Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10-5 and 8-4 launched India July 1

We’ve got confirmation that the Samsung Galaxy Tab S series which comprises of the 10.5 and 8.4 tablets is scheduled to go official in India tomorrow. The company has started sending out invites for the event and it has also been teasing the launch on its official Twitter account.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab S series was launched this month itself and it’s already up for grabs in the US. Its quick release in India probably has something to do with the Tab Pro lineup not being officially made available. The new devices will go up against Apple’s iPad Air and Mini with Retina, featuring 6.6mm super slim designs and 2K Super AMOLED displays.

The overall design, however, is nothing new and it highly resembles the current 8-inch and 10.1-inch tablets in the market. While they might not look so premium, the Samsung tablets do pack some serious hardware with a couple of components even beefier than the ones on the Galaxy S5 flagship. What hasn’t been confirmed as yet is which versions of the tablets Samsung plans to launch in India.


Keeping to tradition, the company prefers to release the models with Qualcomm processors in LTE markets only, while the Exynos versions are sold in the remaining locations. We’ve got our money on the latter variants and chances are high that the slates may come without cellular support.

Here are the common specs of the Samsung Galaxy Tab S series:

- Android 4.4 KitKat
- Exynos 5 Octa/Snapdragon 801 chipset
- 2560 x 1600p WQXGA Super AMOLED display
- 3GB RAM, 16GB/32GB storage options
- 128GB expandable memory via microSD slot
- 8MP rear camera, 2.1MP front snapper

Facebook scores record 1 billion interactions for World Cup

With 1 billion posts, likes and comments in just the first half of the World Cup, the soccer tournament is already the most talked-about event in Facebook Inc's decade-long history, data obtained by Reuters showed.

The soccer conversation measured between June 12 and June 29 involved 220 million people and 1 billion interactions, the Facebook data showed. And since the ball will be rolling for another two weeks, the tournament is set to break new records as the biggest social media event to date.

"People are having conversations on Facebook about what they watch in a really unprecedented scale," Nick Grudin, the company’s director of partnerships, told Reuters.

"In addition to sharing and connecting with friends, people are engaging in real time with the media and the public voices they care about most."

Facebook is the latest social media company to capitalize on TV-related traffic around big events like the World Cup, a trend started years ago by the microblog website Twitter Inc.

People use Facebook to comment about things they watch live, an interaction that could turn into a source of ad revenue for the company.

Facebook’s record numbers were possible because of widespread mobile penetration. Seven out of 10 users globally connect to the network from mobile devices, which represent roughly 60 percent of the company’s ad revenue.

There is also soccer’s global appeal. The first week of the World Cup alone saw 459 million interactions on Facebook, more than this year’s Super Bowl, the Sochi Winter Olympic Games and the Academy Awards combined.

The 1 billion mark was reached after traffic accelerated as the World Cup moved into the knockout round. On Saturday, more than 31 million people put up 75 million posts, likes and comments about Brazil’s nail-biting victory over Chile, which propelled the home team to the quarter-finals.

"This Cup has been a catalyzing cultural moment for people around the world," Grudin said, "and we see it reflected on Facebook."

-reuters