Can the K10D multi-task?

Well if it was exactly the same it'd be the same price? AFAIK the operating system software of the Samsung is their own.

I've just downloaded the samsung manual, and when I have nothing better to do I'll read through and see if I can find any significant differences.

EDIT:-

They seem functionally the same, but the Menu/Trash/Info/Playback buttons are square on the samsung. There also seems to be a lack of in-depth technical material about the GX-10 on the samsung website.

Oh - and it occurs to me that the "official" Samsung battery should be cheaper than the pentax and safe to use in the K10D; they also mention that the pentax mains unit can be used with the GX-10, so I'd assume the reverse is true, too.

Marketing. The actual production cost of an item bears no relation to the selling price.

That wasn't my aim, but maybe the evidence points to that. The OP says the GX10 was frustrating because the user couldn't change settings while it was writing to the card. However, my K10D definitely allows multitasking in that way.
I don't suspect the electronics is any different - but there are obvious differences in the user interface, and perhaps not so obvious differences in the internal firmware.

But in either case it may all be a bit of a red herring. I strongly suspect that it's the image preview that's confusing everyone. Unlike the *ist-D, the K10D allows you to zoom in on the preview (so you don't have to enter playback mode) and check the histogram etc. When in this mode, the dials change their function temporarily to allow these operations.

So.... if you want to twiddle the dials immediately after taking a shot, either disable the image preview facility, or as John rightly says, half-press the shutter button to immediately cancel the preview

Matt