Skip to main content

Samsung shows iTunes-like social, reading, music, media, business ‘Hubs’ for Galaxy Tabs

samsung galaxy tab 8.9
Image used with permission by copyright holder

In addition to unveiling a new 8.9-inch Galaxy Tab and redesigning its upcoming 10.1-inch offering a few moments ago, Samsung showed off a whole suite of software and services aimed at turning its line of touch tablets into a premium offering, much like Apple has done with its iTunes ecosystem on the iPad. The company rolled out the announcements at lightning speed and was loose on details, so bear with us if there are any inaccuracies.

TouchWiz 4.0

Samsung’s entire Galaxy Tab line will come with its newest Android UI modification, TouchWiz 4.0. Upon first glance (we’ll have more detailed impressions soon), the new UI appears to smooth out a few of Android Honeycomb’s graphical shortcomings. Its biggest features are “Live Panels,” a new widget system, and a new “Mini App Tray.”

Recommended Videos

Live Panels: Samsung has created a new set of new, large widgets for Android 3.0 and an easy way to resize and reorganize them on your homescreen. Many of these widgets are “Hub” apps that I will describe in a bit.

Mini Apps Tray: Similar to the iPad, this is a row of large shortcuts at the bottom of the homescreen. It looks very similar to OSX and iOS.

A Hub for everything

In addition to its user experience enhancements to Android Honeycomb, Samsung users on Galaxy S II and Galaxy Tab devices will soon get access to a new suite of apps that Samsung is calling “Hubs.” These were first unveiled at the Mobile World Congress, but will now be on tablets as well.

Social Hub: This hub hopes to be a unified inbox for all your communication needs. Email, calendar, contacts, social networks, and messaging will all be condensed into one location. Facebook hopes to accomplish this as well. Organizing all of this data is always harder than it appears.

Readers Hub: This app will have a full e-book library, 2300 magazines, newspapers, and other reading material for sale or subscription.

Music Hub: Samsung is getting into the ring with iTunes. It plans to sell music on its own service (we assume MP3s as no streaming feature was announced). Sony recently announced its own media store as well.

Media Hub: This app will have “first-run movies and next day TV shows” available. We don’t know exactly how the rental/purchasing will work or how much it will cost. No details were announced.

Enterprise Solutions

A boatload of business features were announced for the Galaxy Tabs as well. In an attempt to make IT departments happier, the Galaxy Tabs will have data encryption, a BusinessObjects Explorer that lets you take business documents on the go, Exchange ActiveSync support, Sybase support, Cisco AnyConnect, and productivity software similar to Microsoft’s Office suite which will allow users to create PowerPoint slideshows, Word documents, and Excel documents.

Jeffrey Van Camp
Former Digital Trends Contributor
As DT's Deputy Editor, Jeff helps oversee editorial operations at Digital Trends. Previously, he ran the site's…
Chrome tab groups now allow mobile-desktop sync, and it’s utter chaos
Synced tab groups from Chrome appearing on an iPhone.

In September last year, Google announced a new feature that would let users sync their grouped tabs across mobile and desktop. It seems the company quietly started rolling it out in a phased manner.

I noticed the new synced tab group feature on my OnePlus 13 earlier today, after the Chrome v133 update was installed on February 12, as per the Google Play logs.

Read more
I tried a stylus with location tracking. It ruined Apple Pencil for me
ESR Geo Digital Pencil placed atop an iPad mini.

I have been a part of the iPad Pro ecosystem for a while now. For the most part, it comes out of professional obligations, rather than personal necessities. It’s a rather expensive situation to be in, to be fair.

The worst part? Finding a competitive, budget-friendly alternative is like going on a blind, trust-first-regret-later purchase spree. The stylus situation is no exception. There is always some caveat, if you put your trust in virtually any other label.

Read more
Google Pixel phone’s Emergency SOS sent a person’s nudes to friends
Emergency SOS feature on Google Pixel 9.

Google Pixel phones come with an emergency SOS feature that calls for emergency response services, and also shares the alert with friends or family members. The whole system also has an optional video feature that records your surroundings and shares the clip with all your emergency contacts.

If you have enabled this feature — hopefully after reading Google’s warning about doing so “carefully” on your phone — pray that it never gets triggered accidentally. One unfortunate soul learned it the hard way, when the feature was mistakenly activated and sent their naked whereabouts to a dozen friends.

Read more