Seems like Apple finally got some real competition for their iPad in the form of the Samsung Galaxy Tab, a tablet running Android.

Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Tab during an electronics fair in Berlin. Instead of calling it a tablet, Samsung is calling the Galaxy Tab a smart media device.

The Galaxy Tab runs Android 2.2 with a 1Ghz Cortex A8 processor, 512MB RAM, and either 16 or 32 GB of internal memory upgradable through microSD cards.

Furthermore it features a 7″ TFT-LCD screen capable of 1024×600 resolution, 2 cameras, one a 3-megapixel with flash at the the back and the other a 1.3-megapixel front facing camera for video calling. Connectivity include WiFi and 3G.

Samsung claims that the Galaxy Tab will be capable of 7 hours battery life during movie playback, supporting a variety of formats like DivX, XviD, MPEG4, H.263 and H.264.

The Galaxy Tab will be available from October through Vodafone in Europe, so there might just be hope for us South Africans to get our hand on this soon, perhaps before the iPad is available in South Africa.

Just got the Samsung Wave, my first thoughts after playing around with it for a few minutes:

• Screen clarity and colours are just amazing
• Camera takes pretty decent quality pics
• Bada may just be errm… amazing
• Browser seems to pixelize web page images
• Asks me for sim card to be able to use Twitter client, guess you wont use a phone without a sim.

The Samsung I8910 Omnia HD may be more than a year old already but it still stacks up against the better smartphones out there. In fact, I wouldn’t even go that far and call this phone a smartphone, cause its clear that when Samsung released this phone it was to satisfy the needs of all the multimedia junkies out there.

The I8910 Omnia HD features a 3.7″ AMOLED display ensuring that all things multimedia looks absolutely brilliant on the device. And when you have a 8 Megapixel camera capable of recording 720p HD Ready video you are sure to need a bright and colour rich screen like this.

The Samsung I8910 was the first phone that was capable of recording 720p HD Ready video, yet it never catched on as a must have device.

The 8 Megapixel camera on the I8910 is capable of taking gorgeous snapshots, even some closeup tests rendered crisp and clear images. The camera comes with all sorts of features, one that stood out to me was the panoramic setting that allows you to take 180 degree panoramic photos by just turning 180 degrees with the phone in your hand automatically taking a few snapshots and then auto stitching them together to render a seamless panoramic scene.

Another sign that the Samsung I8910 is built for multimedia is its support for video formats. Out of the box the I8910 supports DivX format allowing you to watch any DivX or XVid compressed video on the device, I tested it out with an episode of IT Crowd and playback was smooth and in sync. If I was on the go I could easily watch my series on the 3.7″ AMOLED screen.

Although the Samsung Omnia HD has all these great multimedia capabilities, one thing that kind of annoyed me was the interface. Me being used to Android now, I found it hard to get used to the Symbian OS on the I8910. That aside, I still think the interface is simple to operate, maybe too simple and that may be why I am not liking it and other power users will also.

The Samsung I8910 Omnia HD runs an ARM Cortex A8 600 MHz CPU with PowerVR SGX graphics to power that HD video playback and 3D games. It also features 7.2Mbps HSDPA, b/g WiFi and Bluetooth for all your networking needs and a Li-Ion 1500 mAh battery capable of 600 h standby time on 2G and 13 h 30 min talk time on 2G.

My conclusion, the Samsung I8910 Omnia HD is a superb multimedia phone, capable taking clear high resolution photos and HD Ready video with its 8 Megapixel auto focus camera and built in flash. Gaming graphics on the device is also superb and not to mention the DivX / XVid support. My wife loved this phone and if you are just like her and into photos and videos and like to take snaps on the go then this is the phone for you.

One thing where this phone could have been improved was perhaps with the operating system, but then again that is just me. If you are used to Symbian then it gives you just more reason to like it, I on the other hand would have loved to have Android run on this baby, luckily there is the Samsung Galaxy S out now.

