Hasta La Gadget!

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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Samsung’s Galaxy S phones, like the Fascinate on Verizon, represent everything that’s good—and bad—about Android. More »

Remember how Samsung downsized the Wave to make the Wave 723 and killed off the pricey, fancy Super AMOLED display in the process? Yeah, well, the same rule applies to the Android-powered Galaxy line — so if you were hoping to see some mind-blowing contrast ratios on Sammy’s new PMP… well, you can just keep on hoping (and besides, even the mighty Tab has gone the TFT route for now). The Galaxy Player 50 is pretty cute in the flesh, featuring a 3.2-inch WQVGA LCD with multitouch capability, Android 2.1, and your choice of 8GB or 16GB worth of internal storage with microSD expansion up to 32GB. It’s also packing a 2 megapixel cam on back and support for 802.11n — and heck, like the Philips GoGear Connect it’s even got a mic, basically putting it just one spec sheet line item shy of being an actual smartphone.

For all intents and purposes, the PMP feels like a midrange Android smartphone when you’re holding and using it; it’s reasonably responsive, and we were happy to see that it has Google Maps Navigation on board (along with the Android Market and all the other standard “Google Experience” Android apps). We found the keyboard a bit cramped, but there’s only so much you can do with a portrait virtual QWERTY keyboard on a 3.2-inch display, and we imagine we could get used to it with time. Needless to say, the total package feels more put-together than the GoGear, and if we were rocking a dumbphone, wanted to keep our music compartmentalized, and couldn’t stand the thought of adding an iPod touch into our lives, we imagine the 50 would be on our short list. Follow the break for Samsung’s press release — and don’t forget to have a gander at the gallery!

Continue reading Samsung Galaxy Player 50 hands-on

Samsung Galaxy Player 50 hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Sep 2010 07:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Samsung Galaxy Tab certainly looks like it’s going to be a pretty sweet little tablet, but man — Samsung really needs to hire some better Korean-to-English translators. Hot on the heels of the charmingly obtuse T-Mobile Vibrant (“A Twitter approaches to synchronising data to allow access to your status”), Sammy’s new Galaxy Tab promo site is a virtual treasure trove of almost-but-not-quite English, starting with a launch animation that offers you “More relief on the go” straight through to a video call demo that suggests you and a co-worker share a “cosy time.” Uh, no thanks. Greatest hits in the gallery below.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab: more relief on the go originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Sep 2010 13:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When Samsung’s 7-inch tablet finally sees the states, it might indeed be more than a giant Galaxy S — for one thing, it may have Froyo, but for another, it could have faster, more building-penetrating WiFi than most comparable devices on the market. That’s because when the Galaxy Tab hit the FCC by the name “SHW-M180S,” it came loaded with dual-band 2.4GHz and 5.8GHz 802.11 a/b/g/n WiFi capable of speeds up to 150Mbps. It also intriguingly sports the GSM 1900 radio frequency, meaning an AT&T launch might be in the cards alongside the CDMA one rumored for Verizon. Browsing through the WiFi Alliance databases in an attempt to track the tablet down, we spotted both a “GT-P1000T” and a “GT-P1000L,” each with dual-band WiFi, suggesting that there are multiple versions in the works… and the Global Certification Forum shows one of them actually has quad-band GSM and HSDPA connectivity. Not bad, Samsung. Now, let’s hear about battery life.

Samsung Galaxy Tab falls into FCC hands with GSM radio frequencies, 5GHz dual-band WiFi originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Aug 2010 20:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Wireless Goodness  |  FCC, Global Certification Forum  | Email this | Comments