Slashdot Mirror
Samsung's Galaxy Tab Android Tablet Now Official
itwbennett writes "Samsung held a media event Thursday introducing the Galaxy Tab, and making official what we've already known for weeks, says blogger Peter Smith. 'We still don't have a price or a concrete ship date (though definitely this fall; Samsung says it'll be available for the holiday season),' says Smith. 'It'll ship with Android 2.2 (Froyo), runs Flash, has a 1Ghz Hummingbird CPU, 16GB of memory, a 7" LCD (1204 x 600 ) screen and weighs about 13 ounces. They're claiming a 7-hour battery life. Two cameras: a front-facing 1.3 megapixel, and a back-facing 3 megapixel. It has an HDMI port and will also share media to DLNA devices on the same network.'" Engadget adds some video footage.
Crucial missing information in the summary:
Amazon UK is reporting an MSRP of 799.99, and Amazon US has a listing for $835.18. Unless is bad info, this thing is DOA.
So now I can honestly tell the ladies I regularly have 7'' in hand
no wifi
Hey, unlike the IPad, a tablet that is actually useful!
I'm looking forward to using that Android app that puts anything on screen (everything, not just video) and pipes it out the HDMI to another device, like an HDTV. I could see this being a truly useful device.
I mean, it looks awesome, but the screen resolution is a bit disappointing. Then again it is a 7 incher, so...
Living With a Nerd
Seriously, no price announced?
Unimpressive battery life...
What does it have for document creation and media playback?
I wonder what this will do to the development of Chrome OS, as now Android is also a tablet operating system, what will the market be for Chrome OS? I hope they're not shooting for desktop applications ...
Also, no WiFi as of yet (and as far as I can tell no release date set either). I wonder what this will do to battery life, and well, everything else. Surfing on 3G is acceptable on my phone when I'm stuck in traffic, at home I tend never to use my phone because of the slow connection.
Life is great! (as told by Lady Susan)
So I've been following this tablet for a while and I wish they'd post more information. First it was "they're bringing it", and now it's "official", and yet they still don't have any information I want. Exact specs, what the hardware is, price, where are they releasing it (which countries), where will I be able to buy it (is it just from carriers?).
It's annoying that companies do this. I can see pictures of it, but that doesn't really help me.
Anyone got any idea if it can supply "full" USB power, from memory its 500ma?
Now I just need somebody to create an LCARS looking interface for it and I can control my imaginary Galaxy class starship.
Who is this that even the wind and the waves obey Him? Surely this computer must submit also!
I think it has to have 3G in order to qualify for the Android Marketplace.
Here's a citation for this claim. It just goes to boost GordonBX's claim that Android makes Apple look cheap.
This tablet soundly trounces the EEE 701. In hardware specs, anyway. My EEE runs a full desktop OS (Xubuntu linux), but the screen resolution is quite crippling, as is the requirement to reinstall the OS every now and then to prevent running out of disk space. This tablet appears to solve those issues, but does it have USB? Can I install an operating system of my choosing? Does it run nmap and aircrack-ng? Can I conveniently SSH into an 8 core SMP server with Maple and MATLAB when I need a little extra oomph? How usable is the onscreen keyboard?
Where I live, we have "HSPA+", and speed tests on my phone show it to be even faster than my cable modem at home.
I live in the midwestern United States. Where do you live, how much does "HSPA+" cost per month in addition to what you're already paying for your cable modem, and how much does it cost to immigrate?
Something like this is perfect for huge searchable PDF's. I help run a huge LARP, and there are well over 200+ source books for material for this game system. Something like this would be awesome, as I wouldn't have to drag several pounds of dead tree around to every game, which has the added benefit of not beating up my physical copies of the books. Not to mention that when there is a rules question, I can open the right PDF, search for the rule, and answer the question then and there instead of having to freeze the game while I look things up. I am certain there are other similar real world problems that are easily solved by a device like this.
I'm not paying more than $400 or so for one however. I'll wait until the price comes down quite a bit before I pick one up. I only paid $450 for my last laptop, which currently (mostly) provides the same functionality, though it is much heavies than a pad like this.
"Going to war without France is like going deer hunting without your accordion." - Jed Babbin
I have been poking around with android for a bit now...
I've been wondering how the UI will scale to different resolutions. The desktop itself looks fine. I have tried "big screen" and "small screen" phones and have it installed on my netbook. All look nice.
However, scaling an application to different sizes will be odd. You can't just say "I want my window to be 640x480". Well, technically you can (using scrolling layout and absolute positioning) , but it would look even shittier than badly designed normal window.
