Capt'n Corrupt | # 1391 | 2010-12-01, 15:19 | Report

I think it comes down to the types of media that you're likely to consume on the device most. For me, PDF reading, magazines, and newspapers would be as you surmise, a rare event. In other words, I wouldn't forgo the portability of the 7" screen for these edge cases even if they're better on a 10" screen.

But digital magazines/newspapers may prove to be a major use case for some people. Of course, even a 10" screen for a newspaper may still be somewhat confining.

The major area that I can see a 10" being superior to 7" is web surfing. From experience, 7" is plenty, though there is more zooming than a 10" displaying a page a native resolution. Again, I wouldn't forgo portability for even this major function. While the 10" would likely be better, the benefit doesn't outweigh the convenience of having a 10" on you.

Forgive my ramblings... But I think that a 10" size is a better size for a laptop replacement and extended use. Though a 10"er is more portable than a laptop, it almost begs to be used in a similar way (though more flexible), in a stationary position as it is difficult to grip with one hand.

The 7" screen may work as a laptop replacement, though it's small screen would make it challenging to work for extended periods. My 9" netbook already is challenging enough! But I think the major problem for a netbook replacement isn't the size, but the edge-applications that traditional OSs have that mobiles don't have.

*off topic*
I wonder if the iPad 2 will have a 'retina' display. It could be possible with hardware downsampling for apps not designed for the high resolution (eg. a specialized API).

Man, I wish that I were a hardware manufacturer! I'm convinced I could craft a fantastic device, hardware and software alike. I believe it comes down to making good engineering and design choices, and above all, knowing how people interact with the device.

Capt'n Corrupt | # 1392 | 2010-12-01, 16:37 | Report

Here's a fun idea: What would you do to improve the Galaxy Tab (or some other tablet)?

Here's what I would do with the Tab. I would bump the screen up to 8", shrink the bezel, and increase the battery size slightly (5000mAh? What do I know...). With a device this small, a bezel isn't all that necessary as you can grip the device on both sides like a phone quite easily, and the larger battery would likely handle the demands of the larger screen. The weight would go up marginally, though, which is something worth consideration.

I would put a decent 5MP shooter on the device.

I would forgo the proprietary Samsung Cable, and use PDMI instead.

I would use the most sensible SoC available at the time with an emphasis of battery life over performance. The goal would be ~9h 'general usage' time, or precisely what the Tab does now.

Yes, I would integrate a user swappable battery, though I would engineer the back plat to be very firmly held in place. I would also modularize the

That's all I would change about the hardware. My emphasis, being an armchair product designer, is maintaining a realistic cost.

I would get rid of touchwiz, and license a special version of Launcher Pro for the device, customized with Samsung's stylings. LP is fast, smooth, and customizable. For simplicity sake, I would remove the 'scrolling icon bar' on the bottom of LP completely. I would replace it with a drawer for apps only, but not an icon for the app list. Instead, I would include a non-removable widget that acted as an app chooser on the home screen (similar to iOS, only with additional widget screens).

Rather than trying to build all software tools in-house, I would fund development teams to port specific projects to the device. Eg. If there was an iOS application that worked well, I would use my financial muscle to have it ported to the device with the rights to distribute it. The key here would be an emphasis on usability, design, speed, and efficiency. The core apps would universally have to work very well.

I would set up a usability committee, and a set of metrics to gauge the user response to the device and to the apps, and have a tight knit team devoted specifically to ensuring that the device scores the highest marks from a usability standpoint by the end of production. Every last application would be scrutinized to find usability flaws. This is the most important point. Beyond bugs, the experience should be seamless across the board and out of the box. Things like mobile-sites, crashes, choppy scrolling, etc, would be caught before mass-production.

I would include an app that would check periodically for updated versions of the applications to allow for improvements after the release, including easy roll-out of fixes or other uncaught flaws. This can be done in the market, but I'm not sure if it can be done with bundled apps. Either way, this would be a priority. Moreover, this app would be able to push alerts to the device, eg. new offers, etc.

I would hire a proven company/individual to style the Android UI (yes, I would stick with Android ), the included apps, and select the appropriate universal typefaces, and all of the other default android styling considerations (eg. statusbar, scroll lists, etc). A company like TAT comes to mind.

Lastly, I would create a stylus accessory (but NOT include it out of the box), and an open API for easy handwriting on the screen, as well as a simple but effective 'note-taker' application, complete with fancy-UI. The app would be 'bundled' with the stylus (one way or another, online link perhaps?).

The goal? Get the experience as close to perfect before starting to add new features. As a developer, I expect that these are somewhat realistic, though may be more challenging on a tight timeline.

What do you think? Anything you would add or change?

daperl | # 1393 | 2010-12-01, 16:54 | Report

I think a title change is long overdue. How about:

"Samsung Galaxy Tab Stream of Consciousness Thread"

AndyG | # 1394 | 2010-12-01, 17:13 | Report

I do disagree about the bezel - I find the current Tab one only just big enough, preferring the iPad size (of bezel). I hated the look of the big bezel on the iPad when it was announced, but Apple knew what they were doing on this one imo

Capt'n Corrupt | # 1395 | 2010-12-01, 17:49 | Report

I can appreciate this. I just got the impression, when I was using the device, that the bezel could be eliminated. It is quite small, and almost impossible to hold the device using the bevel reliably.

Perhaps with regular use, I'll see it as you do!

AndyG | # 1396 | 2010-12-01, 17:58 | Report

I don't quite follow - if you don't hold the device using the bezel how do you hold it? Using just the edges+back?

