It seems as though Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) arrived so long ago, but in reality the user features and official announcement was just in January. And contrarily, Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) seemed to sneak up on us almost instantly. Ice Cream Sandwich was officially announced at Google I/O, and don’t forget the 5,000 attendees that received a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 with 3 months of Verizon 4G LTE service for free. Who knows what will be in store for us in 2012 within Jelly Bean.

The Samsung Galaxy S II was the most accomplished handset of 2011 – hands down. Reaching all major carriers over the globe, the Galaxy S II does nothing other than make Android look good, real good. Our man Chris Davies set a new standard to the term “Unboxing” with his extreme unboxing video of the GSII. On the other hand, I feel it necessary to say Sprint’s Kyocera Echo was the most pointless. Sure dual screens will possibly “work” one day, but by then they better be built to last and have the hardware to properly perform while maintaining sufficient battery life. For the tablets we’ve reviewed, it’s safe to hand off the first place trophy to the ASUS Transformer Prime. The NVIDIA “Kal-El” quad core super chip soon be seen in the future of tablets within 2012.

A recap of the giveaways of the year consist of the Motorola XOOM, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, Android mini collectibles, Android Community official merchandise, and of course Tabletpalooza. The latter consisted of a month long tablet giveaway that made plenty of our fans happy. And here’s a hint: We’ve got another huge one coming for 2012 – so stay tuned.

Two of the most innovatively new devices seen for 2011 are the Samsung Galaxy Note, WIMM Labs 1.7 wearable Android platform, and the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. With the Note, Samsung finally offers a polished Android device to those yearning for a modestly sized handset. Though the 5″ screen hasn’t taken off yet, I assume it will eventually be a hit. On the other hand, literally, we have the WIMM Labs Android platform. This device can be worn as a watch, clipped to a bookbag or briefcase, or simply pocketed. Through “micro-apps” users will be able to interact with their other Android devices. Finally, the Galaxy Nexus sporting an extra large 4.65″ screen with no softkeys was released on Verizon here in the US. This device alone (and more importantly Android 4.0), will change the future of Android forever.

Google I/O 2012 was officially announced back in October and set for April 24th and 25th but today over on the Google Blog we’ve learned that has been changed, but for the better. Google I/O will now kick off on Wednesday, June 27th and run until Friday the 29th. Offering three whole days of excitement, Android Ice Cream Sandwich (and hopefully some Android 4.1 Jelly Bean) and more.

I’m sure you all know plenty about Google I/O but this is one of those must attend events for any Google fans — particularly those that love Android (this guy). We’ll be there live and hopefully a few of our loyal friends and readers will also partake in the fun next year. The registration will open in February and if it’s like the previous years will most likely sell out in a matter of hours, or minutes. Hopefully sometime soon Google will move to a much larger facility. Google I/O 2012 will be at Moscone West in San Fran. and I can’t wait. See you there!

[via Google]

Details are still a bit scant and we have no idea what to expect this early, although we learned of Ice Cream Sandwich last time, which is finally being revealed tomorrow. No details were given regarding when registration or ticket sales will get started but like I mentioned above, they sold out fast last year and I’m assuming will only go quicker next year. We were live at I/O this year and indeed will be again next. You can expect to see plenty of awesome news from the teams at Google. Here is our I/O 2011 Keynote 1 recap.

From Android Ice Cream Sandwich, Google Music BETA, the new Chromebooks and more, last time around Google had an awesome event and I’m just as excited for next year. If you’d like to see ALL of our coverage from the past then head to our Google I/O portal, then check out that awesome Ice Cream Sandwich logo.

Google gave a Chromebook to all 5000 developer attendee’s at I/O 2011, what will they give everyone next year? Don’t forget to save the dates and set your alarms, we sure wont.

[via Google]

Just a few weeks ago Andy Rubin tweeted they were seeing around 500k daily, so in just 1 short month they are seeing a stable and fast increase. That was only 16 days ago and now they are already passing 550,000, all I can say is wow. That is like 3.8 million phones every week being activated — That is a lot of phones.

To put all of this into a bit more perspective for you, back in Q1 2011 that number was around 350,000 then at Google I/O in May they posted on the big screen they were activating over 400,000 a day. If you really want me to dig deep in Q1 2010 just over a year ago these numbers were said to be 160,000 activations every single day. So in 1 short year they have almost tripled. By Q3 these numbers could be up in the 650k range. The news is still coming in as I read over this huge Q2 earning report so stay tuned.

Upon opening the box that this device comes in, you’re presented with the display covered with a sticker that further explains the hardware you should, by all means, know about already because you’ve had a full reading of the Android Community in-depth review. After that you’ve got a wall plug capable of working with any number of world plugs, a USB to Samsung specific plug wire, earbuds, and some instructions manuals. Have a peek at the unboxing and hands-on video first, then head down to the rest of the review for a full blast look at Samsung’s latest and greatest effort in tableting.

