SOPA : Whoa – My Congressman actually “gets it”

January 19 2012 by Jim in Computing, General, Rants |No Comments

So like many people, yesterday, I took some time to let my elected representatives know my feelings on the SOPA and PIPA bills now in Congress.  I’m not going to rehash it here – if you don’t know what I am talking about, Google either of the terms above and you’ll figure it out pretty quickly.

I got the standard “thanks for your message” replies from my two Senators, Jean Shaheen and Kelly Ayote.  The reply that I got from my Representative, Frank Guinta was far more surprising in that I think that Representative Guinta actually “gets it” where SOPA is concerned.  He opposes the bill, not just because his constituents told him to, but because he understands why the bill is bad legislation.  I have reprinted his entire response below and I have to say how happy and proud I am to have a Congressman who is literate in technology issues.  Granted, the reply may have been crafted by one of his staffers, but regardless, it represents a policy position on this issue that my Congressman is going to take.  Kudos to you, Representative Guinta and I’m very glad to have been one of the people who elected you.

January 19, 2012

Dear James,

Knowing your concern regarding the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), I wanted to take this opportunity to update you on my position regarding this legislation.  I have appreciated having the benefit of your thoughts on this important issue.

H.R. 3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act was introduced by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) on October 26, 2011.  It has been referred to the House Judiciary Committee. The primary purpose of SOPA is to stop the theft of intellectual property from foreign-based websites.  The U.S. Senate has introduced companion legislation, S. 978 the Protect IP Act or PIPA.

Although well intentioned, many have raised legitimate concerns regarding the legislation and believe the manner in which SOPA attempts to achieve its goals of stopping the theft of intellectual property from foreign-based websites is unworkable and includes many unintended and dangerous consequences. I am writing today to inform you that I have severe reservations with the legislation.  If SOPA were to come to the floor of the House of Representatives for a vote in its current form, I would oppose it.
One of the main issues regarding SOPA, is it would force Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block access to websites that have been accused of facilitating copyright infringement.  Blocking access will likely slow down internet connectivity, while eroding the necessary trust the system needs. It would also set a dangerous precedent of allowing our government – and others – to filter domains. Fortunately, all sides have signaled this provision should be dropped.

Furthermore, the legislation would place a tremendous legal burden on websites accused of third-party copyright infringement and would cause them to be removed from search engines.  Even if they made an honest mistake, they would be faced with litigation from the U.S. Attorney General. Fighting the accusations would cost an enormous amount of time and money, and smaller sites would likely go out of business. Private lawsuits could also be brought against the websites. This would open up the potential for massive lawsuit abuse – even though the vast majority of online piracy occurs through a small number of websites.

While the federal government does have a role in protecting intellectual property rights, it should do so in a way that does not weaken internet security, disrupt growth, or restrict free speech and your First Amendment rights.

As the debate on this legislation continues, I look forward to working with my colleagues in the House of Representatives to ensure the needs of copyright protection are balanced with the First Amendment Rights of all Americans. Currently H.R. 3261 remains in the House Judiciary Committee. While I do not serve on this committee, rest assured I will keep your concerns in mind should this legislation, or a similar bill ever come to the floor of the House of Representatives for a vote.

It is an honor to represent you in Congress.  Your suggestions are always welcome.  Please feel free to contact either my Washington office at (202) 225-5456 or the district office, (603) 641-9536.  Also visit my website at www.guinta.house.gov for information on legislative issues and follow me on Facebook at facebook.com/repfrankguinta and Twitter at @RepFrankGuinta.

Sincerely,

Frank Guinta
Member of Congress

eBooks pricing model needs revisiting…

August 3 2011 by Jim in General |No Comments

I’ve been a fan of electronic books now for a few years.  I bought my first Kindle about three years ago, then traded it for an iPad as soon as it came out.  Yes, I know the tired arguments back and forth about the ebook readers versus the iPad, but the bottom line is that I am much more likely to be reading in bed in a dark room than I am to be sitting on a beach with my ebook, so the backlit screen of the iPad is much more useful to me than the non-reflective kindle.  Plus, I really have a hard time getting my head around the small kindle, having only owned the larger DX and like like the size of the print/page on the iPad.  That said, I do primarily use the Kindle reader on the iPad, so Amazon gets my ebook money regardless.

