Notion Ink Tablet Goodness!

Update: 8.4

So Rohan has been busy lately. Not only has he managed to update his blog, he has managed to get the site looking quite snazzy. Its flash, but he is working on an Ipad compatible version as well! The new site re-design makes me think that the “Buy Now” button can’t be to far off.

Another development was the confirmation that the present hardware will be compatible with the next version of Android that comes after Froyo. Chocolate Frosty Surprise I think it is…

Lastly, wifi will be b/g/n not just b/g which basically means greater range and increased performance.

Update: 6.27

I have been looking around the Notionink.com website and just realized that I can only get to the blog portion of the site. There used to be a website portion where you could view pictures of the tablet and see the specifications. There was even a store icon that said “coming soon”. Now all of that is missing which has my interest highly peaked! Does this mean what I think it means??? Are they going to announce a release date or better yet, are they modifying the site for pre-orders and new specs??? I’ll keep you posted..

If you are like me, then you are probably holding out for a tablet that is a little more functional than the iPad. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a hater, I’m just not that much of an early adopter. I like to see what my options are before I make a purchase! We did a tablet article a while back, before the iPad launched, where we talked about some of the tablets that were coming down the pipe. One of our favorites was Notion Ink’s “Adam” Tablet. Not only were we impressed by its creator, Rohan Shravan, but we were also impressed by the overall design and hardware specs. You can find the iPad comparison here. The tech world was all a-buzz a few days ago because Rohan mentioned that there might be some launch delays pushing the launch all the way back to November. Needless to say, people were sorely disappointed. However, Rohan has just recently cleared the air on his blog and he says things are “on track” whatever that means. As longs as things are on the track rather than off the track I say.  Below are some reasons for why I definitely want to wait a bit till this bad boy comes out sometime in Q3:

  • The Screen is one of the biggest factors. Made by Pixel Qi, it has the ability to basically turn black and white with the push of a button making viewing in direct sunlight much more do-able. This also boosts battery performance quite a bit. Will also come with an ambient light sensor which will automatically adjust the screen depending on lighting conditions.
  • It has a camera. Not just any camera…a 180 degree swiveling camera at that! This is for taking pictures or video of you or your surroundings with the push of a finger.
  • Track-pad on the back. Some people might think this is a small point, but I think the smallest points are sometimes the biggest. I predict this will be extremely useful because you wont have to hold the tablet with one hand just to select something on screen which will lessen hand fatigue and make the overall browsing experience that much more enjoyable.

Those are just a few key points, but you get the gist. Check out Notion Ink’s site here for more details.

My First Tablet will not be an iPad

Remember like a month ago when everyone was frothing at the mouth over Apple’s iPad? People were saying all sorts of things and then when the official announcement came, things just kinda simmered down. This was mostly because the iPad couldn’t do half the things everyone had thought it was going to be able to. People were thinking it was going to have a camera with gesture recognition, multi-tasking capabilities, making breakfast in bed, the whole shabang. Now granted, the iPad is still quite impressive, and the entry price-point of $499 certainly helps matters. Yet, there was this nagging feeling of what could have been. Then from left field we have Rohan Shravan, founder of Notion Ink busting onto the scene with his “Adam Tablet”.  Now here is where things get quite interesting… The Adam tablet not only has a 3.2 Megapixel camera, but it swivels as well. The Adam can not only double as an e-book reader, but it can turn off the backlighting for easier readability in direct sunlight with pixel Qi’s new screen which gives it increased battery life. Oh, and it runs flash, and has an entry cost of $327. Interested? Yeah I thought so. Check out the the below chart i picked up at Gizmodo:

Here is a video from Technoholik showing a version of the Adam that looks really quite nice.

Here is another one cause I know the first video isn’t enough