Hardware

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is Samsung’s latest and greatest effort in the line of Android devices it’s so faithfully produced over the past few years, they being the minds behind the most successful Android device line of all time, the Galaxy S, and the most powerful and thin Android device in the world currently, the Galaxy S II. What have they come up with this time? A masterpiece of a tablet whose only drawbacks are in its software and in its inability to expand memory. Has Samsung banked on the cloud a bit too much here? They’ve certainly banked, but perhaps just enough.

This tablet contains 16 GB built-in memory, 1GB DDR2 RAM, and no microSD slot for expanded memory though we DID see the possibility at one point in the ideation process back in early 2011. The display is a 10.1” WXGA 1280×800 pixel resolution TFT LCD with a nicely sized black rim so you’ll easily be able to hold the device without accidentally tapping the screen. You’ve got a 3.5 mm headphone jack a the top, a 3.0-megapixel camera on the back, a 2.0-megapixel camera on the front, Gyroscope, Accelerometer, Digital Compass, and Ambient Light sensor.

This device is extremely thin and light, sizing in at 10.09 x 6.81 x 0.34 (256.2 x 172.9 x 8.6 mm) and weighing in at 20.99 oz (595 g). It’s thin enough that you’ll be pleasantly surprised but not in a way that would make you think you’re holding something fragile. It’s got a 1GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core processor inside and it’s ready and willing to play every and any game you can toss at it with flying colors. We’ll be using this tablet to review every Honeycomb-centric app in the near future so look for it to pop up many times over the next quarter of 2011 – NVIDIA Tegra Zone ahoy!

Software

What this iteration of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 consists of is Android Honeycomb 3.1 with a dash of Samsung TouchWiz. What I mean by that is that it’s not running the full TouchWiz UX 4.0, instead Samsung has decided to get the hardware out there in the open and offer the custom user interface to owners of the device at a later date as an optional upgrade. Let’s have a quick look at what we’re not yet able to access here in a demo we grabbed back earlier this year at CTIA 2011 – this is what TouchWiz UX 4.0 will look like, basically:

Beyond that, you’ve got Honeycomb in its Android 3.1 form as first introduced on the Motorola XOOM a few weeks ago. For a rundown of what Android 3.1 Honeycomb is all about, check out our review of said system and come back with full knowledge. This device is running what’s almost vanilla Honeycomb 3.1, that being the OS in its purest, unaltered form. What we’ve got here instead is a few elements that are wholly Samsung and, as Samsung and I say we see it, they’re actually (either slightly by a whole heck of a lot) nicer than what Google had originally presented in stock Honeycomb.

For a full guide to Android 3.0 Honeycomb, (as opposed to the 3.1 version you see here on the Galaxy Tab 10.1,) check out our original full guide as posted at the beginning of this tablet wave! Next have a look at some of the specific differences between the user interface presented Honeycomb (be it 3.0 or 3.1) and this Samsung altered version on the Tab 10.1:

You’ll remember these images from our Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Google I/O Limited Edition review as indeed there appear to be no changes in either interface between the limited edition and this standard Wi-fi edition. One thing that HAS changed is the amount and variety of apps you’ll be getting. While they’re basically the same basic set as you got with the Google I/O edition, there’s no Amazon Kindle, no Amazon MP3, no WeatherBug, and a modified Music Hub.

Stock Apps Rundown

One of the oddest apps we’ve got here is Samsung Apps. This app, when opened on the Google I/O edition of this device, showed a giant list of utter oddities, bear face icons and random collections of letters for titles. Back in the review of that device I estimated that this was just a temporary oddity, and it turns out that this is the truth – now the Samsung Apps app has only a few items in it, including Angry Birds, apps that can be downloaded and a few options that might lead you to adding your own app here in the future. Still a very small situation going on here, perhaps one day it’ll be stocked with all the greatest apps in the world ready to run on Samsung specific devices. On the other hand, its a bit disheartening to see every single brand attempting to have their own app store when less than 4 should, by all means, do the job fine.

Next there’s Music Hub. This app is one that opens up to a music store run by 7Digital, a place where you can purchase tracks for right around $1.50 apiece and have a relatively wide variety of music to choose from. Is this Google’s temporary music situation while they ramp up a reputable music store of their own? We shall see.

The stock Music app is giving us slightly different results than the one loaded on the Google I/O edition of this tablet in that it’s not immediately apparent where we can activate our Music Beta account connection. That said, updating the app via the Android Market does bring us back our familiar set of lovely covers.

Even you, Lady Gaga with the bone face.

Next, QuickOffice is your portal to organizing Microsoft Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and PowerPoint presentations. Plus there’s a rather convenient Cloud button that connects to everything including Google Docs, Dropbox, box, and mobileme. Look at that gigantic list!

An additional app not present in the Google I/O edition that IS present here is Books, your link to Google’s version of the world of ebooks. Quite sophisticated, entertaining to use, but unlike the best selling ereader in the world, you’ve got no e-ink display here. On the other hand, you’ve got access to books through your Google account which is convenient if you’re already purchasing apps.