Now, that said, while I do like the eBook format, there is one thing that kind of makes me scratch my head.  Pricing of older books seems to be out of touch with market realities.  Case in point – I’m a big fan of Vince Flynn’s novels.  Mitch Rapp is the badass that I wish I could be and the detail is good enough to hold my interest – much like Tom Clancy used to be in his heyday before he got fat, rich, and lazy and started farming out his name for lesser writers to use.  I’ve read most of the later ones and have now started to go back to the earlier ones.  The main reason that I did not do the early ones first was because up until recently, most of my “reading” had been in the form of Audible audio books and the earlier novels were not yet available in their unabridged versions from Audible.

I’m currently reading Transfer of Power – Flynn’s second book and the first one featuring his seminal Mitch Rapp character.  For some reason that I don’t quite recall, I have both the Kindle and the Audible editions.  It’s actually kind of a neat pairing – I can listen to the story while driving in the car and then switch over to the printed version when I’m reading in bed.  I’d love to do this on a regular basis, but it would require me to purchase the book twice; once in Kindle form and once in Audible and that would work out to about $30 a book – a bit too much for my taste.  Anyway, I recently decided to make Flynn’s first book, Term Limits my next read.  While it is available on Audible, I do like the ability to read in bed, so I decided to purchase this one in a printed form rather than through Audible.  It was here that I hit the snag that launched this blog entry.

About a year or so ago, the publishers started to play hardball with Amazon.  In the past, Amazon set the pricing for ebooks and as Amazon was really the only real game in town (sorry Sony and Barnes & Noble), the publishers had little recourse if they wanted to sell ebook versions of their library.  With the launch of the iPad and iBooks, the publishers saw the opportunity to take back control of the pricing model and as a result, they get to set the prices for eBook editions.  I was all set to purchase the Kindle edition of Term Limits, but the publishers want $9.99 for that version (the B&N nook edition is the same price).  Seriously?  This book was first published in 1998 – 13 years ago.  You can buy the paperback version new for $9.99 and that has to cost more to produce than the electronic one.  Furthermore – you can even buy a used version for less than $5 and Amazon even offers some of these with their Amazon Prime shipping.  Sure, I need to wait an extra day or two to get it, but it’s half the cost of the electronic version.  Plus, once I finish it, I can always resell it or give it to a friend or the local library – both options that are not available with a Kindle edition.

The point here is that Simon & Schuster loses on this one.  If they had the Kindle edition for roughly the same price, I would have purchased it and they would be $5 richer.  Instead, I get to read the book, Amazon gets their cut, and I pay half of what I would have paid for the ebook version.  Bottom line here is that the publishers need to pull their heads out of their fannies and realize that sites such as Amazon along with the Brick and Mortar used book stores are going to make money selling used paper versions of the books unless those publishers get smart about pricing for older books.  Sure – ebooks make a good value when purchasing the newest releases, but for older titles, the old fashioned dead tree versions are going to be the real winners until something changes.

DVD promos that I can’t skip really annoy me

May 14 2011 by Jim in Rants |No Comments

Okay, looks like its time for a new category.  I’m going to call it Rants.  My first rant is going to be against the assclowns who make commercial DVDs.  You may have noticed over the last few years that it is becoming increasingly difficult to skip the lovely previews that appear at the beginning of DVDs.  The first step these jokers took was to disable to the ability to jump to the DVD menu until you had made it through all of the previews of upcoming DVDs.  For a while the workaround was simply to hit the fast forward button to speed through these annoying commercials.

Tonight though, the DVD makers crossed a line.  My wife and I sat down to watch the third installment of the Chronicles of Narnia – Voyage of the Dawn Treader and we discovered a new trick that the DVD makers have employed.  They have now disabled the fast forward capability on the previews so when you get ready to watch the movie, you need to sit through 6-10 minutes of idiot commercials and previews before you get to the DVD menu.

Legality of what I’m about to discuss aside, fact is that this, more than anything else justifies in my mind software like AnyDVD which is primarily designed to allow you to bypass the CSS encryption on commercial DVDs so that you can either copy them or else rip MP4 versions of the movies.  Besides doing the CSS decoding, you can set AnyDVD to disable to blocks that DVD makers put on their DVDs and go right to the menu without having to watch the up front garbage.  Unfortunately to do this, you need to either be using a computer to play the DVD so that AnyDVD can be running in the background or else you need to copy or rip the DVD first.  Granted that this is an extra hassle and at least in the U.S. doing so violates the DMCA, but in my mind this latest move by DVD makers justifies this.  If I buy a DVD, I should not be forced to sit through previews every time I sit down to watch the movie that I paid money for.

