“I’ve owned an iPad for 10 months now, and I’ll be the first to tell you that I didn’t really view it as more than a luxury item until recently. Sure, it’s lighter than my MacBook Pro and still lighter than the recently introduced MacBook Airs by at least half a pound, but it was only until I started traveling more for work and pleasure did I realize its true utility. In between meetings and at launch events, I’m perfectly comfortable banging out emails, sending instant messages to my colleagues, and catching up on the latest tech news in the blogosphere,” JP Mangalindan writes for Fortune. “Then Honeycomb came along.”
According to Mangalindan, there are some real reasons to be excited about Honeycomb from both a hardware and software perspective:
• Motorola Xoom’s specs list
• Multitasking that shows apps you’re running (and recently run) with preview tiles that appear on the left side of the screen
• Widgets that can show more information on numerous homepages
• Notifications that pop up in the bottom right-hand corner and don’t demand immediate user interaction
Mangalindan writes, “Given what I’ve seen of Honeycomb and Motorola’s excellent tablet, Cupertino will have some serious catching up to do with their iPad 2.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Given what we’ve just read, we want to take nice long naps. None, we repeat, none of the bullet points above matter a whit to 99.99% tablet consumers. “Apple scared?” Puleeze.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “JES42” for the heads up.]
Honeycomb is nothing to write home about. Bleh.
I do think iOS could use an improved notification system. I think iOS 5 will probably have better notifications.
Nothing else on that list sounds remotely appealing.
Why does Google insist its home page be so “clean” while producing such confusing cluttered screens in Android and now Honeycomb?
” None, we repeat, none of the bullet points above matter a whit to 99.99% tablet consumers.”
Naturally, the only factor that determines whether a feature is valuable or not is whether it is part of iOS.
Multitasking? Doesn’t matter to 99.99% of consumers…oh wait, iOS has that? Then it’s an extremely important feature!!
Not impressed. I’d like to try Android, but not willing to drop money on it. I just addressed a similar article this morning, though it wasn’t quite as sensational as “Apple should be scared…”
http://taketotask.wordpress.com/
Isn’t this a cereal? Not interested. Prefer an Apple.
Who wants pages of widgets? That seems to have very little practical use, while adding lots of complexity and confusion. Maybe one screen of widgets could be useful, but that’s a big maybe. Dedicated apps are much more useful and practical.
@Macfan101
Nothing about Android’s implementation of multitasking makes it compelling.
iOS has multitasking and it’s just as easy to flip through open programs — easier if that swipe feature comes out.
Apple is first and foremost the best software developer in the world. Apple is the oracle and has been for ever. Google’s not going to gain that status or expertise and experience instantly and is actually using Apple’s open webkit sdk as it’s basis for software development…
There’s nothing instant or coincidental about iOS development.
Apple will always lead and therefore dictate the standard, while others may find short lived “features” that seem appealing but are not thouroughly implimented, fallible and taxing, of their hodge podge array of unsupported devices while compromising security, battery life, and a dependable quality user experience…
Apple’s hardware manufacturing ability and innovative lead is also unique and unrivaled, enabling laser carved unibody advantage, propriety long life unique battery design and chips…
No one else can make such superior tablets or tie all of these factors together in such a powerful product.
Last but not least, iPad was in development for years before shipping, which is an unclosable gap and lead that will never be be bridged.
IPad is truly the revolution.
Consumers don’t care about any of the items on that list. Multi-tasking within iOS will continue to evolve, but it works very well and preserves battery life. Most intelligent tech consumers understand the folly of inflated spec lists; tech journalists should know better too. What makes the iPad and iOS so great is that it is very easy to learn and use. Android is for IT types that hate Apple and love to write their own software and tweak the operating system; that is a very small group of people. The audience for the iPad is a new breed of tech consumers that Apple created, Android is for the tech consumer that is eager and longing for a Windows Tablet that doesn’t run Windows.
“what I’ve seen of Honeycomb and Motorola’s excellent tablet, “
if the person saw it at CES the Xoom’s there were running a looped tape of a pretend interface.