Camera

Surprisingly, both the front and back-facing cameras seem to have improved from the time they existed on the Google I/O Limited Edition of this device and this Wi-Fi edition. With a 3.2-megapixel camera on the back and a 2.0-megapixel camera on the front, one wouldn’t expect more than a generally decent ability to collect media on the Galaxy Tab 10.1, but as you’ll see below, a pretty good set of pics can be gotten. As for video, the result is slightly less impressive, but decent nonetheless. MUCH better video and photos than the iPad 2 can produce on all counts, of that you can certainly be sure.

Performance

This device appears by all means to be moving faster than you’d ever really need a device such as this to move, having seemingly no loading time for any operation anywhere save for some larger games which require upwards of a few seconds to boot up. What you’re dealing with here again is a 1GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core processor for sweet speed and exclusive gameplay allowances through the Tegra Zone portal which you can get a full review of right along back here. What we find here is that the benchmarks we’d gotten for the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Google I/O Limited Edition were basically identical save for Quadrant Advanced which gave the Limited edition slightly more in total and some rather odd differences in each category.

Limited Edition
CPU: 6332
Memory: 2456
I/O: 1117
2D: 82
3D: 669

Wi-Fi
CPU: 4129
Memory: 2035
I/O: 951
2D: 235
3D: 576

Check out the rest of the results for the Wi-Fi edition here:

Battery

This device has a monstrous 7000 mAh battery in it, that being one so gigantic it’d do fine in a high-end laptop. You’ll basically never have to power up this tablet – we’ve not needed to charge it at all for the several days we’ve had it out of the box now. Really quite amazing. You’ll be getting AT LEAST 24 hours of heavy action out of this monster, no problem. No worries on the battery front at all.

Wrap-Up

While this device might instantly seem to you to be the greatest Android tablet on the market today, and you might very well be right, there are a few things to consider when thinking about what you’ve got here. First, this is, for now, just a Wi-Fi tablet. Where for example the XOOM already has some rather well-connected 3G action going on, this device remains in the Wi-Fi hole, relying on connections around you to grab some internet. But wait, you’re part of this bigtime mobile revolution with us all, right? Take out your mobile handset and use the internet hotspot. It all seems so very Simple!

This device is indeed the thinnest and the lightest tablet on the market, thinner than the XOOM by a mile, lighter than the Asus Eee Pad Transformer by about half, and looking like it was designed by some smooth operators. But is it too simple? There’s a fairly gigantic cross-section of Android owners who like to modify their devices to fit their own needs, and that very often includes popping in a microSD card and sometimes, though not often, fooling around with the physical guts of the device. With the Galaxy Tab 10.1, neither of these things is really all that possible. Does this make it a device to be looked over by hardcore developers?

I should think not. Especially developers looking to make apps that millions of people are going to be playing or working on during this next season when the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and 8.9 are going to be selling like hotcakes. But WILL this device sell? It really all depends on how well Samsung MARKETS the device. A tablet can be as magnificent as you want, but if you do like Acer and Motorola are doing at Target and Best Buy, your sales are going to be abysmal. You can take that to the bank.

That said, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 has a lot going for it, and without a doubt this is the closest any OEM has gotten to competing with the iPad yet. Once TouchWiz UX 4.0 comes out, we may feel another surge in sales, but unless, again, Samsung promotes the update as an earth-shattering change for tablets, again, it’ll fail. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is the greatest Android tablet yet, and one so simple and powerful at the same time that I’m currently using it as my primary non-handset device for web and email browsing as well as the occasional media in internet radio, movies, and television shows. Well played Samsung, can’t wait for the 8.9.

Device Specifications and Information

Device Info

Device Name : Galaxy Tab 10.1

Manufactuer : Samsung

Carrier : NA

Announced Date : March 22, 2011

Release Date : June 08, 2011

Also Known As : Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, Galaxy Tab 10.1, Galaxy Tab 10.1 Limited Edition, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Limited Edition, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Google I/O Limited Edition

Display

• Screen Size : 10.1 Inch
• Resolution : 1280x800
• Screen Type : TFT

Dimension & Weight

• Height : 10.09 Inch
• Width : 6.81 Inch
• Depth : 0.34 Inch
• Weight : 595 Grams

Battery & Power

Battery Type:
• Lithium Ion

• Battery Capacity : 7000 mAh
• Talk Time : NA
• Stand By Time : 120 hours

Software

Android OS:
• 3.1.x

Audio Playback:
• AAC
• AAC+
• AMR
• MP3

Video Playback:
• h.263
• h.264 / AVC

Messaging:
• SMS
• MMS
• IM

Hardware

CPU : Tegra 2

CPU Clock Speed : 1000 Mhz

Core : 2

Ram : 1000 MB

Internal Storage : 32 GB

Front Facing Camera :

Camera Resolution : 3.2 MP

Camera Features:
• Auto focus
• Flash
• 1080p Video Recording
• 720p Video Recording

Sensors:
• Accelerometer
• Ambient light
• Proximity

QWERTY :