Anyone got good books to suggest? Namely, how to think about scalable UI's in this context. Is there a shortcut to design an application to look good automagically in different devices, or do I really have to design and test the UI N-times -- N-being the amount of different display geometrics in the market currently?
Bot Assisted Blogging
7" LCD is convenient - but I'd have to know how many sheets-of-glass thick it is before I'd consider buying one.
UK retailers are already pricing this thing at £600+ which gives Apple a nice big helping hand to maintain market dominance. No way people are going to pay nearly double the price of an iPad for a tablet that isn't as good. And I say that as an Android fanboi who can't stand Apple.
minor off topic nitpick, but it pisses me off when people use "memory" ambigously meaning either storage or RAM
in this case i can sort of deduce that this thing has 16gb of storage, but how much working RAM does it have? not entirely unimportant for a computing device, especially when you get into tablet territory (the ipad/iphone already suck at multitasking, or hell, even multi-tab browsing because of low memory)
People, what a bunch of bastards
16GB of memory?
Presumably they mean storage, disk space, that sort of thing.
Not RAM.
I need to see at least 10" before I am willing to buy one.
After seeing a damn iphone 4G retina display, all I can say is gimme well beyond 200dpi or I am not buying....
Apple did have a huge advantage on price, they could order as many processors and as much RAM as they liked for the iPad knowing that if it didn't sell, they could just use them in the iPhone 4. No-one else has that kind of leverage on component prices, and no-one else has an established cash cow like the App Store. Android is playing catch-up on this, but I expect that Google will sort out the tablet issues soon and the Market will open up to WiFi tablets. It's mainly a matter of them realising that no-one wants to make or buy a tablet running ChromeOS.
So what's going on with the Galaxy S? Reports on the web are that the actual GPS hardware does not work, and the "fix" is to use wifi/celltower geolocation. How could this issue have made it past testing and 1 million unit sales before it was noticed?
On the plus side, the Galaxy S appears to be completely open source. The source code release from Samsung appears to include drivers for all hardware, including the PowerVR GPU.
Too small to compete with an iPad, too big to compete with the iPhone. And, let's be honest - they're trying to compete with Apple's offerings here. I just don't get their vision of this product. Seriously. It's too big to casually put in your pocket and carry around easily and it's too small to be a "put in your bag" computing device when there are other options with bigger screens available. It might do well - time will tell - but I suspect the screen size puts it in an awkward position that very few customers want.
I dunno, if it's true (and it seems to be) that you have to have a phone data plan to access the Android App Store, that's going to be a huge impact on the tablet/PDA market. The sales numbers on iPod Touch indicate that while tablet and phones are both more popular, there's a pretty big market for unconnected phone sized devices (PDAs essentially). That's two markets Android is essentially cutting itself out of by making people pay an unnecessary monthly fee. Google needs to change that pronto if they want to get into this market.
I don't need a million points of light, just two points of multi-mode fiber and a 10 Gig-E router.
Exact specs, what the hardware is, price, where are they releasing it (which countries), where will I be able to buy it (is it just from carriers?).
You can't even find a Galaxy Tab page on Samsung's website -- they link to one, but it's 404.
However, specs collected from the announcement, press releases and coverage:
Android 2.2 (Froyo)
Flash 10.1 (Web video looked good and smooth)
1Ghz Hummingbird CPU (Samsung, ARM Cortex A8)
PowerVR SGX 540 video
512 MB RAM
Internal storage unclear; some reports say 16 GB or 32GB
microSD card slot, supporting 32GB additional storage
7" TFT LCD screen, 1024 x 600 resolution
Capacitive touchscreen
Quad-band GSM/EDGE, triple-band HSUPA/HSDPA, voice and data connectivity
Dual SIM cards (not sure why?)
802.11 b/g/n wifi
Bluetooth 3.0
13 ounces
7 hour battery life under continuous movie playback
Front facing 1.3 megapixel camera for video calling
Back facing 3 megapixel autofocusing camera for HD video and still photography with flash
HDMI video output port
USB (will trickle charge, but not rapid charge)
Proprietary 30-pin connector for charging and connectivity to dock
3.5 audio jack; internal stereo speakers
Accelerometer, magnetometer, proximity sensor
Full external keyboard, optional
Automotive dash mount for GPS functionality with Google Maps enhanced for the 7-inch display; presumably this suggests it has a GPS chip, although I have not found anything that says so
Will share media to DLNA devices on the same network; should interop with MythTV and XMBC
Will be offered by AT&T, Sprint, Verizon and T-Mobile; pricing and dates to be announced by the carriers
E-reader software (Kindle, PressDisplay, Zinio, etc.)
