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Let me zoom (you know I had to use that at least once) through the specifications because I want to jump quickly to what I consider is the heart of the difference between the Xoom and the iPad 2.

Motorola has built an extremely capable tablet with a zippy 1GHz Dual Core processor and with integrated Wi-Fi (802.11 a,b,g,n) and Bluetooth connectivity.

The screen at 10.1" is a bit larger than the iPad's (9.7") and its WXGA resolution (1280x 800 pixels) can truly be labeled 720p HD. The iPad falls a smidgen short at 1024 x 768.

I also like that the Xoom screen's proportions almost match the native 16:9 format of HD content, which means there is minimal letterboxing. The iPad's screen is a little squarer necessitating more letterboxing on HD programs.

I'll discuss PQ, picture quality, in the Performance section.

For me, a clear advantage that Xoom has over the iPad are the two integrated cameras, the back facing is 5 megapixels and the front webcam is 2 megapixels.

By comparison, the original iPad did not supply any cameras and the iPad 2's are much lower resolution, less than 1 megapixel for the back. (Actually Apple doesn't even list the resolution in the iPad 2's specifications. They just state that it is capable of recording 720p HD videos, as is the Xoom's back camera.)

A tablet definitely is not the ideal still photography device, but if I decide to snap a photo, I would much prefer the higher resolution image from the Xoom.

One of the other major physical differences between the Xoom and the iPad is that the Xoom provides a microSD card slot, which can take up to a 32GB card that would double the tablet's storage.

The problem is that Motorola has not activated that slot yet. Did I already mention that the Xoom should have stayed in the oven a while longer?

Let cut to the chase for all you tablet toting videophiles. At the time of this review - which is almost a month after the release of the Xoom - there is no Netflix app for this device. And to accentuate the situation, no Hulu Plus, either.

The lack of Netflix simply highlights the current state of the Xoom user experience. And let me emphasize that I realize that some day, probably soon, Netflix will design an app for the Xoom. And by this summer, most of the kinks will be worked out of this tablet and its ecosystem.

But if you purchased a Xoom today, I think my experience will be informative.

Nearly the first task when I opened up the Xoom was to tap on the Market icon and search the Android app store for Netflix.

A bunch of icons popped up that sort of looked like the red Netflix logo, (items like Movela Netflix Queue), but not the real deal.

I was disoriented because I couldn't imagine that Netflix was not available. But after searching again, I went online to discover why.

Digging through the forums, I read various accounts with a common thread, DRM, or Digital Rights Management, which is a piracy prevention system. My eyes were starting to glaze over.

Then I found this on the Netflix site from Greg Peters, in product development. He enthused, "We live to get Netflix on new devices, so the current lack of an Android-generic approach to quickly get to all Android devices is frustrating. But I'm happy to announce we'll launch select Android devices that will instantly stream from Netflix early next year."

When I saw that blog was dated November 12, 2010, my head started to ache trying to figure out why major companies like Google (who supplies the Android operating system), Motorola and Netflix could not put their genius noggins together and produce the app before Xoom was released.

Then my ears started burning when I read suggestions on the forums that you can simply load PlayOn on to your computer and then access Netflix and Hulu through the PlayOn interface.

I like PlayOn, which is digital media server software, and have successfully used it with a Moxi DVR. But when I tried using the PlayOn Mobile Android app, it didn't automatically connect with my router. PlayOn suggested that I customize my router settings.

And I plummet deeper and deeper down the tech rabbit hole.

Even if PlayOn Mobile connected to my network without a hitch (and many people on the forums attest that it does), it's still a kluge.

The iPad has positioned itself as a consumer device that doesn't require any technical savvy to gobble up all the content that you want.

For tablets, Apple has set a high standard for ease of use. And accessing Netflix through a third party work around on the Xoom does not pass muster.

With that rant off my chest, let me try to spread a little sunshine.

One of the major advantages that the Android based Xoom has over the iPad is its compatibility with Flash. You can download version 10.2 and take advantage of all those websites that still use Flash.

As I begun to explore what Xoom offered on the web, I headed directly to Hulu and tried to play the FX Channel's Archer and received the message, "Unfortunately, this video is not available on your platform. We apologize for any inconvenience."

But then I went to the FX website and played the exact same episode of Archer. It loaded without an apology and I could watch it full screen. Go figure.