Cellular Network

Network Technology:
• GSM

GSM Band:
• 850
• 900
• 1800
• 1900

CDMA Band:
• 850
• 900
• 1900
• 2100

Device Connectivity

Wi-Fi:
• 802.11a
• 802.11b
• 802.11g
• 802.11n

Bluetooth:
• Bluetooth 2.0

Location Features:
• Compass
• GPS
• Cellular location
• Wi-Fi location

FM Radio :

NFC :

If you have rooted or changed the recovery on your Tab 10.1 you might want to hold off til the developers at XDA get this OTA and root it, it shouldn’t take more than a few hours for that to happen anyways. Otherwise go ahead and hit settings, about me, and check for updates and enjoy some 3.1 Honeycomb on the reboot. Feel free to check out our Tab 10.1 Google I/O Limited Edition Review while you are here.

Oh and if you are one of the unlucky few that received this tablet and are having problems with the glass or screen separating from the device check out this story about displays breaking and feel free to comment.

We went ahead and ran the update on our very own Limited Edition Tab we have on hand, it required that we sign in or make an account with Samsung. After signing up the update popped right up and we were good to go. Check it out below and don’t mind the stand, it’s the dog.

We waited a good few minutes for it to download and then to complete but everything is up and running smooth for us now. Re-sizable widgets is a big one and I’m happy to finally have the option. If you haven’t updated your Galaxy Tab 10.1 Google I/O Limited Edition I recommend you do it soon because Honeycomb 3.1 sure runs great.

UPDATE: We and half the rest of the internet have noticed that if you were rooted and choose to update to 3.1, you’ll still be rooted after you’ve completed the update.

Convenient!

Did the same happen for you?

Of course everyone else in the world other than the interviewer knew that Samsung would dedicate themselves to Android, especially since they’ve grabbed significant success with them thus far. The Samsung Galaxy S series of Android phones are THE best selling series in the world, and with their new Galaxy Tab 10.1 and 8.9 on the way set to compete directly with Apple’s iPad, they’ve got nowhere to go but up. For a better look at what you’re going to be getting from the 10.1 version, have a look at our full review of the limited edition Google I/O version of the hardware.

We’re hoping this news bit spreads to the other versions of the Galaxy Tab whose 10.1 prices include $499 for the 16GB version and $599 for the 32GB version. These price points are of course set to go in direct competition with the iPad 2 whose cheapest price is set at $499 as well. And what about Samsung’s own mobile OS Bada? Does anyone weep for the disappearing system?

Younghee Lee, senior vice president of sales and marketing notes that Samsung certainly isn’t abandoning Bada, only putting it aside for the moment. “When there is a market need for our own software, we will consider it but that’s not our plan at the moment,” Ms. Lee said. Perhaps a Bada / Android tablet is on the horizon? Don’t hold your breath! Meanwhile have a look at Samsung’s newest interpretation of Android for tablets, as filmed back at CTIA 2011:

[via Wall Street Journal]

As you know, this year at Google I/O (2011), one of the free devices given out to all 5,000 attendees was this lovely Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, an early edition of the tablet featuring a special Android army etched in the back cover and a non-TouchWiz experience happening inside. We’ve got an entirely full review of this device for your enjoyment. Notice how slick, sleek, and fabulous it is. Notice how similar and perhaps even smaller and lighter than the iPad 2 it is. Wow, what an object, right?

Well it turns out there’s something very evil happening to at least one of these 5,000 – a glue error! Have a look at this terrifying image you see above and shield your children’s eyes, because it is terrifying. That said, the owner of this device, a fellow by the name of Justin G, has emailed Samsung Support, receiving this message in reply:

——-BEGIN EMAIL——–
Dear Justin,

Thank you for your inquiry. You have reached Samsung Telecommunications America. This inquiry concerns a model that is not manufactured for use here in the United States.

Unfortunately, Samsung Telecommunications America is unable to provide information, technical support, or repair services for Galaxy tablet 10.1 since this device is not yet available in United States. We do not have the knowledge base or components to provide this service.

Because this inquiry is in relation to a model manufactured for use in another country, please click here and select the appropriate country of support. This will direct you to the main website for that country’s support and provide you with a Contact Us link, located at the bottom of the page. Questions will then be directed to the proper support center for your model phone.

We do apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Thank you for your continued interest in Samsung.

Sincerely, Technical Support John
———-END EMAIL———-

Well, Technical Support John, the link provided doesn’t really lead anywhere:
http://www.samsung.com/us/function/ipredirection/ipredirectionLocalList.do
but we do appreciate the sentiment. We’re truly hoping this is the only incident, but we’re asking that anyone else who has the same situation going on to step forward and let us know so we can continue to push Samsung for a fix. They’ve made one of the greatest tablets on the market, can’t stop now with a little yet potentially big issue like this!

Here’s how the corner SHOULD look, this photo taken of the same tablet in question:

Thanks for sending this in, Justin G!

UPDATE: User Aaron Mars has the same problem, and more reports are pouring in –

“Here’s mine. Not as clear as the one from the original post, but I can assure you when I press on the corner, I can feel it move and hear the glue trying to take hold.”

