Xoom China 3.1 & Questions~

[jonpeng]

Hello Everyone! New to the forums and hoping I can get some opinions and learn more about my device.

I am an American currently working in mainland China, bought the Xoom less than two months ago and received the 3.1 update last night!
First off, I love this device. It has replaced my laptop at home and has almost replaced my desktop at the office. My only real complaint is the lack of a quality chat application (HC Optimized) and a proper office app (Quick office HD is terrible).

However there are some issues that have prevented me from enjoying all the xoom has to offer.

China and Google aren't exactly on the best of terms. Many google services run pretty slow or are straight out blocked by the Chinese government. (Facebook, twitter, youtube, dropbox, google docs are all banned) because of this my Xoom did not come loaded with the google suite apps (gmail, talk, docs) the apps themselves can be downloaded however they will crash automatically on startup which im guessing is a regional restriction based on the Chinese xoom software build.

I can understand google docs apps not loading as its completely blocked, however Gmail is very much usable therefore I cant understand why it wont load up.

In reality, I am pretty content with my stock xoom as it is. However, having the Gmail app and a few other key apps would make it absolutely perfect for me. It seems the only way that this is possible is hacking my device. With that said....

1. If I root my device, would I be able to push these apps such as gmail to the right directories and make it work?
2. Will I need to flash the US rom or would a custom rom work?

Thanks for taking the time to read this!

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[jblalock77]

Welcome to the forum. Sorry I don't know enough to answer your questions, except to say afik at the moment all of the custom roms are varients of the US build.

[cloudy616]

Hi buddy
I'm a Chinese but now in AU. I totally understood ur need for google suits and lots of Chinese xoom forms have posted the solution for re instsll that.
My suggestion is to reflash an official international version rom for ur device.
I just baught one at Canberra, which is loaded with that rom. Everything works fine!
Be caution if u would like to flash an US rom. Most US roms are for verizon version. If urs is WIFI only or WCDMA version, that would be dangerous.