Thanks to the folks over at deal-a-day site, Woot.com, you have the option of picking up the first ever Honeycomb tablet, the Motorola Xoom, for $399. This is a refurbished 32GB WiFi-only unit. The 10.1 inch tablet is running Honeycomb 3.1 (the latest version).

If you don’t mind picking up a refurbished unit, you’ll be saving yourself a cool $200 off the asking price of $599 that you’ll find for a new WiFi-only Xoom direct from Motorola. This deal even beats the device new from Amazon which would run you $499.

It is my personal opinion that Honeycomb is not yet good enough for the mainstream. If you want value in a tablet today, go buy an iPad 2. The Xoom itself is a decent bit of hardware, if a bit heavy, but the software still needs time to mature. The Android Marketplace is not yet loaded with enough Honeycomb apps to make the Xoom shine as a tablet, and the Honeycomb interface is not intuitive enough for your average user.

That said, you may not be a mainstreamer, and may be willing to put up with Honeycomb’s rough edges for the sweet customizability that is Android’s hallmark. If that’s the case, we’ve had our hands all over the Xoom; if you need some questions answered, feel free to comment below. We’ve also got some Xoom related content that might aid in your potential purchase decision (also check below for specs):

• Motorola Xoom and Android 3.0 Overview Video
• Motorola Xoom Testing Notes and Benchmarks
• Editing HD Video with Movie Studio on Android 3.0 / Motorola Xoom
• Android 3.1 Hands-on Testing: Performance, Browser Quick Controls, Flash Playback, and More on the Xoom

Have a look at the specs:

• Android Honeycomb 3.1
• Dual-core Nvidia Tegra 2 CPU @ 1GHz
• 1GB of RAM
• 10.1 inch capacitive multitouch screen @ 1280×800
• Micro HDMI-out
• MicroUSB port
• 32GB of built-in memory
• Rear-facing 5MP camera (capable of 720p recording)
• Front-facing 2MP camera
• WiFi a/b/g/n & Bluetooth 2.1
• GPS, magnetometer, proximity sensor, accelerometer, and gyroscope
• Android Marketplace access
• 3250 mAh battery
• 3.5mm headphone jack
• Adobe Flash capable
• 249.1 x 167.8 x 12.9 mm / 9.8 x 6.6 x 0.5 inches
• 708 grams / 25 ounces

Don’t forget that this deal be completely gone at 1AM EST, and may sell out (likely will!) before that time comes. Best of luck!

I write a lot about connected cameras. I’m a huge fan of being able to share the moment and I’m generally writing about cameraphones because ‘real’ cameras haven’t caught up yet. They will soon though. I wonder if they will be running Android.

Over the last 6 years my phone choice has been largely influenced by the camera on it and of the phones I’ve had, only the Nokia ones have stood the test of time.

That might change soon though because the new Google Plus service raises the bar for sharing on a cameraphone.

The Instant Upload service automatically sends every photo and video taken to Picasa where it can be tagged, modified and shared, from any web browser on any device. The Google Plus application for Android exposes these images too which means its easier than ever to make them public or to share them with pre-defined groups (circles) of people. Only a Picasa app for tagging, sorting, slideshow and basic editing would make this better.

Having tested Instant Upload with photos and a video today I’m finding it powerful. So powerful that I want my next cameraphone to run Android. I’ve tried this before with the Onnia pro and Experia X10 so I’ll be treading carefully, especially as the Nokia N9 is coming!

Toshiba has recently jumped on the Android 3.1 Tablet bandwagon with its Thrive offering that is now available for pre-order on amazon.com.

See full specs, links, and more info on the Toshiba Thrive in our device database.

The Thrive has a 10.1 inch screen @ 1280×800, flash support, 1G RAM, dual-core Tegra 2 processor and comes with Android Honeycomb 3.1 as its operating system. There are two cameras: a 5MP back camera and a 2MP front facing camera for video conferencing.

Before we all throw our hands up in the air and moan about “yet another wannabe 10.1 inch Android tablet inch, bear in mind that Toshiba is well known for designing and making quality, sturdy laptops and this tablet looks very solidly constructed and would seem like it can take a knock or two!

Having look at the back cover (pictured above), it is made of Easy Grip surface which is textured and looks like it’ll provide you with a great non slippery gripping experience.  The cool thing is that this Easy Grip surface is replaceable and you can customize the surface with different colored skins if you wish to stand apart from the crowd.

Here’s more good design Toshiba has thrown onto the Thrive:

1) Replaceable battery I am always a fan of tablets that allows you to replace a worn out battery or carry an additional to extend your road warrioring hours, so big brownie points for Toshiba for this!

