Guess what? GPU Acceleration is coming for Android! Get your Tabs ready!

Once the mighty iPhone4 was the only phone with a buttery-smooth web browser. It was soon matched by the iPad. But it seems as though Android will be getting the same type of performance thanks to the Opera Mini web browser!

http://my.opera.com/chooseopera/blog...id-coming-soon


In a nutshell, the browser uses the GPU inside of your phone/tablet to accelerate performance dramatically! This should mean, buttery-smooth scrolling, zooming, and new UI tricks!

This is the best news that I've heard since the release of the Tab specs. The web browser is arguably *the* most important app on these mobile devices, and the experience matters. Having owned an iPod touch, I can attest that GPU accelerated scrolling is a BIG deal and I'm very pleased that Android is getting the same treatment. A little late, but better late than never!

I would think that it's only a matter of time before the stock browser gets a similar treatment.

Uh oh! It looks like this is the first leak of the fabled Android 3.0!
*warning* this could be hoax.

http://www.androidcentral.com/wednes...pus-android-30


This about screen seems to confirm that the Motorola Olympus is toying with the next major iteration of the Android OS that many are looking forward to. The rumors that Android 3 are around the corner may indeed be true!

Here's a review worth reading on the Tab:
http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/20...b-in-my-Pocket

It seems that the author really likes the device. The only complaint that he has is with the hard-to-see capacitive buttons on the device front -- when the back-light isn't on, the buttons are very hard to see.

Other than that, he confirms what I've suspected: that operating at 1024x600 is qualitatively different than at 800x480.

He also confirms that the vast majority of apps run perfectly on the display (and even look better), to calm the concerns that they are merely 'scaled up' versions of other apps. It's actually quite sad that popular media perpetuated this myth.

Any how, check it out!

http://www.intomobile.com/2010/10/14...k-price-rumor/

Okay the UK price for the tab is claimed to be £199 on contract and £599 sim free. Don't know how reliable that is. Seems very unlikely now that I will be getting this because £600 is far too high and don't want to be tied to a two year contract. Pity cause it seems like a great device. Not sure what Samsung was thinking.

Will be looking at the black friday sales though. Went to US last year for that and wife wants to go again. So if the prices are reasonable may get it from the US. Only problem is I may end up with the problem I had with N900 which is it got faulty and I have had to courier it to US to get it fixed under warranty. Also problem that the US version does not do voice calls.

I agree, the price is too high. Even the US version at $649 is more than I typically would have spent. The only reason I am considering this cost is that I can see the cost-benefit of this device for productivity reasons.

However, the increased price is going to make me wait to see if there is a price drop and/or what other competitors are offering. I've waited this long for a 'smartphone', I can wait a little longer.

Samsung would have had my money day 1, if the price was even a little more reasonable (eg. $599 CDN).

If that price is right then you can count me out for now.
Maybe £50-£100 but not £199 with a contract. I only hope this is just speculation as there is a lot of competition at the moment and samsung really need a competitive price to compete.

I think that the largest problem with the Tab isn't it's price, it's that there isn't a low-cost entry version that makes it *seem* as though the price is less.

Although at $649US it is comparable to a similarly spec'd iPad, most people will claim that the iPad is $499 because it *starts* at $499. The price rises steeply from there, but strangely, this is almost wholly ignored.

It's a psychological thing.

You're right of course, I just felt like this could have been a brave new horizon for samsung, and if they had been really aggressive with the price then perhaps they would have won a significant amount of new customers who then might have chosen samsung again in the future.

Brand loyalty still goes a long way when you have had positive experiences in the past.

Noal, you are wise! You raise a very good point: current Galaxy S customers. This is something that I hadn't considered, but the response to the SGS has been very positive, and I wonder how many owners will be tempted to the point of conversion by the Tab. Will they see it as just a large SGS, or something more?

Brand recognition alone may be able to secure Samsung 1M Tab sales. Of course, this could be less impressive considering that they're selling during the busiest sales period of the year .


UNRELATED:
I just had another thought: With the advent of 3G enabled tablets, I wonder if dumb/quasi-smart phones will rise in popularity. Think about it: if you own a tablet that can surf, tweet, blog, sext (or whatever it is that kids are doing these days), better than a smartphone, why would you do these things on a smartphone? I would imagine a phone for really quick operations would be ideal (call/camera/navigation/surf/etc), though for more serious use, a tablet may be ideal.

Many tend to think of it as: "if I have a smartphone, why would I need a tablet." However, the tablets size (~7") may prove to be superior to what a smartphone can do, and thus it may invert to something akin to "I have a tablet, why would I need a smartphone".

What's interesting about this is that Android2 is supposedly destined for non-cutting edge phones. Perhaps Google has foreseen the same speculative trend. If cheap phones (that have good cameras) can do basic tasks in a pinch, tablets suddenly become much more attractive for serious time -- and the N8 becomes a *much* more attractive phone .

But even in this scenario, there's a flaw: in order for both devices to have 3G access, you need two data plans. The cheap prepaid plans are somewhat a solution, but it still involves extra spending. The other alternative is to tether, which may prove to be cumbersome, battery draining, and require that you have both devices.

But the solution is very simple: if carriers were to release multiple SIMs locked to a single account, these devices could be WAN connected and only requiring a SINGLE account! The funny thing is, many carriers already do this in so-called 'family' plans or 'shared' plans. A small premium could even be charged for the service that many would gladly pay rather than shelling out and monitoring two separate accounts.

I foresee that the first carrier that implements this type of a structure will be very successful and simultaneously cutting-edge smartphone sales will start to decline in lieu of a good-enough smartphones and tablet combination.

I could foresee (for US people), using a family share plan on the tablet and phone, and Google Voice. GV is the primary number that others call/sms to. It will forward to both the tablet and the phone. Answer whichever is convenient, call out via GV. This would be fairly cheap if you already have a family plan to start.