Notion Ink's Adam Android Tablet Said To Ship This Week 78
junaidslife86 writes with news that the Notion Ink Android tablet has gotten the regulatory go-ahead from US authorities, and should soon be shipping. From the article: "That's right, after several delays the tiny startup will finally condense its occassionally vapory molecules into a solid slab of shipping tablet starting 'around Wednesday' after the hardware receives its FCC tattoo. A tablet good enough to earn a Best of CES 2011 honorable mention at an event absolutely flooded with tablets from a who's who of consumer electronics companies. While our first impressions of the production unit were positive, we're holding off on making a final judgement until we've had the chance to perform a full review." The Notion Ink feature that grabs the most attention seems to be the optional Pixel Qi screen; Brad Linder of Liliputing has a hands-on video with the device from CES which (despite the bad lighting conditions) shows that screen in action.
Confusing summary (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Confusing summary (Score:4, Funny)
Is this thing made by from new process from vapor molecules?
The tablet is real, as was the pun ... the laughs, however, were vaporware.
Ok, beta testers, start your fingers! (Score:3)
I was really excited about the adam (Score:4, Interesting)
Till they started with the massive customization of the UI (named eve). So much so that it now seems kludgy. Now I am waiting on a Mirasol product instead.
Re: (Score:3)
Assuming they didn't pull any bullshit tricks to keep you on their firmware, a device with that flavor of screen is a compelling thing(it was already good on the XO-1, and is said to be improved since then). If, for some perverse reason, they've decided that you will take, and like, whatever dubious decisions they make on the
Re: (Score:1)
I agree the hardware is nice. It will be interesting to see just what it takes to get a generic install on it and what functionality is lost in doing so.
Re: (Score:1, Troll)
"Mirasol" sounds like a feminine hygiene product.
Re: (Score:2)
Completely agreed. The demos of the UI were very off-telling. The final nail in that coffin is that they won't have Market on the device (though you can still install APKs as usual, so you could purchase them from another device and transfer).
However... they also mentioned that tabled is fully capable of running Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) when that is released in terms of hardware, and that it is a priority for them to put it there ASAP. Now this gets interesting, because one of the bullet points of Honeycomb
Re: (Score:2)
Slightly OT but I was in a store [officeworks.com.au] here in Melbourne yesterday and noticed a little netbook (ACER, I think) running Android with the stock shell. Looked very nice. The strange thing was that it had a "Windows 7 Starter" sticker beside the keyboard.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
You do realize that the Android Open-Source Project has little in relation (other than code) to Android the OS, right? An Android phone, at least the ones by the big guys like HTC, Samsung, LG, and Motorola get their Android drops from the OHA directly, which is how th
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Pocketbooks ereader is 7" so that limitation must be a thing of the past. I have a rooted nookcolor and a modbook(waste of money) now that will keep me busy for a bit. If adam lives up to the hype, well I have the cash already set aside for it but not till Android 3 is on it and the kinks are worked out. I stopped reading Rohan's blog a couple of weeks ago have you seen anything to lead you to infer that the UI will be customizable? Because, quite frankly what drove me away was the UI being so proprietary
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Thank you for the correction, you are correct eden is the UI eve is the mystery device/ sensor whatever that Rhohan keeps hinting at I think.
Re: (Score:2)
stop messing with the Android UI (Score:5, Insightful)
I have yet to see anybody who didn't screw up badly while messing with the Android UI. Furthermore, those "enhancements" mean support, update, and documentation headaches.
The specific changes on that device looked questionable, and their claims that you can't interact with widgets are out of date. In effect, they have duplicated work on the main branch of Android and come up with an incompatible solution.
No wonder that they are shipping late; they should have shipped a minimal adaptation of Android earlier and taken any spare time fixing bugs in their drivers and hardware.
I won't buy a heavily customized Android device, and I recommend against it. Android gives manufacturers the freedom to do this, but as customers, we don't have to buy the stuff.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
That would be seriously out of date. Even my old Archos 5 tablet, whose stock firmware came with Android 1.6 supported widgets which worked as a remote for the Last.fm background process and other stuff.
