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Samsung’s new tablets make it about the OS.

For a while Samsung has been teasing us all with the 78910 tagline for its unboxing yesterday. There was a lot of speculation about what it meant, but the general consensus was that it stood for a 7”, 8.9”, and 10” tablet lineup.  That turned out to be right.

On a side note, did you notice that Apple announced yesterday that the iPhone 5 will be coming this spring?  Apple marketing at its best, as usual. They not only try and steal some of Samsung’s thunder, but they try and change the dialog altogether to be about phones again, not tablets.  They did it for a good reason too. Samsung announced Android 3.0 based tablets that compete head to head with the iPad on tech specs, price, and user experience.

Although Samsung announced a 10.1” and an 8.9” tablet yesterday, I want to focus on the 8.9 because I think it’s just the right size. I could be wrong, but I think this will be the one that will match up most effectively with other tablets in the market.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9” sports:

• Honeycomb (Android 3.0)
• 8.9” Wide Display (1280×800)
• Dual Core CPU (1Ghz)
• HSPA+

HSPA+ is like 3G on Steroids.  T-Mobile (aka ATT) recently announced a rollout of HSPA+. 

HSPA+’s theoretical speed limit is 84 Mbps down and 22 Mbps up. No, this is not 4G. This is the next evolution of 3G. HSPA+ is defined in 3GPP release 7 and above.  You can find more information about this on Wikipedia.

Of course it will have dual cameras, what self respecting tablet manufacturer wouldn’t in today’s market? The rear camera is a 3.0 megapixel camera with LED Flash and auto-focus.  The front is a 2.0 megapixel camera.  It supports HD Video codecs (MPEG4/ H263/H264) and DivX/Xvid. It offers full 1080P Video playback at 30fps. Lastly, a plethora of audio format support (MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, OGG, MIDI, AMR-NW/WB that can be heard through the standard 3.5 mm headphone jack.

The killer feature: Expandable Storage

My favorite feature of this tablet? Samsung added a microSD slot with support for up to 32GB cards. Look around, not many of the new tablets have expandable storage.

This is so important, especially with Honeycomb. You see, Android 2.2 lets apps be moved / installed to the SD card.  So games, movies, soundtracks, and other stuff you use only occasionally can be kept on tiny microSD cards and inserted when you need / want them.  Someone who travels a lot could have their entire DVD library with them when they travel, for example. 

If someone argues that that’s just silly because they can get WiFi or 3G where they’re going, then so be it. I, however, don’t always go to the land of Starbucks and 4G. Sometimes, I’m a little off the beaten path where hipsters are not only never seen but where if people saw one they wouldn’t know to call them a hipster.

No, there is NOT connectivity everywhere. Go camping or something for heaven’s sake.

To me, this feature is noticeably absent from the iPad 2 and other front running tablets. By locking you into their storage limits, the manufacturers get to charge you a premium for higher capacity models. Secondly, they get to add ancillary cloud based storage to the monthly cost of owning their tablet (should you want / need more storage, obviously).  Or worse, make you connect it to your computer to back it up. Really? This is 2011, isn’t it?

Don’t buy tablets without microSD, folks. If we do, we’re going to shoot ourselves in our collective feet.

Thin and light, if you care

If you could buy these right now, they’d be the thinnest on the market.

Coming in a 8.6mm thick, these are the latest salvo of making tablets so thin than soon I’m going to be afraid to pick them up!

But yes, that’s a whole .2mm thinner than the iPad 2. That’s such a minute difference, I don’t think anyone will notice.  However, fan boys on both sides will rage in the newsgroups. Good luck trying to get your questions answered for a while. This is war. We live in the age of brand worship.

One thing I do care about more then thickness is weight. The 10.1 weights 595 grams while the 8.9 weights 470 grams.  Interestingly that means both of these models are lighter than the iPad 2, which comes in around 600 grams.

It is no longer about the specs, Apple got their wish.

So we have all these specs to drool over. However, in the words of Ruby Rod from The 5th Element, who cares?

You can find the specs to these tablets everywhere. Here’s the bottom line:

The iPad 2 is the benchmark and the standard to which all tablet newcomers will be compared.

The Samsung tablets are thinner and lighter than the Apple iPad 2.  Samsung claims a 10 hour battery life which is on par with the iPad 2. Samsung has announced retail pricing that is directly competitive with the iPad 2.

However, Samsung doesn’t have the same tight controls on their reseller channel as Apple does. This means you may

see some great pricing on an ultra-thin tablet.

These tablets will be running Honeycomb (Android 3.0).  This is going to mean a very rich user experience.  It was designed from the ground up to be tablet ready.

What all this means is the Android tablets are catching up with the Apple tablets faster than the phones caught up with the iPhone. 

With such a war waging between manufacturers and platforms, we the customer stand to benefit the most.  This, my friends, is what competition in the marketplace is all about!

Startup lets you keep your day job!

Two of my friends just started a new startup called KickoffLabs. If you have an idea but need to keep your day job because you’re homeless adverse, then KickoffLabs is working on a way to help.