The problem with a multi-touch display of course is that if you touch the actual screen as part of holding it, it registers as a "touch" and messes up input royally.

tournstone | # 1397 | 2010-12-01, 19:20 | Report

I have recently switched from the N900 to the Galaxy Tab. Prior to the N900 I had the N810, the N800 and the 770 as my tablets. My N900 was on T-Mobile as is my Tab so I enjoy some brisk speeds here in the Houston market. I am very much enjoying my experience with the Tab so far. One complaint I have read in reviews was the screen size. Seems this critique must come from mostly IPad users as I find 7” quite roomy. Of course that may be my own bias coming from a smaller N900 screen. I paid about $170 up front and will make payments interest free to T-Mobile for the remainder along with a monthly data plan. T-Mobile’s comes with 16GB internal and I put a 32GB microSD card in there as well.

Good: The screen is bright, with a decent resolution and about as responsive as the N900. Reading and watching videos on it is a joy. This thing screams for a Nexflix or Hulu app. Media Hub, is growing but inadequate. Having the Kindle app with this size screen tells me this is my book reader too. The Wall Street Journal app is perfect. Music app is solid. OS functionality and usability, this is where I expected Maemo OS to be in about 2007. Battery life is great and oh so controllable. Email is more pleasant than on my computer.

This does not replace my phone by any means. Like my Maemo tablets before, this sits somewhere between my home computer/lap top (which became one and the same over four years ago) and my phone. But with the Tab, I find myself reaching for it to do tasks I used to rely on my laptop for. So while it cant replace my laptop either, it does take over some of its responsibilities.

If you must have 4G, I have found the the iSpot form Clear http://www.clear.com/devices/details/id/68 (designed to work primarily with IPods, IPads and IPhones) works great with the device. Cheap hot spot with a cheap monthly plan (if Clear is in your market).

Bluetooth keyboard and mouse work really well! I use my Think Outside Stowaway Bluetooth keyboard I used with my N800 and a Kensington Slimblade Bluetooth mouse. Even the scroll wheel works!

Bad: No T-mobile 4G?!?! Wh.. why please?

Some apps don’t scale well. Some are not geared well around a tablet size or use. Gmail app is dreadful because of this (You made the Mail app better than the Gmail app?! Seriously?!). This can be and I expect this to be fixed (faster than Maemo apps were fixed for the N900’s OS). The phone in this thing is disabled (which is ok by me) but some apps look for the phone’s functionality. The lack of a USB charger/port is also sad (see “Ugly” below). It’s nice having Flash when you need it, but otherwise it should be left turned off as it makes the web experience difficult.

Stability over all is flakey compared to the N900. The N900 may have spoiled me there, but it doesn’t take long for me to crash the browser or find the need to kill tasks on the Tab. I have enough knowledge of Linux to be a tinkerer and love to mess with stuff. I cant even begin to compare to some of the folks here in this forum. But having every Maemo device since the 770, I love the freedom of making my own changes. The Tab looses that flexibility…for now.

The OS itself needs a better, more standard spell checking feature. Swype has no business on something this large. Touchwiz = yuck! And the four device buttons on the bevel, I accidently touch them too often especially in landscape. Did the browser crash? Or did I accidently touch the “home” button?

Personally, I find the (unremarkable) cameras useless. A decent 3G video conference app would improve the usefulness greatly. But it’s just too big for snapshots of the kids or other general camera things. You really think I’m going to cart this around as my bar code scanner the holiday season? Mmmm, nope.

Accessory availability is bad for now. I would have had all the accessories available before the release.

Ugly: The charger! Over all the form factor is just cruel. A Samsung executive may as well just stop by house and kick my dog, kind of cruel. The mini brick that plugs in to the outlet and the cable seems proprietary. Even the correct cable plugged into any USB type charging device or a computer seems to be ignored for charging. Then there is the cable itself. Did they think that anyone who purchased this would not perchance have an IPhone or IPad or even an IPod? Or did they do this on purpose to mess with us? Yes, I have one for work reasons. Fumbling in a dark car for the correct charger is hard enough. Plugging in an IPhone to the Samsung charger (or a Tab into an Iphone charger) does noting other than the sound in your head of hundreds of Samsung employees laughing hysterically at you. Evil, just plain evil.

Overall: Very happy so far and anticipating much more. I reach for my lap top much less and I find the Tab more useful every day. The 7” screen is quite nice. Competition on the market as everyone gets a tablet out soon should only make things better and I see this as a good start with plenty of room for improvements. The charger is evil, but I’ll deal with it I guess. The current usefulness, portability and potential far out weigh the negatives. I will miss my N900 but it is time to move on. Nokia and Maemo/Meego tablets should have been beyond this point years ago.

Capt'n Corrupt | # 1398 | 2010-12-01, 21:16 | Report

Yep! The brief time that I had with it, I gripped it like I would grip a cell phone: by the sides only, not touching the top -- which implies that I was holding it in portrait most of the time. Of course in landscape, using the bezel may be easier than holding it this way.

Capt'n Corrupt | # 1399 | 2010-12-01, 21:33 | Report

Here's a neat Augmented Reality app on the Tab!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iH2uujRLsBQ

It's really cool that you can input your own 'tags' for areas.

But WHY is the performance so bad? They should be downloading 'tags' for all areas, storing them as bitmaps in memory, then using fast blitting or textured opengl quads (or something) to display them smoothly on the screen as you move around. OpenGL accelerated quads would offer a wealth of cool possibilities, including slight perspective distortion.

A cool app that could have been *that* much cooler with a responsive UI.

Capt'n Corrupt | # 1400 | 2010-12-01, 21:35 | Report

@tournstone,

Thanks for the review. It was really, really great!

Stability is a big deal for me as well. How do you find stability with the other browsers? I'd probably use Opera for the smoothness (even with the constant stutter), and have had no problems with it on my N810.