Cloud storage providers need sharper billing metrics

Purveyors of cloud storage services may be doing their customers, or themselves, a disservice by relying on imprecise metrics for billing, argued a researcher at a Usenix conference.
"Disk time is what costs, not I/Os or bytes, and that is what should be the metric in cloud storage systems," said Matthew Wachs, a researcher at Carnegie Mellon University, in a talk at the Usenix HotCloud workshop this week in Portland, Oregon.
Wachs, along with other researchers at Carnegie Mellon and VMware, investigated the topic in their Usenix paper, "Exertion-based billing for cloud storage access."

"Cloud storage access billing should be exertion-based, charging tenants for the costs actually induced by their I/O activities rather than an inaccurate proxy (e.g., byte or I/O count) for those costs," the paper said.
Today, IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service) cloud storage providers such as Amazon or Google typically bill on two factors, the amount of data being stored and the amount of data that is transferred to and from the cloud, or I/O.
While charging based on the amount of data stored is a reasonable metric, Wachs contended, the amount charged for I/O is flawed, given the work expended to read that data from disk or write that data to disk. The cost of handling those bits on disk may vary widely from one instance to another, Wachs pointed out.
"As a result, tenant bills for storage access may bear little to no relationship to the actual costs," the paper said.
Wachs mentioned a number of factors that can lead to this variance, the most prominent being the difference between random and sequential access on the disk.
In sequential access, data is written to or read from one portion of the disk in a continual stream of bits. In random access, the disk head must jump around to different parts of the disk to read or write data.
The difference between these two types of workloads can be immense, Wachs said.
For instance, sequential access can achieve a throughput on an average disk of up to 63.5MB/s (megabits per second), whereas random access can only be executed at 1.5MB/s.
In practical terms, this disparity means that one customer executing lots of random reads and writes is using a lot more of the system's resources than another customer who may be accessing the same amount of data through sequential accesses, even though both customers are charged the same amount.
In the long run, this practice would provide no incentive for customers to establish more efficient data transfer practices, and fiscally penalize those customers who do have such practices in place. It could also erode the profit margins of storage providers, who may not have accounted for these inefficiencies in their original plans.
Other factors may heighten this disparity between workloads even further, Wachs said. For instance, disk caching may eliminate the need to access the disk at all. In cases where caching is used, the customer may actually be severely overcharged. Also, excessive metadata lookups to find the appropriate data location may consume an inordinate amount of resources.
"This is an unsustainable approach because either the client or the provider will be unhappy," Wachs said. "The clients with the easy requests will pay too much and the clients with the difficult requests will pay too little."
Wachs suggested an alternative billing mechanism, one based on disk time, or the amount of time it actually takes the disk to read or write the material.
"When we charge for disk time, and chose a rate for disk time that matches the cost for the provider, the costs are being recovered fairly," Wachs said.
Attendees brought up various issues with this approach. One noted that clients may be willing to pay a bit more overall to get a more predictable and easily understandable bill, mentioning as an example how the cellular phone industry charges on a simple flat rate and per-minute basis rather than how much the actual cell phone towers are used by each customer.
Wachs countered that the disparity between the costs of running a cloud service and what is being charged can be a significant difference, and not just a subtle averaging of the costs.
Cell phone customers probably "aren't losing sleep over whether they are paying $40 a month instead of $30 a month," he said. Businesses that are paying $40 million a month rather than $30 million a month, on the other hand, may want "the accounting and pricing to be a lot closer to the actual cost," he said.
Andrew Warfield, the session chairman for the economics track that Wachs' talk was part of, noted that the presentation was one aspect of a larger challenge now being faced by cloud providers, namely the task of examining current operational practices in a deeper, more complex way in order to offer simpler, less expensive services to their customers.
Existing cloud storage metrics "are appealing from a customer-facing standpoint as the right way to market the whole system," Wachs said. "But you need to have something in the long term that will actually match the cost for the provider," he said.