UPDATE: User Kasra Varzaghani also adds a report –

I have the same problem Its the upper right corner(by the headphone jack) only though! it’s fine on the other three corners. I think it’s a glue issue.

UPDATE: Nirav C comments -

Hey Chris,
I saw your article on android community and decided to send you the pics I have of my tab from google i/o. wouldnt say mine is as bad as justin’s but it is noticeable a bit up close (i noticed it while reading on my tab). On one of the edges I can see a little crevice between the black bezel and chrome casing. Here are some pictures, and thanks again for writing this article! Didn’t know where to turn to otherwise.
–
Nirav C

UPDATE: Oscone R comments -

I was reading are article and thats when i took a real good look at my tab and saw i had the same issue as bad im kinda upset i spent 850 on this device you know if their going to fix it any word yet?
–
Oscone R

Feel free to post a picture of your broken unit in the comments below OR email to chris@androidcommunity.com

Now we’ve got word of a cheap alternative to the $400 Android Open Accessory Kit for Developers. This newer, less expensive version of the platform will also allow you to use Google’s ADK to make custom Android accessories running Android 2.3.4 all the way up to Android 3.1. Instead of four big ones, you’ll be spending a grand total of $80 USD. That’s a pretty deep discount. Will this new version stand up to the test of time and harsh judgement of developers in the field? That we will have to wait and see.

You’re already able to pre-order this new “Seeeduino ADK” from Seeed Studio, the actual units shipping out June 20th. So far away! With the kit you’ll be given everything you need to begin making accessories for you Android loving public. Have a peek below and above at the lovely redness you’ll be working with.

• Arduino Mega2560 compatible
• 56 Digital IOs
• 16 Analog inputs
• 14 PWM outputs
• 4 Hardware serial ports (UART)
• 1 Hardware TWI (I2C)
• 1 Hardware SPI (upto 8Mbps)
• On board USB host(MAX3421), and IO breakout
• On board USB slave(FT232), and Is breakout
• Build-in 5V-1A switch power regulator (input range 6V – 18V)
• Build-in 3.3V-500mA LDO power regulator
• Red PCB, ROSH compatible and Golden finish
• Android compatible
• Dimensions: 3.4″ x 2.1″

[via Seeed Studio]

We reached out to our contact at LG and were informed that it was an Analysts only event and should there be any media there, they were sure lucky. Especially lucky if they’re getting prices like these for a phone that’ll certainly be out quite soon for a lot less cash. One is listed and currently the bidding sits around $535, but the rest are over $700. Still a decent price for the hardware and technology you are getting early. Or for those that don’t like the bidding and waiting game one is listed Buy It Now for the low low price of $900. That is one expensive smartphone, I hope it will make my coffee.

For those that might not know a lot about the Optimus 3D we have a hands-on here as well as full specs at that same link. It boasts a dual-core TI OMAP 4 processor, not a Tegra 2 and it will be sporting a 4.3″ glasses free 3D display, as well as the same powerful PowerVR SGX540 GPU in all those Galaxy S phones, as well as those other exciting features like dual 5MP cameras on back to record 3D, as well as HDMI out. Basically it is a beastly workhorse of a phone.

Obviously buying something like this from Ebay will have its risks, I’d use some caution and email the seller with any questions. A few are reporting the phone as quad-band and working on AT&T as well as T-Mobile so that is interesting to read, but I’d take that with a grain of salt. Here is a link to all the listing currently up, click here.

The opening keynotes for both days are probably going to be of most interest, with Google revealing Android Ice Cream Sandwich, its plans for Google TV and the new Music Beta. If you prefer to read not watch, you can check out all our I/O coverage using the I/O 2011 tag.

Sessions, meanwhile, can be found here and include Android Market information, 3D rendering and API best-practices. Full details at http://www.google.com/io.

Google I/O 2011 Day One Keynote:

Google I/O 2011 Day Two Keynote:

Putting the dots and dashes in line and considering the line breaks to be spaces, it turns out to indeed be Morse Code. After plugging it into a Morse Code translator you will find that the message is actually HTTP://GOO.GL/A4C639. An interesting note about the URL is that the “A4C639” is actually the HEX value for the Android green color.

Plugging in the URL in your browser, you will find that it forwards you to a page that invites you to Androidify yourself with the limited edition Google I/O 2011 t-shirt. Google sure knows how to have some fun. You should check out the ‘Android Eats Apple’ wallpaper that was displayed on the big screen during the first day’s keynote.

[via MobileCrunch]

Hardware

What you’ve got here is a 10.1″ TFT display on a 10.09 x 6.81 x 0.34 (256.2 x 172.9 x 8.6 mm) chassis. This device is amongst the thinnest tablets in the world, also weighing in at a tiny 20.99 oz (595 g.) Inside you’ll find a 1GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core processor and 65536 MB built-in memory. In what we must expect will be a future iteration of this device, there’ll be a microSD card slot with space for 32 GB, as we did see one when we had a peek at a dummy of this device at CTIA 2011 – right now however, there’s no such feature.

