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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.
Do you mean this?
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-7-Inch-UMPC-with-Touchscreen/dp/B001TZVW8E 1 new from $835.18
That's not the same product, that's a winxp thing with a hard drive.
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.
7" LCD is convenient - but I'd have to know how many sheets-of-glass thick it is before I'd consider buying one.
701 has a keyboard. I can't see myself coding on a tablet. Also the laptop gives you root access.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
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
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.
TBH though, because of the app-store lock-in, Apple ought to be able to virtually give-away iPads and still make lots of money, so I can see this battle going on for a good while yet.
Yeah, the specs are interesting, but we need the price to judge whether we might want one or not. That said, I quoted the part of your post I did because buried in the article is a more interesting little nugget: Samsung are throwing in an iTunes competitor through which you can buy and watch TV shows, movies, etc. Now taking on iTunes is a lot more interesting to some of us than taking on the iPad. If the sodding thing has a decent catalogue, decent quality and will let you buffer the movie unlike that bloody LoveFilm site, then it might have got my interest.
Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
No buffering, according to this article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20100917/tc_pcworld/samsunggalaxytabfaq
"All content from the Media Hub is offered as downloads over Wi-Fi. There will be no online streaming through the Samsung Media Hub."
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.
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?"
No they mean this: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-Galaxy-Device-Cortex-Android/dp/B0042D75TU/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&s=computers&qid=1284729976&sr=8-10
It's kind of a moot point if you don't want the 3G though. It's a 170 pounds more for a not as nice tablet and a 3G modem that I don't want. That's not chump change. (For the lazy, 170 pounds is around $260 at current exchange rates)
I don't need a million points of light, just two points of multi-mode fiber and a 10 Gig-E router.