Hackers move fast to exploit just-patched IE bug

Three days after Microsoft fixed flaw, Symantec spots active attacks

Just three days after Microsoft patched 11 bugs in Internet Explorer (IE), hackers are exploiting one of those vulnerabilities, a security company said Friday.
Microsoft fixed the flaw Tuesday in an 11-patch update for IE. That update was part of a larger Patch Tuesday roll-out that quashed 34 bugs in 16 separate security bulletins.
Most security experts had put the IE update at the top of their priority lists, and urged Windows users to deploy it as soon as possible.
Today, Symantec reported that CVE 2011-1255 -- its assigned ID in the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures database -- is already being abused.
"So far, we have only seen limited attacks taking advantage of this vulnerability and believe that the exploit is only being carried out in targeted attacks at present," said Joji Hamada, a senior researcher with Symantec's security response team, in a post to a company blog.
Hamada said that Symantec had found an exploit on an apparently-compromised site that automatically downloads an encrypted malicious file to the PC of any user browsing with an unpatched copy of IE8.
The malware shows some bot traits, Hamada added. Once planted on a machine, it contacts a remote server and listens for commands from its hacker overlords.
Although the CVE 2011-1255 vulnerability affects IE6 and IE7 as well as IE8, Symantec has only seen working exploits that target the latter.
IE9, the browser that Microsoft launched in mid-March, is not affected by the vulnerability, although it was also patched Tuesday to address four different bugs.
In the accompanying advisory, Microsoft pegged the flaw as "critical," its most-serious threat level, for IE7 and IE8 on all Windows machines, and for IE6 running on Windows XP. For IE6 on Windows Server 2003 Microsoft rated the bug as "moderate."
Microsoft also assigned a "1" to the vulnerability in its exploitability index, meaning the company expected a reliable exploit to appear within 30 days. The attackers beat that by a significant margin, putting their exploit into play within three days.
Microsoft was made aware of the flaw in late January by VeriSign's iDefense Labs, which had bought the bug from an anonymous researcher through its bounty program.
iDefense's own advisory categorized the vulnerability as a "use-after-free" bug, a type of memory management flaw that can be exploited to inject attack code.
Users unable to apply Tuesday's IE update can stymie the attacks Symantec has spotted by disabling JavaScript.
To turn off JavaScript, users should select the "Tools" menu in IE, then click "Internet Options," the "Security" tab and the "Internet" content zone. Next, click "Custom Level" and in the "Settings" box, click "Disable" under "Active scripting." Click "OK" in the current dialog box.

Pakistani hacker claims HP systems attack

HexCoder claims to have broken into HP FTP server and accessed 9GB of data; HP says its probing the claim

Hewlett-Packard Co. has become the latest organization to add its name to the rapidly growing list of high-profile hacking victims.
The Hacker News (THN), an online news site, this morning reported that Pakistani hacker HexCoder claims to have penetrated an HP FTP server and accessed about 9 GB of data.
A HP spokesman this afternoon said that the company is trying to verify the hacker's claims. He added that the data alleged to have been compromised is in the Japanese language. The company is working with its Japan operation to find out what might have happened.
"There's a high likelihood that this is stuff that is publicly available," the spokesman added.
THN posted several screen shots of the data HexCoder claims to have accessed from the HP system.
It's unclear from the screen shots whether any personal or financial data was compromised in the alleged attack.
The names of some of the exposed files suggest that some information might have been publicly available, as HP claimed. For instance, several of the allegedly exposed files appear to be newsletters from 2003 and 2004.
Some of the filenames that are visible in the screenshots suggest that data on systems running Japanese versions of HP Linux may have been compromised.
The news site quotes the hacker as saying: "I have done this by getting access to FTP successfully. All this by just mere stupidity! Oh and I will not share their database because its too big (9 GB)."
In an email to Computeworld, THN editor Mohit Kumar said the screenshots made available to THN show that the hacker has permissions to 777 files on the compromised system. "That means he [may have] root access, almost in FTP," Kumar said.
The screenshots made available by HexCoder suggests that information on various HP software products, tools and drivers has been copied, Kumar said. One of the exposed folders appears to contain delivery reports on various HP products. Another contains various news media files and newsletter items, he said.
The alleged attack on HP lengthens the growing list of organizations that have been recently hacked in similar fashion. Other recent victims include:

• RSA;
• Sony;
• Oakridge National Laboratories;
• Lockheed Martin;
• the International Monetary Fund; and
• the CIA.

In some cases, such as the attacks on RSA, Lockheed and Oakridge, the motive appears to be espionage and IP theft. But most of the other recent attacks appear aimed at embarrassing organizations.
In some cases, the attacks have followed recent news events.
The attacks on the IMF for instance, came just weeks after ex-IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn was arrested on sexual abuse charges. The HP attacks come just days after the company announced an executive realignment.
What has been especially discomfiting for many of the victims is the fact that the breaks-in often have resulted from embarrassingly low-tech methods that showed fundamental security lapses.