All in all the Samsung I8910 gets my thumbs up as a superb multimedia device for people on the move.

If you are a real geek like me, you are always on the lookout for the next best smartphone deal. Gerhardt Fourie was kind enough to send through this list of specials currently available at MTN while he was busy shopping for his next smarthone.

Here is the specials currently going on at MTN for the month of August 2010:

As far as I know there is no pay-in fee for any of the above phones and the price is the monthly over a period of 24 months. The MTN 200 package includes R200 worth of airtime.

I am glad to see that Samsung is coming to the party with their new Galaxy S and Wave phones and at such a cheap prices. Please note that the N8 is only on pre-order atm and will only be available in September.

[Thanks Gerhardt Fourie]

With Apple, Black Berry and Android currently dominating the Smartphone Operating Systems market, all techies eyes was on Samsung when they announced that they will be ditching Symbian and introduce their very own Smartphone OS called Bada.

Samsung was already running the ever popular growing Android OS on some of their phones when they suddenly decided it was time to introduce their very own Smarphone Operating System Bada. Bada OS was introduced into the market a month back with the new Samsung Wave Smartphone.

Despite a lot of critique from the tech savvy users asking if there are place for another Smartphone OS, Samsung has proved that there is with the release of the Samsung Wave.

In just four weeks the new Bada based Smartphone has sold more than one million units world wide, that’s almost equivalent to the 3 million iPads Apple sold in 80 days. This just proves that Samsung means business with its new Bada OS.

The Samsung wave doesn’t just claim the title of the first Bada based Smartphone, but is also the first to have a super AMOLED display, and bluetooth 3.0.

I must still get my hands on a Wave handset but all in all the Samsung Wave looks like a good Smartphone and only time will tell if Bada has what it takes to become the Smartphone OS of choice.

Our favourite Web Addict is at it again and this time he is giving away the Samsung S5233 aka Samsung Star.

The Samsung Star S5233 is a full touch screen mobile phone. The Samsung Star comes with the latest multimedia features in a slim compact design with a nice 3″ WQVGA full-touch screen and Samsung’s TouchWiz User Interface with Mobile Widgets, the phone enables its users to enjoy their mobile easily and intuitively.

The Samsung Star S5233 also features impeccable social networking integration ensuring that you will always outshine the rest wherever you are. It has a 3.2 mega pixel camera and hyper qwerty keyboard for ease of input.

The internet functionality in the Samsung Star S5230 includes email with POP3 / SMTP / IMAP4 configuration support. The connectivity is supported with Bluetooth, WAP, USB, SyncML(DS) and PC Sync Application. The QWERTY soft keyboard with handwriting software makes sending email and sending messages a nice experience.

Great news is that you now have the chance to win the Samsung Star S5233, to get your hand on the Samsung Star visit WebAddict(s); and follow the instructions.

Back in November 2009 I was doing my usual evening routine of surfing the Internet and working on some client sites when my wife suddenly called me over with much excitement in her voice. “I want that camera” she told me.

She was obviously talking about the first digital camera in the world with dual LCD screens, a large 3.5″ touch sensitive LCD at the back and a smaller 1.5″ LCD perfect for that self portraits. That next weekend we set out to the stores to try and get hold of one of these good looking cameras, but after driving around for almost the whole day and several phone calls it was obvious that nobody either stocked it or knew about it.

After a few weeks I got hold of Samsung JoinTheClique via twitter and they got hold of one for me at the Samsung Store in Canal Walk. BTW you can stand a chance to win one of these ST550 cameras by joining their Facebook page or following them on twitter.

Right after buying the ST550 camera we headed to the closest store to go buy some AA batteries, but upon opening the box I soon discovered that the ST550 does not make use of disposable batteries but has its own battery. Another thing I instantly noticed is that the ST550 made use of a microSD card so all the normal SD cards I had was pretty useless, lucky for me the ST550 came with a 2GB microSD card included.

