OG Galaxy Tab finally getting an update to Gingerbread

I had all but given up hope, and was seriously thinking about trying to load a custom ROM on my original/first-gen Samsung Galaxy Tab (the 7-incher), but it seems like finally Verizon is preparing to release the system update from android 2.2 to 2.3. Still, considering that both Samsung and Verizon were pointing the finger at each other as to why there wasn’t any update available (Samsung says it’s done and it’s up to the carrier to roll it out; Verizon says it was up to the device maker to produce it), I’m glad that they didn’t end up being a dead-in-the-water device (I’d given up on Honeycomb a long time ago).

Rooting the Galaxy Tab 10.1

So I have a wordpress site set up on a VM that I used for testing purposes, which have benefited me greatly at work. Recently, I wanted to test out some mobile skins but in order to do that I’d have to edit the hosts file of the target device. And for whatever reason, the android hardware manufacturers insist on locking down their devices – hell, I think even Asus and Acer are guilty of this (wtf?). I know, security and all that, but they should at least give us the ability to set up an admin account. Fortunately enough, it’s pretty easy to root the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, even for a newbie like me.

Verizon Samsung Galaxy Tab: Futher impressions

Now here’s a foobar moment for ya: I took out my Galaxy tab today to check up on some RSS feeds, and the darn thing wouldn’t power on! Kinda panicked at first b/c I thought it might’ve bit the dust, but then I figured the battery being drained is the most likely answer. Now this is really weird b/c I could’ve sworn that I charged it up 100% the previous night, but maybe it somehow stayed active while I slept instead of going into standby?

It’s been close to two months now, and while I still like it, the Galaxy tab definitely has that 1st-gen feel to it, and it doesn’t help that it looks like Samsung is might soon drop support for it… 😐

Not what I expected

Imagine this: you go to turn on your phone, only to be greeted by a completely blank workspace. No, your phone hasn’t locked up or anything, it’s just that all your programs – even the pre-installed ones – are completely missing. That’s what happened to me when I turned on my tablet today. At first I thought my data might’ve been deleted by one of the applications I d/l’ed (damn crappy advertising), but after doing a shutdown, it came back on w/ everything back intact.

So yeah, that’s not the kind of thing I want to be greeted by from an expensive piece of equipment that I’ve had for less than a month. 😐 All the more reason to start rolling out my own applications…

It’s an android tab

Or that’s what I dubbed it. I was fortunate enough to have some extra spending money this year, so I decided to splurge on something nice. I was half-halfheartedly planning on getting a new TV originally, but considering my gaming and movie watching are both on life support, I decided to pick up a new Samsung Galaxy Tablet. It was pretty much a spur of the moment purchase, b/c while I’ve been interested in getting a tablet (eventually), I wasn’t shopping around for one actively (and no, I’m not interested in the iPad).