with a Costco Mobile Rep today and he told me that in his system it shows a WiFi unit being released on Mar 25 (take it for what it's worth but I tend to believe this is what's happening). Now the 30 day window does not pertain to Costco as they have a 90 day return policy. Verizon wants that 30 day window so they can try and lock customers into their seriously overpriced data plan(s). If a customer has the unit for 30 days and constantly uses the data plan, Verizon's thinking is that they will want to keep said data plan and in the end Verizon wins. With the WiFi only unit's, Verizon gets no cut from Data Plans

 

[gamul1]

I spoke with a Costco Mobile Rep today and he told me that in his system it shows a WiFi unit being released on Mar 25 (take it for what it's worth but I tend to believe this is what's happening).

Not sure that date makes sense then because the 30 days would not be up yet. Remember - February has 28 days and the Xoom is released on the 24th. That would be 29 days.

 

[ghodzilla5150]

May bad. He told me that in the system it said 30 days until a WiFi only unit would be sold. (I forgot about Feb having only 28 days, horrible math on my part). So basically at the end on March we will see the WiFi only unit. This has been rumored a bunch as well.

 

[kenyu73]

Got to play with it for a bit today at the store... Flash 10.1 shows in the market, but no go on the install.