Thinkfree Office software
Media Hub (cloud-based purchase and rental of video and audio programming) with sharing across your compatible Samsung devices
Interestingly, "legacy" Android apps designed for smaller screens are shown at a correct size, framed rather than stretched. A bunch of apps optimized for the 7-inch display were shown.
I live in Canada, and we have $30 data plans that include 6 GB of data
In the United States, a comparable data plan is $60/mo alone (for a USB 3G modem) or $30/mo when bundled with a $40/mo voice plan (for a phone). Because I don't use my cell phone as a land-line replacement, I don't use even one-tenth of the 450 voice minutes per month that come with the $40/mo voice plan. So I'm on a $20 per three months plan with Virgin Mobile USA, a Sprint company.
According to Engadget they removed the telephony app from the US version of this (it's still in the European version):
http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/16/samsung-galaxy-tab-loses-voice-capabilities-in-the-us/
That's pretty much a dealkiller for me, and gives Samsung an uphill climb if they expect to compete with the iPad, which has a good low end price, an OS designed for a tablet, and an established ecosystem.
"Can't you see that everyone is buying station wagons?"
they could order as many processors and as much RAM as they liked for the iPad knowing that if it didn't sell, they could just use them in the iPhone 4.
And Samsung can use spare Galaxy Tab chips in its Galaxy S phones.
It's mainly a matter of them realising that no-one wants to make or buy a tablet running ChromeOS.
To help Google realize that an "Android pod touch" could be profitable, someone might have to make the same app in Java for Android and in JavaScript for ChromeOS and show that the ChromeOS version is more unwieldy than the Android version.
You can have 3G without a monthly fee.
I have a 3G data-only (no voice/SMS) SIM from Vodafone (UK). I think it's £10/GB or so, but I hardly ever use it so I've not needed to pay more than the initial £10 yet.
Is it USB host? If not, no thanks. It would be good for a controller for the telescope and CCD camera (even if I needed a powered USB hub to give the juice to the devices. But if it can only be a USB device, no thanks.
I have a 3G data-only (no voice/SMS) SIM from Vodafone (UK).
Unlike Vodafone (UK), Vodafone (US) uses CDMA2000, and instead of using a removable CSIM card, it programs the subscriber information directly into the phone.
I think it's £10/GB or so
Data-only service from Vodafone (US) costs 50 USD for 1 GB.
I know that the screen is very expensive, and that the technology is impressive (much more so than the iPad, given it fits just as much in a smaller space.) But if Samsung want to get big market share, they absolutely have to get it into the hands of developers, and this means initially selling it as a loss leader. My view is that, like Nokia with the N900, the marketing drones are unhappy about it and are trying to kill it because they want to protect their existing netbook and UMPC market. Unfortunately their UMPCs are overpriced for what they do, and their netbooks are not the industry best. They really need to leverage their OLED capability to grow market share. IBM marketing tried to strangle the IBM PC in trying to protect the minicomputer line, and look where it got them.
Samsung actually need to sell it for 70% of the price of an iPad, even if they lose money on the first million sales. It needs to be slightly cheaper than a phone because it will be perceived as a small netbook, not a large phone. They could do it fairly easily by having a "50% off if you can prove you are a developer/business IT systems engineer". To make 7 inch tablets really useful, developers need to develop for the format, and to do this they need to believe there will be volume sales.
Hyundai has gone from being a joke to being a very serious car producer by understanding that you have to give the customer a lot for the money, on thin margins, until you are taken seriously as a long-term, high quality supplier; and then people will pay you as much as they will pay your competitors.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
It boggles my mind that no company can figure out how to make a good Android tablet. Even if you just copied the specs of the iPad line-by-line, including the price, you'd be ahead of every company so far. I'm not sure who the target market is for the Dell Streak -- that has massive failure written all over it. And now the Galaxy S, while better, still has major shortcomings such as cost, lack of a WiFi-only model, and did I mention cost? The only conclusion is that Apple is majorly subisidizing the cost of the iPad, or that the Android tablet makers are greedy and/or incompetent, or both. Listen guys! We don't need 3g and it's associated costs with tablets. Just let us tether it to the smart phones we already have (on the go), or use the WiFI we already have at home! Secondly, 8 inches is near the minimum a tablet should be, not the maximum. These too-big-for-a-phone too-small-for-a-tablet devices are too compromised and expensive to be useful. Is this rocket science? What kind of market research are these people doing?
Protect your browser with the Force Safe Search add-on
It's interesting point you bring up. All the iOS devices (except the iPod nano which hasn't disclosed the processor) use the A4. Some people were negative on the A4 as it wasn't a revolutionary processor, but I think Apple designed it for practicality. They designed one chip that, while does not contain any groundbreaking technology, can be used for tablets, mobile phones, and consumer devices like the AppleTV and iPod Touch. I do however disagree with you that no one else has leverage on component prices. This is a Samsung Galaxy. Samsung Electronics designs and makes processors (Apple even contracts them to make the A4) as well as RAM. If anyone has more of an advantage it would be Samsung.
