Rohan's post-CES blog

[crimton]

i really like his attitude, even towards is FORMER critics.
http://notionink.wordpress.com/2011/01/08/slow-n-steady-but-with-dogged-persistence/

Notion Ink
Slow n steady, But with Dogged Persistence!

Posted in Uncategorized by Rohan Shravan on January 8, 2011
Hello All,

I read somewhere over the net, “Gravitation is easily demonstrated, evolution is not!”. But we figured a way out to silence our major critics, directly speak to them and let them review what we have. That is why we released info first to Android Police. Here in CES we then met with Slashgear and then with Engadget who is know for their honest opinion. And the last one was the Crunchgear. I am glad everyone was impressed!

Notion Ink will go slow and steady but with dogged persistence. I read a few comments on how we are marketing and how other companies are, but then we are missing a point here. We are not here to sell in millions in the first year and quickly become the billion dollar company. That doesn’t happen and shouldn’t as well. We will prefer the learning curve along the way, because we are here for centuries. I am honest with my plans and I know we can’t beat Apple in one day, which is the benchmark in most of the things. It takes time, effort and most importantly the experience to nurture the talent in to a beautiful art. We have the talent, we have proved that, and now it’s all about learning and implementing with perfection.

With a good product you can kill whole army, but with a dream you can build Nations. Someone wrote in the comments, they don’t care what dreams we have. I would say if that’s the case, we have seen 100s of tablets in CES, and we all are free to opt for one. But if you want to become a part of a unique history, sense the evolution, hang on, because we are here to do different things, and in unique ways!

For those who are with us since long, I wish you were there when they were reviewing your product. You could see awe and surprise in their minds and eyes. But there is a lot to do! And now we will focus back on our work!

With Warm Regards

Rohan Shravan

 

[xmr405o]

i really like his attitude, even towards is FORMER critics.
Slow n steady, But with Dogged Persistence! Notion Ink

I like his attitude too. I hope he and his company makes it. There's a lot of competition now and for a small start up company it can be tough to keep up with the big boys. Slow and steady isn't really gonna cut it, especially with so many competitors racing ahead.

 

[crimton]

I like his attitude too. I hope he and his company makes it. There's a lot of competition now and for a small start up company it can be tough to keep up with the big boys. Slow and steady isn't really gonna cut it, especially with so many competitors racing ahead.

i agree they need to make a strong entrance to the market and not try and tiptoe around samsung, motorola and the other big tablet makers this year. they obviously can't compete with the advertising and production that the big guys can however i think they can make a big impact if they go about it right.

 

[twospirits]

Hope he makes it too, but besides Engadget, Slashgear at CES (even Crunchgear) not many other media outlets are saying much about it. Even Phandroid has been a total fail in this regard.

Then again, without an actual booth at the event, it would be hard to find them. I know that it takes money to get a booth, but if I was an investor I would have paid it, since having more exposure will bring it more sales and that brings a nice ROI (return on investment). But its too late now for that. Hopefully they learn from the process.

TS

 

[Germwise]

I'm sorry if I'm the wet blanket of the bunch but WTF is this guy talking about? With a dream you can build nations?

Seriously, its a tablet. It looks nice but frankly that skin looks like it wouldn't upgrade to honeycomb very well. Also the UI is very flashy but maybe not so functional.

Imagine having 40 panels. and having to scroll through all of them. to get to something.
I feel like this UI blurs the line between widget and program.

What is the effect on battery life of all of this?

The idea of the pixel qi screen sounds great though I haven't really seen a good comparison between it and LCD. what are we giving up? how about screen longevity? can't imagine all those balls rolling would last very long.

Just added an edit since I looked more into pixel qi that looks very promising. I would say that I am very nervous about this tablet taking android into its own hands. With this tablet you sort of enter a new ecosystem. Why use their version of vector maps when google maps is out there and great!??

I do wish android had better task switching than it does now and the hardware looks cool but its just not enough for me to stray from the safe google nest yet

 

[crimton]

I'm sorry if I'm the wet blanket of the bunch but WTF is this guy talking about? With a dream you can build nations?

