Aakash Tablet User Review by an early adopter - Disappointed

Aakash Tablet was never meant to be a competitor of IPad. When 35$ tablet project was started the idea was to create a cheap internet access device with functionality to read ebook and watch educational/streaming video.  Pramod Prabhakar has posted in aakashtablet google group that he is very disappointed with the tablet. He has reason to scream, it seems product is not polished yet. He complains about error that persists when 2 Gb micro SD card is inserted.It is “"SD Card unexpectedly removed". One can expect these kind of quality when product was developed and tested in short period. At this price point, even producing something useful is a credit. However, I do feel Datawind should have tested it more. Second issue which Pramod faced was response of touch screen. When it was announced the tablet will have resistive touch screen, it was expected that response of touch would be slower than captive display devices. Also, it was already announced that although the tablet has Android 2.2.2, it wouldn’t support Android Market Place. However, Java support is there. Pramod has reported that he has downloaded a few apps from getJar.com and all of them are working.

PDF Support

Pramod has tried reading PDF documents on Aakash Tablet. It does work. However, when you are try to move to a page to next page, it does take significant time and lag is quite noticeable.He estimates it takes 5-10 seconds to load next page.

Reading Microsoft Office documents

Pramod has tried reading MS Office 2003 documents. It does work however, pictures and special characters gets jumbled. Scrolling through pages have significant lag.

Office suite

Aakash Tablet PC comes with Androffice, however it was reported that creating and editing office document is not working.For document editing there is a text editor (kind of notepad on Windows OS) and it does work.

Streaming Video like Youtube

Prabhakar has played a few kids rhymes via streaming. There was some flicker effect.

Playing audio and video files

Prabhakar has successfully played a few mp3 audio files on Aakash Tablet, at the same time he reports he couldn’t play a few of other mp3 files. He has not got chance to play video files on device.

USB Pendrive support

This is what Prabhakar has to say -

I have used my 4GB and 1GB pen drive both are working. I tried connecting my 1TB Seagate external hard disk but its not recognizing. Data is transferring to the device without any problem. One problem i found out is when the device is goes for sleeping mode while transferring the data the SD card as well as USB Pen drive getting ejected automatically.

Page loading time in internet browser

Prabhakar informs that page loading time in internet browser is acceptable.

Android version 2.2.2

User Guide : none

User Interface :
This is what Prabhakar has to say -

The default launcher is really sucks as its gives a congested feeling on the screen. Scrolling is difficult because you don't have any enough gap between apps  to touch your finger on the screen to scroll. Majority of the time you will end up with opening an app while trying to scroll. You have to keep your finger in between the app on a empty screen carefully , if you wanted to scroll the pages.

List of pre-installed Apps are following :

1.Advanced Task Manager
2.Aldiko Premium
3.Androffice
4.APG
5.arXiv Droid
6.ASTRO
7.Browser
8.Calculator
9.Calendar
10.Camera
11.Clock
12.Contacts
13.DatawindPckge Manager
14.Dev Tools
15.Documents To Go
16.Documents To To Full Version Key
17.Email
18.Facebook
19.FDroid
20.Gallery
21.Jorte
22.Messaging
23.Music
24.Note Pad
25.OI File Manager
26.Phone
27.QuickPic
28.Search
29.Settings
30.Spare Parts
31.Speech Recorder
32.Terminal Emulator
33.UbiMail
34.UbiSurfer
35.Units
36.VuDroid
37.WiFi Advanced Configuration Editor

Other supported downloadable Apps

There is an App called FDroid (like market) and using that there is limited number of apps can be download to the Tab and here is the full list of available for download as of now.