The battery in this device is a 7000 mAh – that’s huge. That’s enough to power this device all day long with heavy usage, easy. Thus far this device has not run our of batteries since we opened the box, at which point the device was at about half-full, and it’s been over 24 since then. Well played, Samsung, choosing whichever battery this happens to be. There’s a 3 megapixel camera on the back, a 2 megapixel camera on the front, and of course you know that this device has a limited edition white backing with Android army in tow.

There’s a sweet metal rim rounded all around the outside of the glass display, a hard plastic back, and all metal buttons for power and volume. This device is the thinnest and lightest Android tablet at this point in history by FAR and is set to contend directly with the current king of tablets: iPad and iPad 2 with a size and weight that just as low or lower – better and better!

You’ll find that the stereo speaker system is more than adequate for all your movie watching, Music Beta listening, and gaming needs.

And it feels good to hold. It’s thin but tough, light but doesn’t feel flimsy. Samsung wisely applied the metal rim to this amalgamation, as it makes for a piece of tech where you know you made the right decision in buying it. And how does it compare to the iPad 2? You’ll have to head over to SlashGear to find that one out.

Software

What you’ll find in here is a very small collection of apps, only a couple added in by Samsung, and a version of Android 3.1 Honeycomb that’s ever-so-slightly different from what you’ve seen on the Motorola XOOM and LG G-Slate and Acer Iconia Tab A500. While when this device is eventually released it’ll have Samsung’s TouchWiz UX working on top of it, right now there’s just a few fancy modifications to Android 3.0 Honeycomb.

This device is running on a 1GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual core processor, so you’ll have access to all of the exclusive games they’ve got available via Tegra Zone. This means Pinball HD, the jet-ski game Riptide GP, and Galaxy on Fire 2. Gotta play em all!

There’s an app called Samsung Apps that contains a collection of what appear to be apps but do not open when activated. This app appears to be something in progress on this device, or at least I believe so. The other option is that this is an anime-bear-based extension of Samsung’s device family. You never know, I suppose.

Music Hub is a music store run by 7Digital. It appears to be very well constructed and has an excellent user interface with lots of possibilities for discovering new content. Why or how this app came to be on a device being released at a time when Google is pushing their Music Beta ecosystem for music in the cloud, I cannot say. Perhaps as their favorite competitor for iTunes, but we’re still counting on Google to take the reigns entirely some day or another coming up soon. Movie rentals first, I suppose. Same goes for Amazon MP3, which is also present on the device right out of the box. Certainly not intended to fill your Amazon cloud.

If you were one of the lucky few to get an invite to Music Beta thus far, you’ll be hoping for an instantly-populated library. That wont necessarily happen. Yours truly had to wait about 10 minutes or so after updating to the newest version of Music before my cloud-based collection appeared for playing. You’ll note my surprise at finding the tracks there in the video below. Once they do appear though – glorious! For a full guide of this music environment head over to our walkthrough post.

At this point I’d like to show you a video with some Hands-On time with the unit, complete with words on both the hardware and the software. You’ll hear yours truly run you through what we’re seeing here and note why it matters to YOU, the person who’ll be purchasing the street edition in June.

Camera

The camera has not been the strong point of any tablet we’ve seen on any platform thus far, and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is no exception. With a 3.2 megapixel camera on the back and a 2 megapixel camera on the front, you wont be winning any contests for sharpness here. On the other hand, if you’re just wanting the camera to take photos some houses or pics of your baby to upload to Facebook, you’ll be in fine shape.

NOTE: While we’ve heard previously that this device would be toting a 5 megapixel camera on the back, this version of the tablet only works up to 3.2 megapixels. Will the final standard version of the tablet have the full 5 megapixels? We shall see. Now go forth and take a peek below at some examples of media you’ll be collecting, all highest quality, front and back:

There’s a whole new camera interface on this device, the one you saw briefly earlier in this review – have a look at the options you’ll be working with, most of them having appeared in Honeycomb before, but now sitting in different areas and, if you ask me, easier to access:

Performance

I’d like to impress upon you the fact that for most people at this point, tablets and handsets of the Android variety appear to be moving at lightening speed, faster than they’d ever really need them to move. That said, this tablet really works just as well and as fast or faster than any Android tablet that’s come out before. It’s got a 1Ghz dual-core processor in it, at this point that being up there with the best, and it’s basically a vanilla version of Android 3.0 Honeycomb. Some may argue that the keyboard and a couple other items make this into an impure version of Honeycomb, therefor not vanilla, but it’s quick all the same.

Have a peek below at a few benchmarks so that you might compare this tablet to others with all sorts of numbers. Each of these benchmark tests were run directly out of the box – aka I opened the box, took the tablet out, went into the Android Market, downloaded the benchmark apps, and fired them up. See how well this Tab takes tests here and now:

Battery

This device has a 7000 mAh battery. That size is enough to power a high-end laptop. That’s enough battery life to make sure this device essentially never dies. This is a very positive thing that’s been happening with tablets – all that extra real-estate can make way for bigger more awesome additions like fat batteries with basically no drawback. Tablets that never need to be charged! That’s what’s going on here. At the very least 24 hours of heavy, heavy action.