Re: (Score:2)
I think--although they didn't say it clearly--they meant more than just pushing buttons; things like scrolling widgets, which let you use widgets as mini apps or windows.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Do you notice this with phones too? I notice it a little myself on older devices (haven't had the chance to play with a Nexus S yet), but nothing horrible or even annoying, to be honest. The tablets do seem a bit laggy in many videos, but it's difficult to tell without actually using the device. As you've probably had a chance to compare - worse than the phones? Or the same?
Re: (Score:2)
I may be a huge Android fan, but I have no problem admitting that iOS's UI performance/smoothness/responsiveness is still quite a bit better. Android is catching up slowly, but it's all software accelerated, whereas iOS seems to use actual hardware acceleration for the UI... until Android makes the jump to hardware acceleration, that gap will always be there. :)
Re: (Score:2)
To be honest, I've only tried two Android phones just to see what they were like and, yes, the delay was there, too.
There is no delay at all on an HTC Desire. Its home screen scrolling is as zippy and responsive as the latest iPhone/iPod.
I realize this is going to make everyone yell "Fanboi!", but I carry around an iPod Touch (3rd Gen)
The iPod Touch has massive delays when opening home screen folders and when organizing apps. Organizing apps, the entire UI often freezes for several seconds when switching
Re: (Score:1)
I have a touch and I've never noticed this behavior. The only time I've seen it slow down is when you are installing / updating.
Re: (Score:2)
It may depend on the number of apps you have installed; I have a lot of apps installed.
Re: (Score:3)
I notice this with phones. I have had a Nexus One for about a year, and recently switched to iPhone 4. The difference isn't immediately apparent when you just pick the latter up to play, but after using it for a while, it pains me to pick up the other phone and tries to use it - small but constant stutter while scrolling things becomes so annoying when you're used to butter smooth scrolling on iOS devices.
In some cases this is actually a matter of different design. E.g. Android browser, when scrolling, will
Re: (Score:2)
Yup, a lot of it has to do with the design philosophy as well, and the default web browser is a very good example of that. If you install Opera, for instance, you'll get that same iPhone-smooth web page scrolling, but at the cost of checkering.
Some of the cases you mention (lists & market) are cases of not precaching the whole list into memory. Since Gingerbread, for instance, the "Manage apps" dialog has precached lists, making scrolling buttery smooth at the cost of taking two seconds or so to load th
Re: (Score:2)
I have noticed that iphone users find the resistive touch screen on my LG android phone to be a bit insensitive.
Re: (Score:2)
Actually, my phone* actually has a customization I love. In the notification pulldown menu, there's a "System" tab, and from there you can see network, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS status. Tapping any of those takes you directly to the corresponding settings menu. It's pretty useful when you're in an application and need to turn on GPS location, for instance. But you're right: these things do require support, and I hope this is not why there isn't even an official FroYo ROM.
* A Commtiva Z71 variant.
Re: (Score:1)
bullshit (Score:2)
What you are highlighting with regard to the UI changes is one of the symptoms of fragmentation that many commentators are criticizing Android over, with some justification.
Even customized devices run standard Android apps. You can even run home screen apps and keyboards, like those that have more standard behavior than the customization. The problem with those customizations is that they delay releases and degrade the out-of-box experience; they do not "fragment" the platform.
"Android fragmentation" is a
Re: (Score:2)
Yes. The biggest problem is that if the Product line does not make it for some reason their motivation for updates will be zero and since they would break the look and feel they imposed upon themselves by upgrading to the next standard version of android they even would not take the small cost of updating to the next android version (because the outcry of the customers would not be smaller).
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:US Regulatory Approval Required - WTF? (Score:4, Informative)
Devices with wifi, bluetooth, and/or one of the various flavors of cellular are, of course, explicitly designed to emit RF, and also present potential interference issues.
Level of enforcement varies; but you'll find that virtually all jurisdictions have some sort of RF-spectrum allocation, and some sort of procedure for keeping interference with reserved bands to a minimum.