I had the same experience with Gray's Anatomy, no go on Hulu, but yes, on ABC.com.

On the CW network site, yes. NBC site, no. CBS, yes. Fox, yes. I don't blame this inconsistency on Xoom. It's a more systemic problem involving content providers, device makers and streaming services.

But the bottom line is that with the Xoom, you can stream most of the programming that the major TV networks make available online.

When it comes to movies, the pickings are much slimmer. In fact, I couldn't find an app for any of the major movie streamers.

I thought I struck gold when I read the release from Vudu that said that you could now watch their inventory of movies instantly directly from their website, though it required a new version of Flash.

With the Xoom loaded with Flash 10.2, I hoped that I could tap into Vudu's extensive library. Alas, I could navigate the interface just fine, but I was never given the option to actually play a movie. So close, arghh!

And the same is true with Netflix. You can't watch instantly through Xoom's web browser. I'm sure that I can dig up reasons why you can stream from the Netflix website on a laptop or a netbook that has about the same size screen as a tablet, but not on the Xoom. But by this time, the answer would fall on deaf ears.

Being dogged, I figured that I should keep pursuing this quest of watching a movie on the Xoom.

We have been reviewing some Blu-rays that include Digital Copies that you can convert either to a Windows video format or an iPad compatible one, which can then be uploaded to your tablet.

I tried the Windows (WMV) format first. When I attempted to load the digital copy of Tron Legacy, the Xoom wouldn't even take it, let alone play it. Ptooey!

I then thought that I would make a digital copy for the iPad, (m4v format). Xoom ingested it but gave the message, "Fail to load." Pfft!

Not ready to admit defeat, I followed a suggestion from the forums and downloaded DVD Catalyst on to my PC. The software rips DVDs and the programmer has built presets that are optimized for the Xoom.

The movie that was output from Catalyst worked like a charm on the Xoom. The only drawback is at this time DVD Catalyst does not rip Blu-ray DVDs. Therefore my source was a standard definition DVD, which resulted in a SD looking product.

There are rumblings that Google is planning an iTunes-like music store. Android based tablet owners would be well served if Google also expanded into renting and selling movies.

For now, Xoom provides YouTube, which sports an elegant 3D-like carousel interface.

With a bit of searching, you can find gems amongst the tens of thousands of hours of content, like the video blog of Peter Jackson showing you around the set of the Hobbit movie that just went into production.

If you are more interested in games or productivity tools, I have read estimates that over 200,000 Android apps are available, though almost all of them were originally designed for smartphones.

I think that less than 1000 have been redesigned specifically for larger tablet layouts like Xoom's.

But I can testify that those Angry Birds crash just as violently and squawk just as malevolently as they do on the iPad.

If you are curious about the variety of apps, you can go online to market.android.com to see if they meet your needs.

Setting up the Xoom for viewing video is simple, mainly because there is only one picture adjustment control, Brightness, which is in the Settings menu.

By default, the Auto Brightness feature is turned on. I found that I often wanted to fiddle with the level of Brightness, therefore I turned off the Auto choice.

Unlike HDTVs, there are no Hue, Saturation or Contrast controls, no Color Temperature settings or Advanced features like Gamma, which makes setup a breeze. But the lack of controls can be frustrating.

Out of curiosity, I downloaded on to the Xoom a Color Bars image from the Internet. The color looked accurate when I viewed it with a blue filter.

Connecting to an available wireless network is almost automatic. The Xoom searches for wireless sources and you can pick an available one from the list.

During setup, it becomes crystal clear that we are not in iLand any more, Toto, where your life revolves around iTunes.

The Xoom's Android 3.0 Honeycomb operating system drops your house smack dab into Google ville. You need to register your tablet under your Google account, which automatically syncs you to your Gmail and other related features.

I rather prefer this organization, because Honeycomb is a much more open system than Apple's.

For example, if I want to transfer anything on my computer into the iPad, I have to go through the gatekeeper, iTunes. On the Xoom, I attach to my PC with a USB cable and the tablet shows up in Windows Explorer as a connected drive. Transferring files is a basic click and drag operation.

And with an app like Astro, I can search through the folders on the Xoom and handle basic housekeeping chores like an adult, without iTunes permission. Just that simple ability makes life so much easier.