Wrap-Up

This is the greatest Android tablet thus far. It’s got everything Google’s tablet-based mobile OS Android 3.0 Honeycomb has to offer, and it’s sitting pretty in a package that’s set to go toe-to-toe with the iPad 2. I said it when I first held the dummy model back at CTIA 2011, and I’ll say it again, this tablet is so comfortable to hold, Apple had better majorly reconsider their industrial design team’s direction – this is the future. Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 is at once thin, light, and powerful enough to make owners of the best selling tablet in the world think twice before upgrading to another Apple product. That said, the only tablet to realistically hold a lamp up to the beauty of the casing here in the Android world is Motorola’s XOOM tablet. Say what you will about its thickness and weight, the XOOM looks nice and feels substantial.

But then there’s the Tab 10.1 again. It feels every bit as worth the cash you payed for it as the XOOM, and you wont feel like you’re carrying an additional text book in your backpack when you’re carrying it. Heck, put it in your purse, you wont even notice that it’s there. I should say here again though that this device doesn’t feel light and thin in the same way a flimsy device feels light and thin – it’s got metal reinforcement and not a single material on it that feels like Samsung didn’t put in the cash.

The one thing I’m hesitant to comment on is the user interface. This is because it’s certainly not finalized. This limited edition of the tablet was put out before Samsung was ready to reveal their official TouchWiz UX 4.0 – the one you see above demoed at CTIA. There are a few welcome additions to the basic Honeycomb setup, but in the end it’s the same system you’re getting with every other Honeycomb tablet thus far. Not a bad thing, but because TouchWiz for tablets is coming, it just can’t come here fast enough.

This limited edition was free to all 5,000 attendees of Google I/O 2011. If you want your own, you’ll have to head to eBay and you’ll more than likely be spending upwards of $1000 or more. Is this tablet worth that amount? No way. No tablet is. That’s completely against the idea here. Tablets are supposed to be inexpensive. Should you purchase one of these tablets? Unless you can get one for the price the standard edition will be costing, I’d say no. The back panel with all the Androids is cool, but it’s not $1K cool.

Does this limited Google I/O edition of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 show us that the standard edition will be a winner or a dud? I think it’s clear that this device is basically going to be the biggest winner in the Android tablet game yet. Just so long as it comes with an SD card reader, TouchWiz UX 4.0 for tablets, and a bow wrapped around it to the tune of $450. Sound like a pretty enough package for you?

What they have done is built a body-like dock that is self powered with its own battery that connects to the Nexus S via bluetooth. They have integrated servo’s for movement and motion. What makes this unique is they are not just reacting to a few commands to walk around. They are observing the environment using the front facing camera and different phone sensors and the touchscreen. Then actually connect to Google’s new facial and object recognition platform via the Google Cloud and this is how they react to surroundings and walk towards or away from objects. Pretty neat idea.

You can shake them to make them dizzy, or rub the touchscreen to make them happy. For now Hasbro stuck to simple Male and Female robots but we expect more to come. They can even take a photo using the front facing camera if needed, recognize something they don’t like and they will try to run away but might not get very far if they aren’t as fast as the robot in our hands-on. Poor guy just didn’t have the legs to finish the race, Plop! For now these are only prototypes and are a work in progress, in case you didn’t notice by the video or my comments above. Check out the video below and make sure you watch to the end.

We’ll let you know our speeds when we try this out shortly. Will there be some kind of competitive unboxing coming up? You’ll just have to wait and see. Speaking of unboxing, did you catch Vic Gundotra’s exclusive unboxing of the Galaxy 10.1 yesterday?

So far, the gear given away at Google I/O includes a Samsung 10.1 inch Galaxy tab, a Samsung mobile hotspot, and a Samsung Chromebook (which we’ll get in June). See all of our mega Google I/O coverage here.

Look for more details about all of this coming very soon.

the 50MB limit we have now was fine until we started getting more intense games and graphic enhancements. Today Google announced they are increasing this to 4GB, a huge increase in app size limit. This will eliminate almost all secondary installs. Like when you download Gun Bro’s but then start the app only to find out you need to download an additional 150mb of data to the SD card. This issue will be gone once the 4GB limit is included.

This is just one of many changes coming to the Android Market, another thing Google mentioned today was the option for developers to “exclude” or blacklist devices from installing their particular app. So when a developer doesn’t support a certain device yet, or an older phone they can simply blacklist that model so users wont install it only to have issues later that blow up his email account. These are great things to come for both users, and developers.

From the image shown above, clearly Android has taken off to new heights over the past year or so. Just in 2010 application installations from the market was over 8 times as many as 2008 and 2009 combined. That is huge growth, and we have been seeing plenty of reports about this lately.

