Every now and then a product comes along that makes me want to sit down with the product manager, buy them a beer and ask “So…What was going through your mind when you made these decisions?” The Galaxy Tab is one such product.

First of all, it’s an awkward size; just a little bit too big to comfortably hold (even in my basketball-palming hands), a little bit too heavy to hold up comfortably, and (here’s the magic) as smooth, featureless and slippery as a slab of polished glass. I can’t believe I haven’t dropped it yet.

In the world of hand-held devices, this one is Helen Keller. It has all the brains you could want, but is completely handicapped in its ability to communicate. There is no USB port, for example. And even though it is running one of the world’s most powerful phone operating systems, is purchased from a cell phone company and is connected to the cellular network, you can’t use it to make phone calls. There is no video output (even my phone has an HDMI connector). And then, just to keep you on your toes, they swapped the positions of the HOME and MENU keys so that they are backwards from every other Android device in the world. Had enough yet? The charging connector is absolutely unique in this world, so you’d better carry the custom cable with you since you will never be able to borrow someone else’s, use one from another of your devices, or buy a replacement at Walgreen’s if you forget it.

I want to love it. I was excited when I read about it, I waited and waited for it, and now I’m the first kid on my block to have one. For the moment, anyway, because I’m not keeping it. I simply can’t figure out what to do with it.

Functionally, it’s the part of the Venn diagram where my phone and my laptop intersect. It doesn’t replace either, and it doesn’t do anything unique. And if you were thinking that it might make a nice “instant on” replacement for a laptop in light duty situations, don’t forget about the single-window user paradigm which makes it very tedious to move information from one application to another (for example, sending an excerpt of a word document in an email.)

No, sadly, the perfect device for me hasn’t been invented yet.

Still, I hear Google is working on this Chrome-based netbook to be released early next year. I’m on the waiting list. [Here we go again...]

Portable Speakerphone

I have one of those legendary Jawbone BlueTooth headsets. It works great, but I hate having to deal with it: Put it on. Take it off. Forget you have it on and look like a dork. Charge it when you get home. Lose it.

What I REALLY wanted was a speakerphone for my car that I never had to think about. It would just work when I got in and quit when I got out. Well,  now I have one; the BlueAnt ST3.

I tried a bunch of different devices before settling on this one — Sony, Motorola, BlueConnect. None of them met my specs for performance and convenience.

The ST3 is small, just barely bigger than my phone. At first, I was suspicious because of the unit’s small size and light weight. I wondered how much battery power it had onboard (read “talk time” and “standby time”). I’m going to save to you bunch of time and give you the answers: an unbelievable 15 hours of talk time and one month of standby time on a single 3-hour charge.

The sound quality is very good. It’s plenty loud enough even at freeway speeds and the other end of the conversation is ALMOST as good as my Jawbone (which is saying a lot).

If your phone supports BlueTooth directory integration (which the Android sadly does not until later this month), the ST3′s text to speech processor will even announce who’s calling and allow you to voice answer or not, making the unit truly hands-free.

I don’t even bother turning it on or off. When it notices the BlueTooth signal fade as you walk away, the ST3 shuts down. But it has a vibration sensor in it similar to the ones used in car alarms. When you return to your car, the ST3 wakes up, finds your phone, and locks on.

I suppose that some time, a week or two from now, my ST3 will ask to be recharged. It comes with both an AC charger and a car cable, so no problem. Meanwhile, I’m giving it 5 stars.

Rating: * * * * *

Street price: under $100

Related:

BlueAnt Wireless Website