Dell to bring 10-inch tablet to China first, U.S. on holdDell to bring 10-inch tablet to China first, U.S. on hold

Dell wants to give developers more time to create apps before bringing the tablet to the U.S. and European markets

 

Dell will first launch its Streak 10 Pro tablet in China, putting other markets like the U.S. and Europe on hold in order to give developers more time to create the necessary apps.
It will launch the Android tablet in China "later this summer," according to a blog post written by Amit Midha, the company's president of China and South Asia. In the second half of 2011, Dell will also evaluate what other regions it wants to sell the product.
The PC manufacturer decided to sell the Streak 10 Pro tablet in China first because of the country's vast market, where many people are going online for the first time, Midha wrote. "In addition, we have a significant -- and rapidly growing -- retail presence in China, with more than 10,000 locations where customers can buy Dell products throughout the region," he said.
But China will also serve as a testing ground for the product, as Dell prepares to launch tablets in the U.S. and European markets at a later date. Apps are an important part of the services offered on tablets. But in the case of China, access to those apps could prove to be more difficult since Google's Android Market is not available in the country.
"We will use what we learn in China to shape mobile products we'll offer in other places down the road," Midha said. Also, in an effort to provide a complete experience to its customers, Dell wants to give more time for developers in other markets to create "robust apps" for professionals, he added.
This is not the first time Dell has launched a product in developing markets first. In 2009, it announced it would sell its first-ever smartphone in Brazil and China.
China could be a better market for Dell to sell its tablets, considering Apple already dominates so many other markets with its iPad device, said Sun Peilin, an analyst with Beijing-based research firm Analysys International. While Apple has a 78 percent share of China's tablet market, there is still plenty of room for rivals to come and establish their own presence, Sun said.
Tablet sales in China, while growing, still only make up a small slice of the worldwide market. Tablet sales in the country are expected to reach 4.5 million units this year, an increase from 600,000, according to estimates from Analysys.
Worldwide tablet sales are projected to hit 69.7 million units, nearly four times the 16.7 million sold in 2010, according to research firm Gartner.
China's tablet market, however, is already being eyed by other competitors. Earlier this year Lenovo and Motorola launched their own Android tablets in China. In an earnings webcast last month Lenovo said it wants to grab a 20 percent share of China's tablet market.
China is also a major market for inexpensive, unbranded tablets. Some such tablets sell for $75 to $300.
"There are a lot of local media tablet vendors in China, generally using low-end Android white boxes," said IDC Associate Vice President Bryan Ma. "It's possible that Dell thinks that it can be positioned as a better product with a better brand against those."
In the first quarter, 41 percent of the 850,00 tablets sold in China ran Android, according to IDC. Android ran on 25 percent of the 2.3 million tablets sold in the U.S. during the same period.

Looking for an out-of-the-ordinary Father's Day gift -- or a treat for yourself? Each of these gadgets goes a bit off the beaten path without sacrificing usability. 

A hidden truth of innovative new tech products is that they sometimes have fatal flaws or simply don't work that well. This can be true for low-cost gadgets, such as a plant sensor that accurately reads soil quality but sends a signal over a flaky Bluetooth connection, as well as high-end products, such as an electric car that's fast and sporty but lasts for only 80 miles on a charge.
The following five gadgets break that mold. Not only are they ingenious, they're also practical: a solar keyboard that works even in your windowless cubicle, ski goggles that show you your speed and distance as you snake down the slopes, a tiny mobile mouse that's actually comfortable to use. Each of these clever products works as promised, and some you might just find yourself reaching for every day.

A mouse that (finally!) replaces your laptop touchpad

Here's an age-old conundrum: Most laptop touchpads are not that accurate or comfortable to use, yet lugging along a full-size desktop mouse just takes up more room in your laptop bag. Hardware manufacturers have offered scaled-down travel mice for years, but they tend to feel cramped and awkward to use.
Enter the Swiftpoint Mouse ($70). At 2.5 x 2.0 x 1.5 inches, it weighs only 1 ounce and works on top of your laptop or on a desk. Amazingly, this tiny, strange-looking mouse is just as accurate as a desktop mouse and more comfortable to use, since it has a better ergonomic angle. Your hand doesn't need to scrunch up in a ball to use it; instead, you hold its side indentations with your thumb and middle finger, with your forefinger resting on top of the device. A word of warning, though: You'll need a bit of practice to get the hang of it.
The mouse charges from the USB receiver that plugs into your laptop -- you just place the mouse on a small clip on the receiver and it charges in about 90 minutes for 3 to 4 weeks of use. It works with both Windows and Mac OS X computers.

