Samsung Mobile announced a new pilot program today with the University of Southern Mississippi which will see 1,000 Galaxy Tab 10.1 mobile tablets offered to students in the Honors College. The aim is to give students an extra boost with their school work in the form of digital content, applications, and more. These privately funded tablets come pre-loaded with Blackboard Mobile, access to courses, digital textbooks, grades, schedules, and other helpful resources.
Click through to see a YouTube clip of the announcement as well as the full press release.
Click here to view the embedded video.
University of Southern Mississippi to Provide Samsung Galaxy Tab™ 10.1 Tablets to Students
Samsung Mobile and Blackboard team up to bring a revolutionary learning experience to the classroom
DALLAS, August 1, 2011 – Samsung Telecommunications America (Samsung Mobile), the No. 1 mobile phone provider in the U.S., today announced that the University of Southern Mississippi will offer Galaxy Tab™ 10.1 mobile tablets to students participating in an Honors College pilot program this fall.
The University of Southern Mississippi is piloting up to 1,000 Galaxy Tab 10.1 devices to be distributed to selected Honors College, McNair Scholars, Southern Style and Gulf Coast students. The goal of this mobile initiative is to provide students with privately funded tablets focused on enhancing access to education. These tablets, loaded with Blackboard Mobile™ Learn, will fundamentally change the educational experience by giving students and educators mobile access to their courses, syllabi, content, e-textbooks, grades, schedules, emergency notifications and much more.
“Today’s announcement illustrates a growing demand from higher education institutions seeking to implement Samsung Mobile technology and content solutions in the classroom,” said Dale Sohn, President of Samsung Mobile. “The Galaxy Tab portfolio is an attractive option for schools looking for devices armed with strong feature sets and access to a comprehensive selection of applications built to enhance the learning process.”
The Samsung tablets will transform the educational space as students and professors share the same hardware and software, enabling them to experience and share audio, video, and other learning materials to accomplish classroom goals. The devices will also aid to reduce the amount of paper used in the classroom and provide students with easy access to e-books and other interactive learning materials.
“Tablets are like the Swiss Army Knife to academic excellence. By leveraging this new technology, we are committed to transforming the way students interact, engage and learn in the classrooms,” said Homer Coffman, Chief Information officer for The University of Southern Mississippi. “The iTech department at Southern Miss is continually challenging itself to support emerging technology and find new ways to put information into the students’ hands.”
The Galaxy Tab 10.1 is a WiFi-enabled tablet that measures at just 8.6 millimeters slim, making it the thinnest large screen tablet currently available in the world. The Galaxy Tab 10.1 is powered by the Android™ 3.1 (Honeycomb) platform and features a brilliant 10-inch touchscreen and access to an array of applications through the Android Market™.
“Samsung Mobile is focused on enhancing enterprise solutions for the Samsung Galaxy portfolio in order to make Samsung the first choice for a variety of enterprise verticals including education, healthcare and others,” said Tim Wagner, Vice President and General Manager of Enterprise Sales for Samsung Mobile. “We are dedicated to enabling educational institutions like the University of Southern Mississippi to provide their students with access to premium technology that enhances the learning experience.”
Here in the United States, we have two Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 flavors to choose from – a Wi-Fi version and a 4G LTE Verizon model. In the UK, customers only have a Wi-Fi version to purchase. Until later this week, that is. Vodafone is planning to launch a 3G-ready model as early as this Friday, August 12. At the moment, consumers will find the tablet is listed as Coming Soon on Vodafone’s website. If the launch date is correct, we’ll soon see the page go live and start taking orders.Reports indicate that the tablet will go for £229 on a 2-yr contract, starting from £27 per month. If you can’t wait for the pre-order page to go live, then head to a nearby Vodafone store or call on this number (08080 022 003).
Samsung launched the original Galaxy Tab over a year ago, and it grew to one of the best-selling tablets on the market. Its big brother, the 
Samsung has officially announced today that they will be launching their flagship tablet, the Galaxy Tab 10.1, later this month in Germany. The tablet is already available from several retailers in the States, as well as a 4G LTE variant from Verizon. The Tab 10.1 will also hit the UK this month, packing Android 3.1, a gorgeous 10.1-inch screen, and a blazing dual-core 1GHz Tegra 2 processor. It will be launched in pure white and soft black for our German friends. Samsung is launching it for 629 Euros (around $892) in Germany, but Amazon is 
![Samsung UN55D8000 55-Inch 1080p 240 Hz 3D LED HDTV (Silver) [2011 MODEL]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51No0-MT8sL._SL75_.jpg "Samsung UN55D8000 55-Inch 1080p 240 Hz 3D LED HDTV (Silver) [2011 MODEL]")