This weekend is Suntec City is hosting another COMEX 2013 event. Every quarter there a computer fair. This quarter is hardly a good time to buy any tablets or PCs with new products set to release in Sept and Oct. For me I will pass for this COMEX show unless I want to get some accessories for my gadget. I did a quick check on hardwarezone, the prices of the tablets sold in the COMEX are nothing to shout about. Maybe the shops there will throw in freebies to attract buyers but from experience, the freebies are usually left laying around in the house to trip myself over.  

Some possible new launches in the pipeline;

1) Kindle fire 2 on 5 Sept 

2) IPhone 5 on 12 Sept

3) Windows 8 on 26 Oct

4) Windows 8 phone on 29 Oct

5) iPad mini in Oct 

There could be more. It would not be a boring 4th quarter for gadget lovers.

Reset to factory default on honeycomb 3.2.2

1) Goto Setting>Privacy
2) Select Factory data reset

Follow the instructions on the screen to go a factory default on your tablet. 

Change google account on honeycomb 3.2.2

If you need to change google account on your tablet, it is relatively simple. First you must remove your google account. Before you do that please take note that existing app downloaded will be tied to existing account. Although you can still use existing apps on your tablet, you will not able to see them when you login into Play Store with your new account. You also cannot update them since you cannot see them on your Play Store.

Remove account 1) Goto Setting>Accounts & Sync
2) Select your google email address
3) Click on "Remove account" on the top right corner.

After you remove your google account, you can setup new one by going into Play Store app and follow the instructions given.

While I try to write up the instructions for changing google account, I just found out that screen capture feature is not available natively on honeycomb. You can still do screen capture but it will require more steps and a PC. Searching on the web, it seems that screen capture feature is available on ICS. Just need to press and hold the power button and volume down buttons. 

I had my Xoom 2 for 3 days and I am still trying to get the hand of it. The problem is the OS. Honeycomb is crappy to use and often shows weird behaviour. I had to reset a few time in just 3 days. Once the tablet was just not responding. I kept pressing on the power button desperately trying to get it to reset.  The excitement of getting an Android tablet has turned into disappointment and soon frustration is now joining in.

Setting up the Android was easy. You boot up the tablet and click on the "APPS" word on the top right corner to launch all the apps icons. Look for setting icon and click on the wireless and network tap to setup up WIFI. After setting up the WIFI, you just need to click on the market icon to setup your google account on your tablet.  If you do not have a google account, you can setup  one just by following the instructions.

Once you can login to the Google Play store, you can start downloading apps to your delight. I downloaded facebook and some other news apps rather smoothly.  I was rather disappointed that Chrome browser is not found in Google Play. I searched the web and found that Honeycomb does not support Chrome and maybe that is why I cannot find it in the store. The next app I cannot find is the blogger app. I search the web and found that the app is not compatible with Xoom and it is also not available for my country. I am disgusted with the whole Android experience. I seriously hope it is due to the honeycomb OS. Hopefully ICS can salvage some relief from all the lousy experience with honeycomb.

Now I wish I have my wife 's iPad.  I am now writing this blogger with a lousy default honeycomb browser.

Today I am appointed to find out that Motorola will be shutting down operation in Asia Pacific. I just got my Xoom 2 2 days ago. Now I wonder if the ICS update will take even longer to deliver. Google buying of Motorola did not make the updates to Motorola faster till now. Hopefully they would not forget us in Asia Pacific for any future updates for existing devices. The sweet deal 2 days ago seems to have turn sour today. Anyway Xoom 2 is still a great piece of hardware. Hopefully ICS will comes soon to make me feel better. Motorola if you are looking at this blog, please do not forget our updates.

Source :
1) http://www.gsmarena.com/motorola_shuts_down_operations_in_asia_pacific-news-4712.php

I finally got a tablet for myself. I jump on the Android wagon again. This time round, I did it mainly because of the price factor. Initially, I wanted an iPad but my wife already had one and for a second tablet I wanted something different and cheap. The obvious choice was to get a Android tablet but which one?

There are China made Android tablets that are dirt cheap. Really cheap! Just over a hundred Sing dollar, you can have a 7" ICS ready tablet. 1 factor that rule out the China tablets for me is the quality. Yes, they are cheap but from the web there are many people grumbling about how unstable their China tablets are and most importantly having problems downloading apps from Google Play. If Google Play is a problem then, what can I use the tablet for with limited apps?

Searching around in the web on Monday I found a shop website selling popular Samsung Tab 2 10.1 for SGD $650 and Samsung Tab 2 7" for SGD $505. I was quite tempted as retail stores are selling them at $798 and $598 respectively. I decided to get Tab 2 10.1" screen as I find 7 " kind of small for web surfing. I contacted the shop to check for stock availability and they confirmed that they have a couple sets left. After work, I decided to check out Challenger store before I make a final decision. There I was surprise to find other good deals. Acer A200 and Motorola Xoom 2 are on sale. Acer A200 is selling for SGD $399 and Xoom 2 for SGD $499. I play around with the 2 tablets. Acer big minus point is that it is rather heavy(700g) but it is ICS ready. Xoom 2 is lighter at 599g and has 3G capability. However it is still running on honeycomb 3.2.2. Comparing Xoom 2 with Samsung Tab 2,  their specs are similiar. The major difference for me is that Samsung Tab 2 is able to make phone call, SMS and MMS. These are not important to me as I will not be using these function. However, I would have to wait for ICS update for Xoom 2. Motorola has promised ICS for Xoom 2 which is due to roll out in Q3 2012. Now is already Augest so I guess the update should be ready in a month time the most.  The deal was too sweet for me to pass. I got my Xoom 2 for SGD $538 including screen protector and a tablet cover.

It has been a while since I last posted. I did not wait for ICS update and give away my Samsung Galaxy S2 to my relative. Never bother to update the phone to ICS but my relative is happily using it till now. As she is only a basic phone user, she  is not concern about the new feature ICS will bring to her. I also did not want to disrupt her use of the phone as she is contented with the apps she has downloaded. Sometime it can be a pain to update. You never know what you going to "lose". Like all other OS, there is a chance that a app can no longer work after you do a OS update. Then the waiting game for the developers to update their apps comes again. When the device is not yours then you can be more than certain that you do not want to take such risk. Now that Samsung S3 is out with ICS, the wait for Jelly bean on S3 starts again.