Samsung Demos TouchWiz UI, Coming to Tab 10.1 Soon

When Samsung demoed the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 at CTIA earlier this spring, it was running Honeycomb 3.0 with Samsung’s TouchWiz UI, which enabled widget resizing, in addition to other Honeycomb tweaks. When Samsung shipped the Galaxy Tab 10.1 last month, it arrived without TouchWiz, but did sport Honeycomb 3.1, which also offered widget resizing.

Samsung is now promising the TouchWiz user interface will arrive to the Galaxy Tab 10.1 via an over-the-air update, and it will bring many additional features to the Honeycomb tablet.

The updates include:

• Samsung Media Hub for movie and next-day TV show purchases and rentals.
• Samsung Reader's Hub for books, newspapers and magazines.
• Samsung Music hub for a library of 13 million songs.
• The Live Panel customizable widget for instant access to social media updates, email, news, weather, and other relevant  info.
• Mini Apps, which fit their name perfectly as small single-purpose apps that can run simultaneously with existing programs for true multi-tasking. Mini Apps include a task manager, calendar, clock, memo pad, calculator, and music player.
• Clipboard for improved copying and pasting, including images.
• Quick access to popular settings.
• Swype keyboard
• Wireless printing
• A FindMyMobile feature that helps locate lost Galaxy Tabs

Samsung recently released a video showcasing some of the new features, along with everything else the Galaxy Tab 10.1 has to offer.

The Samsung Media Hub will soon be joined by Google’s own movie rental store, which should be making its way as a native app to the Galaxy Tab 10.1. It’s already available online and for the Motorola Xoom, and Tab 10.1 owners can test the functionality through the Tab browser. Despite some recent inroads into Android smartphones and the EVO View 4G tablet, Netflix still remains MIA.

Finally, Samsung will also be shipping a number of accessories that bring USB, HDMI, and SD card functionality to the Galaxy Tab 10.1, which lacks many common ports.