Hasta La Gadget!

If you thought the lack of root on the Atrix 4G was going to save you a couple hundred bucks next week… well, we hate to break the bad news, but you’re going to need to find another excuse not to buy it (more on that in a second). Long story short, the phone’s already been rooted by a gentleman over on the ever-resourceful xda-developers forums, which means you can do all the normal things that require root access like enabling the standard Froyo mobile hotspot feature, using root apps like Titanium Backup (pictured above), and generally looking 1337 compared to your friends locked up in their walled gardens. Now, the bad news: the bootloader remains firmly locked and presumably encrypted given Moto’s track record, so custom kernels are still just a dream — but hey, where there’s a will, there’s a way. Keep the faith!

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Motorola Atrix 4G already rooted, and it’s not even out yet originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 19 Feb 2011 13:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Current pre-orders appear to be looking at early March delivery, but AT&T has gone on record saying that folks that elected to pre-order the mighty Motorola Atrix 4G by the 17th will receive it on the 21st of February — next Monday — and if they chose to have their unit sent to a store, they’ll be able to get it there on the 21st as well. The rest of us will need to check out the store on the 22nd and hope for the best. We’ve gotten confirmation from a tipster that his pre-order has shipped with a scheduled delivery on Monday, so it’s looking like they’re on time. Who’s standing in line next Tuesday?

[Thanks, Shaun C.]

Motorola Atrix 4G pegged for February 21st pre-order delivery originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 18 Feb 2011 15:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Motorola’s Xoom tablet will cost more than the iPad, but the mobile company feels confident that it can compete with Apple.

The Xoom will go on sale for $800 in the United States, Motorola mobility chief Sanjay Jha told The Wall Street Journal, and it will include 32GB of storage and compatibility with the new 4G network.

Jha believes that 4G compatibility will make the Xoom worth the extra money for consumers. By way of comparison, the 32-GB iPad with 3G compatibilty costs $730.

“We felt that our ability to deliver 50Mb/s would justify the $799 price point,” Jha said. “It is 32GB with 3G and a free upgrade to 4G. Being competitive with iPad is important. We feel that from the hardware and capabilities we deliver we are at least competitive and in a number of ways better [than the iPad].”

While the inclusion of 4G compatibility does appear to add extra value to the Xoom, Motorola still can’t match the lower starting price of Apple’s iPad: $500 for the Wi-Fi model. Jha said Motorola would eventually offer a 32-GB Wi-Fi-only model as well that would cost around the same as Apple’s 32-GB iPad with Wi-Fi, which costs $600.

It’s unclear when the Xoom will ship, though a leaked Best Buy ad suggests Feb. 24.

I’m not convinced customers will be attracted to the Xoom’s $800 price tag because of the 4G spec. U.S. carriers only recently launched their 4G networks, and until they mature, I don’t think people are going to care about 4G versus 3G. The average customer is going to be attracted to the starting price, and $500 seems to be the sweet spot that Apple has nailed.

What are your thoughts on Xoom pricing? Chime in with your comments below.

See Also:

• Report: Motorola Xoom Tablet to Cost a Hefty $800
• Report: Motorola Xoom, HTC Thunderbolt Due This Month
• Motorola Previews New Android Tablet, Droid Smartphone

Photo of Motorola’s Xoom tablet demonstrated at CES 2011: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

What’s the difference between a WiFi-only Xoom tablet and one equipped with EV-DO Rev. A or HSPA bands? Just $200 and the radio chip within. Motorola just released the full spec sheets for its full lineup of Android Honeycomb tablets, and they’re otherwise exactly the same inside. That goes for the Tegra 2 SOC, of course, but also surprisingly the GPS, which is often baked right into the cellular radio in mobile devices like these. Good on Motorola for keeping the functionality in!

[Thanks, David W.]

Motorola posts specs for GSM and WiFi-only Xoom, indentical to original save the radios originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Feb 2011 09:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Motorola’s Xoom will cost a tad more than the competition, but company co-CEO Sanjay Jha has an explanation for why that might be: he told reporters that the Android Honeycomb tablet’s price is justified by the promise of speedy 4G internet. Of course, the $800 Xoom doesn’t actually come with 4G connectivity out of the gate, but Jha told reporters that the Xoom’s LTE upgrade will be free, and that wonder of wonders, the tablet will be capable of pulling down 50 megabit per second speeds. Someone might want to check Sanjay’s math — sure, in the midst of a Verizon fog at CES 2011, we were able to manage 33Mbps, but we typically get less than half that speed on a day-to-day basis.

Motorola’s Sanjay Jha on Xoom: ‘Our ability to deliver 4G justifies the $799 price point’ originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Feb 2011 00:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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