Motorola Xoom tablet

The legions of CES tablet wannabes can give up now: Motorola just killed it with their much-rumored Xoom tablet, an iPad-sized black slab whose beauty is within, in its Android 3.0 Honeycomb OS. Designed by Google from the ground-up with touchscreen tablets in mind, it's the first software experience that looks like it can go toe-to-toe with Apple's iOS.

There weren't any fully working models for us to play with here at Motorola's press event, but several hardware-final tablets were on hand playing demo videos of Honeycomb's interface and features

Specs wise, the Xoom sports a 10.1-inch 1280x800 screen, Verizon 3G onboard (which is actually upgradeable to 4G LTE later in the year), 1080p HD video playback and streaming, front and rear cameras for videochatting, and an SD card slot for additional storage.

Pigs Run For You Life Angry Birds are Here on Netbook & notebook

Pigs Run For You Life Angry Birds are Here on Netbook & notebook

After charming mobile gamers with its crazy concept and sharp physics engine, Angry Birds is flying over to Intel’s AppUp app store, which offers software downloads for devices running on Intel’s chips.


The AppUp store launched in at the Intel Developer’s Forum in September. It took off pretty quickly and had around 450,000 users and 23,000 program members when it launched. But it has, for the most part, sat in the shadows of Apple’s App Store for iPhones, iPod Touches and iPads, and the Android Market for devices running Google’s mobile operating system.

Now it has one of the most popular mobile games of 2010. In Angry Birds, players take control of a batch of birds and fling them with a slingshot across the screen to blow up pigs and their fortresses. The gameplay is pretty simple and quite addictive. So much so that the game broke all of the records on the Apple App Store in its first 10 months after release, selling more than 6.5 million copies.

Angry Birds made its way over to other smartphones and the iPad, where it also saw a rather absurd amount of success — forcing independent app marketplace GetJar to shut down temporarily due to demand for the Android version. More than 77 percent of Angry Birds players update the game as new levels become available. New updates with new levels come out every three or four weeks.

The game is supposed to run on any computer using an Intel chip — including netbooks and typical notebook computers. It expands to support the resolution of each device, and can be streamed out to an HD television at 1080p, according to Intel.

Either way, this should give Intel’s app store a little bit of a boost. The AppUp store has a good number of developers, and Intel also offers some incentives for developing top-of-the-line apps. But porting insanely popular applications over to a new app distribution channel isn’t necessarily the secret to success. Winning the App Store game isn’t necessarily a numbers game — it’s about having access to good applications and some great exclusives.

The best mobile devices for business and personal use

Editor’s Note: The following article is reprinted from InfoWorld.com.

I'm confident that 2010 will go down as the year that personal and professional computing officially merged, as the iPhone finally knocked down the wall that had kept the two separate. Sure, working at home on personal computers had already put holes in the structure, but it was the iPhone that took the barrier out completely.
What is the best mobile device for the new, integrated world? There are many, many options available from Apple, Research in Motion, and Hewlett-Packard's Palm division, as well as Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 and Google's Android hardware partners.

Best touchscreen smartphone: Apple iPhone 4

InfoWorld has tested the iPhone against every business-capable competitor, and no one has come close. The iPhone excels at apps of all sorts, as well as Web surfing, email and other messaging, and media presentation (music, movies, TV, books, and so on). With iOS 4, it offers business-class security and management capabilities, breaking the BlackBerry's stranglehold in this arena. Only the defunct Windows Mobile joins iOS and BlackBerry OS as business-class.

The iPhone's use of iTunes, though disliked by IT, also ensures an easily accessible backup of all apps, media, and even document files. These backups can even be encrypted to comply with government regulations on managing personal information.

The iPhone 4 is not perfect. Its weakest aspect is its phone; users regularly complain of dropped calls and poor audio. It's also tied in the United States to the worst network (AT&T's). Both weaknesses ultimately need to change, and they're barriers for many people to buying an iPhone, as is the lack of a model with a physical keyboard. But no other device comes close to the iPhone 4 when it comes to its ability to serve as a pocket computer—the "smart" in "smartphone."

Runner up: If the AT&T tie-in or phone-quality issues prevent you from going for an iPhone 4, our recommended touch-only runner-up is the HTC Droid Incredible. Note that the device runs Android OS 2.2, which means the Incredible less secure than the iPhone, and it may not be allowed onto many corporate networks—or at least not without a third-party software solution such as NitroDesk TouchDown or Good for Enterprise.

