Hasta La Gadget!

We’ve literally been waiting for Tegra 2 tablets since CES in January, but that isn’t stopping NVIDIA boss Jen-Hsun Huang from extolling their virtues yet again, this time on a roadmap that points to just after next year‘s CES. In his company’s most recent quarterly results call, Huang was bullish about the disruptive potential of tablets, but insisted that they can’t simply be built like the Galaxy Tab (or the Folio 100, for that matter), which uses a smartphone OS stretched out to a larger screen. “A tablet is not a large phone,” says Huang, and he’s of course not alone in expressing frustration with Android’s current immaturity for the tablet realm, but once Google’s slate-friendly OS update drops, he promises NVIDIA will be ready to capitalize: “Our tablet and phone business is going to ramp. And it’s going to ramp hard.” We’re looking forward to all this ramping, oh yes we are.

CE-Oh no he didn’t!: NVIDIA chief calls Galaxy Tab ‘a large phone,’ can’t wait to show you some real tablets originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Nov 2010 03:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’d always thought this was going to be the year of Android tablets, but until the day Google gives its full blessing for the tablet form factor, the market will still be lacking in apps that make good use of the extra screen estate. Funnily enough, today the Wall Street Journal took a leap of faith and pushed out an Android version of its tablet app, just in time to ride on the Samsung Galaxy Tab’s first wave. In many ways, WSJ’s Android app appears to be a slimmed down version of its iPad equivalent. Once logged in with a subscription account, users are greeted by the same start screen for choosing your papers, which are automatically downloaded at launch. Naturally, once the papers are on your device, you can read them regardless of internet connectivity, and you can save your favorites to a dedicated area there for quick access as well. More after the break.

Continue reading App review: Wall Street Journal Tablet Edition for Android

App review: Wall Street Journal Tablet Edition for Android originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Nov 2010 17:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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So it was written, and so has it been done. Hot on the heels of T-Mobile, the little Samsung Galaxy Tab 7-inch Android tablet that could just hit Verizon retail for $599.99. Of course, that’s before taxes and options for month-to-month data plans (with $35 activation fee) are factored in starting at $20 per month for 1GB on up to $80 for 10GB. So feel free to jump right in if the idea of waiting for a Super AMOLED version, a 10.1-inch flavor, or a tablet-tuned Android release sounds like crazy talk.

[Thanks, Spencer T.]

Samsung Galaxy Tab lands on Verizon for $599.99 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Nov 2010 01:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Some tablets and smartphones ship with an AMOLED display. Newer ones are shipping with a “Super AMOLED” display. What so super about it, and what does all this alphabet soup even mean?

The short version is that a Super AMOLED touchscreen display integrates touch sensors with the glass surface panel, eliminating at least one layer of glass and with it, a layer of air. That’s what makes Super AMOLED super. Only Samsung makes it.

Super AMOLED schematic from Samsung

I said “at least one layer of glass” because AMOLED itself eliminates at least one layer in a display. The current Galaxy Tab, for example, uses a TFT-LCD (Thin-Film Transistor Liquid Crystal Display) screen. Until very recently, TFT-LCD has been the state of the art in thin color displays and is still the only cost-effective option in the vast majority of displays larger than a smartphone screen.

TFT-LCD has approximately four layers: a backlight, a TFT color filter, a touch-sensor panel, and an outer glass screen. AMOLED (Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode) eliminates the separate backlight. AMOLED, however, is known for having problems with glare and readability in direct sunlight, even relative to average LCD screens. By minimizing the number of reflective surfaces and power necessary to achieve vivid color, Super AMOLED was designed in part to address this.

Samsung introduced Super AMOLED to commercial devices this year with the Samsung Wave, which ran their own Bada OS. The Android-powered Samsung Galaxy series of smartphones made the displays popular, and it’s since appeared on Samsung’s Windows Phone 7 handsets as well.

There are other advanced color technologies in the market, all of them super, and all of them extra-expensive: Super LCD recently joined Super IPS and Advanced Super View. But only Super AMOLED has really captured the popular imagination.

A 7-inch Android tablet with an AMOLED display would probably be a serious advance over its current LCD screen. But if it’s “just” AMOLED, something about it would just seem … less than super.

See Also:

• OLED Shortage Forces HTC to Switch Displays
• Samsung Omnia 7 Windows Phone Launches Early
• Samsung’s Windows Phone 7 Packs Intuitive, Visual Punch
• Samsung Android Phone Captivates AT&T
• Sporty New iPods Tout Tiny Touchscreens, Retina Display
• Better Than Retina: The Next Big Display Technology
• Samsung Galaxy Player, Better Than iPod Touch?
• Samsung Teases 10-Inch Galaxy Tab with Ultra-Light Resin Screen

Nothing unforeseen here, folks, just a friendly reminder that Samsung’s Galaxy Tab has kept to its release schedule and is now available to purchase from T-Mobile USA. $399 gets you the 7-inch Tab plus a two-year contract with the American arm of Deutsche Telekom, or you can pay the full $599 and make off with just the tablet itself. Or you can even wait an extra day for Verizon to start dishing Android slates your way as well — the choice, as always, is yours. Just try not to think about that gorgeous 7-inch Super AMOLED panel that Samsung’s busy showing off in Japan right now.

[Thanks, Aaron]

Samsung Galaxy Tab fulfills its destiny, now available on T-Mobile for $399 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Nov 2010 07:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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