I wrote a quick post on the Tab earlier, which you can read here. Samsung has now issued the full spec, so I think it is worth highlighting a few of its other features.

1 It is HTML5 and Flash compatible - take that Apple

2 Its on board camera means it has access to Augmented Reality apps, which really do look amaying on its large screen

3 Screen resolution is 1024x 600 WSVGA slightly lower than the iPad

4 Via Google it has on board satellite navigation. In fact its size makes it perfect for this function

5 It weighs just 380 grams. It really is light and skinny

So how do you take on Apple in the tablet PC market? Well I guess you do things a bit differently and add functionality that Apple users can only dream about. And that's exactly what Samsung has done with its Galaxy Tab which was announced at IFA in Berlin today.

I managed to get a bit of a sneak preview and was very impressed with what I saw. Here's a roll through the key features.

1 It has a 7inch screen - For me 5inch screens are too small, while the iPad and its 10inch screen (and the weight it adds) doesn't really feel like a portable device. I really like the 7 inch format. It does feel small enough for you to carry round with you everywhere but large enough to display the web in a bold and very readable way. It is much lighter than the iPad too and you can hold it in one hand. Samsung has said that 5inch and 10inch versions of the tablet PCs are in the offing but for now this will do nicely.

2 It has on board camera - Unlike the iPad there's a 3.2 mega pixel camera for snapping plus a video camera for creating content and video calling. I am not entirely sure how often you would use the device to take pictures as it is too big to hold steady like a camera, but the video messaging facility is a very nice touch.

3 You can make voice calls - In true Dom Jolly style you can use the Galaxy Tab to make and receive calls. You either hold the device to your ear, which does make you look very strange, or use a Bluetooth headset.

4 It runs Google Android, but also has few Samsung apps - The Samsung ones are what you'd expect; email, web browsing, music. There's also a neat feature called Reader Hub where you can access a range of magazines, newspapers and books. Samsung has done deals with Kobo (for books), Zinio (magazines) and a company that takes newspapers and turns them into PDF style documents. It is nice to have access to all that content in one place.

5 It has upgradeable storage - You can opt for 16 or 32 Gigabytes of storage and upgrade that via a Micro SD card if you want more.

6 It can run using HSDPA - Which as you all know is a faster version of 3G so in theory it can be much quicker to download data on the move than the iPad.

7 It will be mainly sold via phone networks - Samsung hasn't announced its network partners yet, but the hot money is on Orange. It will be available across the globe later in the month and will reach the UK in October. No news on price.

Overall I was pretty impressed. This clearly scores over the iPad in several key areas (camera, phone, storage, mobile connectivity). I also like the more portable size and the way you can hold it one handed. I'd have liked to have seen a USB socket on there though. If Samsung can deliver some attractive deals with networks it really will have a winner on its hands. I think the next gen iPad will look a lot like this too.

An interesting story broke in the WSJ this weekend about a proposed tablet PC device from Korean manufacturer LG. Amid the usual bluster (the VP for mobile-device marketing Chang Ma told the Wall Street Journal. "Our tablet will be better than the iPad.") came the news that the LG tablet would focus on productivity.

This made me think of two things

1 To take on the iPad tablet makers are going to need a USP - At one level this might be knocking out cheapo Android drive tablets for less than £200. This would certainly expand the market massively. However there are a couple of other options.

One might be to produce a tablet PC aimed squarely at kids. As anyone who shares an iPad and a house with children can testify the iPad is a genius gadget for the under 10s. So what could prove to be a massive seller would be a touch screen tablet with a brightly coloured very durable frame that is packed with all sorts of creative and gaming software. Sell it for less than £250 and ToysRUs would be shifting them by the bucket load (and adult iPad owners might get their gadget back).

The other is to take LG's route to its logical conclusion and produce a tablet that is focused on creativity and production. My big bugbear with the iPad is that it is very much a gadget for consumption. Take its flagship third party app - Flipboard, which is all about consuming content - in this intance inspired by Twitter and Facebook and not actually tweeting, commenting or updating statuses.

I'd personally love to see an iPad that worked seamlessly with Posterous, Tumblr and even Wordpress that made blogging ultra simple. Just imagine if the content management system automatically took your content and delivered it in a Flipboard format enabling you to make your own magazines. I think the keyboard would need to be re-thought a little (although the iPad's larger touch screen keypad is actually quite good). It would be good if it ran on Android, but had compatibility with Excel, PowerPoint etc too.

Video creation and photo editing would also be very handy features too and what I wouldn't give for a tablet PC with an integrated camera/webcam

2 Manufacturers need to get innovative product out there quickly - If anything the lesson from both the iPod and the iPhone is that if you don't respond fast enough, too many people get sucked into Apple's irresistible universe and it makes it very hard to sell rivals products. Sony's range of MP3 Walkmans and the Microsoft's Zunes were both good products but they offered too, little too late.