From the charts above, shown at Google I/O this morning, Android has clearly not slowed down one bit in the application installs category. It looks like they are more than full speed ahead. Android Market application installs in 2011 has almost passed all of 2010 in just Q1 of 2011 alone. Showing that things are moving along just fine to say the least. By the end of Q2 2011 installs will have completely passed all of 2010, and by the end of 2011 things will surely be off the chart.

With Android 3.1 tablets starting to take off, and all the exciting phones on the way this summer in the U.S. and from multiple carriers across the world 2011 will be another huge year. I can’t even begin to imagine where we will be, and how amazing hardware will look by December. With the ever growing and changing market things will surely be exciting. Stay tuned for more from Google I/O.

To stay attuned and tuned to everything we’ve got to offer on the Google I/O 2011 set of events, just hit the [IO 2011] portal. You’ll have a generous look at Ice Cream Sandwich, a full guide for the new Music Beta environment from Google, and all the little bits about Android 3.1 for the Motorola XOOM. Also you can head to our newly minted Ice Cream Sandwich forum with its super new logo to discuss any and all questions and concerns you may have for this whole new world!

Also we’ve got a couple more helpers on board today so if and when any Android news does come through, you’ll know about it first, from every single perspective you can imagine! Meet or re-meet our animal assistants:

Susi and Millie you’ll remember from recent reviews of Android devices in videos and photos. Susi’s been in photos since back at the launch of T-Mobile’s G2, and Millie is a new player.

The words were released from Google Product Manager, Hugo Barra’s mouth, that the “most ambitious release yet” would be coming in Ice Cream Sandwich form and that this update would not only act as a tie for all screen sizes, those on handsets, tablets, Google TV, and the lot, but that it would make for a much easier world for developers to live in. A single API framework for what may be the easiest Android version to develop for yet. No more Honeycomb specific apps for you!

“We want one OS that runs everywhere.”

That’s what Mike Claren of the Android engineering team said whilst presenting this version of the OS for the first time during the first keynote at Google I/O 2011. One of the first big points Claren had on making this one OS a possibility for developers is that Google would be taking the “state of the art” features as created for Honeycomb, UI improvements especially, and bringing them to the entire platform, for all devices. This includes new holographic UI, multitasking UI, launcher, richer widgets, advanced applications, and everything in-between.

And what’s best? This new version of Android wont have any new hardware requirements. That means it’ll be able to work on older handsets galore!

Claren went on to note that Google is investing heavily in what he called an Advanced App Framework. This means insulating developers from the differences in all of the different devices Android can be run on, so Google is adding new API to the framework to help all you developers out there scale your user interfaces across all the different sized screens and devices toting them. New components are being added to the Action Bar (the one you see in Honeycomb) that’ll be able to reconfigure themselves to work with whatever space is available to them.

On top of THAT, more energy is being put into developing tools (the talk about this specifically being done on the 11th of May at 3PM PST, for those keeping track,) and of course, without even thinking about it everyone should have already known – Ice Cream Sandwich will be open source.

For Ice Cream Sandwich (or perhaps before it, Claren isn’t too specific,) are the following new features: Developed by Google’s Technology Extraction Team in Roswell New Mexico — weird? Claren says it’s totally true – wild, crazy! The first element is thus:

This technology can detect your head, not just your face, recognizing not only where your head is, but where you’re looking. This tech runs on the GPU, this currently meaning that it’ll work at 500 frames per second – quick! This tech is demonstrated by Anand Agarawata who shows off a white tablet with several objects on it displayed on the screen of a Motorola XOOM tablet moving in accordance with his head. Wacky!

In another demonstration by Anand on the XOOM, a button is pressed for mouth, nose, and eyes, one by one, expanding each of them in turn instantly, transmitting the image to the screen via a mirror sort of situation. Basically just a piece of candy for now, but you can see the possibilities, I’m sure.

This app, or functionality, or whatever you’d like to call it at this point, is able to detect a person speaking in a video that the device its on is recording and focus on them. What does that mean? Anand and his good pal Hugo Barra, (Product Management Director for Android,) demonstrate this functionality by both speaking into the front-facing camera of the Motorla XOOM. When either of them speaks, the camera zooms in on that person relatively smoothly, then back to whoever is speaking next in turn.

All of these elements will be available as developer APIs for Ice Cream Sandwich during what they say will be quarter 4 2011. Take a peek at the rest of our Google I/O 2011 coverage by hitting the big fat portable button over here: [Get into it!]

The next big item they went over today was Movie Rentals. You’ll soon be able to rent movies from the Android Market at will, watching whatever you want from whatever device you want to watch it on. Along those same lines is Music Beta, a whole music platform which, if you’d like to know more, you can check out in our entirely full guide and deep dive. Media in the cloud!

Google went on to speak about Android Open Accessory, a partnership between Google and the rest of the industry that’ll guarantee the newest updates to all Android devices 18 months into their lifespan. Android Open Accessory was spoken about for a brief period and Android@Home for all manner of devices and applications for your own personal environment. Light switches!

Behold the entirety: