Android Tablets Made Simple

Where Are the Buttons?

Once you've completed activation and the initial setup for your Android tablet, you may notice that Android tablets usually have fewer buttons than their phone counterparts. In fact, the Motorola Xoom and most other Honeycomb and Ice Cream Sandwich tablets only have physical power and volume buttons. All other buttons are created through the software.

There's a good reason for that. You can tilt an Android screen up or down in any orientation you'd like, and the position of your navigation controls will still be on the bottom left of your screen.

CAUTION: There is an exception to your button location. Some apps lock the screen in a certain orientation, such as Portrait or Landscape mode only. In the case of a locked screen, ...