Tablets

Is Samsung planning an event in New York City to introduce its touch-screen tablet next week?

That's what The Wall Street Journal is reporting. On Friday, the Journal cited two anonymous sources who claim that the Galaxy Tab will debut in the U.S. market at an event in NYC's Time Warner Center on September 16.

The Galaxy Tab made its worldwide debut at gadget fest IFA Berlin last week, but is not yet for sale. It's a 7-inch touch-screen tablet featuring Android 2.2, or Froyo, Flash 10.1, 16GB or 32GB of memory, GPS, a … Read more

Though Android tablets have already begun popping up, Google says its mobile operating system is not quite ready for that purpose.

TechRadar quoted Hugo Barra, Google's director of mobile products, on Friday saying "Froyo is not optimized for use on tablets." Froyo is the name for Android's current version of the operating system, version 2.2.

And that's despite the latest round of tablets featuring Android shown at IFA Berlin last week. Android Market, the place for Android users to buy apps, won't work properly on tablets, he said.

"If you want Android market on that platform, the apps just wouldn't run, [Froyo] is just not designed for that form factor." But it's been hinted that future versions will be.

That might explain why the Android tablets already for sale are curiously smartphone-like. … Read more

Android continues to surge, Bing replaces Google search on some Verizon phones, and using your phone to jailbreak your PS3. Plus we cover the CNET News app and dig into the world of Widgets and shortcuts. This week's special guest: Senior Associate Editor, Nicole Lee!

Even though the Kindle doesn't officially allow you to borrow or lend e-books, CNET editor Sharon Vaknin shows you how you can share with your trusted friends.

While PC makers are running full-speed to chase the iPad's success, it's notable that just as quickly they've stopped talking about Netbooks. Some people call them mini-notebooks. Even more people now call them that thing that's bigger than a smartphone but smaller than a laptop that looks more than a little bit clunky next to a tablet device.

Between October and December last year, PC makers shipped 10.5 million mini-notebooks, according to Gartner. That may have been a market peak. Fast-forward to the first quarter of this year: 9.7 million units shipped. Tick forward again to the second quarter of this year, and 8.4 million Netbooks left PC factories. The numbers are expected to drop even further in the coming months.

So what happened? It's not a stretch to connect the dots between the rise of the iPad and the sudden drop in last year's most-hyped product category. Even before the iPad was officially introduced in January, the talk of the PC world just a few weeks prior at CES 2010 was about tablets. Hewlett-Packard, Dell, and Archos showed touch-screen tablets somewhat tentatively--few details were named, and some shipping dates were vague--but it was clear the attention had shifted away from targeting consumers looking for a new mobile device with Netbooks. … Read more

Some customers of U.K. carrier O2 who upgraded their Dell Streak from Android OS 1.6 to 2.1 are encountering problems.

The Register reported that some Streak users have lost features such as Windows Media video playback, PC syncing, and the Facebook widget.

Other issues, noted in Dell and O2 forums, include problems with the touch screen, Web browsing and voice commands, the appearance of back-to-front volume keys, and erased contacts. For some people, the update didn't work and caused problems with the existing Android 1.6 OS.

The issues with the Streak update come only days … Read more

The companies that show their wares at the IFA electronics show in Berlin put a lot of attention into making their wares look nice.

That's because IFA, unlike most trade shows in the United States, is geared for the public, not just for industry insiders. People pay good money to be entertained at the show, and electronics companies of course hope they'll impress attendees enough to get them to buy some new products afterward.

Buying products can be a matter of looking at specifications and clicking a "buy" button on a Web site. But for 3D … Read more

Apple's iPad may finally have some competition.

With the gadget, Apple started the craze for building devices that are smaller than notebooks and bigger than standard smartphones, feature touch-screen interfaces, and enable people to browse the Web and download apps. And the iPad took off quicker than most people anticipated, selling 3 million units in its first 80 days. The device is expected to keep tight hold of its market-leading position for at least the next year.

But beginning this fall (with several new devices launching at IFA Berlin last week) and stretching through next year (with the Consumer Electronics Show in early January), there are going to be far more consumer touch-screen tablets to choose from. And not just from small niche manufacturers. Some of the world's largest makers of consumer electronics and PCs are jumping into the fray--companies with the resources (including, in many cases, Google's rapidly proliferating Android operating system) to take on the Apple mobile-device juggernaut.

The big players in the developing tablet race will be familiar: they're many of the same people who are tussling for consumers' dollars and attention in the smartphone realm. As with smartphones, choosing a touch-screen tablet will mean deciding between different operating systems: Apple's iOS, Google's Android, Palm's WebOS, Research In Motion's BlackBerry operating system, and Microsoft's Windows 7--except, in some instances, without having to also decide on a wireless carrier.

Here's a look at some of the iPad's competitors. It's not a comprehensive survey, of course. But it's a good look at the tablets coming from companies with the tech chops and marketing clout to compete with Apple. … Read more

Editors' note: Sprint announced that it will offer the Samsung Galaxy Tab starting November 14. Pricing for the Android-based tablet is $399.99 with a two-year contract, and customers will be able to choose from two 3G Tablet Mobile Broadband plans: a 2GB data plan with unlimited messaging for $29.99 per month or a 5GB data plan with unlimited messaging for $59.99 per month.

BERLIN--After more than an hour putting the Samsung Galaxy Tab through its paces, I have to say I'm impressed.

It's no iPad-slayer, but it's an elegant tablet with conveniently compact dimensions, good performance, and a bright, responsive multitouch screen.

Samsung debuted the Galaxy Tab Thursday at the IFA electronics show here with strong words showing it plans to compete directly with Apple's iPad. Just how well it'll succeed depends in large measure on how well developers embrace large-screen Android devices: the Tab's most awkward moments came with applications designed for a smaller screen, and there will have to be a lot more games before Android tablets can take on the iPad.

First, some Samsung Galaxy Tab details. Front and center is its 7-inch, 1,024x600 touch screen. For a tablet to be competitive, it's got to respond quickly to touch, and the Galaxy Tab does--most of the time. The screen is bright and text is easy to read. It's not as spacious the iPad's, but it's a big step up from mobile phones.

The brains of the operation are a 1.0GHz Cortex A8 ARM-based processor paired with a PowerVR SGX540 graphics processor. Game developers take note: The two made the Tab the fastest and most responsive of Android devices I've used. Applications loaded fast and responded to input moderately fast. Internal memory of 16GB or 32GB is supplemented by a microSD port that can accommodate flash cards with up to 32GB more.

Speaking of mobile phones, note that the Tab is available only through carriers that provide mobile phone service. There's no Wi-Fi-only option, though the Tab does support 802.11 a, b, g, and n. For cell networks, it can use 2.5G (GSM/GPRS/EDGE) and 3G (HSUPA at 5.76Mbps, and HSDPA 7.2Mbps). I found Wi-Fi and 3G both worked well at Samsung's booth. … Read more