Re: (Score:2)
They don't do much at all about super-dodgy Chinese video-blasters, or dumb kids who manage to get the 1Kw magnetron and drive circuit out of a microwave without electrocuting themselves(incidentally, unl
Re: (Score:2)
No portrait mode? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
There are several videos of it in portrait mode on the Notion Ink blog: http://notionink.wordpress.com/ [wordpress.com]
Re: (Score:3)
Actually, portrait is the mode in which it's intended to be used most often. Notice that rounded side, with speakers and swivel camera? It doubles for convenient holding, and it houses the batteries, so that overall weight of the tablet is shifted towards that side (and therefore closer to your fingers, rather than hanging off far from them).
Pretty (Score:2)
Screen Res (Score:2)
One thing I discovered quickly with a netbook is that a 600 pixel high screen resolution sucks. The MINIMUM vertical screen res needs to be 768. There are too many websites and applications to where anything smaller than that causes overlap and scrolling.
1024 x 600 is a pain to use for any length of time for any app not specifically customized to the smaller screen size.
Re: (Score:2)
You realize you can turn it the other way, right?
Re: (Score:2)
Well, I think the Notion Ink doesn't do portrait mode, so no -- you can't.
And that also doesn't work with a netbook, I've tried.
And for a tablet, that small of a horizontal resolution really isn't going to work, either.
Re: (Score:2)
http://notionink.wordpress.com/2011/01/01/more-in-portrait/ [wordpress.com]
Definitely an option. So yes, you can.
Turning doesn't increase screen resolution (Score:2)
600 pixels either up or side, is still the same 600 pixels and basically has the same issues with text clarity. I wouldn't call it a show-stopper though.
Re: (Score:2)
The MINIMUM vertical screen res needs to be 768. There are too many websites and applications to where anything smaller than that causes overlap and scrolling.
The android web browser is very good at scaling content to fit what would ordinarily need 1024x768 or higher into much lower resolutions (I tried 800x480, and the results are reasonable). And no android application is going to be written to need a 768 pixel tall screen, because devices that could run such an application are extremely rare (this [laptopmag.com] is th
Bootloader locked or not? (Score:4, Interesting)
For a device to ship with such heavy customization I doubt anyone will care (or even have to resources) to keep it updated. Even the big names don't do it - since they rather you buy a new device next year. I also doubt people will line up to make extra versions of their apps for just this (Android) tablet (sorry but you do not have the Apple RDF).
Best of CES 2011 honorable mention (Score:2)
That must have been expensive.
Looks good, too bad not all apps can be panels (Score:2)
I kind of liked the panel idea, but I thought it was too bad that not all applications could be used as panels - even applications that didn't support generation of a custom panel, it seems like you could present the application name, icon and a shrunken screen shot of last used apperance (though if it didn't launch in that state I guess that could get confusing).
The biggest dissapointment to me though was the QI screen battery savings with backlight off - did I hear right (repeated twice in the CES video)
Honeycomb (Score:1)
Will this be upgradeable to Honeycomb?
I've been thinking for buying a tablet for general surfing and reading, but it looked like a bad time to buy anything, with most next-gen tablets available in March-April at earliest.
This thing seems to have the specs, so I'd be very interested in knowing if it's rootable, if it will run unsigned images, and if there's official plans to provide an upgrade to Android 3.0 at a later time.
Re:Honeycomb (Score:4, Interesting)
"Next-gen" tablets will always be three months away.
Re: (Score:3)
Next-Gen *anything* is always 3 months away... but with something like tablets where they are really just coming into their own as a viable, meaningful product, the next-gen is going to be a far more substantial improvement over the last than, say, with a desktop video card.
If my mobo blows tomorrow, I'll just get whatever is current and call, it a day, because frankly I don't care what minuscule incremental improvements they'll have for the next generation... I'd rather have a working computer now than one
Re: (Score:2)
Will this be upgradeable to Honeycomb?
They have repeatedly said on the blog that the hardware is specifically selected so that it's Honeycomb-ready.
not too sure now (Score:2)
They had me until I saw an interview last week where the rep mentioned it had 2.2 and not really needing 2.3 because they have their own solution for voip...then when asked about honeycomb the reply was that most of that stuff they had their own solution as well...then android marketplace was mentioned and the reply was that they would have their own marketplace. Now i've gone from a must buy to a must watch....it just dont trust that the company is going to support it very well when upgrades roll around.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)