In today’s mobile news roundup: Samsung Galaxy 10.1 gets the royal treatment; Lawyer sues Microsoft for misleading ad; and Voyager Mobile to offer free global roaming.

Samsung Galaxy 10.1 get the royal approval

Apple and elitism go hand in hand, but it wasn’t the iPad the Royal Commonwealth Society chose to present to The Queen.  Instead, the charity decided the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 was best fit for the project, creating a digital time-capsule in celebration of Her Majesty’s Jubilee.

“The digital nature of the project required a digital device to present to Her Majesty, and The Queen will be able to press ‘play’ on the tablet before watching a video of some of the best Jubilee time-capsule entries,” said Danny Sriskandarajah, director of the Royal Commonwealth Society charity.

The purpose of the project was to collect data from the most popular events during Queen Elizabeth II’s reign, put them all in a tablet, so the Queen can just press play and see milestones of her past 60 years sitting on the throne.  More than 37,000 people from 66 countries took part in the project, including Olympic “blade runner” athlete Oscar Pistorius and Prince Harry.  Over 150GB of data were collected but it can’t be all compiled in the Galaxy Tab 10.1, so 60 selected entries made the cut.  But the complete 80,000 entries will still be available for everyone to see at the Jubilee Time Capsule site.

Lawyer sues Microsoft for misleading ad

A Californian lawyer bought his Microsoft Surface tablet last week only to find out that the space advertised isn’t what consumers are actually getting.  Andrew Sokolowski bought a 32GB Surface RT last week and was stumped when, after putting some music and Word documents on the device, he quickly ran out of space.  He filed a case against Microsoft accusing the software giant of false advertising.

But Microsoft stated that from the start, they informed consumers that they would be getting less storage space as to what has been advertised.  But Sokolowski’s lawyer stated that the information wasn’t readily available and for one to find it, one must do a thorough research.

It isn’t unusual to get a device with less storage space than what has been advertised– about 7-11 percent is unusable for the user because the brand uses that for their own apps, device settings and what-nots.  Apple’s iDevices have 11 percent reduced storage space but the difference with their products and Microsoft’s is that their pre-installed apps are stored separately, while Microsoft’s apps share space with the user’s space.

In other Microsoft news, CEO Steve Ballmer has been hinting that more Microsoft-branded devices will be available to consumers in the near future, but there was no specific date or product divulged.  Ballmer’s statement could potentially harm the Microsoft brand, but since they will be in direct competition with their product partners, he doesn’t seem to mind.

“Do I anticipate that partners of ours will build the lion’s share of all Windows devices over the next five years? The answer is, absolutely,” Steve Ballmer said at a tech industry event in Santa Clara, California, on Wednesday.  “With that said, it is absolutely clear that there is an innovation opportunity on the scene between hardware and software and that is a scene that must not go unexploited at all by Microsoft.”

The point is, Microsoft knows how crucial the mobile market is nowadays, and is aware that if they can deliver a product which is solely Microsoft-built, they have a chance to get ahead in the game, even at the expense of losing some long-standing partners.

Voyager Mobile to offer free global roaming

Voyager Mobile stunned the mobile market last May when they offered unlimited wireless plans starting at $17 per month.  And next year, they’re planning to attract even more mobile users by offering free global roaming services.  Project Global Voyager is a patent-pending global wireless technology that would allow subscribers to use their mobile devices across the world without ever having to worry about roaming charges.  This is possible because the network is completely cloud-based, with no special software residing on the individual handsets and devices.

“It’s technology that promotes collaboration between companies, vendors, employees, and customers wherever they may be in the world,” John Mardini, President of Voyager Mobile, said.  “It’s technology that keeps a mom in touch with her son while he’s backpacking throughout Europe. And, it’s technology that keeps doctors in Africa in constant communication with their counterparts in the US.”