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Droid-Life’s hearing from sources inside of Staples that their Sunday ad for April 3rd will feature a WiFi-only version of the Motorola XOOM. We know the device is coming as per Motorola CEO’s own confirmation, but details have been few and far between. The folks at Sam’s Club are said to be carrying a WiFi-only XOOM soon for $539. (And yes, we know it’s running “Android 3.0 Homeycomb”.) We hope Staples’ pricing is just as decent.
[Update]: And now more evidence says training will begin March 23rd, meaning an early April launch doesn’t sound too unlikely.
Can’t come soon enough!!!
It all sounds great, but until we get some hard info on who will be really carrying it, it is all just hear say right now,… but I am pretty happy to be hearing all of this. Now we play the waiting game.
Who cares! Moto should have released the wi-fi model along with the other 3G model. The Xoom is a lot of hype over a machine that is half-baked (no adobe flash yet, and sd card slot needs a software upgrade too) and didn’t have the kinks worked out with Honeycomb as has been made obvious by the various reviews of individuals talking about forced and untimely restarts and program crashing. I’ll buy a Ipad2 and be happy with it! Was going to buy a Xoom but Moto screwed up and lost my purchase.
@Doug… Good for you, Doug. The rest of us care. The end.
@ Doug: If the iPad 2 had flash, maybe I would consider it. But pay all that money and not be able to see certain things because there is no flash, not in this lifetime. No flash, no me, period. I still don’t get how some people find that acceptable when so many things we look at every day require flash to see them. I’m just sayin.
Funny how as Doug is complaining about the Xoom not being released with Flash and SD support he proclaims he’ll buy an iPad 2–a device that doesn’t, and never will, have flash or SD support. Way to be a contradicting a** hat Doug!
You mean “Android 2.0 Homeycomb” I think. Haha.
Yeah, I wonder if the Wi-Fi only one will still have a GPS. I guess it would be pretty pointless, but if you had a cached Google map, it’d be awesome to have a 10.1 inch GPS for navigation.
I finally got a chance to play with a Xoom at Best Buy yesterday and it was AMAZING!…And that’s without Flash…It feels like Android but with some great enhancements to make it feel like more than just a giant phone (iphone,Galaxy Tab, etc.)…I can’t wait to see the tablets coming later this year and hopefully they will have improvements over Xoom since it is the first Honeycomb tablet…Start saving now like me and you will have a lot of choices for Honeycomb in the Fall :-) …Choice is Bliss!!!
FYI there are Apps for the Ipad that enable flash – figured you’d want to know.
Are there apps that enable a non-existent SD card slot? Nope.
To be honest, I’d rather have a “half baked” (which I don’t agree with) tablet that will definitely improve with its existing hardware, over an incremental hardware upgrade each year. Dangle that carrot, Apple.
I NEVER sign-in to leave a comment, but here goes. I’m tired of hearing about how “unfinished” the Xoom is, and how much better the iPad 2 will be. I have both the xoom and the original iPad. Guess what? I actually like the “half-baked” Xoom more. An ipad thats thinner or has a camera or two crammed into it isnt going to change my mind. The Xoom is great now, and will only get BETTER as time goes on. Enjoy your iPad.
Did I mention the unlockable boot loader? The ROM’s that will be made for it? The LIMITLESS CUSTOMIZATION this thing has? No? Well, enjoy what Steve has decided you will like….
@Simon: Well said Simon!!
@ Blade 765: Well said Blade. :-)
This is true. I WORK for the emerging Staples wireless dept. It only happen in a few markets though. SoCal for one. Northen East Coast as well if I am not mistaken.
@jmax… Way too funny I was about to say the same exact thing about Doug the contradicting troll
Dang it Simon you stole my comment ;)
Well, I’m excited. Although I’ll probably be waiting for the holiday season in hopes of quad cores and higher resolution screens, this is great news for Android tablets.
Taking my Xoom back tonight. No app support makes it one boring ass device to play with.
plus it’s heavy as all hell.
