SlashGear JP
We first told you about Notion Ink and their Adam tablet back in December, and since then they’ve captured plenty of attention at CES 2010 for including NVIDIA’s new Tegra 2 chipset and being the first use of a Pixel Qi display. We caught up with Notion Ink, company founder Rohan Shravan and the Adam prototype today for an extended discussion, not only about the hardware but exclusively about the company’s plans and expectations for content and usage models. Check out our exclusive photos and never-before-seen video after the cut.
Since it’s a prototype the Adam’s casing here is not what the final design will be; in fact this was hand-made especially for showing the tablet at CES. The eventual hardware will be 14mm thick (Rohan said they could even get it down to around 12mm) with a reasonably minimal bezel, packed with the 10.1-inch Pixel Qi transflective display, a capacitive touchscreen eventually capable of recognizing six simultaneous points of contact, integrated WiFi and 3G. Thanks to Tegra 2 the Adam is 1080p capable, with an HDMI port to output to an HDTV or projector, and while the OS they’re showing today is bare Android they’ve a new UI in the works complete with a replacement on-screen keyboard more ergonomically designed for large-touchscreen use.
Pixel Qi’s technology means you can operate the display in two different modes: as full color LCD for use indoors or in a low-power reflective mode that actually gets brighter the more direct sunlight falls upon it. This latter mode is comparable to E Ink in its appearance, but Pixel Qi can still show smooth, responsive video (and slightly muted colors). Users will be able to manually switch the backlighting on or off, or leave it set to automatic and have the Adam toggle it itself. Notion Ink also offered to take the Adam out into direct sunlight so SlashGear could exclusively see the screen performance there.
So far so good, but what other sites haven’t been able to show you is the digital magazine dynamic content that will be a centerpoint of the Notion Ink experience when the Adam tablet launches. Notion Ink are working with various content producers – including some big-name blogs – to “reinvent” magazines and newspapers, and while they wouldn’t share any partner names they did show us some initial concepts.
Bear in mind that what you see in here are the company’s earlier working concepts, some of which date back to 2007; Notion Ink will be showing off functional versions at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona come February 2010. As well as touch control the tablet will respond to accelerometer movement in all directions, whether that’s for navigating through pages or controlling movement in games. The Adam will work as a window on one huge desktop, a UI which Notion Ink codenamed Enigma (there’s a concept shot of it in the gallery below), with the view moving as you tilt, shake and flip the tablet around. They’ve also developed motion-based gestures for common tasks – often tricky on touchscreens – like selecting, cutting and copying text and images.
You may also have read that Notion Ink have a new 3-megapixel camera with a patented swivel action, and we’re excited to be able to show you the first live pictures of that. Where in other photos we’ve seen the company discretely covering the assembly with their hand, or even showing a second prototype without it installed, here you can see the rotating camera barrel which allows you to flip the camera from front to back. The design means you can both use the Adam for video calling and for regular photography, and saves the cost and bulk of two sets of optics. On the back there’s also a trackpad used – like we’ve seen in a far smaller way on the Motorola Backflip – to navigate without leaving smudges on the display. Initially the trackpad is 1:1 mapped to the screen, so you can tap and have the cursor show up exactly in the region you want it to; then it works as a regular trackpad, scrolling the cursor around and tapping to select.
The Pixel Qi display and the frugal Tegra 2 chipset mean that despite the HD video capabilities, the Adam should excel in battery life, too. NVIDIA are saying tablets with regular displays (consuming around 2W) using Tegra 2 will last for around 16 hours of Full HD video with a standard 3-cell battery; Rohan says that, because their display uses just 0.2W in its electrophoretic reflective mode, with that 3-cell battery you’ll potentially see up to 160 hours use. Remember, that’s not just 160 hours of static E Ink style text, but the potential for video playback and digital content reading in color. Rohan also threw out a quick teaser about some unannounced upcoming features: if Tegra 2 has 12-megapixel camera support, what might you use that support for on a tablet? We’re stumped right now, but we reckon SlashGear readers might have some suggestions.