 

Ski goggles that show you speed, distance and location

Skiers will testify to the fact that a sports watch is almost useless when you're heading downhill at 40mph. Because you're focused on moguls and tree stumps, you can't even check the time, let alone your altitude or how fast you're going. A few years ago, ski goggles that projected an image in front of you were somewhat helpful, but they were also annoying because the display blocked your view of the slopes.
The Recon Zeal Transcend GPS Goggles ($500 for the SPPX version with lenses that darken automatically or $400 for the SPX version that just blocks the sun) show a small one-inch, 320x240 display in the lower right lens that appears to float in space. You can look straight out from the 9-ounce goggles normally, then glance down to check your speed, real-time location (latitude and longitude), distance traveled, the temperature and other helpful skiing variables.
If that's not innovative enough for you, Recon says it's working on a new version called MOD Live, due out this fall, that connects to your Android phone over Bluetooth.

A truly portable electric bike

Anyone who has visited Google's Silicon Valley campus has no doubt seen the company's employees zipping around on electric-powered Segway scooters. Unfortunately, scooters are not that portable once you arrive at work. The electric-powered YikeBike, on the other hand, folds down into a compact 27 x 22 x 7-inch form for easy carrying and storage.
With a small 20-inch front wheel, a tiny 8-inch rear wheel and handlebars that jut out from the seat, this bicycle looks, well, weird. To ride it, you sit upright on the cushy seat with your hands down at your sides holding the handlebars, one for acceleration and one for braking. This unusual design makes the YikeBike more maneuverable than a typical bicycle, but it takes some getting used to -- practicing in a parking lot or other traffic-free area is imperative.
Equipped with a 450-Watt engine, the YikeBike can be fully charged in about 45 minutes and lasts about 6 miles on a charge. Its official top speed is around 15 mph, and it's designed for people whose heights range from 5'4" to 6'4" and who weigh up to 220 pounds. There are two models available: a carbon-fiber one that weighs about 24 pounds and costs $3,500, and one made from aluminum and composites that weighs about 31 pounds and costs $2,000.
At those prices, the YikeBike is not an impulse buy, and it may not be street-legal depending on your location. In other words, you can probably drive it on private property such as a college or corporate campus, but perhaps not on public roads. Be sure to check your local laws to see if there are specific rules governing electric bikes.

A keyboard powered by the sun (or your desk lamp)

While wireless keyboards are nothing new, Logitech has taken the concept a step further by introducing the Wireless Solar Keyboard K750 ($80). OK, it's a bit gimmicky -- after all, AA batteries are inexpensive and last quite a long time -- but it does keep a few toxic batteries out of the landfill. The K750 doesn't actually have to be in the sun to charge; its solar panels collect energy from any light source, indoors or out. It looks pretty cool too.
Logitech claims the K750 will last for three months on one charge, but I didn't have a chance put this to the test; in my experience, the keyboard was constantly charging from the available light. There's also a battery charge app you can run that shows you both the charge level and the amount of ambient light in the room.
More importantly, the K750 is an outstanding keyboard. It uses the flat, rectangular "chiclet" keys found on many laptops. The result is fast and accurate typing on a full-size keyboard that connects over 2.4GHz wireless to the included USB adapter. The perk is that, once it's connected to your Windows 7, Vista or XP computer, you never have to think about recharging it.

A refrigerator with wireless apps

There's no place in the home where people congregate more frequently than the kitchen. (Everyone has to eat, right?) So the refrigerator has long been the default location for simple communications such as shopping lists and notes between family members.
The Samsung RSG309 LCD Refrigerator ($2,700) advances those communications into the wireless age. There's a built-in 8-inch LCD touchscreen on the left-hand door that supports apps such as Pandora, WeatherBug, Twitter, Google Calendar, a slideshow viewer for Picasa images and several more apps -- with more in the works. The screen connects to your home network over Wi-Fi, a first for any kitchen refrigerator, and you can load new apps as they come out. You can queue up songs, display the current temp, or even show current news for anyone to check as they pass through the kitchen.
What makes the LCD Refrigerator practical is that it's also a good fridge: It has 30 cubic feet of space inside, has adjustable-height shelves, and (unlike many refrigerators) uses two different air circulation systems for the main refrigerator and freezer compartments. There's also a higher-end model, the $3,500 RF4289, that has a French-door design.