All right.  ’nuff said.  Just needed to get that off of my chest.

Firearms Posts Moved

May 2 2011 by Jim in General |No Comments

Hi Folks,

Upon reflection, I’ve decided that adding a firearms section to a tech blog really is pushing the envelope a bit too far.  Basically, I was lazy and did not want to set up an entirely new WordPress site, but the fact is that it really is the right thing to do given how different the topics are.  So, for those of you who are interested in reading my continuing thoughts on firearms, you are welcome to check out my new site http://www.gunjourney.com.  For those of you who have no interest in firearms, fear not as this will be the only post you find on this website that deals with the subject.

-Jim

Well, Guess it’s Farewell to the Xoom

April 24 2011 by Jim in Mobile |No Comments

Well, I’ve had the Xoom for a month now, so no one can claim I did not give it a fair shake.  Unfortunately, after a month of use, I feel that it has come up short in two many thing.

Now, some people tend to get cranky when one attempts to compare any tablet to the iPad.  Frankly, I don’t quite understand that. Granted, the Apple haters out there certainly won’t like it because pretty much every tablet comes up wanting when compared to the iPad, But, for the vast majority of the public, comparisons are apt because the average person just wants to buy the best tablet and is not all that interested in religious arguments.  For this, the iPad is hard to beat.

Let’s take a look at some of the problems I’ve had with the Xoom.  First of all, when compared to the iPad, it is downright bulky.  This incidentally is comparing it to the first generation iPad.  When compared to the second generation iPad, it’s downright obese.  The second issue is that while the iPad is really designed to be used in both portrait and landscape mode interchangeably, the Xoom really is designed for landscape mode and while it supports portrait mode, it does so somewhat clunkily.   This is a major disadvantage as many existing android apps are written for the portrait mode found in phones – the predominant android platform today.

Now one interesting difference between the Xoom and the iPad is how they handle applications written for their smaller phone cousins.  Whereas the iPad brings the apps up in a small window and will scale them up to fill the screen (with an attendant hit to resolution), the Xoom automatically scales them and does it well.

An issue with both platforms is that neither fully support all of the applications written for their smaller phone cousins.  In Apple’s case, I have found these problems to be limited to some of the more obscure applications.  On the Xoom, I found a very high profile app that does not work – the Sonos controller app for my music system.  Granted that not everyone has a Sonos, so it may not be an issue to many of my readers, but as I’ve said before, the best tablet for is the one that runs the apps that you use, so here, the Xoom fails me.

Add to this list the fact that there is no Tivo app, no Wall Street Journal tablet app, no native Netflix app among others and very quickly the Xoom starts looking pretty unattractive for my needs.  Now, I know that none of this is Motorola’s or Google’s fault – after all, its up to the app makers to decide whether they want to write apps for the Xoom, but in the end, a platform without support is not going to be all that useful.  While things are definitely different today, a look back at Apple computer in the late 1980′s and 1990′s would have told a similar story.  Sure the Mac was nice, but there were a lot more useful apps on the PC side, so that is the platform that dominated the market.  We may see a similar trend in tablets.  Android is a powerful operating system and has made significant inroads in the phone market, but I wonder if in part some of that success comes from the fact that for many years the iPhone was an AT&T exclusive and Android was the only really decent alternative on the other carriers.

It is of course the classic chicken and the egg story – The apps won’t come unless the platform is widely adopted by consumers, but consumers won’t buy a platform that does not have a rich app infrastructure.  If android had the greenfield advantage that Apple did last year, then people might be more patient.  The fact is however that consumers have a clear choice – an established platform with a rich app ecosystem or a development platform that may be months years or longer away from having the kind of app ecosystem enjoyed by its competitor.  It’s really no surprise that the sales numbers are what they are.

In the end, the Xoom is damned by one more issue – I’m not confident how much support Motorola and Google plan to ultimately throw behind the Xoom long term.  I’ve heard that the Xoom is the official development platform for the Android Honeycomb version, but here we are how many months since the Xoom became available and they still have not figured out how to make the SD card slot work?  Gimmie a break – I seriously doubt that Apple would ever release a product with disabled features.  That would offend their sense of style.