2) Connectivity ports galore (picture above) the Thrive comes with SD slot, mini USB, full sized USB 2.0, and a full sized HDMI out, again, another standout inclusion. I really like that the two most commonly used connectivity interfaces are full sized and you don’t have to hunt around for mini or micro HDMI cables (eg, Acer Iconia and the Asus eeePad Transformer). There’s even a dust cover to protect the slots when not in use. Lack of ports is one of the biggest threats to the HP TouchPad.

The Thrive will come in three models, for the budget conscious: 8GB ($429.99), 16GB  ($479.99), and the top of the range 32GB ($579.99). These capacities are currently available as WiFi-only but Toshiba has said that they will be releasing the 3G or 4G versions shortly.

Toshiba has certainly made the effort to ensure that the Thrive tablet doesn’t become ‘just another 10.1 inch tablet’ with some great attention into its design.

The ultimate sacrifice that manufacturers, such as Toshiba, are making by offering full sized connectivity interfaces and replaceable batteries will be the size and particularly the thickness of the device — it can never come close to being as wafer thin as the iPad2.

Still, the Thrive may win the hearts of road warriors like me that need a productive tablet that can interact with other devices and peripherals.

I managed to whip off a quick video showing some of the enhancements for the Eee Pad transformer delivered by the Android Honeycomb 3.1 update. I bought my Eee Pad from Taiwan and the hardware identifies it as Taiwanese hardware so I think I got the update earlier than devices from other Countries.

Asus claim some performance increases and reliability improvements but they’re not that noticeable to me as I thought it was pretty responsive on 3.0. They have added some new apps including a video editor and the Kindle app. There’s still patchy support for video codecs with no improvement on its ability to play a variety of formats and I haven’t found any HD video files it can play without skipping yet.

Overall an improvement especially with the new apps but I would still like to see more video format support, especially now that we can edit videos on the device.

It’s a crossover point when Intel demonstrate a mobile operating system that grew on ARM devices, on their i86 platform and that’s what happened yesterday.

I played around with an image from the Intel pressroom and here’s the Medfield tablet running Honeycomb. Looks like 7 inch to me and designed for Android 2.x rather than 3.x (See buttons.)

Interestingly, most of the PR around Medfield talks about tablets and not smartphones. I wonder if the smartphone focus will come later in the year? IDF perhaps.

Original image is here.

In around 2hrs, Doug Davies, head of the tablet and netbook division will be holding a session where we expect to hear more about Medfield, Cedar Trail, Android, Meego and more. We’ll bring you that news as soon as we can.

Why is Honeycomb on Intel interesting? See this article.

Tweaktown shared a video of a new Honeycomb tablet that stands out form the crowd because it’s running a Qualcomm snapdragon processor. It’s made by Quanta, one of the world’s biggest contract PC manufacturers. It’s only a prototype but the first look video shows it has some good capability.

It uses the MSM860 processor which is dual-core and a competitor to the Tegra 2 which all major Honeycomb tablets have used so far. Qualcomm has no intention of selling the device but is looking for a manufacturer to bring it to market. The tablet looks to be nicely put together and the Company has a good pedigree of creating quality stuff given that they manufacture the iPod Touch and iPhone for Apple.

Here’s hoping they find someone to release it with:

A tablet that has been getting a good proportion of the 7 inch Honeycomb news recently is the Viewpad 7x. It’s in the database here but our good friend Sascha of Netbooknews has just pinged us about a hands-on video he’s posted. He’s excited too!

Image via @ARMCommunity

Micro USB, Mini HDMI, Micro SD, Headphone ports are included with the 1024×600 display. Interestingly there’s a SPB Shell overlay. I wonder why? Is the demo actually running 2.3 instead of Honeycomb?

Pricing is looking ok with a target of $449-499 for a Wi-Fi version that should be available in early Q3 Sascha tells us.

The netbooknews article on the Viewpad 7x is here.

Amongst a packed keynote from Intel at Computex today that includes Ultrabooks, Ivy Bridge, Cedar Trail and cloud talk, Intel showcase a Medfield tablet running Android Honeycomb.

At least, that’s what a pre-event press release via Engadget says. The event and press release hasn’t even happened yet! (Scheduled for about 2.5hrs from the time of this post)

The press release is interesting though and goes on…

Intel showcased a “Medfield” design running Google Android* 3.0 (“Honeycomb”) for the first time. In production later this year, the platform will enable sub-9mm designs that weigh less than 1.5 pounds for tablet designs in market the first half of 2012. It will support a range of operating systems including Android and MeeGo.

We’ll be back with some pics, vids and info from the teams on the ground very soon. I posted the full press release here.