I recently received an email from a reader asking me to help her understand a few things about the Galaxy Tab. She had some great questions, so I thought I’d share her email and my answers to help you learn more about the great features the Galaxy Tab has to offer.
Hi Nicholas,
I read your article and saw your invite to ask questions…thanks! I saw your kiosk at the Short Hills mall here in NJ while shopping for a smart phone on Sunday and loved the Galaxy Tab 7. WOW! What fun and what a great size compared to a small phone screen. I only wish I could make calls with it! Then I learned the 8.9 and 10.1 are due out and use a different OS. So while I am sold on the Samsung brand, I am uncertain of the model. The 7 and 8.9 size would be fine for my needs—I don’t want a big iPad thing. We get good coverage with Verizon.
Can you help me understand the two OS you offer and how it relates to me, please? This is what I’d like to do and don’t want to buy a weak/limited OS that will be outdated in a month:
Quick internet searches—can more than one web site be browsed at one time?
Email from my non-gmail account (Embarqmail).
Copy/paste text and photos to Word docs from web sites or other word docs.
Playing music from downloaded CDs I own or purchased online.
Watching videos downloaded from DVDs I own or online.
Viewing photos I’ve taken with my camera and downloaded to the Tab.
Reading books—how glare-y is the screen…it is not like the Kindle technology my 14-year-old son (super techy for his age) says is better for reading outdoors, where I’d use it.
Cool apps…I think Google is going to kick butt and will outdo the Apple offerings. But that is just my 2 cents!
I am particularly happy with not having to sync the device—my kids love their iPods but I think the syncing is a waste. I love that I can put my own data card into it.
So, do I get the Froyo 7 (a phone OS) now or do I get the 8.9 for the Honeycomb (designed more for tabs) and mini business suite said to be built in? To what extent can the 7 be upgraded to the Honeycomb? Would such an upgrade be done at your factory or just through a software upgrade at home or Verizon…and at what cost? Are all the things listed above possible with either the 7 or 8.9? I write you as I trust a Samsung employee would have the most complete picture and be well versed in the differences between the models and OS choices. Clearly you know your stuff, considering the great article you wrote.
Thanks very much!
Lisa
Lafayette, NJ
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Hi Lisa,
Thanks for the mail.
I’m coming out with a new article soon that will address most of your Tablet OS related concerns, but wanted to answer some of your specific questions.
Glad to hear you loved the Galaxy Tab 7” version.. it’s a great product, and the size is awesome if you want something that you can take with you (it fits in my wife’s purse with ease).
From my perspective, I wouldn’t worry too much about the OS version of your tablet. You are right that there are two different OS’s but for all intents and purposes, the difference is simply a matter of user interface design, and being appropriate for the size of the screen.
Our 7” device needs one design and the bigger tablets need another UI design. Ultimately, there are 100million Android powered products in the world, and about ~98Million of them use the same OS as the Galaxy Tab 7”, so you are going to get all the applications you can handle available right there. Samsung customized 14 apps for the Galaxy Tab 7” to make them suitable for the size, but the rest of the Android market place works great with the tab as is.
Here are specific answers:
Quick internet searches—can more than one web site be browsed at one time?
Yes, for sure.
Email from my non-gmail account (Embarqmail).
Not sure… if you can access Embarqmail from a browser, on your PC, it should work on the tab. (Note: Embarq is a regional fixed line telephone provider and the writer of this column is not acquainted with its full line of products and services.)
Copy/paste text and photos to Word docs from web sites or other word docs.
Copy paste is there… just press and hold on the text you want.
Playing music from downloaded CDs I own or purchased online.
You can use drag and drop from your PC to the device to get music onto the tab, or use a free service like Double Twise (pc sync via cable) or Amazon Cloud Player (to do it wirelessly over WiFi). Google even announced their new music sync service for up to 20,000 songs today, and it is running on my tab right now.
Watching videos downloaded from DVDs I own or online.
Same, drag and drop… Also, we have a service called Media Hub that allows you to buy next day TV shows and Movies and watch them right on your Tab… and if you buy a movie, you can have it on up to 5 different Samsung Galaxy devices at once. So if you buy a Samsung smartphone then your movies will be there, or if you buy another tab in the future, all your stuff is saved. YouTube is coming out with movie rentals in the future as well.
Viewing photos I’ve taken with my camera and downloaded to the Tab.
If you have Picasa on your PC, all your photos from that will be sync’d to your tab (just enable ‘web albums’). Works great.
Reading books—how glare-y is the screen…it is not like the Kindle technology my 14-year-old son (super techy for his age) says is better for reading outdoors, where I’d use it.
You can get the Kindle application for the Galaxy Tab (free), and log in and all the books you have already purchased are right there. The Galaxy Tab 7” is about the size of a book, and weighs about what a magazine weighs, so it is an awesome e-reader. Screen has a bit more glare than a kindle, but it also has a backlight, so it works well outdoors.
Cool apps…I think Google is going to kick butt and will outdo the Apple offerings. But that is just my 2 cents!
Google announced 200,000 apps and counting just today.
Best of luck,
Nick
The views and opinions expressed herein are my own and do not necessarily represent the views of Samsung Telecommunications America, Samsung Electronics America Inc., or any of its parents/affiliates as well as any other individual employee thereof.
Nicholas DiCarlo is VP of product planning for the wireless terminals division of Samsung Telecommunications America and is passionate about making mobile devices for real people, non-techie people and super techie people, all the same.
Questions? Comments? Two-cents? Email Nicholas at manofmanydevices@sta.samsung.com and he’ll get back to you with a reply—maybe even feature it in his next column—all from his Samsung Galaxy Tab, of course.