Too bad.  This thing had some serious potential.

Windows Phone Woes

April 21 2011 by Jim in Computing |No Comments

Anyone who has been following the sad story of Windows Phone has got to be either very disappointed or very happy depending one which end of the Apple-loving spectrum you fall on.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, the idea of a Windows Phone got me very excited.  The Apple phone is great  - don’t get me wrong, but I’ve always been one of those anti-Apple guys.  That said, I freely admit to owning two Apple Imacs, several Apple laptops over the years, a first generation iPod touch, a number of Apple iPods, and a gen 1 Apple tablet.

I had to draw the line at the iPhone as I was a long time Verizon subscriber and was not going to switch to the far inferior AT&T network simply to get an iPhone.  Yes, the iPhone is on Verizon now, but I’ve moved over to U.S. Cellular so the wait begins anew.  I do own and like the Android phone I have now, but it definitely feels rough around the edges.  If the Windows phone had come to Verizon last fall, I would probably have one and still be on Verizon’s network.

The recent events around the Windows Phone has certainly dampened my enthusiasm.  Even if a Windows phone were to come to U.S. Cellular now, I don’t think I would buy one.  My main concern is that Microsoft simply does not seem to really “get it” when it comes to phones.  The Windows Phone roll out last fall followed Apple’s iPhone introduction script in very depressing ways.  First of all, it was not available on Verizon or Sprint.  I’m not sure if T-Mobile had one at launch, but AT&T was certainly the flagship carrier.  Secondly, like the first iPhone, it shipped with some major handicaps. No cut and paste, the search function in the Windows Phone store is a mess, and there simply were not a lot of applications available for it.  This was not a huge problem for Apple three years ago as they were releasing something that was truly revolutionary for the time and people were willing to forgive the shortcomings.  On top of this, Apple acted fairly quickly to correct many of the major limitations with software upgrades that it released on its timetable.

Microsoft was launching a phone into a post-iPhone world, and users already had a good viable competitor.  There were very few really compelling reasons for the average person to choose a Windows Phone over an iPhone or an Android device.  Perhaps the most compelling reason was that it was a chance for people who did not like Apple to get a feature rich phone.  But, they already had that chance and it was the Android phone.  None of this would have mattered too much in the long run had Microsoft chosen to roll out some software updates in a timely manner.  Unfortunately, Microsoft made one other error – they ceded control of updating to the carriers.  Sure, Microsoft might develop an OS upgrade, but the carriers had the ability to block that update from going out if they chose to.  To no one’s surprise they chose to.

Microsoft had an update ready  to go at the end of 2010, but for many users in the U.S., that update is only now starting to trickle out.  Furthermore, while it addresses some of the shortcomings of Windows Phone, it won’t be until late this year or early next that Microsoft will have the next update available that will bring the Windows Phone into parity with the iPhone 4.  All well and good except for the fact that by then, Apple will probably have the iPhone 5 that will once again relegate Microsoft’s offering to second class citizen status.

There have been some recent stories about how some of the major analysts see Windows phone taking the number two spot behind Android and ahead of Apple in a few years.  They got there by figuring that Microsoft’s recent alliance with Nokia is going to mean that Windows phones will sell as well as Nokia’s Symbian based phones have sold.  I think that this is a big assumption.  Microsoft certainly has the talent, resources, and money to position Windows Phone as a major threat to Apple, but they are going to have to get their act together to do it.  If history is any guide, Microsoft doesn’t have a great track record with consumer oriented devices (think Media Center, Windows Home Server, Zune, etc.) – the Xbox being the only notable exception.

I’m certainly not prepared to invest my money and my two year contract time into a Windows Phone today.  We’ll see how they look in a few years.  In the meantime, maybe Apple will consider cutting a deal with U.S. cellular.  That iPhone 5 is sure sounding good about now.

Motorola Xoom Wi-Fi Tablet Review Part 3 – The Second Day…

March 27 2011 by Jim in Computing, Mobile |No Comments

Okay, I have now been the proud owner of the Xoom WiFi for a little more than a day now and have a few more observations.  As a reminder, I’m looking at the Xoom through the eyes of a first generation iPad owner, so while a direct comparison is not my goal, it is going to be somewhat unavoidable in some areas.