Mr. Watermasysk and Mr. Ledgard are seasoned technology professionals, especially in the social realm. I had the pleasure of working with both of them while at Telligent Systems. Telligent creates enterprise social networking software with impressive clients like Microsoft, Intel, MySpace and others.

Their resume’s speak for themselves. With their backgrounds I expected this to be cool; and it sounds like it!  Scott lead the development team that created one of the hottest social platforms, and Josh ensured execution through stellar leadership. With vision and execution in their pockets, I expect great things.

First, though, here’s the teaser on the blog:

You have a dream. . . you may have 10 dreams. . . but you don’t know which one is worth investing in, and the thought of getting started feels daunting. So you keep your day job instead.

We’ve all been witness to bad investments. Millions of man hours have been wasted building products, features and services without any real customer validation.

Everyone has seen a slow start to business because most of the effort goes into building the product while audience building is neglected.

At KickoffLabs our goal is to help you validate your idea, build an audience and launch your dream with customers and confidence.

I encourage you to join our audience today so that you can be among the first wave of people who have realized that getting started is simpler than you thought.

This looks like an exciting idea.

They’re going to eat their own dog food and build an audience to help them make the first version of the software.

I contacted Scott Watermasysk about his new venture and he provided me with some insight into the mindset behind KickoffLabs.  I wanted to keep it simple and get the elevator pitch. So I stuck with only three questions.

1) What is the simple description of KickoffLabs

It is a drop dead simple way to put an idea out there and get some validation on it.

2) Why are you guys starting it?

There are tons of reasons for building it, but the simplest is it a tool I wish I had available to me.

3) What sort of information are you hoping to provide your users right now?

not much yet. We are still very early in the game, but checking out the blog and twitter ( http://twitter.com/kickofflabs ) is the best way to stay up to date.

Scott’s answer to number three was the first thing that popped into my head when I saw their post.

The democratization of opportunity sounds fun and noble. KickoffLabs sounds like a great blend of social networking and good old fashioned entrepreneurship.

Personally, I think these are just the guys to pull it off. Want to know more? Ask your questions in the comments and I’ll pass them on to the guys.

So if you’re reading this on your lunch hour and you’ve been sitting on an idea but aren’t sure about your next steps, go sign up on their site. Why not? What have you got to lose? You just might have everything to gain.

Google and Sprint show each other some Nexus 4G Love

After a big weekend announcement that pretty much puts a stake through the heart of affordable data plans and smart phones, Sprint unveiled the Nexus 4G, the WiMax enabled pure Android phone that’s coming to their network.

With AT&T taking over T-Mobile, Google needs a carrier that’s outside the iPhone marketing machine. Thus, with today’s announcement, Sprint and Samsung introduced the Nexus S 4G. It’s a pure Google Android phone (Sprint’s first), and the first stock Android phone with WiMax.

There are rumors that Sprint is hastily moving to LTE. Their current “4G” is really just WiMax, it’s not really true 4G.  So I’m not sure how long we’ll get this WiMax love. Verizon’s LTE network is getting some impressive benchmark results, so word of Sprint moving to this technology is welcome.

Does it really matter, though? Who cares? A pure Android phone with built in WiMax is a cool idea.  There’s already a raging debate going on in regards to browser performance; so let’s introduce WiMax into the mix.

The Sprint Nexus S 4G isn’t any different than T-Mobile’s Nexus S.  The same 4-inch Super AMOLED touchscreen, 1Ghz processor, 16GB of memory, NFC Capability, 5PM Rear Camera, and VGA front camera.  Hopefully, like other flavors of the Nexus S, you’ll get no bloat ware plus all the bells and whistles.

No, I’m not talking about the iPhone 5.  You can’t get an iPhone with NFC today although everyone is acting like it’s the second coming because the iPhone 5 is supposed get it.  One thing the iPhone 5 is rumored to have is an edge to edge screen. Now that will be a cool feature.

With the two biggest carriers battling it out for the right to screw the American public with overpriced data plans and locked phones, it’s my hope that Sprint takes the path less traveled.  They’ve turned around their customer service and now they’re starting to get some killer phones.  If they were to be bought by Verizon, it’s not clear who Google would partner up with.  If a big company like Google would listen to me, I’d tell them to call Sprint and start talking about acquiring them.

If tomorrow I saw a headline that said “Google to Acquire Sprint” it wouldn’t break my heart. If the FCC were to let ATT buy T-Mobile but not allow Google to acquire Sprint, we should all ourselves what dirt AT&T has on Congress.  The speculation is underway and everyone is trying to predict the future.

Frankly, I wouldn’t mind if Google did buy Sprint or take a big stake in them. Especially since Sprint is headed towards LTE.  I’ve been a Sprint customer for a long time because they’ve always been so developer friendly.  The thought of having the same talk and surf capability as AT&T customers but on my wickedly cool Android phone makes me sort of giddy.

Please Sprint, anybody but Verizon and Comcast. Anybody.