By Taking a minute to comment on the FCC delay for the Notion Ink Adam in a blog post, Rohan Shravan took a minute to clear up a few more things about the tablet in waiting. The first thing he points out is how good the Adam’s camera is, though he concedes that the tablet may be a bit bulky and as such requires a steadier hand than your traditional camera. He also states that “IMHO, [a camera] flash is only useful in 5%” of photo taking situations. That’s quite a liberal figure, even though I tend to agree that a flash is not only often unnecessary for every day picture snapping, but that it can also cause many images to appear washed out (unless you have a nice professional lighting setup). Some example images from the Adam below:
The other area of interest Shravan touches on concerns the state of Honeycomb, with the idea that Eden (the Adam’s UI customizations) is being designed to handle the next-gen OS. However, Shravan sees the operating system update as a “work in progress” still being optimized by Google, NVIDIA, and Motorola for their XOOM tablet. He thinks because of this Honeycomb won’t be publicly available as soon as we think. Don’t tell that to Verizon; they plan to launch the XOOM next month. If Notion Ink can get their hands on some FCC stickers, maybe their tablet will come out in February, too.
[via Notion Ink]
I was dying to see this thing out in the market.. But now that I’ve seen the XOOM.. I think Notion Ink lost its potential advantage.. the XOOM is a perfect tablet for my needs and it also comes with Honeycomb and probably official Google updates for future updates.. Its a pitty as I was really looking forward for the Adam..
Actually, Eden is not the follow-up to Adam. (that might be Eve!) Eden is the customisations Notion Ink have developed to work on top of Android to make multitasking easier and more efficient along with a number of other features.
So, what Rohan is saying is that they’ve designed Eden – which runs on the current hardware (Adam I if you like) – in such a way, that upgrading it to Honeycomb, when it becomes available, will be possible and indeed easier.
Not sure what Rohan is smoking but camera sensors this size always leave A LOT to be desired. (Especially when the megapixel war still seems to be waged at this level.)
The big problem with xoom is how will motorola nerf it with their own crappy motoblur UI. If they were smart, they will leave it with basic android. The bright side is that with the numbers it will sell due to the hype and advertising, the guys over in Cyanogen and other developers hanging around XDA will probably support it. The Android tablet market is going to change a lot in 6 months. The competition will be good in getting better tablets out there and hopefully drive down prices also.
cameras don’t need a flash?
yeah, ask the man to take a picture in anything other than direct sunlight/bright scenarios and see how he changes his mind. It’s washed up photo or zero photo at night thanks to the lack of flash on a ton of cameras.
It’s not bright 24 hours of the day, so the reality is that you’re going to need a flash for at least 1/3rd of the day.
So?
Any mobile device should have an LED flash, if only for the utility of using it as a makeshift flashlight. :p
the only reason I still prefer the Adam to the Xoom is that I won’t need a data plan and the pixel qi screen is nice too.
The Xoom is the same size screen, but a much smaller bezel and I do like the stock android honeycomb. If there was a wifi only version planned I might wait for it.
I was gagging to get hold of the Adam until I learned that it won’t have the Marketplace. That is a massive problem and shows worrying arrogance on Notion Ink’s part.
@mark The Xoom is stock and has no blur on it. We got our wish, it’s stock Android.
The Adam not having Marketplace access is neither an oversight nor Notion Ink’s fault. The Marketplace currently is only supported for PHONE apps, and there will be no Marketplace support for TABLET apps until Honeycomb is released. Such being the case, Notion Ink isn’t allowed to have Marketplace integration. However, you CAN install the phone apps on the Adam as Rohan has stated, and when Honeycomb is released, the Adam will get Marketplace access.
@Mark uhhhhhh exactly what gives you the idea that the Xoom will have motoblur? So far they’ve demo’ed it with vanilla Honeycomb. And this, from what I can tell, is a “flagship” google device. It will be vanilla. It won’t have motoblur.
Does anyone take them seriously when a manufacturer says “You don’t need this feature that my product doesn’t have!”?
Check out the info on rooting @ notioninkhacks.com
Badass
@Chimphappyhour
You are spot on. The problem with ALL mini cameras is the sensor size, which is compounded by idiot consumors and marketing departments that keep pushing higher pixel densitities on such a small sensor.
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I have been waiting a LONG time for the final merger of all handheld devices (GPS, phone, gaming, MP3, video, and camera). The current breed of Android and iPhones cover all but gaming and camera in my opinion. For gaming, we still need a clever physical interface and for a camera we need larger sensors and better optics. Nokia is at least trying with the N86 and N96, but still has far to go. I’m just waiting for a major phone manufacture to call me so I can share my plans and dominate the industry.
Get your facts straight. The adam has already started shipping with a working operating system. The xoom and honeycomb are nothing but vaporware until you get it in the hands of an owner and see it work in a real work situation. And what’s more is that the adam will get honeycomb and android market when there both actually ready for the consumer.
Just wanted to add that I have a droid x. A motorola product and have owned a blackberry storm with a 3.2 mp camera compared to th 8mp on the droid. The 3.2 mp took much better pics. And this is all coming from a long time motorola fan. There a say in the auto industry that one should never buy the first production run because they usually have lots of problems. So both notion ink and motorola are in the same boat. Difference is that for motorola its just another product to turn a profit, were as for notion ink its there dream come to life and there not going to let the adam fail.
Motorola has a bad habit of screwing over and Android software and releasing extremely late, if ever updates.
I trust Notion Ink infinitely more at this point than Motorola… The hardware of the Adam meets or exceeds(Pixel Qi screen) the Xoom in every way… I full expect it to run Android 3.0 as soon as it’s possible as well.
@Seth
There IS a wifi-only version of the Xoom that will be released this Spring.
aaron is completely right. Notionink.com has already confirmed that. It will have Honeycomb, marketplace, and is already shipping in other countries. Certainly, it’s not going to be as available to the masses in the numbers that the Xoom will, but it does seem that it’ll be a great tablet for those that get their hands on it.
“The xoom and honeycomb are nothing but vaporware until you get it in the hands of an owner and see it work in a real work situation.”
Hmmm I didn’t know that Adam tablets are already in the hand of owners in the real work situation. Last time I read the news, it hasn’t even passed FCC.
“Difference is that for motorola its just another product to turn a profit, were as for notion ink its there dream come to life and there not going to let the adam fail.”
Sooo, notion ink is a non-profit organization?
Sounds to me this ‘aaron’ is probably notion ink’s employee or even Shravan himself
I DONT SEE HOW ALL OF YOU CAN PUT YOUR TRUST(WALLET) INTO THE HANDS OF A COMPANY THAT NO ONE HAS OWNED A PRODUCT FROM. DONT COUNT YOUR CHICKENS BEFORE THEY HATCH, THIS COULD STILL FAIL