Having held the Xoom now for awhile, I noticed something interesting about the case.  It is rounded slightly on the left and right sides, but remains fairly thick in the center.  The upshot of this is that while the Xoom is relatively comfortable to hold in landscape mode, when held in portrait mode, it is just not that ergonomic.  It is clear that Verizon envisioned the Xoom to be used primarily in landscape mode, but this presents a bit of a challenge as until more tablet-specific Android applications appear we are going to be relying largely on Android apps written for smartphones which are often used in the portrait mode.  One clear example of this issue is the beta version of feedly, an RSS reader absolutely refused to go into landscape mode on my Xoom despite the fact that this beta is supposed to be designed for tablet support.  Granted, this will evolve over time, but it is somewhat annoying right now.

When compared to the iPad, the Xoom has one really great feature and one glaring omission in terms of user interface.  The really great feature is the ability to drop live widgets on my desktop.  I have a couple of news application widgets (CNN & USA Today), an email and Droidin (Linked In client) widgets all running on my primary home page.  I don’t have to open any apps to get a quick snapshot of what is going on.  The glaring omission is the ability to organize applications into folders.  What is odd is that while Android 2.2 and before has the folder capability, for some reason, it is not enabled in Android 3.0.  I know that there are multiple screens where one can place applications, but I really miss the foldering functionality which I used pretty heavily on my iPad to keep my apps grouped by category.  This may also get fixed in a later release of Android, but for now, it isn’t there.

Much ado has been made about the inclusion of Flash on the Xoom.  I can happily report that many web sites that either did not work at all or that worked with issues on the iPad render in all of their flash glory on the Xoom.  Unfortunately, there are some exceptions including Hulu, which seems to be able to identify it is running on a tablet and refuses to play any videos (likely as an inducement to consider coughing up for Hulu Plus).

Speaking of media, this is definitely one area where Android has some work to do.  Love it or hate it, iTunes provides a consistent interface across the Apple spectrum of products for synchronizing all of your digital files and podcast subscriptions.  To have the same functionality in Android requires the blending of a number of different Android apps.  On the music front, the Xoom shops with an excellent music player, but the same cannot be said for the video player app, which is basically the camera application placed into playback mode.  The app could not find either of the two test video files that I copied to Xoom, but fortunately, there is a free player, QQPlayer, which filled the gap nicely.  It was capable of playing back two h.264 video files that I had encoded for use on my iPad with no problems.

How you choose to interact with you media may determine how happy/not happy you are with the Xoom.  Generally speaking, for videos, I like to copy a few encoded mp4 files onto my mobile device when I go on trips.  It is really easy to do this on the Xoom – just browse to the Movies folder on your Xoom and copy the files to it.  On the iPad, you first have to import them into iTunes and then set them up to sync to your iPad.  It works, but it is cumbersome and takes a fair amount of time.  If, on the other hand, you want to keep a nice audio library on your PC and want to automatically sync your Xoom to it, then you will need to use some sort of third party application to make this happen.  Windows Media player thinks that it can do it, but I did not try an actual sync to verify that it does work.

Alright.  that wraps up this part of the review.  I’ll probably check back in a few days after I’ve done some more tire kicking with a final review wrap up.

Why I Like the iPhone (even though I don’t own one)

March 26 2011 by Jim in Computing, Mobile |No Comments

One of the luxuries of having a blog is that I get the opportunity to get philosophical now and again.  Today, I want to talk a little about why I like the iPhone and in particular, why Apple’s phone actually represents a swipe against “the man” despite the fact that Apple is often perceived as “the man”

It would be hard to argue against the assertion that Apple is a PR-obsessed machine that wants to maintain an iron grip on its products.  Many pundits have railed against the closed development environment of the iPhone and the power that Apple wields through its App Store.  Granted there are those brave few who jailbreak their iPhones enabling them to run Apps not approved by Apple, but in the end, the percentage of jailbroken iPhones out there are relatively small and most users simply accept what Apple gives them.