Google Chromebooks available for pre-order

Orders can go in for Samsung and Acer Chromebooks on Amazon and BestBuy

Google Chromebooks can now be pre-ordered at Amazon.com and BestBuy.com.

Google made the announcement Thursday on Twitter, saying that Chromebooks from both Acer and Samsung are available.
"Nothing but the web: Samsung & Acer #Chromebooks now available for pre-order from @Amazon and @BestBuy in the US http://t.co/LpY0jWU," tweeted GoogleChrome.
Amazon notes that it's taking orders for the Samsung Series 5 3G ($499.99) and the Samsung Series 5 Wi-Fi ($429.99) -- both come in either black or white. The online seller also is taking orders for Acer's Cromia 3G ($449.99) and the Cromia Wi-Fi ($379.99).
BestBuy.com is taking orders for the two Samsung models at the same pricing.
For some of the Chromebooks, the sites say they simply have not been released yet; for others, like the Samsung Series 5 3G Chromebook, it's noted that they are slated to ship on June 15.
When Google first unveiled the Chromebooks, company executives said they'd first be available on June 15.
Last month, Google took the wraps off the upcoming Chromebooks, which run Google's Chrome operating system, at the company's annual Google I/O developers conference in San Francisco.
Google's Chromebooks, according to industry watchers, could be a boon for the company that has been trying to work its way into the lucrative enterprise market. If the Chromebooks are adopted in the corporate world, then Google's OS and its office-related cloud apps would get a lot more play in the enterprise as well.
To better woo businesses, Google is selling the Chromebooks on a subscription basis to companies with a starting price of $28 per user.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1: A slim and sexy Android tablet

In the realm of Android tablets, standing out from the pack is becoming an increasingly challenging task for manufacturers. With its new Galaxy Tab 10.1 device, Samsung has managed to set itself apart with a quality few have achieved: sexiness.
That's right: The Galaxy Tab 10.1 is sexy. At a mere 8.6 mm in thickness, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is even thinner (by a hair) than Apple's celebrated iPad 2, which is listed at 8.8 mm.
It weighs about 1.25 lb., making it 6% lighter than the iPad 2 and a whopping 20% lighter than the Motorola Xoom, the current flagship device for Google's Android Honeycomb tablet platform. When blindly holding the Tab and the Xoom flat in your palms, like plates, it's tough to gauge the difference in weight. But holding the tablets individually in front of you, as you would when actually using them, the new Tab's light form is impossible not to notice.

At a mere 8.6 mm in thickness, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 (top) is noticeably slimmer than the 12.9 mm Motorola Xoom (bottom).

And the Tab 10.1 practically begs to be held. This thing is all smooth curves: Its silver metallic trim forms a gently rounded border around its 10.1-inch screen. The trim extends about half an inch down the Tab's back, covering the rear camera area. The back plate itself is shiny white plastic; a dark gray model is also available.
So the Galaxy Tab 10.1 has a rockin' body; that much is clear. But will it also wow you with its brains? Let's take a look.

Under the hood

Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 is powered by an Nvidia Tegra 2 dual-core 1GHz processor, the same processor used in the Xoom and numerous other high-end Android devices. Like the Xoom, the Galaxy Tab has 1GB of RAM.
As you'd expect, given those specs, the Tab's performance is impressive: I found that swiping through home screen panels was fast and fluid, and apps loaded almost instantly. Resource-intensive games such as the Tegra-optimized Riptide GP and Pinball HD played smoothly, showing off what Nvidia's GeForce GPU can do.
Web browsing on the Tab 10.1 was speedy and hassle-free (aside from some Web sites loading as mobile versions -- a Web development problem that's solvable with a simple fix). With the separately downloaded Adobe Flash Player in place, Flash-based videos played effortlessly in the Honeycomb browser; I watched several clips without so much as a single blip in the playback.
(Flash content on Android, it's worth noting, loads only on demand; as such, you don't end up seeing things like Flash-based ads unless you choose to tap and load them.)
The only performance-related issue I noticed was a tendency for the screen to sometimes take too long to rotate when turning the device, particularly on the home screen. This seems to be a common hiccup with Android Honeycomb tablets, however, and not exclusive to the Galaxy Tab 10.1.
In terms of battery life, the Tab can last a solid nine hours with continuous video playback. For regular day-to-day use, you should easily be able to go a good few days without needing to charge.