If you can’t tell already, we’re really excited about what Notion Ink have achieved in the three years its taken them to develop the Adam. Right now, due to bandwidth constraints, the current video is lower-res than we’d like; we’ll replace it with an HD version as soon as we can. By Mobile World Congress they’re expecting to have optimized Android to shave boot-up time down to around three seconds, as well as making some announcements about pricing (“you’ll be very happy” was all a grinning Rohan would say) and availability; we’re already planning our meeting with them there.
Notion Ink Adam demo:
18 Responses to “Notion Ink Adam hands-on”
this is Sexy!
+33If it can handle a 12 mpxl camera it can also record video at 1080p.. that’s pretty amazing!
+22Now we’re REALLY talking!!
+24jeffemundo January 11, 2010
Help me understand this. LCD’s are incredibly inefficient users of light and power, hence the 2nd display option here, but why do we have to lose color outside? And how is the fundamental issue of battery life being resolved here? I cannot find a single document anywhere that states Pixel Qi’s power consumption! If it’s comparable to Eink, that’s the worst possible scenario from a power standpoint (as they only are low power because they turn the page every couple minutes).
mirasol displays are still the holy grail to me and will kick pixel qi’s butt in power consumption. http://www.mirasoldisplays.com
-40WOW Holy crap honestly,
Note to jeff mundo: (you can set the display to adjust to the type of lighting your in, basically it is the most efficient display ever invented that still has reasonable good color quality that you can custom set)
The new apple tablet has nothing on this thing (especially since I know this device will beat it on price hands down). I feel the adam tablet and it’s 12mpxl capacity has numerous possible scientific applications especially when integrated with Augmented Reality data. Great freakin’ job the UI is really revolutionary! I may just upgrade from my little Lenovo netbook to one of these as long as I can plug in a keyboard that is….
+22Looks great, only need the price and the availability now.
This could counter Apple and the Ipad!! even though I think there will be many other tablets coming up ;)
+4sekanina1396 April 7, 2010
Could counter? Everything is better! The price, the applications … Everything !!!
+4This is so cool. Light years ahead of some other tablet or personal hygiene product people have been babbling about.
+13When is this *ahem* slated to go on the market?
+5rsraob February 15, 2010
It is expected to release in June 2010
+3slyng February 10, 2010
This thing looks amazing. I’ve watched all the videos available and have been refreshing not only pixelqi’s website but also signed up for RSS updates from Notion Ink’s website. Hoping that we get some definitive guidance at the MWC on pricing & estimated shipping date.
I assume that the “screenshots” shown above are basically like an Android Skin similar to SenseUI on HTC or Sony/Ericson’s custom UI on the “Rachel”/X10 phone.
As long as this thing can handle my PDFs, runs android Apps (like perhaps Aldiko reader), and has the PixelQi screen for under $550ish, I’m in.
Do you think devices like this are the reason that Amazon still doesn’t have a kindle app on the Android OS? Imagine the Kindle App on this thing…
+9Interesting. It’s going to be shown at MWC. Will look fwd to more details.
+3rishabh February 14, 2010
hi, i have heard that ADAM would be launched at around Rs. 15k that is around $330…you guys can expect that price in US market too. Also it would be launched in US first.
+1Cool!
+3This is way awesome… Notion needs to tie-up with Airtel or some operator in India and launch this product @ cheap price. The specs are awesome, and I think that we may be able to install any version of GNU/Linux (distro) that we want!!
+1Tech specs are great but multi-megapixel cameras have not done much to improve photography. Let’s stop talking hardware and start talking utility (software). What will this device allow me to do?
+3shelleyjr March 25, 2010
I would like to see a demo of how the still camera works. Could you actually take this on your next holiday and shoot photos?
I am assuming you could use Skype on it?
Notion Ink’s Adam is way more exciting to me than any Apple product.
+7I can’t wait for this device. I’m probably the guy you will see going gaga ape shit when this comes out.
-1