Best keyboard smartphone: RIM BlackBerry Torch

The BlackBerry has long been the de facto smartphone standard, thanks to its messaging capabilities. Many executives use the BlackBerry as their primary device for conducting business via email, but RIM's devices have not been good with apps, the Web, or media presentation. The company's first attempt, the Storm, was a poorly designed iPhone clone, and the Storm 2 was little better.
However, the BlackBerry Torch 9800 is not like a previous BlackBerry—well, it is and it isn't.For messaging, the Torch works very much like a BlackBerry Bold—the executive's BlackBerry of choice—which makes it immediately comfortable for longtime BlackBerry users. Its slideout keyboard is essentially the same as the Bold's, so it's easy to type with.

Whereas Web browsing was the Achilles' heel of previous BlackBerrys, the Torch's new browser is thoroughly modern, displaying the Web in its full glory. And the Torch's touchscreen is both large enough and touch-responsive enough to handle the Web and iPhone-style apps well. At this point, there are few BlackBerry apps available, and many websites assume that the Torch is as Web-crippled as previous models, so they often autosubstitute a limited WAP version. As Torch adoption grows, both of these external limits should fade.

Although the Torch is tied to AT&T in the United States, that exclusivity will end soon, and you can expect models from all the major carriers this winter.

In a nutshell, the BlackBerry Torch is a good merger of the traditional BlackBerry messaging and security strengths with the modern touch, app, and Web capabilities pioneered by the iPhone.

Runner up: If the BlackBerry Torch feels too old-school for you, our runner-up for a physical-keyboard phone is the Motorola Droid 2. Note that, like the Droid Incredible, the Droid 2 runs Android OS 2.2, which means it's less secure than the iPhone and may not be allowed onto many corporate networks without third-party protection.

Best tablet: Apple iPad

A year ago, some pundits were questioning the viability of the then-unreleased iPad. But it's created a whole new market and proved to be a hit among consumers and businesses alike.

There's a reason for its success: The iPad is an amazingly good device, and one that can act as a surrogate laptop much of the time. Its large screen is quite good for desktop-like Web browsing, as well as for running productivity apps, playing movies, and working with multiple email accounts. With hardware attachments, it can act as a presentation device or pull in photos from digital cameras, for example. Additionally, it's very portable, thanks to its light weight (1.5 pounds) and long battery life (10 to 11 hours is typical).

Plus, because of the iPad's use of iOS 4 and native support for Microsoft Exchange policies, it can be securely used in most businesses.

The iPad is not perfect. Its Safari browser, for example, doesn't work well with many applications-oriented websites such as Google Docs and Microsoft SharePoint, but it is amazingly capable for a first-generation product. None of the competing Android tablets comes close to the iPad in terms of capability or performance. The closest competitor, the Samsung Galaxy Tab, is a weak imitation.

Of course, like the iPhone, 3G-capable iPad is tied to AT&T, whose network is iffy in several cities, such as New York and San Francisco. But AT&T doesn't require a long-term commitment to use its 3G data service with the iPad—you sign up for a month at a time. Apple also offers models without 3G radios (all models have Wi-Fi).

A new iPad this spring will all but certainly add front and rear cameras. It will probably be a bit thinner and perhaps faster, so you may want to wait. But today's model is a joy to use, and it's handy to boot. It's also likely to benefit from further software updates—Apple is very good about ensuring that OS updates run on at least two previous generations of its hardware.

Runner up: If for some reason the iPad doesn't appeal to you, we have no runner-up options. It's an iPad or nothing.

Expect new choices in the new year

In 2010, the Android platform took off, quickly rivaling the iPhone in popularity. RIM finally delivered its first viable iPhone competitor, but has yet to follow up with other models or bring the new BlackBerry OS to its previous hits, the Bold and Curve. I expect Android to get even more competitive in 2011—and perhaps start filling some of its business security gaps. We should also see, this spring, the first tablets running a version of Android. I also expect RIM to make a serious effort with its forthcoming PlayBook tablet and perhaps build on the Torch's momentum with smartphone upgrades.

Also in 2010, Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 crashed and burned, while Hewlett-Packard's acquisition of Palm put the struggling WebOS in deep freeze. On the tablet front, Hewlett-Packard's Windows 7-based Slate tablet proved to be more of a demonstration product than a serious product commitment. Either or both of these companies may get mobile religion in 2011—and may even deliver on it. Nokia's smartphone strategy is in disarray, and it's unlikely to be a serious option in 2011—but you can never know for certain.

You can be sure that Apple will continue to put distance between itself and its competitors with new versions of the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch. Google's Android has the best shot at keeping up.
But that's next year. For now, if you need a mobile device, you know what to get.