Hasta La Gadget!

We’ve been itching to see how Samsung would leverage Media Hub, and now we’re getting the goods at its Galaxy Tab event. Compatible with Tab and Galaxy S devices, both movies and next-day TV shows will be available for purchase and rental. As for the content partners, they’re not quite shabby: MTV Networks, NBC, Paramount, Universal Studios, and Warner, with more to be announced. Purchased content can be shared with up to five devices. What’s not specified is pricing. We should be getting hands-on with it soon, so stay tuned — or whatever the internet equivalent of that idiom is.

Samsung Media Hub: movies and next-day TV shows from NBC, Paramount, Universal, and more originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Sep 2010 19:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung is milking the launch of its 7-inch tablet called the Galaxy Tab by trickling out a little bit of news about it every other week. After announcing the Galaxy Tab’s launch in Europe earlier this month, Samsung held a press conference Thursday to say the device will be available in the U.S in the next few weeks.

The Galaxy Tab will be available on all the four major wireless service providers — AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile. There’s still no word on pricing or exact shipping date for the Galaxy Tab. The devices, which support 3G and WiFi, will arrive in time for the holiday shopping season, says Samsung. A Wi-Fi only version of the tablet will be available in the future.

The Galaxy Tab runs Android 2.2 Froyo operating system and has a LCD display with a 1024 x 600 resolution. At 0.8 pounds, the device weighs just about half as much as the iPad. It also supports Adobe’s Flash Player 10.1 so it can display web pages that run Flash — something the iPad can’t. The Galaxy Tab will run many Android Market apps in full screen and those that are not scalable will be framed and centered on the screen at 800 x 400 resolution.

Another feature that U.S. customers of Galaxy Tab will get is the Media Hub, a mobile widget that will allow users to download and rent movies.

The Galaxy Tab will come with three accessories: a $100 keyboard dock, a $50 desktop dock, which will double as a charger, and a $100 car and GPS dock.

See Also:

• Samsung Introduces 7-Inch Tablet to Rival iPad
• Video: Samsung Tablet Looks Like a Strong iPad Rival
• First Look: ELocity’s Android Tablet Makes Great Media Player
• Samsung Ships One Million Galaxy S Phones in 45 Days
• BlackBerry Tablet ‘BlackPad’ Readies to Take On the iPad

Photo: Samsung

We pretty much assumed this would go down at Samsung’s event on Thursday, but now we’ve got more confirmation Verizon will indeed carry the Samsung Galaxy Tab — check out this leaked screenshot from the employees-only VZWeb system. Details are light, but it looks like Froyo and Flash 10.1 will be preinstalled along with “a number of exclusive apps” to differentiate it from the rumored versions coming to AT&T and Sprint — we’d say Skype fits the bill quite nicely here, as does the thanks-for-telling-us-it-costs-$10-per-month NFL Mobile app with live game streaming and the RedZone channel. Unfortunately, it sounds like we’ll have a bit of a wait for pricing and availability details, which will be released “over the coming weeks,” and that’s really all we want to know — if this thing requires a two-year contract we’re thisclose to calling it a dud out of the gate. We’ll see, we’ll see — Thursday’s only two days away.

Verizon to announce Samsung Galaxy Tab on Thursday? originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 14 Sep 2010 14:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The way that rumors and Verizon’s statements have been lining up this year, you might’ve been under the impression that its upcoming Android tablets would be carrier exclusives — but maybe not: ye olde Wall Street Journal is citing “three people familiar with the matter” (it’s not often they give a quantity of familiar people!) as saying that Big Red, AT&T, and Sprint are all on tap to take delivery of the Galaxy Tab. In light of Samsung’s strategy in deploying the Galaxy S as far and wide (and with as little exclusivity) as possible, that’d certainly make sense — the company is comfortable switching between GSM, CDMA, and even WiMAX radios at this point without breaking a sweat.

Speaking of WiMAX, this rumor certainly lends credence to the possibility that the Sprint version will be 4G-equipped, giving the Epic a big brother in the carrier’s growing stable of sexy WiMAX hardware. Samsung has an event lined up in New York next Thursday, the 16th (which we’ll be attending, naturally) and the WSJ goes on to say that the Tab’s US unveil is going to go down there. Pricing remains an open question, but considering that the Tab’s a full-on cellphone in addition to a data device, it seems that American customers might need to be comfortable with another contract if they want in on this thing. Ouch.

Samsung Galaxy Tab heading to Verizon, AT&T, Sprint? originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Sep 2010 19:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Samsung vows to ship 10 million Galaxy Tabs, grab a third of the tablet market originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 07 Sep 2010 16:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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