Samsung announced its worst-kept secret that has been floating around since June – a 7″ tablet running Froyo, called the Galaxy Tab. All the Google services are onboard, with a few of Samsung’s own improvements, taking advantage of the big screen. The same snappy Hummingbird chipset that powers the Galaxy S and its US carrier versions, is planted inside the Galaxy Tab, and TouchWiz 3.0 with Samsung’s Social Hub is layered on top of Android 2.2’s UI.

The tablet is destined to be compared with the iPad, but it is a different animal altogether, due to its smaller 7″ capacitive LCD display with 1024×600 pixels WSVGA resolution, and the fact that it is running Android 2.2. It feels more like the missing link between a smartphone and large tablets, like the 9.7″ iPad. When we add the cell phone capabilities, complete with front camera for video calling, the built-in memory, expandable up to 64GB (for the 32GB version), and the fact that it is both Adobe Flash and HTML5 capable, it becomes a very enticing offering, ready to give the iPad a run for its money. It is a much lighter and thinner device at 0.47″ (11.98mm) thickness and 13.4 ounces (380 grams) weight. Not to forget it also has a 3MP camera with LED flash on the back.

Samsung has tailored the Galaxy Tab experience to take advantage of the large screen. The default Froyo calendar, for example, has undergone optimization for the fact that more things at once can be shown on a 7″ screen, than on a typical smartphone display. Numerous such improvements have taken place, and Samsung has thrown onto the tablet a few multimedia Hubs to make sure your time with the tablet is well spent. The Readers Hub gives you access to millions of books and thousands of magazines for reading on the go, and the upcoming Media Hub and Music Hub will be giving you the option to buy or rent tunes, movies and TV shows. Of course, video can also be sideloaded, given Samsung’s devices traditionally rich codec support, and the full HD video playback capabilities of the Hummingbird chipset. The 4000mAh battery is rated for 7 hours of movie playback.

To cap it off, the full Google services suite is present on the Galaxy Tab, unlike some half-baked solutions on other Android tablets or smartphones we’ve encountered. Google Maps Navigation beta makes it a 7″ voice-guided navigational device (in countries where turn-by-turn is supported), and the tablet has full access to Android Market and Samsung Apps, where we are positive applications will soon be proliferating for that exact same resolution.

Recently we had the chance to play with a Galaxy Tab prototype, so head over to our preview at phoneArena.com, complete with pictures and video samples from the 3MP camera. The Samsung GALAXY Tab will be available in Europe in mid September, and in other markets, including Korea, the US, and Asia, in the coming months. In a Q&A session Samsung officials have confirmed that there will be a variety of tablets coming from the company next year, including one running Android 3.x (Honeycomb). A full list of the Galaxy Tab specs can be found below, there is no official confirmation on the price range yet.
source: Samsung

If you have wondered why Steve Jobs shuns Adobe Flash in Apple’s gadgets, it might not be just because of his capricious nature. We have been waiting for a while for Froyo to bring the full Flash experience to Android devices, but the end results are far from impressive. Over at GigaOM they have made a video trying to run various things on a Nexus One with Froyo, and found mobile Flash still not ready for prime time.

Given the resource hog that desktop Flash is, the mobile version has proved to be a daunting task for Adobe to scale down, and port over to mobile devices. Video playback on a lot of popular news and video websites was hit-and-miss, and basically the moral of the story is that the videos still have to be specifically optimized for mobile viewing, which kind of misses the whole purpose.

In our own experience with Adobe Flash 10.1 on Froyo we noticed actual improvement displaying interactive charts, like those of Google Finance, for example, which before were not exactly “interactive”, but Google recently optimized the site for mobile, so that might be it.

What about your experiences, has the Flash superhero come to the rescue on your Froyo device, or you also have some “Flashback” stories to tell?
source: GigaOM

Another day, another video of Samsung’s Froyo-running Galaxy Tab. This one goes through the interface, and is much clearer than the blurry leak yesterday. The Hummingbird chipset seems to enable buttery smooth interaction, and there is a size comparison between the Galaxy Tab, the iPad, and the Galaxy S smartphone.

All in all, not much is left unknown at this point about the 7″ Galaxy Tab, of which rumor has it Samsung has ordered to suppliers the modest 100 000 units per month for the initial launch to gauge the interest. The only thing for us now is to line up for the official unveiling next week at IFA 2010.
via GSMArena

The folks from PocketNow have pitted the IE-based browser of Windows Phone 7 against the current crown jewels – Safari on the iPhone 4, and the Android 2.2 browser on the Nexus One. The WP7 browser seems to have come a long way from the slow buggy experience observed in the early prototypes.

Still running on the LG GW910 (aka Panther) developer’s phone, the browser exhibits page loading, kinetic scrolling and touch gesture speeds comparable to the competition. The mobile Internet Explorer even has some unique features like simultaneous tabs loading. Rotating the view in landscape mode seemed a bit slower than on the other two handsets, maybe due to the transitional animations present in Windows Phone 7. This is still not a final build of the WP7 mobile OS, so the competition should be officially worried – Microsoft seems to have gotten one of the major selling points in any smartphone about right.

Look at the ten minute video below to check out the WP7 browser behavior on the 3.5” screen of the LG GW910.
source: PocketNow

The dust still hasn’t settled with all the updates rolling out for Android 2.2 (Froyo), and all the info swirling its successor 3.0 (Gingerbread), but now we have to memorize yet another sweet sounding moniker?

The ubiquitous “multiple sources” have cited Honeycomb as the next iteration of Google’s mobile OS. While Gingerbread aims to completely revamp the user interface, Android 3.x (Honeycomb) will be more of a minor update, the way 2.1 followed 2.0 (Éclair).

