A relatively newer entrant in the vast gadgets market, and you would expect some nice products from them, but no, this happens to be HCL – and they simply don’t care.

Bad online shopping experience – Seems they are using a decade old online shopping system, which supports only a specific number of characters per field such as Address etc. Please note that I have used the same address on eBay and other online shops without any issues whatsoever. The worst part is that it does not even show any notification that you have exceeded your character limit. So, after you are done with the shopping and all, the courier agency gets only half the address and keeps searching for my home all around the city. I get a hundred calls, and even the HCL guys don’t have a clue cause they too have only the half address. I think Govt. of India should start issuing an online seller’s permit/ license so that users won’t have to go through such nightmare.

Terrible product – the on-screen QWERTY keyboard is like a puzzle, you press R and what you get on screen is E or T, but rarely R, same with all other alphabets and buttons. There is a screen calibration option, but there was no improvement even after calibrating the screen with all the fancy dots and circles. Pathetic. The only solution is to remember what’s displayed when a certain key is pressed, and try to do the opposite to get the desired result. For example, if you press R and you get T most of the times then you have to press T if you want R. Just keep on trying, and finally you will become an expert at it. Thanks to HCL.

This wasn’t the only issue. Felt like throwing the HCL ME tablet in the gutter when I noticed that you have to remove and re-insert the memory card to make it work. Every time you start the tablet, you need to remove and re-insert the memory card or else it just doesn’t show up on the system. Somebody please shoot Shiv Nadar. The list of bugs is endless, system crash, screen freezes, auto-rotate issues, touch screen issues, limited applications; it just goes on and on…

Worst Customer Service – I called up customer service and asked them about the memory card issue. Here’s what I got as a reply – “Sir, it’s a removable drive, so naturally it will not mount on its own, it is the case with every tablet in the market, you have to remove and re-insert it every time you boot up. Is there anything else we can do for you?”

So that’s it guys, hope you will not be a fool like me and buy HCL products, especially the HCL ME Tablet AE7-A1.

Currently using the HCL ME tablet as a paperweight. Thanks again HCL!!!

With new products being launched almost every fortnight, the market of convergence devices is hotting up like never before. The latest entrant in this market is the Samsung GALAXY Tab, which appears to be the most feature-rich mobile device in its category. With its 7″ display, it is certainly more of a Tablet PC, but convergence fans need not feel disappointed because the device has full phone functionality. In case you are wondering how awkward it would actually look to use a brick-sized device as a cell phone, then you need to go through the specifications, which clearly state that calling can only be done via the speakerphone or the hands-free calling kit supplied with the device. It’s easy to see that users will have to compromise a bit on the calling part, especially if they are to replace their cell phones with the Samsung GALAXY Tab.

Running on Android 2.2 (Froyo), the GALAXY Tab comes with either 16GB or 32GB Internal memory and can be extended to another 32GB via an external MicroSD card. Users can experiment with a variety of applications that are available through both the Samsung Apps and the Android Market. With its large display screen, it is perfect for reading eBooks, newspapers, magazines etc. Web browsing, watching movies and videos, navigation, social networking, and gaming will also be a great experience with the large sized display screen. The device has Full HD (1080p) Video Player & Recorder (720×480)@30fps. Supported audio file formats include MP3, AAC, OGG, AMR-NB/WB, FLAC, WAV, AC3, MIDI, RTTTL/RTX, OTA, i-melody, and SP-MIDI.

With its 4,000 mAh battery, the GALAXY Tab can play 7 hours of video, which is certainly a major plus in comparison to the battery life of other similar devices. The 3.0 MP AF camera with LED flash is decent enough for day-to-day needs, although today’s smartphones have far better in-built cameras, with some offering as much as 12 mega pixels.

The price of Samsung GALAXY Tab is still not clear because it is still to reach major markets such as the United Stated. If reasonably priced, we anticipate considerable demand for the device as and when it becomes readily available in the market.

The D-day of convergence, it seems, has finally arrived with the launch of Dell Streak in the United States. It’s technically a cell phone, but with its 5″ mega screen, 512 MB ROM + 512 MB SDRAM + 2 GB non-user accessible MicroSD, capacitive touchscreen, 3G Wi-Fi support, Android OS, and 16 GB pre-installed memory, we suppose it’s good enough to double-up as an ebook reader, a decent camera (5.0M Rear-Facing Auto-Focus Camera + VGA Front-Facing Camera), a portable audio/video player and a tablet PC as well. Initial reports indicate that Dell’s Streak will give tough competition to both brands such as iPhone, ipad, and HTC as well as devices such as ebook readers (Kindle, Nook etc.) and tablet PCs.

The best part is its relatively low price – only $ 549.99 -, as quoted on Dell’s website. Launch in other parts of the world is still not clear, but we expect a considerable demand as and when it hits other major markets worldwide. Reviews are starting to trickle in and a significant percentage of them have been positive in terms of usability, features, processing speed, etc. Dell’s Streak is currently shipping with Android 1.6 OS, but it can be upgraded to version 2.2. With the right codecs installed, Streak can also play .avi and .mkv video file formats along with others such as .3GP, MPEG4, WMV. Supported audio file formats include MP3, WMA, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR, Midi, and WAV.

Really a bargain, especially since the device is all set to redefine the very basics of convergence devices.