Motorola Xoom: The Missing Manual

Introduction

What’s a spectacular entertainment device, runs thousands of apps, connects you to the Internet, lets you take high-resolution photos and videos, handles any email you can throw at it, is a wizard at Facebook and other social networking services, lets you videochat with people across the world, opens the world of electronic books and newspapers to you…and that’s just what it can do before breakfast?

It’s the Xoom—the tablet that puts the world at your fingertips and has enough tech specs to make anyone’s heart skip a beat. The Xoom brings together superb hardware from Motorola with Google’s powerful Android operating system. Many people consider the Xoom to be the best tablet on the planet. If you’re holding this book in your hand, you’re probably among them—or soon will be.

This book will help you get the most out of your Xoom, and there’s a lot you can get out of it, as you’ll see. Whether you’re looking just to get started, or want to dig deep into the tablet’s capabilities, this book’s got you covered.

About the Xoom

The Xoom is a tablet computer with a gorgeous 10.1-inch screen. As a tablet, it can perform all kinds of magic that a big, expensive computer can’t, like record video or take 5-megapixel photos. It’s also got a whole range of built-in sensors such as a magnetometer, 3-axis accelerometer, GPS, and more.

The Xoom lets you browse the Web just as you do on a larger computer, and get fully formatted email with fonts, colors, and pictures. It has a GPS locator and even gives you turn-by-turn directions. It’s got a calendar and contact app that syncs with your Google account. It’s a calculator, alarm clock, stopwatch, traffic reporter, text-message maven, and that’s just a start. Using apps you can download via the Android Market, you can make it do just about anything, including pointing it at a landmark and having it identify it for you. It even works as a portable Wi-Fi hot spot for letting five laptops and computers access the Internet.

About This Book

The only printed guide you get to your Xoom is a small leaflet. After that, you’re on your own. There’s an entire world to explore in the Xoom, and a leaflet doesn’t begin to give you all the help, advice, and guidance you need. So this book is the manual that should have accompanied the Xoom.

The brain running the Xoom is a piece of software from Google called Android. The Xoom runs Android version 3, called Honeycomb, and it’s a pure Honeycomb version. Unlike with other devices, like the Droid X and Droid 2, Motorola didn’t tweak the Android operating system for the Xoom. So when Google issues updates that improve the way the Android works, and therefore improve the way that the Xoom works, you get them straightaway, without any interference from Motorola.

Tip

There’s a chance that since this book was written, there have been some changes to the Xoom. To help keep up to date about them, head to this book’s Errata page at http://tinyurl.com/motorolaxoom-mm.

About the Outline

Xoom: The Missing Manual is divided into six parts, each of which has several chapters:

• Part 1, The Basics and Getting Online, covers everything you need to know about using the Xoom for everyday use. Here, for example, is where you’ll get a guided tour of the Xoom, and learn some fancy tablet tricks. This part tells you everything you need to know about the Xoom’s remarkable online talents. You’ll find out how to get online, see how you can turn your Xoom into a portable 3G or 4G hotspot, master email, browse the Web, and download and use countless apps from the Android Market. And as a bonus, you’ll find out about 10 amazing apps for your Xoom that you absolutely, positively, must have.

• Part 2, Getting Social and Finding Your Way, is your guide to using your Xoom for social networking using Facebook and Twitter, chatting and videochat, keeping track of all your contacts, and using the Xoom for maps, as a GPS, and for turn-by-turn navigation.

• Part 3, Books, Media, and Games, gives you the rundown on using your Xoom as an entertainment and information device. So you’ll learn all you need to know about taking pictures, recording videos, viewing pictures, playing videos, and playing and managing your music. And it also covers getting and reading books, reading newspapers and magazines, and getting news delivered to you straight from the source.

• Part 4, Getting Productive, shows you how to get to work on your Xoom. Here you’ll learn how to master Gmail and email, get the most out of your calendar, and get real work done with your tablet using office documents. You’ll also find out how to set up the Xoom with your company email account, and hop onto your company’s network via a Virtual Private Network (VPN).

• Part 5, Advanced Topics, gives you the most comprehensive listing you’ll find anywhere about all of the Xoom’s settings. It also shows you how to control the Xoom by talking to it.

• Part 6, Appendixes, has two reference chapters. Appendix A shows you how to set up your Xoom, and what kind of accessories you can get for it, such as cases, chargers, and screen protectors. Appendix B offers plenty of help troubleshooting issues with the Xoom’s operation. It also covers how to encrypt your Xoom.

About→These→Arrows

In this book and the entire Missing Manual series, you’ll find instructions like this one: Tap Settings→Wireless & Networks→Wi-Fi settings. That’s a shorthand way of giving longer instructions like this: “Tap the Settings button. From the screen that opens, tap Wireless & Networks. And from the screen that opens after that, tap Wi-Fi settings.”

It’s also used to make it easier to understand instructions you’ll need to follow on your PC or Mac, such as File→Print.

About the Online Resources

As the owner of a Missing Manual, you’ve got more than just a book to read. Online, you’ll find example files so you can get some hands-on experience, as well as tips, articles, and maybe even a video or two. You can also communicate with the Missing Manual team and tell us what you love (or hate) about the book. Head over to www.missingmanuals.com, or go directly to one of the following sections.

Missing CD

This book doesn’t have a CD pasted inside the back cover, but you’re not missing out on anything. And so you don’t wear down your fingers typing long web addresses, the Missing CD page also offers a list of clickable links to the websites mentioned in this book.

Registration

If you register this book at oreilly.com, you’ll be eligible for special offers—like discounts on future editions of Motorola Xoom: The Missing Manual. Registering takes only a few clicks. To get started, type http://tinyurl.com/registerbook into your browser to hop directly to the Registration page.

Feedback

Got questions? Need more information? Fancy yourself a book reviewer? On our Feedback page, you can get expert answers to questions that come to you while reading, share your thoughts on this Missing Manual, and find groups for folks who share your interest in the Xoom. To have your say, go to www.missingmanuals.com/feedback.

Errata

In an effort to keep this book as up to date and accurate as possible, each time we print more copies, we’ll make any confirmed corrections you’ve suggested. We also note such changes on the book’s website, so you can mark important corrections into your own copy of the book, if you like. Go to http://tinyurl.com/motorolaxoom-mm to report an error and view existing corrections.

Newsletter

Our free email newsletter keeps you up to date on what’s happening in Missing Manual land. You can meet the authors and editors, see bonus video and book excerpts, and more. Go to http://tinyurl.com/MMnewsletter to sign up.

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