While Apple is often perceived as the “evil empire” in terms of their App Store restrictions, in the case of the iPhone, they actually assume the role of the crusader against an even more evil force – that of the Cellular carriers. Anyone who has ever purchased a smartphone knows what I am talking about.  Verizon, AT&T and their ilk take a perfectly good phone and load it with all kinds of crapware that the average user cannot remove.  Verizon is particularly egregious in this respect in that they disable some of the native functions of the phones in order to force users to use Verizon-provided alternatives that carry monthly fees.  One example of this is the GPS functionality.  Many of the smartphones Verizon offers are capable of  using Google Maps in conjunction with the built-in GPS chipset to provide turn by turn directions for free, but Verizon actively disabled this functionality in the native software in order to force users who want GPS to purchase the $9.95 per month VZ-Navigator utility.  Even my provider, U.S. cellular loads its Android phones with crap applications such as City ID which offers to provide caller-ID functionality to incoming calls for a monthly fee.  City Id cannot be uninstalled unless you want to “root” your Android phone and install a third party firmware which often comes from somewhat dubious sources.

On top of this, most carriers are loath to upgrade existing phones when new versions of the Operating System appear instead wishing to sell you a new phone along with the attendant 2 year extension to your contract.  Many cell phone companies (and I’m talking about you, Verizon) have even instituted higher early cancellation fees  that exceed the discount the offered in the first place to get the phone at a subsidized price.  Verizon for example went from an early cancellation fee of $179 to $350 for its smartphones.

Against this tide, Apple has proven to be the only company with the clout to push back.  It controls all apps that are installed by default on iPhones and Verizon and AT&T can either take it leave it.  Furthermore, Apple offers free upgrades to its Smartphone users whenever it feel like it and the carriers are unable to prevent or restrict its users from getting the new features for free.  Compare this to the latest fiasco to his the nascent Windows Phone OS on AT&T.  Microsoft has had an OS upgrade available for some time and AT&T has simply refused to allow it.  Even U.S. Cellular, a carrier that has high customer satisfaction is not above this practice.  Android 2.2 and 2.3 have been released and I’m still waiting for them to approve a 2.2 upgrade to my Samsung Galaxy S phone – an upgrade that has been available to other Galaxy S phones on other carriers for some time now.  On the other hand, they would be happy to sell you a new phone that comes preloaded with the Android 2.2 OS.

My underlying point is that while I certainly see Apple as the “evil empire” in many respects, in the cell phone world, it may prove to be one of the consumer’s strongest ally against and even greater evil.

Motorola Xoom Wi-Fi Tablet Review Part 2 – First Impressions

March 26 2011 by Jim in Computing, Mobile |No Comments

Okay, so I have been playing with the Xoom for a few hours now and wanted to share my initial impressions.

The screen is absolutely gorgeous.  It is a shade larger than the iPad’s and boasts a slightly higher resolution.  At the same time, it has a thinner bezel and the overall length and width is a little less than the iPad.  Weight wise, it is pretty close to the Gen 1 iPad, but somewhat heavier than the iPad 2.  It feels somewhat clunkier though.  My good friend Mike picked up the iPad 2 on launch day and I have to admit that Apple has done a nice job thinning and lightening it.  While the Xoom can hold its own against the Gen 1 iPad, the iPad 2 definitely wins the day in terms of ergonomics.  That said, when compared side by side, I think that the Xoom’s screen is better.  It seems crisper – probably as a result of the higher resolution.

Flash is still in beta for the Android 3.0 OS,but the few flash sites I visited seem to work fine.  It is a very welcome change going to a web site and seeing the whole thing as opposed to the gaping holes some websites render on the iPad.  The biggest hurdle for me is going to be the lack of apps for the Xoom.  For all intents and purposes, buying the Xoom on day one is a deja vu experience to what I had last April when I first got the iPad.  There are a lot of apps that are simply not yet available, but hopefully that will change.  One nice thing though is that the regular Android phone apps seem to work fine on the Xoom and the Xoom seems to scale them up better than the iPad does when scaling native iPhone apps.

There are some huge holes however, Netflix being one of them.  At the present time, there is no dedicated Netflix app for the Xoom, but hopefully that will change.  One thing that complicates this though is the fragmentation in the Android OS across different devices.  Netflix needs to enforce DRM restrictions for its streaming functionality and there is no universal DRM library across the Android ecosystem.  Instead, Netflix need to work with each device maker independently to develop and deploy the DRM libraries.  This means that some Android devices will get Netflix and some won’t.  Hopefully the Xoom gets enough market share to make it one of the ones that does.  In the meantime, the excellent PlayOn application will allow you to play Netflix movies (and a whole lot of other stuff) on the Xoom.