The Tab's display

The core component of any tablet is its display, and the Galaxy Tab 10.1 shines in this department. The Tab's 1280 x 800-pixel LCD is bold and vibrant, with brilliant colors and crisp definition. The color-intensive configuration makes the Xoom's screen (also 1280 x 800) look almost muted in comparison.
That said, the Tab's display did seem a bit oversaturated at times. In photos, for instance, skin looked significantly more orangey than it should -- not necessarily a bad thing for the pale among us -- while the Xoom's color representation was far more true to life.
Like any glossy-surfaced gadget, the Galaxy Tab looks worse in the sun. But while the screen appeared more washed out in outdoor conditions, I was able to view images and read text with relative ease, even in direct sunlight. Still, I found the Xoom to generally fare better in bright conditions.
I had no qualms with the Tab's touch-screen responsiveness; it struck me as roughly comparable to that of other high-end Honeycomb tablets.

A sweeter Honeycomb?

As with all Android devices, setup and synchronization was simple: After inputting my Google account credentials, the system automatically imported my preferences from my Android phone. It pulled over all of my emails, contacts and calendar information -- even the home screen wallpaper I had set on another device. Apps that I had downloaded to other devices appeared within five to 10 minutes. The Tab easily synced up with my Chrome browser bookmarks and with my recently created Google Music account, too. Thanks to the latter connection, I was able to stream anything from my entire music collection within minutes of turning the tablet on -- no waiting or downloads required.
Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 runs Android 3.1, the updated version of Honeycomb released by Google one month ago. With the 3.1 release, Honeycomb has evolved tremendously from its initial rough-around-the-edges form. The system is smoother, and glitches present in the early release have largely been ironed out. A smattering of new features is also available, including the ability to resize home screen widgets and to turn the tablet into a fully functioning USB host, capable of connecting to cameras, keyboards, joysticks and other external devices.

The Galaxy Tab currently runs a stock version of Honeycomb (Android 3.1); however, Samsung may add its TouchWiz overlay later.

(For a more thorough overview of the operating system and how it differs from Apple's iOS, see my full Android Honeycomb review.)
In its rush to get 3.1 on the Tab, Samsung opted to ship the device with stock Honeycomb, leaving off its trademark TouchWiz overlay for now. If you like a "pure" Google experience, though, you may be in for a disappointment.
First of all, while the new Tab is lacking Samsung's full custom interface, the company did -- contrary to initial impressions -- make some subtle modifications to the OS. Most immediately noticeable, the default Honeycomb camera app is replaced with a Samsung alternative. I wouldn't say it's really better or worse in any significant way; it's just different -- and that's the problem. Samsung's camera app is inconsistent with the overall Honeycomb interface; unlike the rest of the system, it doesn't have the standard set of navigation buttons at the bottom of the screen to let you step back, return to the home screen, or multitask. This inconsistency hurts the user experience and makes me wonder why Samsung meddled with the software in the first place.
Other OS modifications include the addition of a Samsung virtual keyboard, which uses Nuance's XT9 text-prediction technology. It is set as the primary keyboard by default, though you can switch back to the standard Honeycomb keyboard if you prefer. (Personally, I found the regular Honeycomb version easier to use.) Samsung also added in a setting that lets you specify separate wallpapers for your home screen and lock screen -- a fine if somewhat unnecessary feature.
The Galaxy Tab 10.1 has a handful of Samsung-added apps preinstalled, all of which are set as system applications and thus are unremovable. These include Samsung's Music Hub, a rather clunky and superfluous Samsung app store, and a couple of third-party programs for word processing and news.
Hang on, though: This stuff is all small potatoes compared to the Samsung software modifications on the way. The company still plans to add its TouchWiz user interface onto the Galaxy Tab 10.1; the interface will be sent as an over-the-air update to Tab users at some point "in the near future." The update will integrate the company's full custom UI into the Android software, adding such features as a dock-style app tray for quick access to commonly used applications, a series of custom apps and widgets for the home screen, and seamless access to Samsung mobile services like Media Hub, Social Hub and Allshare.
Prerelease previews indicate the TouchWiz-enabled Tab will have a redesigned e-mail app and a revamped system settings menu as well.
So are those modifications good or bad? That depends on your preferences. Some people think manufacturer-added skins like Samsung's TouchWiz enhance the software and make for a better experience; others, myself included, tend to view them as unnecessary clutter with unfortunate repercussions. User experience aside, manufacturer-added skins have the potential to cause delays in future Android upgrades, since manufacturers have to spend extra time baking their modifications into each release before it can be distributed. The fact that Samsung decided to temporarily remove its TouchWiz UI from the Tab in order to get the 3.1 update ready fast seems to reinforce this notion.
Samsung says it hasn't yet determined how the upgrade will work and whether users will be given a choice to stick with the stock Honeycomb experience. Consider, though, the extra time and expense it would require for the company to support and upgrade two separate paths of software for the life of the device. Anything's possible, but that certainly doesn't seem probable.
(Incidentally, someone from Samsung told PCWorld that the company may let users "opt to use elements of [TouchWiz]" after the update. I suspect that means you might end up being able to knock out things like the widgets and added apps but would be stuck with the OS-level modifications. We'll find out for sure soon enough; for now, the take-home message is that there is no guarantee.)