1.aCal - ( Calendar - CalDAV client)

2.AdAway - ( Ad blocking via hosts file)

3.AdBlock - (Ad blocking via HTTP proxy)

4.ADW.Launcher -( Home screen replacement)

5.AGiro - ( OCR scanner for Swedish bills)

6.Alarm Klock -( An alarm clock)

7.aLogcat -( Log viewer)

8.Andor's Trail - ( Quest-driven Roguelike fantasy dungeon crawler RPG)

9.andRoc - (Model railway controller client)

10.Android Battery Dog -( Battery level logger)

11.androidVNC -(VNC viewer)

12.aNetMon -(Network event logger)

13.AnkiDroid -(A flashcard-based study aid)

14.Anstop -( A simple stopwatch)

15.Apps Organizer -( Organize applications using labels)

16.aSQLiteManager -(SQLite Frontend)

17.Audalyzer -( Audio analyser)

18.Bankdroid -( Banking application for Swedish banks)

19.Barcode Scanner -(Barcode scanner)

20.Beem (XMPP client)

21.Blokish -( Board game)

22.BoardGameGeek -(BoardGameGeek application)

23.Book Catalogue -( Book cataloguing application)

24.BookWorm - ( Book collection manager)

25.CACertMan -( A slightly more vetted version of the Android CACert keystore)

26.ChartDroid Core -( Chart engine)

27.ConnectBot -( SSH and local shell client)

28.Cool Reader -(E-book reader)

29.Copy to Clipboard -(Copy to clipboard via the share menu)

30.Crosswords -(A Scrabble-like game)

31.CSipSimple -(SIP (VOIP) client)

32.DAAP -( DAAP Client)

33.DesktopLabel -(Custom desktop label widgets)

34.Diaspora Webclient - ( Diaspora Client)

35.DiskUsage -(Visual disk usage explorer)

36.DiveDroid -(Scuba Dive Logbook)

37.DroidAtomix -( Puzzle game)

38.DroidLife -(Conway's Game of Life)

39.DroidSeries - (TV series browser and tracker)

40.DroidWall - (Firewall)

41.Duck Duck Go - (Duck Duck Go search provider)

42.External IP - (Android application to display IP addresses)

43.FB Reader - (An e-book reader)

44.Firefox - (Firefox mobile)

45.Flygtider - (Flight status info for Swedish airports)

46.FOSDEM - (FOSDEM schedule)

47.Frozen Bubble - ( Bubble shooting game)

48.Funambol Sync -(Funambol sync client)

49.Ghost Commander - (Dual-panel file manager)

50.Giggity - (Schedule viewer)

51.gvSIG Mini Maps - (Tile-based map viewer)

52.Hacker's keyboard - (5-row keyboard)

53.HandyNotes -(Sticky notes widget)

54.Hot Death - (Card game)

55.httpmon - (HTTP monitor)

56.Jamendo - ( Jamendo (FalF music) player)

57.K-9 Mail - (Full-featured email client)

58.KeepPassDroid - ( KeePass-compatible password safe)

59.LCARS Wallpapers - (Music sight reading training game)

60.Libre Droid - (Client for Libre.fm)

61.LifeSaver2 - (SMS and call log backup/restore)

62.Linphone - (SIP (VOIP) client)

63.Mandelbrot Map - (Mandelbrot set viewer)

64.Mathdroid - (Calculator)

65.Memory - (Memory game for kids)

66.Mileage - ( A Mileage tracker)

67.Missle intercept - ( Missile Command style game)

68.Mixare - (Augmented reality browser)

69.MobileOrg - (TODO/task management application)

70.Mustard - (Microblogging client for StatusNet/identi.ca)

71.MythDroid - ( MythTV remote control system)

72.mythmote - (Remote control for MythTV)

73.Navit - (Car navigation system)

74.NetCounter -( Bandwidth usage tracker)

75.Netwok Discovery -(Network discovery tool)

76.Omnidroid - ( Automated Event Handler)

77.Open GPS Tracker -(GPS Logger)

78.Open Manager -(A simple file browser and manager)

79.openBmap - (OpenBmap Data Contribution)

80.OpenSatNav - (Satellite Navigation)

81.OpenSudoku - (Sudoku game)

82.Orbit - ( Tor client)