Features

As well as the dual LCD screens, the ST550 also boasts a 12 mega pixel sensor with 4.6x optical zoom that is also optical stabilised to avoid camera shake. The large 3.5″ LCD screen on the back of the ST550 is touch sensitive, which enabled Samsung to remove all physical buttons ensuring for a larger than normal LCD screen. The front LCD screen is almost invisible to the eye until you turn it on, it also has a child mode that displays pictures to ensure your child’s attention is where is should be to take that beautiful picture. The ST550 also boasts smile detection and face detection capabilities which enables you to let the camera take photos automatically when it picks up smiles or enabled it to focus on recognised faces.

Design

When it comes to looks the Samsung ST550 is a real stunner. Dressed in glossy black with a vibrant coloured lip in various colours it looks really sexy, the wife decided on the purple one.

With the missing buttons on the back it makes it a little bit more difficult figuring out where all the settings is located on the touch screen. But once you actually sat down and read the instruction manual navigating the touch screen menus is a real breeze. As with any touch screen greasy finger marks are always visible on the screen and you will find yourself time and again wiping it clean, same goes for the glossy black finish on the front. The screen is really huge using 95% of the available space on the back of the ST550 and that makes it worth dealing with the clean wiping now and again.

The front LCD as mentioned is invisible to the eye until turned on, turning the screen on however can be bit of struggle if you have bigger fingers with the small menu buttons on the touch screen. Here Samsung could have opted for a double tap on the front screen functionality rather than going through the menus on the back.

Performance and Image Quality

The ST550 has with its 12 mega pixel lens offers produces good quality images but not the best for a 12 mega pixel camera, and the the lens could have been made a little wider as taking self portraits you often struggle to get all the faces in.

When it comes to battery life I really did expect a bit more, because of the special battery included with the ST550 you must ensure that your camera is on charge every time you are not using it as the battery life can’t keep up with a full days shooting. Charging can also be a bit of a hassle as the charge cable is really short, however you can charge the camera not only via the wall but also via USB.

When it comes to video the ST550 is capable of capturing 720p, HD Ready, videos at 30 frames per second with mono sound. Unfortunately you cant use the front LCD to capture self portrait videos.

Value for money

When it comes to price, the ST550  is certainly not the cheapest camera out there. Going for around R3,500.00 you would think that you are paying for both LCD screens and not two screens for the price of one. Good news is that there is a lower end model available, the ST500, retailing for about a R1000 cheaper and the only difference according to Samsung JoinTheClique on twitter is a smaller LCD screen, 0.5″ to be exact.

Regardless of the high price I would still say that the ST550 has a kind of fair price for the features is boasts.

Conclusion

There is a few things Samsung could have done better on the ST550, however the ST550 is a true showcase of innovation from Samsung thanks to its dual LCD screens.

With smile detection, blink detection, face recognition as well as a image editing mode where you can modify the photos you already took, the ST550 is a real 21st century camera and the first in its class. I would highly recommend the ST550 just because of its front LCD screen and the fact that it has smile recognition. This camera is really a ladies camera and its showing as my wife is really enjoying the ST550 and taking pictures with it.

The ST550 gets two thumbs up from me.

You can get more info on the features and specifications of the ST550 here

Everybody must have by now seen the advertisements on TV about the great new digital camera from Samsung called the ST550.

The Samsung ST550 is the first digital camera to offer users dual LCD screens. One at the back like conventional cameras and a smaller one in front useful for self portraits.

Now this is all great and with it being advertised on TV you would have thought that it would be easy to get your hands on one, wrong.

The first time my wife saw the advert of the Samsung ST550 she wanted to get one ASAP, so we decided to go out one Saturday morning and scout the local mall for the beauty just to return empty handed.

We visited Game, Makro, Dion Wired, Hifi Corporation, several camera dealers and even Incredible Corruption just to find that they do not stock the ST550 or they have never even heard of it. Upon arrival at home I set out to phone several stores to hear if maybe one of their other branches stock the Samsung ST550, but no, the answer being we don’t stock it and there is no plans to get it in aswell.