Cameras, multimedia, and more

Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 has a 3-megapixel rear-facing camera with LED flash and 720p-quality HD video recording. The Tab also has a 2-megapixel front-facing camera for video chat, which can be accomplished through Google's preinstalled Google Talk program or through any number of third-party utilities. A gyroscope, accelerometer, ambient light sensor and compass are also all on-board.
The Galaxy Tab has stereo speakers along its side edges, about an inch and a half from the top of the device. I found the sound quality to be decent -- better than most mobile products, but still a bit tinny. The speakers on the Xoom, for instance, produced a fuller and richer sound to my ears, though their placement -- on the back side of the tablet -- is undoubtedly inferior.
In terms of connectivity, the Galaxy Tab is pretty limited. A headphone jack sits on the top edge of the tablet, alongside the power button and volume rocker. The bottom of the unit has just a single port for Samsung's proprietary charging/connection cable. The cable -- included with the tablet -- allows you to connect the unit directly to your PC, where you can access it like an external hard drive and drag and drop files as you wish.

What's missing

For all its assets, Samsung's new Galaxy Tab is missing several significant elements that could go a long way in differentiating it from Apple's market-leading iPad tablet. The Tab 10.1 has no microSD card slot and consequently does not support external storage. It lacks a USB port, meaning Tab users won't be able to natively take advantage of Android 3.1's USB host functionality. The Galaxy Tab has no dedicated HDMI out port, either, and -- unlike the Motorola Xoom -- has no LED indicators to alert you of new e-mails, the tablet's charging status or other relevant messages.
Some of these omissions will be corrected with third-party accessories Samsung will sell in the future. But they're not built into or included with the tablet, as is the case with some of the Tab's competitors.

The bottom line

Available now only at New York City's Union Square store, Wi-Fi versions of Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 will be available nationwide on June 17. The 16GB model will sell for $499; a 32GB edition will run $599. Verizon Wireless will also offer 4G versions of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 starting in July; those models will cost $529.99 for 16GB or $629.99 for 32GB and will require two-year contract commitments.
All considered, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is an impressive tablet with an outstanding form. Its slim profile and sleek appearance make it a standout item in a field of often indistinguishable contenders. The Tab's "sexy" factor is sure to catch the eye of many an eager buyer, and -- combined with its $499 starting price and Samsung's past success with Android smartphones -- may very well position the Tab to become Android's first breakout star in the booming tablet market.
For casual users who want to venture outside of Apple's carefully controlled walls, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 is an excellent option -- easily the best available right now. For users who want extra bells and whistles and don't mind taking on a little extra weight for those features, a more robust tablet like the Motorola Xoom or the upcoming Toshiba Thrive may be a better choice. Frankly, the differences in design are subjective; as smartphones have shown us, some people prefer a sturdier, more heavy-duty look over the shiny and smooth curves employed by the Tab.
Finally, for Android enthusiasts who prefer Google's stock Honeycomb experience -- and who place great importance in receiving quick updates to the Android operating system as they become available -- it is difficult to wholeheartedly recommend the Galaxy Tab. Samsung is offering no guarantee that it'll provide a stock Android upgrade path into the future, and even the software on the tablet at launch, while technically stock-based, has a handful of OS-level modifications in place.
The Xoom is the reference model used by Android engineers; if you want "pure" Google software and the first shot at future upgrades, it's probably still your safest bet.