I’ve read 5 or 6 reviews of the Xoom all praising it like the next incarnation of sliced bread: none of them had a working model but just quoted specs or the canned moto demo.
did this person had a hand’s on?
Those specs sound like batter drainers. Didn’t Steve Jobs say that what you leave out of a product is as important as what you include? We’ve been beaten over the head with the specs club before. For a $799 battery drainer, it’s DOA. Not to mention, I’m sure we’ll discover other bugs in honeycomb from Our Lady of Perpetual Beta.
Come on now MDN, that’s just denying what’s very clear to my eyes. Honeycomb has stolen a march on iOS 4.2 for the iPad. Unless Apple ups its game and introduces new elements to the UI, it’ll be increasingly left behind as anachronistic.
I can’t see why the iPad’s UI has to mimic an iPod touch. There’s no sense in it – you’re using all that screen space inertly.
Sounds great!
I buy a tablet from Motorola (no track record at all in computers), and I get the software from Google, who are a Web advertising company.
No-one takes responsibility for the upgrades or issues with sofware, because its free.
Piracy and confusion are also free with these ‘tablets’.
Its also called an Xoom, hcih might be pronounced as exhume – the act of digging up a body from a grave.
I am seriously underwhelmed.
hcih means ‘which’ – I was in a hurry to express my disdain….
Multitasking didn’t matter. Why do you think the iPhone managed to sell so well without it? But now it’s a must-have feature, because as smartphones became more powerful, people began expecting more from them. Like multitasking.
The point you think you’re making fails.
And let’s see you name one killer feature of Honeycomb. One. I’m betting you can’t.
From Froyoyo to Honeycomb, what happened to the version in the middle that is supposed to be named beginning with a letter ‘G’? Look, somebody can write down a list of specs and requirements and let a team work on it, and the end result may still be shite. It is all in HOW you put it together.
However – I do think Apple need to allow a more flexible desktop on the iPad – as mentioned above, there is no reason for the home screen to look like a giant iPhone.
Multiple home screen designs are going to be necessary in order to give the product a custom ‘its-my-ipad’ look.
Without opening the floodgates of chaos, some loosening of the reins is desirable….
(that mixed metaphor is all yours for free)
Those items on the list are very impressive. I spent some time looking into the features of honeycomb and honestly, as an iPhone 4 owner, and someone looking to buy the iPad 2 I am very interested. The new features in Honeycomb make the tablet much more full featured, while maintaining the flex and use of a tablet.
The widget system to produce live updates on yoru desktop or home screen based on apps is pretty cool. Basically I can have multiple apps running at once on my home screen showing snipits of the most important information.
The contextual menu bar at the top that changes based on your current actions is also a good idea, might as well take advantage of the extra real estate of a tablet screen.
The notification system also makes sense. In fact, many of these features make sense on a tablet, just not on a phone.
I think for Apple to really stay ahead of the game in relation to tablets means they will need to implement features specifc for the iPad that are not in the iPhone or iPod device. Why have such a larger screen without it???
While there are not there yet, I do feel confident that Apple has spent the last year developing and not just hanging out. iOS 4.3 is a minor upgrade with minimal changes, mostly just adding functionality that should have come in 4.2.
So i have to ask myself, what does Apple have in store next? So far they have never ceased to amaze, and they have always stayed a head of the curve, not behind it. With that, im excited to see the next iOS revision, hopefully this time the iPad version will come much sooner than the last time around (i.e. multitasking).
“Notifications that pop up in the bottom right-hand corner and don’t demand immediate user interaction”
Wait, isn’t that what I see on Windows XP systems. This damn notification telling me that there are unused icons on the desktop?
Article after article MDN is scathing of ANY statement that is anti-Apple. I love Apple products (I own a MacBook and an iPhone 4), but the predictability of a biased response from MDN is getting boring. Can’t MDN ever provide constructive feedback?
JP Mangalindan also reckons that from what he has seen of the Starship Enterprise, our space shuttles have some serious catching up to do too.
After Honeycomb comes Android HoneyPot, and iPad 3 will have some catching up to do.