How can you say it is heavy….the thing only weighs a pound and a half. compare that to any laptop or netbook and it is still lighter.
i mean if you can’t lift a poound…then i suggest working out a little bit..i am just saying
Doug and Him, you are pretty sad people. Hanging around an Android forum and lying about Android devices as if you ever even considered buying one. Go back to your Apple blogs, iLosers.
I can’t decide until laying hands on both. User experience and reliability will be key for me. In the end though, they will both suck unless they are rooted/jailbroken… So whats the big deal! Stop whining and name calling like a bunch of b!@tches.
I can’t wait….
You guys can talk about contradictions all you want. All I’m saying is that the Xoom was released too early, and in the wrong configurations. I had hoped to have a sd card slot and flash support, but who knows when that will be available – so, I’m going with Ipad – a trusted OS and reliable piece of hardware. Flash is coming to the IOS arena in case some haven’t heard, and with wi-fi sync and data transfer, I could care less about the sd card slot, not to mention, it’s not the biggest deal on a tablet.
Saying that honeycomb and the Xoom will only get better is mere speculation at this point. Hope it works out for all of you who are so certain.
I love my zoom. I’ve had no issues, but flash would be nice…. Not to mention that I can finally use all Bluetooth functions, unlike my I pad and iPhone. Apple only allows Bluetooth headsets and keyboards. No file sharing, etc.
I mean xoom …. gotta love auto correct.
For all the Xoom lovers – here’s some bad news and the reality (over-all since Jon seems to be in the minority) of what is happening with Xoom’s sales and Honeycomb’s ability to be a viable OS – which it isn’t by many standards.
http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2011/03/09/google-xoom-still-weak-says-global-equities-honeycomb-a-mess/?mod=BOLBlog
Honeycomb is a mess and so is the Xoom. Motorola will lose to Apple, and other Android tablets will supersede Motorola in sales and quality as they not only learn from Motorola’s mistakes in rushing only one model to production when elements were unfinished, but others will release a finished product! Motorola did themselves in and the Xoom is Doomed for sure!
LOL Doug
Reliable my a$$. So you’re willing to pay for an overpriced POS that’s limited by choice. Srsly, go back to the Apple Forums and troll there. Actually for those of us with real technology skills, the lack of current support is easily mendable. Go try to get flash and SD support on your mommy’s pad. To say that software will not improve just shows how stupid you really are.
@Doug
“Flash is coming to the IOS arena in case some haven’t heard, and with wi-fi sync and data transfer, I could care less about the sd card slot, not to mention, it’s not the biggest deal on a tablet.”
First of all, it’s you COULDN’T care less, not could care less. If you could care less, then why aren’t you caring less??
Second – ever heard of DoubleTwist with AirSync? Or a microUSB cable? You know, the one that the Xoom comes with? What file transfer and wi-fi syncing are you talking about exists for iOS but not Android 3.0?
The iPad is a great product, and so is the Xoom. Seriously, quit trolling.
@Tony
Just read the article you posted. You do realize the fifth paragraph talking about battery life is a flat out lie, right?
“As Chowdhry sees it, without citing specific sources for his conclusions, “Google Honeycomb is suffering from frequent application freezes and crashes,” and “the battery life is very inconsistent – lasts sometimes for 2 hours, and sometimes for 6 hours. The battery standby life is mere 10 – 12 hours vs. 30 days on Apple iPad.””
If someone’s Xoom wasn’t even lasting 2 or 6 hours, I would totally understand if they were pissed. After 17 hours I’m usually around 35-40% remaining. No clue what this author is talking about. Sounds like straight libel to me.
STAPLES WILL BE GETTING THE MOTOROLA XOOM TABLET HOWEVER THE LATEST SOME STORES WILL BE GETTING THIS IS APRIL 17TH.
STAPLES WILL ALSO CARRY 10″ TOSHIBA, 7″ DELL, BLACKBERRY PLAYBOOK, AMD 10″ ACER.
RUMORS OF IPAD 2 A FEW MONTHS AFTER THE INITIAL LAUNCH.