The bottom line here is that Xoom buyers today are going  to face the early adopter syndrome and that only time will tell if the Android 3.0 OS ecosystem will develop the way the iPad/iPhone one has.  One nice thing is that Amazon just launched its own Android app store which is going to provide a nice alternative to the Wild West environment of the official Android App Store.

Over the next few days I’m going to go through my iPad applications and see what I can find in the Xoom world that will work.  I’ll post a couple more parts at least to this review as I work through things.

Motorola Xoom Wi-Fi Tablet Review Part 1 – Why the Xoom?

March 26 2011 by Jim in Computing, Mobile |No Comments

Well, today I picked up my Motorola Xoom in the Wi-Fi only flavor.  As it would seem, my local retailer sold this tablet a day before the official launch.  I’m going to post this review in multiple parts over the next few days as I use the Xoom and get a better feel for its pros and cons.  Since this is the first posting in my series, let me spend a couple of minutes talking about why I bought the Xoom in the first place.

Let me start by saying that I am certainly no anti-Apple rebel who will buy any Android product I can get my hands on.  Sure, my mobile phone is Android-based, but that is largely because my provider, U.S. Cellular does not currently offer the iPhone.  When and it it becomes available, I will certainly consider the iPhone for a bunch of reasons (but that is for another posting entirely) .  I own a first generation iPad and was one of those yahoos who pre-ordered it sight unseen and was waiting by my door for the UPS guy the day it was released.

When Apple announced the second generation iPad, I had every intention of trading up.  Apple, however, made some (in my opinion) questionable decisions with the iPad 2 launch that ultimately set me on the road to the Xoom.  First of all, Apple decided with the iPad 2 not to offer the day of release delivery option for mail orders.  Had they done that, I would almost certainly be using one right now.  Instead, Apple decided (likely as a result of the lack of lines on the day the Verizon iPhone was released) that they needed the iPad 2 release to be an “event” so they required anyone who wanted one on the release day to stand in some sort of line.  I am way to old to find the idea of standing in a line appealing.  I didn’t do it for concert tickets when I was younger and I sure as hell was not about to do it to satiate Steve Job’s ego.  This meant that the usual places such as the local Apple store were definitely out.

Now Apple wanted to show that they cared about their customer and advertised that on release day, a larger number of retailers would be offering the iPad.  Besides the Apple Store and AT&T, retailers such as Walmart, Best Buy, and Target would also be in the mix.  Now, I figured that the local Best Buy would be a sucker’s game much like the Apple store and I happen to live in a small town that has a Target.  I figured that there was a good chance that the local Target would not have long lines and that I could just stroll in around 4:30 and purchase my iPad.  Yeah, I admit now that was a pretty naive thing to believe.  I showed up at the local Target and was told that they had received just 5 iPads total and that those five had been spoken for early in the day when the store opened.  This was in my mind, the final straw.  The iPad 2 is available in 18 different SKUs when you consider the two color options and the fact that there are WiFi, AT&T, and Verizon versions of each size.  18 SKUs and the local Target got a lousy 5 units total?  You have got to be kidding me!  I would not have minded if the local store got 30 units and they sold out, but 5 units was just plain insulting.  It exposed Apple’s claim of a wider distribution base as the farce that it was.  This was the point where I decided that I would not once again be Steve Job’s  little tool.

So, when the announcement came that Motorola would be offering the 32 GB Wi-Fi Xoom at the same price point as the 32 GB iPad, the decision was made and I started down the Android Tablet road.  Note that this was not a decision that I took lightly.  I have a fairly decent investment in the Apple app infrastructure, but then again, I’m probably not going to get rid of my iPad.  I did want to sell it, but I have the 64 GB Wi-Fi version which cost me nearly $700 less than a year ago.  If I could have gotten $500 or so for it, then I would have definitely sold it, but the current glut of Gen 1 iPads on the market have pushed the value into the $300 range.  At that price, I’d rather keep it as a movie and game playing device for my kids.

This of course brings me to today as I am the proud owner of a new Xoom.  In part 2 of this review, I’ll discuss my first impressions.

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