Samsung TouchWiz UX Rolling out to Galaxy Tab 10.1 This Friday

Since we first heard about and saw with our own eyes the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (and it’s smaller brother the 8.9) we’ve wondered when we’d be able to get our hands on this fantastic tablet with its most excellent version of Samsung’s TouchWiz interface yet, this one made specifically for tablets. The release of the 10.1 tablet is here, the device available separately as a Wi-Fi only unit or as a 4G LTE version at Verizon, but thus far we’ve only been using a near-stock version of Android 3.1 Honeycomb. What Samsung’s got prepared for this Friday is an optional upgrade to Samsung’s TouchWiz UX, the same (or very similar) to what we saw back at our first glance at CTIA 2011.

This new interface for you Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Android tablet will have several big additions to what you’re used to, these being Live Panel, Mini Mode Tray, Clipboard, Indicator Quick Panel, and Photo Editor. First, Live Panel will allow you to lay out your widgets in a magazine-like manner, this mode made to allow you to have a completely customizable display with one-touch entry into your most important information, news updates, and more. Mini Mode Tray allows you instant access to your most commonly used applications, displayed in a pop-up window on your display for all the multi-tasking your heart could desire. Clipboard allows you to use advanced copy and paste functionality allowing you to store photos, web pages, YouTube links, and more onto a virtual clipboard for easy sharing via social network sites and email. Indicator Quick Panel allows you to quickly switch on and off notifications, sound, Wi-Fi, brightness, and settings, all of this in the lower right-hand corner of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 display. Photo Editor is a new app that allows you to quickly rotate, crop, and adjust colors on all of your high quality digital photos and other images.

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Samsung’s Media Hub will be present here in full force, this being a place where you can download and use videos, movies, TV content, and more from NBC Universal, Paramount, MTV, Warner Bros. , CBS and FOX. This new version of the Media Hub also includes a Media Hub Show which allows users to play back Media Hub content on their television using a HDMI cable connected through their Galaxy Tab 10.1 adapter or media hub. Media Hub allows users to register up to five devices under one single account to share without extra cost between each of them. Samsung’s Social Hub will be updated as well, details on this particular update being sparse – mostly bug fixes we must assume.

Several apps will be preloaded with this update including Amazong Music Cloud Player, Amazon Kindle, and Words with Friends. Enterprise solutions and services will be added with this update including Cisco VPN, full support for Exchange ActiveSync version 14, Sybase MDM, Cisco WEbEx mobile conference, and on device encryption. With this update comes Samsung’s Kies 2.0, including better device management, powerful multimedia support, and faster performance. Swype will be added with this update, allowing you to roll with a keyboard that’s resizable, movable to anywhere on the screen, and of course, able to type via swyping. Finally, Mobile Printing will be added with this update, allowing you to print with any compatible printer.

To get this update, you’ve just to go to set up a Samsung account on your device. To do this, you’ve only to go to your Settings page on your device, find and tap Accounts & sync, Add an account, and tap Samsung account. Once you’ve set up your new Samsung account, you’ll be prompted (on Friday or at a later date, depending on when the update is pushed to you) to follow some on-screen instructions to grab the update. As instructions for this process are only offered in Wi-Fi Only devices, it remains unclear as to whether or not Verizon customers will be getting the Samsung TouchWiz UX update this Friday or if they’ll have to wait till a later date.

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