Samsung: A Sweet and Easy Tablet to Swallow

When we look at Tablets we have to consider connectivity charges, functionality, portability and of course price. There will be probably two camps aligned as they are today to the mobile world one Apple the other Google and of the others, with the potential exception of Microsoft, they will capture some traffic but are unlikely to make it to the end of the race.
So we all know the limitations of the iPad and await its subsequent later models but what about the Android pack and is there a real contender that stands out today or is it to be a case of the numbers in the pack as with mobiles?



Samsung’s new Galaxy Tablet is worthy of a serious look. It has a 7” display, runs on Android 2.2 but has two significant pluses that Steve Jobs will have difficulty matching. One it can support both HTLM5 and Flash so no one is left out. Secondly it also operates as a phone which potential could reduce on-going charges and offer, albeit a bit big, a one stop device. The Galaxy weighs only 380g and offers portability for making phone calls, video calls, browsing the web, sending emails, watching TV, listening to music, reading ebooks and much more. It already has been shipping with Kobo ereading application and as a Android is perfectly capable of supporting Amazon and other Android enabled apps.

The price is still to be announced but is expected to be significantly less that the iPad and will be determined by the various operators who could offer attractive subsidies and especially those who are bright enough to offer a second SIM card option which would enable the user to use the same account to flip between their mobile and the tablet. Again something Apple appear determined not to allow through the SIM design.

So the Galaxy Tab may not be as big and ‘sexy’ as Apple’s iPad but to us it looks like a safer and better bet than Apples constant upgrade program and today’s woefully lacking iPad.

Toshiba have also announced its own tablet, the Folio 100, which also runs on Android 2.2 and is somewhat larger with a 10” display but looks to be a more expensive option to Samsung.

Adobe: The Web in a Flash

Although the new smartphones have raised consumers' demand for Web browsing, game-playing and movie-watching, the web pages are often hard to access and experience on the mobile platform. Adobe has now announced that it is working to bring full-fledged Flash Player 10 to high-end smartphones. Flash technology is one major technical feature not currently supported on today’s smartphone and will go a long way to making the user web mobile experience consistent with the PC. It would enable Google’s hosted YouTube videos to be played on mobiles along with other Flash hosted application content.

Adobe have already demonstrated Flash Player 10 on devices running Nokia's Symbian operating system, Microsoft's Windows Mobile, and Google’s Android with the iPhone being the obvious missing player. Although it uses a downloadable Flash Lite application today, Adobe has also announced a collaboration with chip designer ARM Holdings, whose technology is used by most of the major mobile manufactures, including Nokia, Samsung, Apple and BlackBerry (RIM). On Monday the two companies said that a series of ARM-based processors for cellphones, set-top boxes and other devices adapted for Adobe's Flash 10 and AIR, a downloadable application that runs Flash applications outside the browser. The processors should be available in the second half of 2009.

The New York Times is reported in CNet as working on an Adobe AIR application that will let people read and interact with a newspaper within a physical format look and feel, checking and updating content every few minutes.

In addition to the smartphone activity, Adobe is also releasing a pre release version of its Flash Player 10 technology for 64-bit Linux users. Other Operating Systems will potentially get 64-bit support when they are able to support it and they are reported in Cnet.com as expecting to, ‘provide native support for 64-bit platforms in an upcoming major release of Flash Player. Windows, Macintosh and Linux players are expected to ship simultaneously moving forward.’

MLB.com, Major League Baseball's web service is one of the most successful subscription services, having 1.5 million subscribers and streaming more than 2,500 regular and postseason games annually. They have decided to leave Microsoft Silverlight and move to Adobe's Flash Platform to deliver all live and on-demand video starting next year. This gives Adobe one of the largest and most profitable video services and a technology leader and influencer.