After phoning every possible store that sells electronics in the greater Cape Town area I decided to phone Samsung electronics as they are the manufacturer of the ST550 and should at least have an idea who sells their product. But no, the person on the other end could not give me a clear indication of who sells the ST550 digital camera but gave me some names of stores that do sell Samsung cameras. These stores where mainly the ones I mentioned above that either had no clue of the ST550 or just did not have any plans to sell it.

Now my question to Samsung is how can you advertise a product, even with a free 2GB memory card, but nobody has the bloody thing in stock? I would appreciate I someone from Samsung can get into contact with me regarding the ST550 and where I can get one. Even if you are a online supplier and can get your hands on one I would also really appreciate it, as I did search the web and could only find a few overseas sites selling the ST550 but I would rather avoid importing one myself.

Features

Now let me share some features of the Samsung ST550 with you.

• Surefire portraits with Dual LCD – The ST550′s breakthrough 1.5″ Front LCDSelf Portrait of you and your friends without leaving anyone left out to hold the camera. The Front LCD also features Children Mode for fun, engaging, and simple animation that captures those special expressions only kids can make. Ensure your timing is always perfect with the built-in Self Timer, improve your chances for great results with Shutter and Function Information, and you’ll be ready to shoot in any situation.
• A Touch screen with clear feedback – What could be more useful than seeing every detail in brilliant 1,152K High Resolution before you take your first shot? How about the ST550′s vibration and audio feedback technology that reacts to your touch? After all, you don’t want any of life’s special moments to pass you by. And with the ST550′s super clear 800 x 480 display and innovative Haptic sensor technology, your camera will let you know what you’re doing with every click, swish and hum of the controls.
• See deeper, go wider, get closer with the ST550 – Have it all, literally, with the ST550. From its all inclusive 27mm Schneider-KREUZNACH wide angle lens to its up close and personal 4.6X optical zoom, you’ll capture more fun out of every moment and relive each detail with artistic depth and perspective, and with absolute ease. Plus, with a healthy 12.2 mega pixels of superb clarity, the ST550 delivers sharper detail from every birthday cake, natural wonder, or front row seat view than you ever thought possible. Get the most out of life with the ST550.
• Tilt it, gesture it, and you’ll control it – Tilt it to one side, and the ST550′s Smart Gesture UI will start the perfect slide show without a single touch! With the ST550′s built-in Acceleration Sensor, your gestures work as your commands. Manage camera functions, rotate or delete photos, create special slide shows and more…all without lifting a finger.
• Just what you had in mind – You see the image you want in your head. You point the ST550. And Smart Auto sees it too. This scene recognition technology actually chooses from 16 different settings ranging from landscape to portrait automatically. 
  Then adjusts for the perfect shot. Whether it’s catching your friends on a night on the town or a waterfall off a mountain. What you get is exactly what you had in mind. Plus all the credit.
• It knows you, and gets your best side – The ST550 isn’t just smart in design. With its Smart Face recognition technology, the ST550 creates brilliance with every snap. And keeps it that way. By knowing up to 20 of your friends and family, it automatically focuses on them first, making sure the most important subjects are always in crystal clarity. And since the ST550 never forgets a face, you can also browse more efficiently by the people you’ve registered.
• HD quality video – If you prefer still shots to movies but want to leave your options open (and leave your camcorder at home) the ST550 is right for you. You’ll get 720p HD quality video at 30 frames per second. And a recording time that’s 4X longer than MJPEG video. You even can use the 4.6X Zoom to get up close and vividly personal. And when things get dicey, you can even pause your recording. You’ll give up nothing, except carrying around that extra camera.

This is just a few nice features the Samsung ST550 posseses, for a more detailed look at all the ST550′s features head on over to the official Samsung Page.

Another great ad from the house of Leo Burnett, Chicago, for the new Samsung Solstice mobile phone.