And, after HoneyPot comes HoneyMustard, and iPad 4 will have some catching up to do.
Uh huh. Sure.
Why?
Honeycomb isn’t shipping yet and neither is iPad 2. Let’s let the market decide. Wait. Maybe it has already.
It would be interesting to see how the UI of Android 3 works in portrait mode.
Will you miss the space of the permanent status bar in your application?
Will the concept scale well with 100 or more apps installed?
And how will it work on 5 or 7 inch displays?
And whats about battery life with all these dynamic widgets and multitasking in the background?
These are the little details which can spoil the first positive impression very soon.
Let’s wait and see how the actual product fares in the real world. I have a feeling it’s going to fall far short of the hype.
“Can’t MDN ever provide constructive feedback?”
Ha! I don’t think the writers at MDN even know what “constructive feedback” means.
If something doesn’t have an Apple logo on it, then it’s worthless junk to them.
Yeah, Cupertino have some serious catching up to do… with the sleep they lost reading JP Mangalindan’s lack of interesting news.
Google has a superior tablet u say? All google ever does is copy and paste beta crap. The OS is aptly named honeycomb because of all the forthcoming glitches and security holes. Hey google, why don’t u guys come up w something original for once? Oh and something that works. Just in case u guys forgot….. You are evil!!’
…”From Froyoyo to Honeycomb, what happened to the version in the middle that is supposed to be named beginning with a letter ‘G’?”
It was called Gingerbread. Came out about two months ago. Introduced support for higher screen resolutions, SIP and VoIP, new types of sensors (gyro, barometer), system-wide copy/paste and changed the file system, among other things. Not many Android phones ship with it, though.
And if you’re wondering what’s next after Honeycomb, it is Ice Cream Sandwich (I’m not kidding!).
Honeycomb buzz.
@ Joe: “The widget system to produce live updates on yoru desktop or home screen based on apps is pretty cool.”
…and will be bitterly confusing for all of the people who are barely computer-literate. Suddenly making the desktop do all kinds of different things will confuse a lot of non-techies. Making the desktop do all kinds of whizz-bang “cool” stuff will be useless if it brings us all back to the desktop mess we see on most peoples’ Windows machines.
I think Brilliant Sandwich said it best: “Android is for the tech consumer that is eager and longing for a Windows Tablet that doesn’t run Windows.”
All Android versions will remain under a cloud until the courts decide whether or not to let them continue stealing Apple’s and Oracle’s IP.
It all sounds great to have a bunch of widgets on your home page(s), but all those widgets have to use power to keep in touch with the network (WiFi or cellular), and would be a drain on batteries.
Also, aren’t widgets just mini-apps? Kinda like Apple’s Dashboard, which I never use? Or little apps that sit on my desktop to be covered up by apps I’m actually using? Yeah, sounds great!
And Apple does have a notification system, it’s just badges on icons of apps instead of pop-up windows in the lower right screen. If you need to address something immediately, a pop-up window comes up. Maybe I’m missing something, but I don’t see what the big deal is.
The other thing is going to be how well Honeycomb implements touch input. If it’s inaccurate or unresponsive, all the great ideas in the world about design and layout will be moot.
All these trolls just kill me. “Apple’s going to have some catching-up to do.” Maybe you’ve forgotten how far ahead Apple was when the iPad was introduced……you think they’ve been sitting on their duff doing nothing since last January?? Google is sitting there LOOKING at a dead puck…..Apple’s already down at the other end of the ice thinking beyond the goal they’re ready to score. I love the hordes of idiots who know how to run Apple better than it’s now being run…..if you’re so amazingly intelligent, quit talking and go make something happen…otherwise, get back under the bridge and shut up.
Competition is good (at least in a capitalist world).
Nobody should deride neither Android Honeycomb nor the Motorola Xoom until they are released.
As for Apple’s iPad 2 (and iOS 5), who knows what’s around the corner? I could guess, but what’s the point?
As for Apple falling behind, Airplay and Airprint are pretty good features in iOS 4. All we need now is Wi-Fi syncing.
