Since the folks at Notion Ink ran into a little friction with their pre-launch event, internet commenters have made a habit of calling the product vaporware. But the company has promised that the first shipments will go out tomorrow, and founder Rohan Shravan has posted a few photos showing what looks like a fair number of real products getting ready to roll out the doors.
Sure, we can’t see them all turned on, but Shravan has posted pictures of the finished units with labels, as well as a picture of a production line and another with a number of Adam tablets with their lids off showing the circuit boards (or a pretty good paint job).
Anyway, I had some hands-on time with a pre-launch unit at CES, and it certainly looks like a real product to me. I’m not entirely sold on the custom software designed to run on top of Android. While I understand that Notion Ink is trying to make a smartphone operating system run more smoothly on tablets, I think a vanilla Google experience still has a lot to offer — but after Android 3.0 Honeycomb is released it’s likely that the Adam tablet experience could start to look more like the Google experience, hopefully with full access to the Android Market and other Google apps.
For now, the Adam tablet is about to the first consumer electronics device to ship globally with an optional Pixel Qi low power transflective display, which I know is enough to get some customers excited — whether they care about the tablet’s NVIDIA Tegra 2 graphics, Eden software environment, and swiveling camera or not.
We should start to see real-world reviews in the coming weeks as customers who placed pre-orders start to receive Adam tablets.
Plan to get one once Honeycomb is on it. I think it’s be best know to man at this time but I really with the pixel was higher, to match or beat that of the Motorola Xoom and I also wish the camera was at least 8MP.
Leave the high end MP for the phones and cameras, 10inches is too big to take anywhere you want to take a high res pic like that. leave that stuff for the cameras and phones. the camera/camcorder on this thing was meant for quick snap shots and video conferencing and streaming. no need for more than this. Even the Xoom doesnt use more than this for its front side camera for conferencing. This one swivels too!
I love it! Every other tablets new item gets at most one or two replies. Notion Ink news nearly always receives 20x that amount of replies. And the replies are so entertaining! It appears Notion Ink has hit a deep nerve in some people.
It would be almost funny if they rhetoric wasn’t so terse. I find it shocking that in a mere three month we have gone from “it is never going to come out” to “wait until Apple iPad 2.0 comes out”. At what point do people become self reflective enough to realize anything that gets under their skin this bad must be annoying them for a reason.
You’re right about the Notion Ink Adam getting more replies than most tablets. Even though they aren’t all positive, I think it is good for Notion Ink to get the attention 🙂
Apple’s robots,
Endgadget has a side by side comparison of Adam and iPad.
One of them was abso*f***lutely unusable in direct sunlight.
Other one knew what do.
Spending more time on hardware ??? Hardware wise it’s already one of best and spec wise beats out the IPAD and on par with Xoom which won’t be out for a while. I’m sure they will also continue to improve on their Eden UI. The fact that they took Android 2.2 or 2.3 and made functionality of a Honeycomb is pretty amazing. I don’t see any other “large multinational” companies doing anything like that.
Ipad 2 kicks it in the nut. A5 dual core processor, dual core gpu, retina.
It Apple tegra 2 has got nothing on A5
I’m sure Ipad 2 is nice, but still in the rumor mill. Retinal display is unlikely… a HD1080 video would have to upscale to play on a retinal display??? doesn’t make sense. I like the Ipad and have 2 myself, but definitely not a multi task friendly machine. You have to give props to a small startup company being able to bring so much to the table. Very interested in seeing what they can accomplish with some more financial backing.
Just like NI adam was a rumor mill until recently. Allot of stuff NI has done has not made sense.
I trust Apple more than them. Plus don’t want to sound rude but India isn’t exactly know for great software engineering, mostly is sub par.
what? India not a place known for software engineering…you must be kidding. Ask microsoft , google how much of their work is done in india. And dont forget India exports max no of software engineers to various countries including US, Europe. Apple isnt in india, doesnt mean India has no gr8 software eng capability….know your facts.. apple fanboy.
I said India not indians. I have not seen one pieace of great software come out of India.
So what microsoft and google product were developed in India, can you tell use that.
India has big ego and nothing to show for it.
google “software design center in india”, “technology design centers in india” and open your eyes and mind. Its a $40B industry..what do you think they do in India timepass !!
Well I dont want to sound rude either.. “But idiots like you give this country a bad name”
There demo seems very unpolished. C’mon running twitter, fb, and web browser at the same time. Lame.
You can make an app that does all of that.
And they basically ripped off cover flow.
Did I miss something? When was the Ipad 2 announced?
It will be announced, then destroy all the wannabe tablets out there, just like the iPad.
Oh wait iPad has over 80% of the tablet market.
Whatever.
That may or may not be true. Big deal if it is. It’s Apple.
Yeah and you’ll have to sell both your retinas to make the down payment for that thing.
Well, maybe not “spending more time on hardware”, but “spending less time on software” to get this thing out the door sooner (PixelQi or not).
The extra time spent on software was in awaiting fCC certification. Some stuff takes time. they multitasked it. So does everyone. Let the products do the talking. upon release everyone will compare and bash what isnt standing on top.
I seriously hope thing ships so people can compare it to an iPad then throw the NI junk in the trash.
pfft. Does the iPad have a dual screen display? No. Is it customizable? No. Can you drag and drop files? No. Hello even a $2 USB stick can do that. have fun with your school girl Apple products. My teenage sister has an iPhone, men have android. Pwnd
Not talking about NI info I am talking about the Adam info on the FCC site. Yea well its tuesday and no update.
“I got the news yesterday but thought should start the Saturday tradition again! Labs have officially announced the FCC clearance and will probably update the status on the FCC website either today or on Monday.”
The adam isn’t on the fcc site yet? I thought Rohan said you could find it.
It’s there:
https://fjallfoss.fcc.gov/coresWeb/searchDetail.do?frn=0020356499
News Very early picked up !
Better late than never. I agree with you about the custom UI vs. plain Android — I think they would have been better served by spending less time on software and more on hardware, which is harder to “upgrade” later — but I anxiously await the third-party reviews. The Adam is what’s stopping me from going out and getting a netbook tomorrow.