Google used to say that only the major releases will have sweet-sounding names, and minor releases will come with plain numbers, but they strayed away with 2.2 by naming it Froyo. We wouldn’t call Android 2.2 insignificant update given what it brought to the table, so we have high hopes for Honeycomb – if only we knew what Gingerbread will be. We sincerely hope Google will slow down with those releases after Android 3.0, as it promised, since we are getting sugar-rushed every two or three months now, this can’t be good for our health.
source: TechRadar via IntoMobile

The Samsung Media Hub was one of the mysteries when the US versions of the Galaxy S were announced. It was supposed to bring on-demand music, TV shows and movies to Samsung’s handsets in that line, and availability was promised for later in the year.

There is now a video showing the Samsung Media Hub beta in action on an EPIC 4G handset. Our take from the conversation in the video, and the mock movies and TV shows content, is that it may be active shortly after one of the most anticipated Android phones hits the market August 31st.

Another thing worth mentioning is that the multimedia purchased from the Media Hub will be licensed for viewing on up to five devices, such as phones, tablets and Samsung TV sets, perhaps. Galaxy Tab anyone? The movies can also be rented temporarily for a much lower price. On a separate note, since the Media Hub was demoed on the Sprint’s WiMAX version of the Galaxy S, downloading or streaming content can be done quickly on the road instead of searching for a Wi-Fi connection.
source: SlashGear

Mark Frankel, VP of Qualcomm, has reaffirmed that the company has shipped its dual-core Snapdragon chipset to manufacturers, and the quickest of them could be bringing to market smartphones or tablets with it by Christmas, or even in Q4.

The majority of devices with the new system-on-a-chip that runs at clock speeds up to 1.5GHz, and allows for full 1080p HD video playback, however, should start flooding the retail space early next year. The 45nm QSD8672 Snapdragon has two cores – each can be utilized independently, and put to rest when not needed, thus improving battery life up to 30% compared to its single core brethren.

Qualcomm has traditionally strong ties with HTC, so whether Windows Phone 7 will try to differentiate itself from the competition with dual-core hardware, or it will be running on an Android handset, HTC will most likely be one of the first to out a phone with the new Snapdragon.
source: ComputerWorld via WMPoweruser

Courtesy of a leaked firmware build for the expected Android 2.2-based Samsung tablet, a couple of more details about it receive unofficial confirmation.

First off, the Galaxy Tab will have the same Hummingbird chipset that is found in the Galaxy S, which includes the blazing PowerVR SGX540 graphics processing unit.

We are finally receiving the first confirmation on the resolution -  the 7” display will come with a 600×1024 pixels WSVGA res. It looks like an AMOLED display in the pictures, but we won’t know for sure until Samsung announces it. The tablet also functions as a phone, will have GPS, 3G and Wi-Fi b/g/n chips, as well as a 3.2MP camera plus a front-facing one for video calls.

On the software front, it should arrive with what we’ve come to expect from Samsung’s Android handsets lately – Swype text entry method, DivX playback out of the box, SRS in headset mode, as well as something called Reading Hub, which will probably be what it sounds like.

The Adobe Flash Player 10.1-enabled Froyo tablet has been spotted in internal documents for Vodaphone UK, Orange, O2, AT&T, T-Mobile US, and SK Telecom, and is expected to be unveiled at the IFA 2010 event next month.
source: SamsungHub

Google sent out invitations for a mobile event to be held tomorrow. Google Maps Navigation for mobile was announced in a similar fashion, and we are curious what will it be now. We know they’ve been working on desktop version of the Android Market that will allow you to push apps OTA to your device, on streaming music solutions for Android, and expanding the paid market content to more countries.

It can also be something policy related like the recent net neutrality agreement with Verizon. On the hardware front – tomorrow is the retail launch day of the Motorola DROID 2, and Samsung’s tablet with Android 2.2 has to be announced soon as well.

It can be any of those things, or something totally unrelated, but we hold hopes in our hearts that it will be more goodies coming Android way. Your guess is as good as ours, but thankfully it will be known very soon.
source: IntoMobile

If you read our introductory article about the world of smartphone SoCs (System-on-a-Chip), you probably noticed that Texas Instruments has been one of the first companies to sample chips with the next generation Cortex-A9 architecture from ARM Holdings. Now, handsets with this chip are yet to be announced for 2011, but TI couldn’t help but boast that it is the first to license the yet nebulous successor to the A9, codenamed Eagle, which ARM will reveal later this year. Not only that, but the Houston-based company has obviously been buddy-buddy with ARM during the planning process of the new core, giving it a flying start ahead of the competition.

From announcing the ARM Cortex-A9 in 2009, to the first handsets with it, which will probably appear in 2011, there is a time gap of two years. Thus, we can safely assume that Eagle-based smartphones won’t be hitting shelves until 2012. Hopefully, the world will still exist by then, so we can all rejoice with the 28, or maybe even 20nm production process of the Eagle.

It promises low power consumption with performance comparable to that of Intel’s next iteration of the Moorestown mobile platform, which will most likely be produced with the 2x nm method as well. Cortex-A9 is optimized for dual-core performance at 45nm, so Eagle might be dual-core on 2x nm, or even quad-core, dream on.

ARM doesn’t actually produce the chipsets, they create the core and instructions, then license it out to companies that have the engineering and foundry resources to create custom smartphone and tablet SoCs like Qualcomm with its Snapdragon, Samsung’s Hummingbird, and TI with the OMAP family that is currently powering all of Mototola’s DROID line.
source: AnandTech