Seriously, its a tablet. It looks nice but frankly that skin looks like it wouldn't upgrade to honeycomb very well. Also the UI is very flashy but maybe not so functional.

Imagine having 40 panels. and having to scroll through all of them. to get to something.
I feel like this UI blurs the line between widget and program.

What is the effect on battery life of all of this?

The idea of the pixel qi screen sounds great though I haven't really seen a good comparison between it and LCD. what are we giving up? how about screen longevity? can't imagine all those balls rolling would last very long.

Just added an edit since I looked more into pixel qi that looks very promising. I would say that I am very nervous about this tablet taking android into its own hands. With this tablet you sort of enter a new ecosystem. Why use their version of vector maps when google maps is out there and great!??

I do wish android had better task switching than it does now and the hardware looks cool but its just not enough for me to stray from the safe google nest yet

First, the whole building nations thing is kind of corny i agree but this guy is young (like 25) and they have been working on this tablet for more than 2 years i think. They have put a lot of time and effort into this so i can see how he is so passionate about it. Having said that yea its just a tablet, and one that i would like to have soon. You don't have to have all 20 or even 40 apps running in panel mode like he did on a lot of the demos. He has stated on several occasion that they are already preparing for Honeycomb so it is a sure thing for the adam. The pixel qi is good for e-reading and outdoor use, the LCD model is better for multimedia like watching movie with vivd colors etc. As far as using their maps and other apps i'm not really worried about that as i will be rooting and getting Gapps on there ASAP. i'm not really sure what to expect with eden but i am certainly going to give it a try before i start trying to jump ship. Honeycomb looked pretty awesome and i may have to try and get a stock Honeycomb on my adam as soon as i can.

also the battery life on adam is said to be on par or better than other tablets out there at 10-14 hrs depending on use.

 

[twospirits]

the quote "but with a dream you can build Nations." basically means that dreams can lead to ideas that inspire people to organize and follow the dream, building or reshaping a nation.

True, its a tablet, but one that came about out of a dream, an idea from a guy that thought to himself, is there anything more? Why can't we get all the best stuff around and make it into one. Current Social Empires in one way or another have started this way. Facebook, Twitter, to name a few. In regard to tablets, he set out to create one that at the time was (and in some ways still is) innovative.

Going by your post, lets look at each one in particular.
The UI.

Seriously, its a tablet. It looks nice but frankly that skin looks like it wouldn't upgrade to honeycomb very well. Also the UI is very flashy but maybe not so functional.

There is no way at the moment to fully certify that statement. Honeycomb was recently announced, but not actually shown working fully on a tablet. The Motorola Xoom was just playing videos of Honeycomb. No one was allowed to play with it to fully experience the UI. There are many manufacturers currently with phones and tablets alike that have skinned their own UI's on top of Android. Some work great, some don't. Some execute their add-on smoothly and quite functional. Who's to say that the Adam won't. From whats been shown at CES, it looks like it does. From what I've seen of Honeycomb, the Eden UI looks similar and in many ways better than what was shown by Google at CES.

Panels/Leaves

Imagine having 40 panels. and having to scroll through all of them. to get to something.
I feel like this UI blurs the line between widget and program.

Much like having many widgets and icons on any Android phone. But it looks smoother, and in a way you are right they are a cross between widgets and programs. Because thats what they are, fully functional mini applications of the full size ones at your fingertips. Need the fully fuctional version, just click the leave.
Then again as shown in numerous videos, one can forgo the Eden UI and just use the basic Android UI. But having that choice is better than no choice at all.

Battery Life

What is the effect on battery life of all of this?

The device has a Dual core and only uses one until the system requests that the other is needed. Plus with the Pixel Qi screen turning off the back light that alone saves battery life. Although no reviewer has the device to conduct a full battery test, according to the specs it lasts for quite a long time.

Pixel Qi Display

The idea of the pixel qi screen sounds great though I haven't really seen a good comparison between it and LCD. what are we giving up? how about screen longevity? can't imagine all those balls rolling would last very long.

