Hasta La Gadget!

It sees like we can’t let a day pass without talking about Samsung’s upcoming Froyo tablet. This time there’s a whole video preview, courtesy of some of our Korean brethren. Android 2.2, WCDMA 3G, 802.11n WiFi, a 16:10 screen ratio, a front-facing camera “dedicated to video calling,” SDHC memory expandability, and a DMB tuner for those TV-crazy Koreans are all listed on the spec sheet, but you’ll be wanting to see the Galaxy Tab’s UI in motion. It really looks silky smooth and should give the iPad cause for concern. Speaking of the iPad, there’s a size comparison against Apple’s slate and Samsung’s own Galaxy S handset as well — all yours after the break.

Update: Fast-loading video embedded after the break.

[Thanks, Eric]

Continue reading Samsung Galaxy Tab gets video preview in Korea

Samsung Galaxy Tab gets video preview in Korea originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Aug 2010 08:44:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sharp is going to launch its brand new e-reader in Japan this fall with US retail availability to follow by the end of the year. Riveting stuff, isn’t it? Well, the company’s President Mikio Katayama does his best to spice things up by proposing this device will aim “to rival the iPad,” and it may well sport a color LCD if earlier indications still hold true, but what’s really got us hot under the collar is the potential for 3D down the line. Katayama claims to have witnessed great enthusiasm for 3D — particularly when it comes to games — and posits it as a likely future direction for this new ebook reader. Multifunctional devices are what people want, he says, and since Sharp already has a 3D smartphone in the pipeline and a glasses-free 3D tablet display in the lab, we can’t see many technical hurdles to the realization of his vision. Let’s just hope his depth perception is accurate when it comes to measuring the interest in three-dee.

Sharp’s e-reader ready to ‘rival the iPad’ by year’s end, may have a 3D future originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 25 Aug 2010 03:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Man, you just can’t hide your gadgets from curious onlookers these days. Case in point: Samsung’s Galaxy Tab was innocently doing some testing rounds through Sydney recently, only to be happened upon by the Electronista scribes, who diligently videotaped it — seemingly without the knowledge of the tablet’s possessor. The video confirms what we already know, it’s a 7-inch tablet, it’ll be driven by an Android, and it looks very much like a giant cellphone. The Samsung employee described it as “awesome” and very different from the iPad’s experience, while the UI apparently looked very responsive. Go after the break to see for yourself.

Continue reading Samsung’s 7-inch Galaxy Tab gets spied in the wild (video)

Samsung’s 7-inch Galaxy Tab gets spied in the wild (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Aug 2010 10:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You can read that as bitter hype; then again, we’re looking at a company that’s known to live up to its words. In a recent interview with UDN, Acer Inc. Chairman JT Wang echoed ASUS’ recent forecast regarding the iPad’s erosion of the netbook market in the US and UK, although he also pointed out that netbooks are still selling like hotcakes in developing countries. As for the tablet market itself, Wang believes that Apple’s closed camp operation will ultimately bow to other joint forces once the market matures, thus lowering the iPad’s current near-100 percent share to somewhere between 20 and 30 percent. Hell, the man even suggested this could be an over-estimation, and referred to the Mac’s minuscule 5 percent global share over the last few years. And you know what? He might be right. That doesn’t mean that the iPad’s days are numbered though since Apple’s never been interested in taking part in the “race to the bottom.” Apple measures success by profits, not market share — even a small percentage of high-margin laptop and smartphone sales has proven to be a very good thing for Apple’s bottom line. Besides, if open is such a great thing, we’d like to question Wang on what caused the Windows-based tablets to flop in the first place? Regardless, this would certainly be another prediction to look out for in a few years’ time.

Acer’s JT Wang: iPad’s market share will drop to about 20 percent, maybe less originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Aug 2010 08:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you waltz into your local Best Buy today, you’ll find precisely one tablet for sale: Apple’s iPad. By the time this holiday season rolls around, though, that’ll all be different. We’ve heard from Steve Ballmer that Microsoft intends for Windows 7 to be powering quite a few tablet devices in the near future, but it’s been somewhat difficult to nail down exact time frames for release outside of Samsung’s Q3-bound Galaxy Tab (which won’t even run Windows). According to Shawn Score, president of Best Buy Mobile, the company will be making “tablets a focus… going into the holidays.” He continued: “Like e-readers over the last couple years, we think customers will think of Best Buy for tablets and expect us to have the right ones.” He wouldn’t go so far as to confirm the models or brands of any headed Best Buy’s way, but we’re seeing even more hints that those Rocketfish images tweeted a few weeks ago may indeed foreshadow a holiday launch. We sure hope Santa’s ready to deal with the onslaught.

Best Buy ‘making tablets a focus’ this holiday season, might stock one from Rocketfish originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 22 Aug 2010 00:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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