Samsung Galaxy Tablet Coming In September

adeelarshad82 writes "The rumors are now reality, Samsung showed the world its first glimpse of the Samsung Galaxy Tab, the company's new 7-inch tablet. Samsung Mobile will release more information about the Galaxy Tab on September 2 in advance of IFA Berlin 2010. Tab will run on Android 2.2 and feature full Web-browsing and video calling. The information given by the company implied that the Galaxy Tab will sport an HD screen for video, Flash support, support for e-books, possible GPS navigation, and PC linking."

HD screen/

[Tumbleweed]

Android 2.2 doesn't support HD displays (only via video out like HDMI), unless they've extended it somehow. Otherwise we'll have to wait for Gingerbread (3.0?). 2.2 only supports up to something like 854x480 for the main display, I'm pretty sure.

The important things

[gilesjuk]

Screen, it needs a good touch screen, decent resolution and viewing angle,

Battery life, it has to be much longer than a laptop.

Software support, if the screen resolution is greater than any other device then some software may not work or will appear small.

Price, if it's not much cheaper than the iPad then that's a failure.

The actual OS is important, but given it's Android it's unlikely to present a problem.

Re:Lawsuits or not, it's sort-of Linux and Java

[Kitkoan]

HD audio on a flat screen speaker set. [lg.com]

More Details, Firmware Analysis

[CritterNYC]

This article was a bit light on the details (as it's just mentioning what's in the quick video preview on the site), but other sites have posted some rumors and analysis of some Samsung firmware leaks.

The display seems to be 800x480, which is decent on a 7" screen (133ppi, essentially the same as the iPad's 131ppi). There is a front and rear facing camera (confirmed in this video which mentions video calling), a 1.0 or 1.2GHz hummingbird processor (similar to the awesome 1GHz hummingbird in their Galaxy S phones which can really pump out the pixels [youtube.com]), and some other goodies.

http://samsung-firmware.webs.com/apps/blog/entries/show/4521384-exclusive-samsung-galaxy-tab- [webs.com]

Re:Possible GPS navigation?

[NitroWolf]

There is a temp fix out there. Some manual changes and it works by going thru one of Google's servers instead of Samsung's. So it is a small drawback. I'm sure they will get it fixed. Maybe it is an issue in Android 2.1 and not 2.2? But GPS isn't everything. What matters is that Apple is finally starting to get some real competition.

The fix doesn't really work. It improves it some, mainly by using network location. It doesn't do anything for the actual GPS problem, it just masks the problems with various assists. Oh, and you have to root your phone to apply those "fixes" that really aren't. Not a big deal, but most people aren't going to do that.

Re:Possible GPS navigation?

[stoanhart]

It's really not that bad. I have a Vibrant, and the GPS issue is the only downside to the phone. Otherwise, it's a phenomenal piece of hardware. Also, it's been confirmed that the GPS issue is a software bug, and will be fixed in the Froyo update in September. Since this pad device will be running Froyo to start with, I think it's safe to assume the GPS will work just fine.

Re:Lets see the parade

[ircmaxell]

the iPad is the first to be successful on any meaningful scale

In the public sector. In other areas (such as Emergency Responders, Health Care, Manufacturing and many others) there have been wildly successful tablets for many years.

Apple just made it successful for the average consumer...

Re:Possible GPS navigation?

[HotBBQ]

Samsung has an official firmware fix for the GPS problem on the Galaxy line of phones. The firmware is scheduled for release in September. The forthcoming Epic 4G from Sprint will be released with this updated firmware. Engadget Story [engadget.com]

Re:Lawsuits or not, it's sort-of Linux and Java

[tlhIngan]

It's a Linux system presented in all stores across the planet, on prime shelf space.

What does this do for Linux? About as much as TiVo did with it's "Linux system... on prime shelf space"... actually the real analogy here is probably iOS and Mach... I mean, it's so awesome and powerful right? Well, you have to root/jailbreak it first (assuming the device doesn't have an anti-tamper)... and that's getting harder with each new release.

And Android phones are going the TiVo way as well, requiring jailbreaks and the like to "get the most out of it". Android's open-source, but the phones themselves aren't open at all. They're just open because the manufacturers were rushing to get phones on shelves. Though, HTC devices have always been more "open" to being hacked (xda-developers was about a particular set of HTC devices back in the WinMo days). But we're seeing with Motorola and probably soon Samsung and the like will be locking down the phones to run "approved OS images only".

The Sony PSPhone if it's true will probably be horrifically locked down, and probably tied to the Playstation Network like the Go, and Sony's pretty good about locking things down tight. Motorola's already shown it with the Droid X, getting back to where things were in the WInMo days.

And yes, I've heard manufacturers ask to lock things down - they say things like they don't want another xda-developers popping up for their phone.

Re:720x480

[lennier1]

Standard PAL DVD. Not all parts of the world had to live with an inferior resolution.

Re:720x480

[cynyr]

it sounds like PAL [wikipedia.org] well, more like 576p [wikipedia.org]. so yes, everywhere [wikipedia.org] but where you listed.