Much like the battery issue, one cannot tell how everything will work and for how long until a reviewer gets a hold of the device to do some tests. But there have been numerous compares on video and some from online reviewers such as engadget, slashgear, etc.

Lack of Direction

Everytime I read something about this guy or watch a video I get the same feeling. I can't describe it but watching his demonstration video posted on this forum, I feel like he lacks direction, he scrolls the panels wandering and then the last minute of the video things go black.

Well, I only encountered that blackness in one video, all the others are more presentable and informative. But as for lack of direction, I don't get that feeling. You really want lack of direction or a strange feeling when someone speaks, look at the old Bill Gates speeches when he first started speaking about Windows. The same can be said of the Facebook founder. And look at where they are now. Has Rohan made mistakes on the way to his dream, sure. Who doesn't. But it reminds me of a quote I once read...
"The only man who makes no mistake is the man who does nothing."
Theodore Roosevelt.

Conclusion

Unless this tablet releases in a decisive way with good reviews, I would just as well go with the google annointed xoom though even that may lose out to an ipad 2

As mentioned above, the Xoom was only announced and not reviewed. No review exists showing off it features and its new Honeycomb UI, the same can be said of the iPad2. (Speaking of which this write-up compares the two, even though the iPad2 isn't out yet..) So for the time being (at least to me) the Adam is the only one showing off its features, has let reviewers play with it and had almost daily communications with its costumer base. I have yet to see that from anyone else of late.
But as with anything, things can change in the world of electronics. Hopefully we are able to fully have a good hand-on review of all three devices and then the customer can come to a conclusion of what's the best device for their wants and needs.

Personally, I'll be happy with the Adam.

TS out

 

[Germwise]

I agree that the xoom is still largely vaporware. However, there are big names behind it and I am confident the product will come to fruition.

Because adam is still unknown, it might not be the case.

I just want to say that the adam intrigues me. I do a lot of reading for my job and I absolutely hate doing it on my laptop. To also read on fast e-ink display would be amazing. However I don't want to get stuck outside of google's walls if you understand what I mean.

For example:
Don't you need a genesis development kit to make software for the adam? If so,are we likely to see some android tablet software that will not work on adam? or how likely are we to see adam-specific applications?

I didn't know adam was already working on honeycomb. That is reassuring.

I look forward to someone in this forum getting one and making a long youtube review. If it looks good i'll place my order.

 

[Germwise]

ok. I watched all the videos. I hate you guys, I should be working

I want a 16gig pixel qi model. Where do I send my money?

When do first set of adams ship and when can we order again? is there a place to sign up to get invited to pre-order?

 

[twospirits]

ok. I watched all the videos. I hate you guys, I should be working

I want a 16gig pixel qi model. Where do I send my money?

When do first set of adams ship and when can we order again? is there a place to sign up to get invited to pre-order?

lol, welcome to my world.

As of now, only 8GB model has been posted for sale on their website and both version the LCD and Pixel Qi sold out fast. I didn't get to it in time myself and I've been following that dog gone blog since it started.

According to him, some have gotten their Adams that were in the first pre-order batch. Although no one has posted to that fact.

In a way i am glad i missed out, cause Rohan did say that there are other variants coming (supposable a 16GB and 32 GB ) but when, who knows. he also mentioned that they are setting up retailers to sell the Adams so that would be helpful as well.

TS out

 

[Karuk]

I have owned the Archos 70. Great device is if you like to tinker.

I now have the Galaxy tab. Rock solid device. Totally recommend it if you need a pocketable tablet.

I passed on the adam (even though I put money aside to buy one) and will buy the xoom the day it lands in a verizon store.

Why did I pass on the adam?

1. UI is waaaaaaaaaaay to custom. More custom...More problems.

2. 2nd and 3rd tier devices (archos/adam/viewsonic) are great for the price but do not have the polish you get with mainstream devices.

3. Hardware issues ALWAYS happen with 2nd tier products. Moto, HTC, Apple, etc all hav ethe ability to buy high quality parts at great prices. Example: archos uses a cheaper screen with some viewing angle and touch sensitivity challenges. My galaxy tab just works.

With that said...I really want the adam to be an awesome tablet. I look forward to the review.