Apps and maps

App availability on the iPad 2 is an interesting story. For starters, there are about 60,000 apps available, according to Apple.

Many of these are re-purposed iPhone apps and some are just newspaper apps that feed content a different way.

In fact, there are really only a handful of notable apps that seem designed specifically for the iPad 2 as a device in its own right.

We've covered iMovie and GarageBand. Real Racing 2 HD is another one that benefits from the iPad 2's new gyroscope and better handheld gaming mechanics, providing fluid control over your vehicle.

As a side note, the game Need for Speed Shift actually controls better on the Motorola Atrix in terms of how you rotate the phone to steer.

Dead Space HD, a horror shooter, and Infinity Blade, a role-playing game with sword-fighting, both look colorful and run smoothly on the A5 processor and benefit from the iPad 2's powerful graphics engine.

That said, the games Fruit Ninja HD and Angry Birds HD all played a bit faster on the Xoom than they did on the iPad 2. In Fruit Ninja HD, the Xoom kept pace with our rapid fire finger slices, while the iPad 2 sometimes chugged very slightly.

There's also some good and bad news about the Apple store: we've learned to like the Android system where you can load an APK file to your device just by copying it over or even e-mailing the file to yourself. The Apple store is ideal for those who want one obvious way to obtain (and, of course, purchase) apps.

We used to think there were a couple of glaring omissions on the iPad. For example, Google seemed to reserve their best apps, like Sky Map, for the Android OS. There's now a Star Walk app that does the same thing.

Also, some apps, like Google Talk, are conspicuously missing from the Apple Store, but there are any number of third-party clients for iOS that provide (in some cases) a better portal into that service.

Maps on iPad 2

Mapping on the iPad 2 works about the same as it does on the original iPad.

The iPad 2 does not appear to have a faster or more sensitive GPS chip, although some mapping functions, such as zooming in on a map, worked faster on the iPad 2 than they did on the Xoom.

Performance of Maps on iPad 2 vs Motorola Xoom

However, there isn't a 3D rendered side-angle view on the iPad 2 that is on the Xoom, although that feature only works in major cities.

One noticeable difference: the Xoom provides voice navigation for directions. You can still get navigation using the Maps app on the iPad 2, but not guided by voice.

It's also worth noting that there are still only a few dozen Android 3.0 apps for the Xoom. In terms of smartphone apps running in a small window: both the iPad 2 and the Xoom have that covered, even if it really doesn't make much sense.