RIM might be having a bit of hard time adapting their smartphones to the rapidly changing market but it might turn out that it’s all because they have been focusing their efforts elsewhere. The company just entered the tablet market with a bang, announcing their 7-inch BlackBerry PlayBook, running a new BlackBerry Tablet OS.
Coming with a SVGA (1024 x 600 pixels) multi-touch capacitive touchscreen, the PlayBook is the first tablet to sport a dual-core 1GHz CPU. And it makes quite good use of it too – both the front-facing and the primary camera of the device are capable of recording full HD video (yeap, that’s sweet 1080p footage) and on board the PlayBook has what RIM calls “true multitasking”. And with 1GB of RAM you are unlikely to have “out of memory” issues either. Read more »
Okay, okay, I know this isn’t as good as trying it in person, but, at least for the next few days, that’s all we get. Samsung just published an official demo video, showing their Android-running tablet performance and cool features.
According to Samsung the purpose of the video is to objectively present the key features of the Galaxy Tab so no “graphic effects” (I’m not sure that’s exactly what they meant) have been applied. Anyway this video should give you an excellent idea of what the Galaxy Tab real-life performance will be like. Read more »
It’s been a couple of weeks since Samsung introduced its first Android-running 3G and Wi-Fi capable Galaxy Tab and now rumor is the company is about to release a more affordable Wi-Fi-only version of the tablet.
The iPad was skipped when the iOS 4.1 update came – but it will be getting v4.2 in a few months. This new version will unlock the potential of the iPad that is currently locked down – multitasking, combined email inbox, folders and other goodies well-known from the iPhone. The sftware beta was published yesterday by Apple and initial reports are very positive…
iOS 4.2 will bring much needed improvements to the iPad
Toshiba are the latest manufacturer to enter the tablet race with their 10″ Folio 100 Android-powered slate. We had a chance to check it out live at the IFA floor and here come our first impressions of the arguably best spec’d tablet we have seen so far.
Toshiba Folio 100 at a glance:
Size: 281mm x 181mm x 14mm
Weight: 760g
CPU: NVIDIA® TegraTM 2
Display:10.1″ capacitive multi-touch display with a resolution of 1,024 x 600 pixels
OS:Based on Android 2.2 (Froyo)
Storage: 16 GB, expandable through the SD/MMC card slot
Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.1, WLAN 802.11 b/g/n with DLNA, mini HDMI, USB 2.0 (including host mode)
Other features: Adobe Flash Player 10.1, accelerometer, 1.3MP front-facing camera
Battery life: 7 hours (65% web browsing, 10% video playback, 25% standby)
The Samsung P1000 Galaxy Tab is barely out the door but Samsung is already making plans to sell 10 million units. These are long term plans of course – even the iPad hasn’t sold that well (yet).
Samsung won’t be selling the Galaxy Tab directly, but carriers are already going into high gear – Vodafone UK has a pre-order page, O2 has plans to launch the Tab too. The price? Well, prices aren’t finalized yet but it should go for Dell Streak kind of prices in the US… Read more »
Now that the hectic week is almost behind us, here’s are some longer Galaxy Tab ad materials that you can enjoy from the comfort of your sofa this weekend. We’ve recorded the following two videos from the Galaxy Tab unveiling event yesterday. We’ve split them in two but combined they make for a total of 10 minutes of high-quality ad material. It’s pretty nice to watch (though if I were directing I would have sped it up a little bit).
We managed to snatch a Galaxy Tab off the show floor and we ran a few regular Android benchmarks on it. Here go the shots, so you can see them for yourself.
Samsung Galaxy Tab benchmarks results
And now that you’ve seen those, check the Samsung Galaxy S Android 2.1 benchmarks that we’ve done for our regular review. Read more »
Samsung Galaxy Tab has been officially announced just yesterday, but the price speculations are already all over the internet. Some retailers managed to put up some early (and a bit absurd) prices – 700 euro for the 16GB and 800 euro for the 32GB tablet.
Update: Vodafone DE is already taking pre-orders for Galaxy Tab – we got it straight from a Vodafone rep over at their booth at IFA 2010. The tablet costs 300 euro on 2-year contract and a 35 euro monthly tariff. What you get for that money is unlimited mobile internet, nothing else.
Viewsonic is the next manufacturer to join the tablet race with the announcement of the 7-inch ViewPad 7. Running on the latest reincarnation of the Android OS – 2.2 Froyo – the new tablet hold a regular SIM card and promises full 3G and phone functionality.
Bluetooth is also on board, as well as a microSD card slot, Wi-Fi and a GPS receiver. USB is also supported and the tablet has full access to the Android market. Read more »
Just four days before the announcement of the Samsung Galaxy Tab (destined for SK Telecom in South Korea), another large Korean carrier announced its own Android-running tablet. The Korea Telecoms Identity tab is a 7” Eclair-running slate with a 1GHz CPU and 8 GB of internal storage.
There will also be an SD expansion slot and a DMB TV tuner inside the aluminum-clad tablet. A 3 megapixel camera will also be at your disposal, while the resolution of the display will be WVGA. Read more »
There are four days left to the announcement of the Samsung P1000 Galaxy Tab and the rumor marathon continues at full strength. This time it’s the accessories that Samsung will release along with their first tablet.
The available extras for the Galaxy Tab (or at least the ones we know about) start with a leather carrying case, priced at 41 euro (ouch!). Read more »
The rumored Toshiba Folio 100 Android tablet (a.k.a. Toshiba SmartPad) that first showed up this Monday just surfaced once again. And this time there is the full specs sheet coming along with the leaked images.
I’m starting to get seriously worried that Samsung will have nothing new to tell about the P1000 Tab at its upcoming official announcements. At the rate these leaks are going all the specs will be revealed well before 2 September.
Today we have another short video on our hands demonstrating the Samsung Galaxy Tab in action. It comes from the tablet homeland Korea, and shows it sized up against the Apple iPad. The video also takes us for a quick tour around the interface demonstrating some remarkable performance. Read more »
The Samsung tablet is just around the corner and, understandably, rumors about it are intensifying by the hour. But now we have something that’s better than any rumor or blurry spy shot – an official promo video.
The video doesn’t say much about the tablet itself but it still confirms that it will be running Android 2.2 and will support video-calling. There will also be a second camera at the back of the 7-inch tablet and it will allow full web browsing (which probably means Flash support).
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