Help Can the Xoom do this ?

[SnowCrash7]

I'd like to ask a few general questions about the Xoom. I recently switched from the iPhone to the Atrix and I am considering getting a Xoom. It would be my first tablet and I understand that many tablets get returned when their owners discover they don't have the capabilities of a laptop or desktop.

So I'd like to lay out the things I'd like to be able to do on the Xoom and maybe you can share your thoughts on if and how well I'd be able to do them.

I'd like to cruise the Net, download music from both Usenet and bittorrent and maybe a few movies. Watch videos, play music and that's about it.

Now I see in the Android app markets that apps exist for these purposes. But are there apps that can do downloads from Usenet via a newsreader. What about bittorrent?

Would appreciate your thoughts.
Thanks in advance.

 

[heat57]

I'd like to ask a few general questions about the Xoom. I recently switched from the iPhone to the Atrix and I am considering getting a Xoom. It would be my first tablet and I understand that many tablets get returned when their owners discover they don't have the capabilities of a laptop or desktop.

So I'd like to lay out the things I'd like to be able to do on the Xoom and maybe you can share your thoughts on if and how well I'd be able to do them.

I'd like to cruise the Net, download music from both Usenet and bittorrent and maybe a few movies. Watch videos, play music and that's about it.

Now I see in the Android app markets that apps exist for these purposes. But are there apps that can do downloads from Usenet via a newsreader. What about bittorrent?

Would appreciate your thoughts.
Thanks in advance.

First off, I would saythat anyone expecting a tablet to be equal to a laptop or PC misses the point. A tablet is all about convenience and portability, coupled with essential tools for most tasks you would carry out on a laptop or PC but with a little more patience required due to screen size and different interface of a tablet computer. Anyway. to answer your questions
Q. Cruise the net as you put it A. acetegoric YES, you can and probably just as well as on any laptop
Q. Download via newsreader A. I haven't tried it although I use the service myself but just via my PC (would have thought you eat data in a big way if you try to do it througha tablet).
Q. Download via Bittorrent. A. Again, haven't tried this but I noticed that there are several apps available through the Market
Q. Watch videos and play music A. again an emphatic YES, not a problem. You might want to consider a better Videoplayer tahn the stock android one that comes with your Xoom. My recommendation would be for 'VPlayer' from the android market as it is reasonably priced, works very well and plays virtually any video and audio formats currently popular, and it streams video wirelessly as well.

 

[SnowCrash7]

Thanks:

On the data usage it would be using a WiFi connection.

Can I ask is it possible on the Xoom to plug it into a larger screen?
Can you usa an outgoing wired connection to speakers as one would with a laptop?

Thanks in advance.

 

[jimndebpa]

as for downloading bittorrent there is an app for utorrant in the market works great for downhloading music as for movies the format has to be mp4 and there are not alot of movies that are in the format so i usally down load movies on my laptop and convert them and copy to the zoom
as for biger screen the xoom has an hdmi output port so if you had a monitor that had hdmi input it would work i have watched converted movies from the xoom on a 35 inch tv
hope this helps

 

[SnowCrash7]

Thanks much. Yes that helps. Do you happen to know if there is a Usenet Newsreader that will download binary files, like mp3 in a usable format?

Thanks

 

[3devious]

I have not seen one. There's barely an acceptable FTP app, so you might be asking a little much there.

 

[SnowCrash7]

Well I have my Xoom now. The usenet thing I am trying is an EZnews which requires a subscription to the Easynews server. It works well in the limited functionality it has. You can search for a specifc term, song, artist etc and it will download dna decode binaries like mop3 files. But you can't browse newsgroups just to see what they have. I am not sure if you can browse newsgroups using their web based service.