Apps for Motorola Xoom?

CamGirl

I'm new to Android and I am after spending the last 5 hours trying to find (free ) apps for our lovely new Zoom. I must have installed and deleted at least 50 so far as they appear tiny on the screen, so obviously suited for a phone only.

I got the Zoom mainly for the kids to play and they are already upset that Talking Gina is not working properly (very annoying experience compared to the iPad we had before) and Smurfs village is not even ported yet (well, I knew that beforehand!).
Angry birds is the only thing they are happy with :eek: I was told in uncertain terms they want the iPad back (they are small so quite direct and honest still:rolleyes:)

Am I missing something? How many apps are out there that work well on the Android tablets? Are there going to be more available soon? Where do you get them from (android market place doesn't really say which ones are high res)

I'm starting to doubt my decision to go for Xoom over iPad2

smackyB

Unfortunately the app market for Android tablets is still quite undeveloped - the first device to run the tablet flavour of Android only appeared in the last few months and developers are still playing catch-up. I'm afraid you'll just have to be patient.

CombatCow

Hi CamGirl, if you go to the nvidia Tegrazone (the app should already be on your xoom) all those games listed will be optimized for tablet etc. Also if your go to the Android market and put "Xoom" ,"tegra","tablet" or "thd" (Tegra High Definition) in the search box it will bring up results for tablet based games and apps.

As the Xoom is the first honeycomb tablet, apps and games are a bit slow to be developed but this should pick up as their popularity grows etc..

Inquitus

CamGirl wrote: »

I'm starting to doubt my decision to go for Xoom over iPad2

If your purchase intention was mainly for it to entertain the kids then you made a big mistake picking the Xoom not the iPad 2.

Ste-

This might be of some use ?

CamGirl

Thank you for the replies, got some more apps following the links. Tegrazone is a great idea, hopefully they will have more stuff soon;)

I really love the browsing experience with Flash on the zoom compared to the ipad (my facebook games work perfectly:D)

CamGirl

Inquitus wrote: »

If your purchase intention was mainly for it to entertain the kids then you made a big mistake picking the Xoom not the iPad 2.

Official version for my husband is that it is to entertain the kids but it is really MINE!:D

mickoneill30

Here's another site for a bit of reading.

They have a thread for Honeycomb dedicated apps and Android 2 apps that work fine.

http://www.xoomforums.com/forum/motorola-xoom-apps/

What ages are your kids? If they are young would a Nintendo thingy not be a better option. It's a lot cheaper if young fingers drop it

I haven't had the same experience as you as I don't play many games on mine but the following games definitely work OK.

Cordy - Good for the kids but you have that already. It came with the Xoom.

Probably not great for young kids.
Air Attack
Dundgeon Defenders
Stupid Zombies.

Here's another link worth having a look at.
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.kongregate.android.kongarcade&feature=search_result

Used for playing Kongregate Flash games on Android.

srsly78

That's a bug with the Xoom, not android. I run loads of stuff on my archos tablet, and nothing appears "tiny". Apps get scaled up correctly. Sure most apps are optimised for 800x480, and get scaled up to 1024x600, but it looks fine.

It's a bit of a joke that an old e200 tablet wipes the floor with the Xoom

mickoneill30

srsly78 wrote: »

It's a bit of a joke that an old e200 tablet wipes the floor with the Xoom

Is this a documented bug or do you not know what you're talking about?

I'm somebody who has actually had both. Now I've the Xoom. Everything that worked on the Archos for me works fine on the Xoom. The Archos was great, but the Xoom is miles ahead (a lot less glitchy, much faster, no lags and much better screen as you'd kind of hope and expect for a much more expensive device).

srsly78

I have never seen an app incorrectly scale on the archos, which is what the OP is describing. Also, I think you should re-evaluate your assessment. The flash 10.2 patch for the Xoom also fixed every other android tablet. The Xoom is not miles ahead, it's just faster and snappier. The archos is outstanding value for it's price.

As a developer, yes I do know what I am talking about. The archos is still using android 2.2, 3.0 is known to have scaling bugs. Motorola released a very buggy device. In fairness it took archos months to patch their tablets, so they aren't the best either But right NOW the Archos works perfectly, and the Xoom doesn't. This will likely change in the near future.

mickoneill30

srsly78 wrote: »

The Xoom is not miles ahead, it's just faster and snappier.

OK so. Faster and snappier are important to me (amongst other improvements). This isn't an Archos Vs Xoom thread so there's no point dragging the thread off anymore.

timetogo

Honeycomb optimised

http://www.apptvonline.com/blog/android-game-apps-are-optimized-honeycomb

I havent noticed the screen scaling bugs on my xoom. Most applications work fine.

CamGirl

Just coming back to this thread to say thank you very much for the advice and links, have since found many more apps for the Xoom and we all love it, even the children said they like it more than the iPad as they "can play the games on nickjr website on it"

It defenitelly took a day or two for me to get used to it and find my way around, but a week later I can honestly say I'm enjoying it much more than the ipad.