Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 Starts Selling Today

When Samsung announced the latest Galaxy Tabs earlier this year, they had the Galaxy Tab 10.1, 8.9, and the Galaxy S WiFi 5.0. Then around 2 months passed before the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the Galaxy S WiFi 5 became locally available. Since then the Galaxy Tab 8.9 has been missing in action. That is until today.

The Tab 8.9 is basically a smaller, and lighter version of the Tab 10.1. Hardware specs are the same from the dual-core 1GHz processor, 1290×800 resolution, front and rear facing cameras, and the latest Android OS version (Honeycomb).

The Galaxy Tab 8.9 is packed with entertainment, productivity and content sharing services to make the device a true focal core of the user’s consumer electronics ecosystem. The list of powerful services includes:

Samsung Readers Hub: The lightweight design and large display make the Galaxy Tab 8.9 an ideal device to access the Readers Hub robust library of more than 2.2 million books, 2,000 newspapers and 2,300 magazines.

Social Hub: Users can aggregate email, instant messaging, contacts, calendar and social network connections into a single interface through the service’s “Feeds” and “Messages” files.

Google™ Mobile Services: A suite of Google Mobile Services is preloaded on the Galaxy Tab 8.9 including access to more than 250,000 applications on Android Market™, Gmail™, Google Search™, Google Maps™ 5.0 with 3D maps and Google Talk™ with video and voice chat.

AllShare™ service: Provides seamless content transfer between the Galaxy Tab 8.9 and other DLNA-enabled devices such as HDTV’s, monitors and digital cameras.

WiFi Direct™: Allows the Galaxy Tab 8.9 to locate and connect with other WiFi devices without a central access point.

Rear and Front-facing cameras: The rear-facing 3-megapixel camera and front-facing 2-megapixel camera including flash and autofocus, 1080p video playback and full support of video chat and digital imaging

Polaris™ Office: Instant access to documents, spreadsheets and presentations to view and edit while on the move

Swype: Re-size the keyboard, move the virtual keyboard anywhere on the screen and type faster by swyping

Mobile Printing: Print documents and pictures wirelessly from the Galaxy Tab 8.9 to any compatible printer.

The Galaxy Tab 8.9 shares many other features and services with the Tab 10.1 including Samsung’s TouchWiz® UX. This unique user interface was created to integrate with Android™ 3.1, Honeycomb, to deliver a truly customized and interactive tablet experience. The TouchWiz UX includes:

Live Panel: Magazine-like widget view for immediate access to weather, social updates, email, news, photo gallery, all on the home screen

Mini Mode Tray: One-touch overlay access to commonly used applications—Task Manager, Calendar, World Clock, Pen Memo, Calculator and Music Player

Clipboard: Advanced copy & paste functionality allows users to store photos, Web pages, YouTube links, etc., for easy sharing via email and social network sites

Indicator Quick Panel: Quickly toggle on/off connectivity, notifications, sound, brightness and settings in the lower right-hand corner of the display.

Photo Editor: Rotate, crop and adjust colors on high quality digital images