Looking at it now, I think there was 2 reasons Apple designed the A4. The first one is stated above. Many chip manufacturers like Samsung design very generic chips to satisfy as much as the market as possible. Customization costs money and many mobile phone makers use the one that best suits their needs rather than customize it. It is rumored that Apple wasn't happy with the chip in the first iPhone. The problem was it was the chip that they specced out and ordered. Apple probably didn't have the expertise to really design the chip to what they wanted. Thus they bought PA Semi and later Intrinsity. If they were going to customize a chip, they might as well design the whole thing and not just modify an existing Samsung mobile phone chip design. Apple also wanted one that allowed them to use in as many devices as possible, not just for mobile phones. It's interesting to note that the Samsung chip "Hummingbird" was co-designed by Samsung and Intrinsity.
The second reason Apple designed the A4 was so that they were not too dependent on Samsung. Remember Samsung also makes mobile phones so they are both a supplier and competitor to Apple. Having been business relationships like this before (Microsoft, Adobe), Apple doesn't want to rely on one supplier. If something happens, Apple can simply take their design to another chip maker and have them make it.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
All we need is a Nokia N830 version. Paired to ANY bluetooth phone for wireless access just like the N710/800/810 were without its own £100 3G (UK price extra that seems to be the norm for 3G) and have it be a proper USB host and NOW we're talking.
Need to phone someone? Use a small, convenient REAL phone. Need to have wireless access on the go? Pair your phone to the internet tablet, put the phone in a pocket and work on the tablet, without the clutter of two devices getting in the way.
Sorted.
Here's what I'm waiting for:
-A full sized Android tablet with all the features of the Galaxy Tab. iPad size is perfect.
-HDMI out for anything the built-in screen displays.
-USB that allows me to painlessly upload photos from a camera or card reader.
-***Wifi that will work with Nikon and Canon camera Wifi and Eye-Fi cards - to shoot straight to the tablet.***
-A gorgeous fingerprint resistant screen, NOT GLOSSY, with lots of pixels, WXGA would be nice, WUXGA would be awesome.
-Multi-Touch interface that's a pleasure to use.
-6 hours of battery life is plenty, just include a power cord that's not so darn short.
How long do I have to wait?
Operator, give me the number for 911!
Businesses might be huge consumers of tablet devices that don't need 3g capabilities.
Restaurants, event facility staff, managers, etc.
I wish these android folks would come up with a BETTER design than Apple. This looks like a smaller version of the iPad. Maybe the next few generations will get better as we're seeing in the Android phone space. Some of the new handsets are actually nicer (but not by much) than the iPhone 4.
Using a tablet for lenghts of time makes my hands get tired. It's the case with any touchscreen that's too large to be handheld. In my view, voice is the true way of the future, just needing a sufficient level of AI such that natural language can be used. That would allow for voice queries that are much more concise than having to tap or click on a million things to accomplish tasks that you can ask someone else to do with a single sentence.
"Politicians and diapers must be changed often, and for the same reason."
Comment removed based on user account deletion
This one's got a 7in screen and it's only $150 - http://bit.ly/dxd1Ya
Held vertically, my thumbs can hit all the keys on the virtual keyboard just fine. Horizontally, in it's case, I can pretty much touch type on the virtual keyboard. But, usually, when I'm doing lots' of typing, I'm using a bluetooth keyboard.
/x/ isn't useful for what /I/ want to do, therefore, /x/ isn't useful for /anybody/.
While I'm a fan of small screens (the iPad is effectively a replacement for my 12" G4 PowerBook that was stolen) I don't know that a screen smaller than the iPad's would be very useful to me.
But the beauty of the situation is that it doesn't have to be. I'm sure plenty of people will find these smaller tablets useful. I don't really understand the argument that
"has a 1Ghz Hummingbird CPU, 16GB of memory"
No, it has 16GB of Flash *storage*, not memory. "Memory", in the vast majority of computer fields, means "RAM". Ug!
... 16GB of memory ...
I know I haven't looked at slashdot since this afternoon, but when did the term 'memory' get usurped from RAM by slowest storage medium in the chain?
Or am I way off base and RAM prices dropped through the floor?
In some contexts, businesses expect to pay a premium. This includes higher prices for products with niche features such as centralized management of a fleet of devices or just higher prices charged to businesses as opposed to individual home users. They might consider the purchase of an unlocked tablet including a never-to-be-used 3G radio as just a cost of doing business.