As for the UI, there’s nothing wrong with the iPad UI. It’s a familiar layout for iPod Touch / iPhone users. I admit it I would like to see the icons on the iPad screen closer together, but that’s just me.
Notifications work fine on all my iOS devices. I don’t have a problem with them. I have no idea what the notification system is like on Android, I’m not interested enough in the platform to find out.
I dislike Google spying on search results and I hate to think what hidden data they collect from Android OS user’s handsets behind the scenes (if they can get network passwords etc from just taking photographs with their cars, it doesn’t feel right to me using a Google backed ‘free’ OS).
Use what you want and how you want to. Everyone should have a free choice.
As for the comment regarding Motorola’s computer experience, one shouldn’t be so flippant, after all Apple new nothing about the Mobile Phone business when it launched the iPhone. Just think how that changed everything.
Anyway back to the Motorola Xoom, does it shout “Hello Moto” when it starts up?
I feel weird being part of the mainstream with an iPad now that I have stuck with apple over several decades as a “niche” user of what I knew to be a superior platform and product family.
I have been pleasantly surprised as the people around me seem to be waking up. After several decades, I don’t yet trust that these people who have been so negative on Apple for so long will stay on board. I hope so.
LOL. Same crap from cloners. Load up the specs and double anything Apple has. Stick a free OS that copies iOS and make it work like a desktop OS. Then the Tech Geeks cream all over themselves. Failing to understand why their cream inducing clone fails.
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Is Sugar Bear supposed to be the new product spokesman? Buy a zoom, we’ll let you in the “Honeycomb Hideout”..Oh yehhhh
PLEASE – Notification management. It won’t cause me to switch, but I want it.
Wow Honeycomb, the geeks get excited! Wow
Oh yeah, 99% of the people are not geeks.
Yawwwwn
Let’s talk when there’s actually shipping… oops, selling (heh heh) product running Honeycomb, in more than one model in any quantities… otherwise, it’s all beta talk… meanwhile, I’m busy on my iPad, and have been for months. Flipboard… free, but worth the price of buying an iPad just for itself.
I found some more possible problems with the Android 3 UI.
If you try to type on the soft keybord with 10 fingers, you will easily hit the software buttons of the status bar by mistake.
And if you hold the tablet in your hand, you will produce many unwanted actions with buttons which are situated too close to edge of the display.
So the concept of the status and action bar may bring some unexpected troubles for a true handheld device.
Have you used the device or just thinking this?
Cause idk that the end matters much if i just think about it considering the way you hold a tablet.
Is Honeycomb on Xoom a tangible item right now?? If so, how much does it cost and what is the battery life??
If the answer is… Yes, it is out, it works extremely well and matches or beats the iPod 1 then perhaps there should be SOME concern. So far, most of the concern is about vaporware… which really isn’t a concern at all.
I’ve had my iPad since day one and I’m still gushing over it. It’s NOT just a giant iPod touch… it’s an invaluable tool that is really very far from reach.
Notifications is one thing that still sucks in the iOS; hopefully iOS 5 will finally address that!
“Nobody should deride neither Android Honeycomb nor the Motorola Xoom until they are released.”
I beg to differ.
Mac users know how to deal with vaporware.
m$ has tought us that lesson.
Apple is very open to fusing mac features with iOS and vice versa. Apple has lots more in the iOS basket. It’s still fresh fruit.
@Zumo
“… Can’t MDN ever provide constructive feedback?“
Yeah, Zumo, that’s MDN’s job; Give constructive feedback to companies that steal Apple’s IP and design ideas, poorly copy them, and try to profit from their lazy, copy crimes.
I guess when you were in school, you were happy that the person beside you was copying your answers for their exam, and then you told them how to better phrase your answers on their exam, so they could get a better mark by copying your answers.
Maybe you simply wrote the cheater’s test for them, and did all their homework too.
No? You didn’t? Why not?
Please, before posting here,
Use. Your. Head.
Shhhhhh!
If MDN sees you saying something like that, you’re likely to be killed and thrown in a ditch somewhere.
