Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 with Dock

Recently, there were quite significant coverage on Apple vs Samsung in the European courts where Apple has managed to put an injunction to prevent Samsung from selling the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and other Samsung smartphones as well.

The end result is that the courts cited tons of prior art before the iPad (or you can say that Apple actually copied the ideas from others and should not claim to be their own, or another way to look at it … Apple’s patents are worthless!). The Dutch court even went as far to say that with the minimalist design of the iPad, it makes it almost impossible for Apple to claim anything.  Everything was thrown out except for the part for the Gallery application violated the “feel” of scrolling between images whilst browsing.

That aside, I was lucky enough to be able to get hold of a Galaxy Tab 10.1 and even had an iPad next to it to determine for myself whether they are the same.  It is DEFINITELY not the same nor similar!  The iPad form factor is much better than the Galaxy Tab 10.1 probably due to the 4:3 ratio instead of the 16:9 ratio.  The Galaxy Tab also doesn’t have the “home” button on the front.  Anyway, I am not here to judge on this technically but it sure doesn’t look the same at all to me.

That aside, a tablet is a tablet.  They are all rather similar but the Galaxy Tab 10.1, like the Apple iPad, is quite light and the trade off is the lack of extension ports such as USB or SD card slots.  But it is definitely more portable than other tablets that I have had the opportunity to try out.

How does the docking station fare?  It has a very white white surface that looks really good.  The chiclet style keyboard is great and you can actually type pretty well on it. The tablet itself slots in very smoothly and it is angled at a comfortable typing angle (see below).

(I know I didn’t really say much about the Galaxy Tab 10.1 … let’s hope I do a better job with the Asus EEE Pad Transformer soon )

Access, Edit and Manage Google Documents in Microsoft Office

Most of us are probably very comfortable with using Microsoft Office on a day to day basis but for many, like myself, we are also quite reliant on Google’s technology.  I have been sharing and using Google Documents (GoogleDocs) for sometime now but have always found the interface lacking, especially in the area of formatting.  Furthermore, each time I upload or download a document, the format is affected.

In comes OffiSync! It is a Microsoft Office plug-in that integrates your Microsoft Office with your Google Docs and Google Apps accounts.

Installing OffiSync adds a new toolbar to any version of Microsoft Office, letting users easily import web content such as images and templates right from within MS Office, collaborate with others in real time, letting users see each other's edits as they work with Office files and share their final documents with others inside or outside the firewall.

After the installation of OffiSync, you will get a new ribbon on your Office application toolbar (this is for Office 2007 and later). On the first time, you will be asked for your account login (ok, I don’t know if this information will be stored at OffiSync or not, so …) or you can go to Settings to edit your profile.

The rest of it is pretty much intuitive and a you can watch a brief introduction to OffiSync (an old version) below.

One note, in order for you to be able to save your Office documents in their native format, so that it is easy to edit and your formatting remains, you need to purchase their Premier version.  It doesn’t cost much, just USD12 per year or USD30 for a perpetual license.