Wi-Fi Xoom won't get Movies app for weeks

Users of the Wi-Fi only version of the Motorola Xoom updating to Android 3.1 have discovered that they do not have access to the new Movies tab. The reason for what appears to be a deliberate omission has not been made clear. A statement from a Motorola Support Forums manager, Matt, does little to shed light on the matter, but simply confirms the omission.

�The new Movies tab in the Android Market will not appear on updated Wi-Fi-only Motorola Xooms immediatly (sic) after the update. Google will make that available in the near future. Motorola Xooms from Verizon will be able to use the Movies service after the 3.1 update,� reads the statement.

While the feature is eventually expected to arrive on smartphones, in addition to Honeycomb tablets, owners of the Wi-Fi Xoom may have to wait several weeks before the feature is enabled.

Electronista

Advent Vega tablet gets Android 3.0 hack with GPU boost

The Advent Vega tablet has just received an unofficial Android 3.0 hack along with a GPU boost, thanks to a creative developer over on the XDA-Developers forum. Zebwen ported Android 3.0 while others, including newbe5, Corvus and HomerSp helped out and the four have now achieved hardware acceleration. The Alpha ROM is also now available for download.

The hack will boot, provides the aforementioned hardware acceleration, supports widgets and most Android apps should run, though this hasn't been thoroughly tested. The video below shows the fast response of the OS on the Advent Vega tablet. What doesn't work is more comprehensive, as it's simply described as everything else. Wi-Fi doesn't work either, and neither does the camera or the accelerometer for screen rotation.

There are some caveats for those who wish to try this build, however. For example, ClockworkMOD is bundled with the ROM, and the Vega doesn't have a hard button for boot recovery, and the ROM doesn't have ROM manager installed, so code has to be added to enter recovery mode.

Electronista

Acer 7-inch Iconia A100, A101 to arrive May 14

Acer�s 7-inch Iconia A100 and A101 Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) tablets are set to arrive May 14. The devices, which are already up for pre-order in the UK, come with either a 3G + Wi-Fi (A101) or Wi-Fi-only (A100) configurations. Both devices run the Tegra 250 dual-core Cortex A9 processor clocked at 1GHz matched with 512MB of RAM and incorporate 8GB of memory expandable with microSDs.

Graphics is delivered by ultra low power (ULP) NIVIDIA GeForce GPU with Flash 10.1 support. Movies can also be played back at 1080p on HD TV�s through the integrated HDMI port. Both also come with 5-megapixel auto-focus rear camera, and a 2-megapixel front camera.

While North American pricing is yet to be revealed, The Android Community notes that they are selling for the equivalent of $660 for the A101 with 3G + Wi-Fi, and $485 for the Wi-Fi only A101 in the UK.

Electronista

Android engineer confirms Ice Cream Sandwich as next version

Google's first post-3.0 (Honeycomb) release of Android was given a formal name this weekend after an e-mail from Android engineer Romain Guy. A response to an outstanding bug promised that it would be fixed "in Ice Cream Sandwich." The name had surfaced in rumors, but until the Droid-Life copy had just been named Ice Cream by Google or nothing at all.

The OS had already been confirmed by Google as the first to bring some of Honeycomb's features to phones and other devices smaller than tablets. Little else has been mentioned of what Ice Cream Sandwich would do.

Google is rumored to have already made the OS code complete and ready to show at the Google I/O conference next week. With the exception of the Nexus S and possibly the Nexus One, however, it might not show on production hardware until significantly later. Most phone makers have yet to upgrade hardware to Android 2.3.

Electronista

Android Honeycomb may require dual-core, strand Galaxy Tab

Google's requirements for Honeycomb could be so high that they abandon every Android tablet buyer from the past few months, electronics company Enspert's managing director Bobby Cha said on Monday. While a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 chipset like NVIDIA's Tegra 2 is already known to be the reference point, it may now need that performance just to "run properly," according to the Korean executive. He also told PCMag that it would require at least a 720p screen, although seven-inch tablets would be possible alongside 10-inch examples.


The choice would limit the new OS, also known as Android 2.4, to high-end tablets that fetch premium pricing. Enspert is working on tablets running both 2.3 or earlier as well as 2.4 and hinted at an at least temporary fork between the user experience on the high and low end, as low end hardware would be forced to use a non-optimized platform. The newer OS would only come to lower-end tablets once the parts were inexpensive enough to bring Honeycomb into the mainstream, Cha said.

Google declined to comment. However, companies including Motorola, LG, HTC and Samsung are all known to be basing their Android 2.4 tablets on the same Tegra 2 processor and are known to be using 720p or denser displays.

If accurate, the decision would see Google desert millions of early Android tablet adopters. While it warned that pre-Honeycomb builds weren't optimized for tablets, it has made no mention of these users being unable to upgrade to the newer OS. It could leave up to 1.5 million buyers without any option of upgrading to the new OS on the Samsung Galaxy Tab despite the slate being just four months old at the very first supporting carriers.

More details of how Honeycomb/Android 2.4 works, as well as the first tablets to use it, should be public at CES within the next two days. Some of these tablets won't ship until mid-year. Many will be positioned as iPad rivals, although it's unknown if Apple will up its performance and display features on the next iPad; it's unlikely to require dual-core as it only just launched the first iPad last year.

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