Hasta La Gadget!

After weeks of leaked photos and videos, Samsung’s 7-inch tablet called the Galaxy Tab is finally here. Samsung has announced the launch of the tablet that could become the first major Android-powered challenger to the Apple iPad.

The Galaxy Tab runs Android 2.2 Froyo operating system and has a 7-inch 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.

Samsung hasn’t announced a price yet for the Galaxy Tab.

Since Apple launched the iPad in April, almost every major consumer electronics maker has said it is working on a slate of its own. Yet only a few have yet made it to the market.

Earlier this month, Dell launched the Streak, a device with a 5-inch display that has been billed as a tablet but is priced and acts like a phone. Dell plans to introduce more tablets. BlackBerry maker Research In Motion and HP are also reportedly developing tablets. The JooJoo tablet, launched in March by a former partner of TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington, debuted to negative reviews, has not sold well and is embroiled in legal wrangling.

Meanwhile, Apple has sold more than 3 million iPads.

The Galaxy Tab has a smooth, slab-like design that’s similar to the iPad. It packs in a powerful Cortex A8 1.0-GHz processor and supports HD video. The device has a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera for video telephony over 3G and a 3-megapixel rear-facing camera to capture images and video. It will offer 16 GB or 32 GB of internal storage and will have microSD expansion for up to 32 GB of additional storage.

The Galaxy Tab will support 3G, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, along with push e-mail. It will not offer voice-calling features (except via VoIP apps).

Android OS fills out a smart hardware package

Hold the Galaxy Tab and the first thing that strikes you is how compact the device is. The Galaxy Tab has a smaller screen than the iPad and that translates into a lighter device.

The tablet’s smaller size also makes it easier to hold it in just one hand as you would with an e-reader like the Kindle or the Nook. The 7-inch display means the device is small enough to slip into the pocket of a suit or a purse.

The Galaxy Tab runs Android, an operating system that so far has done best on smartphones.

But Samsung seems to have done a good job of making the Android OS work on the tablet form factor. Samsung has an attractive calendar app for the Galaxy Tab and the e-mail app on the tablet is comparable to that on the iPad.

The Galaxy Tab also includes an e-reading application powered by Kobo — the e-reader sold at Borders. The tablet has a Media Hub for video clips and movies, which Samsung hopes to offer as rentals or downloads that users can buy.

Almost all independent apps in the Android Market will work for the Galaxy Tab, says Samsung. So users can buy the tablet and immediately have apps they can download and play with. But we will have to test this to see if it will work for all apps in the Market.

Samsung plans to launch the device in Europe in mid September, and in the United States and Asia shortly thereafter.

See Also:

• Samsung to Launch 7-inch Tablet in September
• Video: Samsung Tablet Looks Like a Strong iPad Rival
• Samsung Enters Tablet Race With the Galaxy Tape
• First Look: ELocity’s Android Tablet Makes Great Media Player …
• Attack of the Pads: Tablets Take On Apple

Photos: Samsung

That Folio 100 (alias Smart Pad) from Toshiba we’d been hearing about? Yep, totally real, and totally Tegra 2-powered — a theme that we think is going to be pretty popular among tablet makers this season. We caught a handful of Folio 100s firmly affixed to a wall at IFA today, showing 10.1-inch multitouch LCD displays paired with a remixed version of Android 2.1, a handful of capacitive buttons, a front-facing 1.3 megapixel camera, 16GB of on-board storage, and not much else — there’s really nothing visually stunning about the setup as far as we can tell, and it’s not particularly thin. After bouncing out that crazy Libretto W100, Toshiba’s going to have to turn up the style dial to 11 if it wants to rise above the forthcoming onslaught of Google tablets, we suspect.

Toshiba’s Folio 100 with Android and Tegra 2 spied in the IFA wilds originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 02 Sep 2010 07:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tired of those fancy-pants delicate Cupertino tablets? GammaTech, which makes military-grade rugged notebooks and tablets, has just released the RT10 series of tablet PCs. Meant for hard work environments where dirt and liquids are constantly ready to take down tech gadgets, the RT10 line offers rugged fully-sealed design. It’s drop-proof, spill-proof, shock-proof, dust-proof, and watertight.

For specs, the RT10 features a high-res (1024 x 600) 10.2-inch WSVGA TFT LCD, support for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and it runs Windows 7 Professional, Vista Business, or XP Tablet Edition operating systems. It’s also loaded with two USB ports, an Ethernet port, and a smart card reader. The tablet measures five pounds. Buyers can choose from two varieties: the RT10A features a 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor, while the RT10D features a 1.2GHz Intel Core Duo U2500. The tablet is available now through resellers, and the company isn’t giving out pricing information on its site.

Everyone deserves a second chance, right? In the world of cheapo tablets, sure! Or at least that’s our attitude when it comes to a company like Augen. Sure, it was just about a month ago that it released its $150 GenTouch78 at Kmart, but it’s planning some future tablet products and hoping to right all those previous wrongs. According to the statement put out by the company, this new set of “Espresso” tablets will be unveiled at CES 2011 and will span from 7 to 10 inches diagonally. They’ll still be aggressively priced and range from $200 to $400, but at least this time around it’s planning for some with capacitive touchscreens. Other specs are of the fairly cookie cutter mold: WiFi, an accelerometer and more storage space. No word on what version of Android they’ll run, but there’s mention of a new “human friendly input.” That all sounds much better than the previous GenTouch products we’ve seen, but by the time January rolls around there’s no telling what the tablet landscape could look like. We’ll be following this one to see if Augen can keep the caffeine in its system, but hit the break for the full statement and one more render.

Continue reading Augen planning its next generation of tablets, not giving up without a fight

Augen planning its next generation of tablets, not giving up without a fight originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Sep 2010 02:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Any hot new tech trend is bound to receive its share of criticism, and 3D has gotten plenty from the perspectives of both content and execution. Chief among these complaints has to be the claimed necessity of glasses. Glasses get lost, get scratched, get broken.

Nintendo deservedly made waves with its unveiling of the 3DS at this year’s E3. The portable console offered a 3D effect without requiring glasses. It just made sense. After all, the more portable the device, the more of a nuisance glasses become. Leaving a few pairs in your living room is one thing, having to carry them on your person at all times is just ridiculous.

Korea-based gadget manufacturer i-Station isn’t going to let a little thing like basic convenience get in its way, however. The company has introduced the Z3D, a seven inch Android tablet features a 3D effect that can only viewed through glasses.

If that’s not enough to turn you off, however, you can pick one up for around $500. The device also features 1080p video support, Android 2.1, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and either 32- or 64GB of storage.