Personally, I’m very pleased to have Google offer some REAL competition for a change versus Apple iDevices. Bring it on!!! Everyone will benefit.
However, having viewed and studied Google presentation of Honeycomb, aka Android 3, I see no reason for any of the FUD that Apple has anything to catch up to. All I see is Google attempting to differentiate its GUI and widgets from Apple’s. That’s a good thing! Microsoft never bothered. But there is nothing-at-all revolutionary going on with Android. It continues to be APPLE who are revolutionary with everyone else playing catchup and avoiding being obvious also-rans.
What I’d “be scared of” with Android Honeycomb is CUSTOMER OUTRAGE once they get their hands on the resulting devices and discover that they are NOT on a par with Apple iDevices. They remain cheap knockoffs, annoying to use, with an extremely crappy and dangerous Android App Store to go with it. I see lots of return-to-vendor events in Google’s & partners’ future.
“Mom! You got me the wrong tablet! This thing sucks balls!”
… And so on. No troll exaggeration required.
Android has the equalivent of Apple’s FaceTime but just watch two Android Users try using it when they have different versions of the same operating system ……
It works but not too well, I laughed my rear off as my daughter and hubby tried using their Andriod FaceTime – Meanwhile my wife and I were connecting and disconnecting at will with our iPodTouches ….
Yea, Android and HoneyComb will sell but Apple is the leader and just about the time HoneyComb comes out here comes Apples with their new system and Google will once again be behind ….
Oh and kids! Flash continues to run like a one-legged-dog on Android, eating your CPU and your battery alive. Enjoy!
Android is a POS operating system. And as soon as Google either gets bored with it or sued for all the IP they stole, they’ll just drop it. I’d rather use WinMo 7 than Android any day (perish the thought).
Mac Daddy sounds like a MDN writer.
Well have fun with your 2 hours of battery life ^_^
Most of this is just porno for geeks (list of specs/bullet points). Just because a device can do something poorly faster doesn’t make it better than the competition. That said, I think Android’s notification UI is a step beyond iOS’.
Most of Apple’s product announcements always slightly underwhelm me (except the iPhone). Even the ads (print and motion) don’t do them justice. It’s only when you see them in person and USE them that you are blown away. It’s this phenomenon that other companies can’t copy. Apple’s zeal for re-thinking the simple, obvious and taken-for-granted ways of doing things, their near-religious attention to detail—that can’t be effectively replicated. They consistently strike a near-perfect balance between form, function and consumer-palatable price. This can’t be quantified solely by product bullet points. This is why the retail stores were the tipping point for Apple’s now amazing place in business and tech history—their products are designed to be touched, used. Consumed. The marriage of hardware and software is nothing but incredible. You LOOK FORWARD to using the device.
Perhaps Honeycomb has some of that special sauce—I’ll withhold final judgement until I use it more, but for now the UI is just horrible and doesn’t compel me to actually, you know, USE the device.
MW: designed. How appropriate!
I could go wit the notifications not needing immediate interaction, way to distracting. I’ve also noticed the ability to have widgets on jailbroken iOS devices, and given Apples pattern that I’ve noticed (allow a few jailbreak features per OS iteration) and we could also have the widgets. Heck, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Apple unveil something like that later this spring!
You brainwashed Apple boys sound scared. Ha ha ha.
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@steve32465: Well at least you were brave enough to register here. As for the FUD: You wish!
@Britney’s Postpartum Sister™: Beautifully written, sentiment shared:
“You LOOK FORWARD to using the device.”
Whereas I kind of cringe using my brother’s Droid. It shares that same creepy feeling I get with Windows where I have to fight what it wants to do versus what I want to do, and what it wants to do is ever so slightly deranged.
How many tablets have motorola sold?
How many tablets have apple sold?
In the end, that is all that really matters. Do the frigging math. END OF LINE.
I don’t get it. That list is like what Apple iPad does now. Multitasking, notifications etc. I don’t get it.
I think that Apple needs to look at Home Screen widgets, Lock Screen widgets and Notifications.
you guys do know android os runs on MacBooks right?
I tried, it completely sucks compared to ios
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