The Motorola Xoom, one of Motorola’s first Android tablets. Image: Motorola
Motorola may have chosen to bow out of the tablet market for the time being, but new owner Lenovo won’t let it rest for too long. The Chinese company reportedly has plans to launch new Android-powered slates under the Motorola brand in an effort to tackle competitors like Apple and Samsung in key markets.
Motorola turned its back on the Motorola Xoom a long time ago, but thanks to the development community, the Android-powered slate now has an unofficial KitKat ROM. Based on the latest Android 4.4.2 firmware, the software delivers almost everything you’d expect from an official KitKat ROM.
Motorola CEO Dennis Woodside has confirmed that the company is working on a new tablet that could be built at its manufacturing facility in Dallas, Texas, where it already produces the Moto X. The device may have other things in common with the Moto X, too, including its unique customization features.
Teardown specialists iFixit have published a new tablet repairability guide that quickly tells you how difficult it’s going to be to mend your broken Android, iOS, or Windows 8 slate. The guide features 18 popular tablets, which have been given a repairability score between one and ten. The higher the score, the easier they are to repair.
Unsurprisingly, Apple’s iPads are some of the hardest tablets to fix, second only to the Microsoft Surface Pro — the only tablet with a score of one. Amazon’s Kindle Fire’s, on the other hand, are relatively easy to repair, as are Dell’s devices.
If you’re the proud owner of a WiFi Motorola XOOM, your loyalty is about to pay off. Unlike the Verizon Galaxy Nexus, you’re XOOM is about to get Jelly Bean, as a significant amount of users are starting to see the update. The update will bring your early settler to Android 4.1.1 and bring all the buttery smoothness with it.