83.Orweb v2 -(Proxy + Privacy Browser)

84.OsmAnd - ( OpenStreetMap navigation & routing)

85.OsmAnd+ - ( OpenStreetMap navigation & routing)

86.Osmdroid - ( OpenStreetMap map viewer)

87.OSMTracker for Android™ -(GPS Track Recorder)

88.PactrackDroid - ( Swedish parcel tracker)

89.Pedometer - (Pedometer)

90.Permission - ( Lists application permissions)

91.PiwikMobile - ( Client for Piwik)

92.Pony Express - ( SixGun Productions mobile application)

93.Postcode - ( Get postcode for your location (UK only))

94.Practice Hub - (Tools for musicians)

95.Pushup Buddy - ( Measures and logs push-ups using the proximity sensor)

96.Quick Battery - (Battery widget)

97.Quick Settings - (System settings tool)

98.Quickdroid - (Quickly search apps, contacts, bookmarks and music)

99.reddit is fun - (Reddit app)

100.ReGalAndroid - (Gallery client for G2/3 and Piwigo)

101.Rehearsal Assistant - ( A voice/sound recording tool)

102.Remote Notifier - ( Notifications from device to desktop)

103.Replica Island - (Side-scrolling platform game)

104.Ringdroid - ( Ringtone editor)

105.Scandinavian keyboard - ( Keyboard for Scandinavian languages)

106.Scramble Net - ( Puzzle game)

107.Seeks - ( Widget for Seeks web service)

108.ServeStream - ( Media server browser/stream player)

109.share my position - (Share your location)

110.Shelves - ( Book collection manager)

111. Sipdroid - ( A SIP (VOIP) client)

112. Slight backup - ( A very simple backup program)

113.SMS Backup+ - ( Backup SMS and call logs to IMAP)

114.Sokoban - (A Sokoban game for Android)

115.Solitaire - ( Solitaire collection)

116.Sound Manager -(Volume level scheduler)

117.Sparse rss - ( Simple feed reader)

118.Speech Trainer - ( Speech training)

119.Squeezer -(Sqeezebox remote control app)

120.SwallowCatcher - ( Podcast client)

121.SwiFTP - ( FTP server)

122.TalkMyPhone - (Remote control of phone by XMPP)

123.Tea Timer - ( A Simple Tea Timer for Android)

124.Text Edit - ( A text editor)

125.TiltMazes - ( Logical puzzle game)

126.Timeriffic - ( Auto-control settings on a schedule)

127.Tiny Tiny RSS Reader - ( An RSS reader for Tiny Tiny RSS)

128.Tomdroid - ( Note taker)

129.Trafikinfo.nu - ( Show Swedish traffic information)

130.Transdroid Torrent Manager - ( Remote control for Bittorrent clients)

131.Tricorder - ( Fully functional Star Trek style Tricorder)

132.Trolly - ( Shopping list application)

133.TUIdroid - ( TUIO tracker)

134.Vanilla Music - (Simple and streamlined music player)

135.Vector Pinball - ( Pinball game)

136. Wake On Lan - ( Wake-On-Lan)

137.Weather notification - ( Displays the air temperature and other weather conditions in the Android notification bar)

138.WhereRing - ( Automatically change ring mode by location)

139.WiFiKeyboard - ( Remote WiFi keyboard)

140.WordPress - (WordPress client)

141.XBMC Remote - ( Remote control for XBMC Media Center)

142.xkcdViewer - ( Viewer for the xkcd.com webcomic)

143.Xmp for Android - ( Tracker module player)

144.Yaaic - ( IRC client)

145.yaxim - ( XMPP client)

146.Zirco Browser (Web browser with ad blocker)

147.3 ( Music player)

Last word : No one expected Aakash Tablet as competitor of IPAD, but they can certainly work on testing and producing quality product with features they claim. Lets hope in future version basic will be corrected.What’s your take?

Thanks to Pramod Prabhakar for taking time to share his experience in Aakash Tablet Group.