I have been looking for a Tablet/ Ebook Reader for, surprisingly, more than 2 years now. I been through numerous catalogs, brochures, magazines, showrooms and people marketing such products. I seen so many models in the market as well, well, as many models there existed i mean. But cruel part is, I wasn’t very keen in shelling out my hard earned papers to stuff i know will ‘die’, not physically, but mentally on me. As a developer of applications, web and a self entertainer of sorts, I wanted something that lets me express my freedom and which more like allows me to do stuff I want to do in it.

Its my money right, so i get the rights to even toss around the whole of the machine or play around with the internals, software and hardware, after I buy it, whatever it is. I want to read Ebooks and PDFs and Comics at ease and at my choice, unrestricted by developer or manufacturer claims. I want my own softwares to run on the device. I want that ‘complete freedom’ feature – which is rare, but awesome. Call me spoilt, but I also wanted to watch movies once in a while. . And maybe songs, a little bit of document works, facebook poke my friends, browse the internet, chat, webcam-chat also will be preferable and even feed my kitten.

But to say the least, nothing fit my bill. Maybe its better waiting. i thought. For such a complete and crazy concept product to come out, someone sharing my same brainwave whatevers should be able to initiate such a feat. (Why didn’t I do that back then?) And since that market segment is, or was, a small one at the time, It was going to be a tough and slow wait since the number of tech companies and the products involved were low, and not to mention the evolution of the series itself was slow, and again, not to mention the people interested in the segment.

But haven’t you heard, good things comes to those who wait.

So comes 2010, the year in which a lot of companies jumped forward to bring out the ‘Tablet of the Crowd, for the crowd and possibly, by the crowd (read Open-Source)’. We got lots of options to look into, but I decided. I will be going for that one product from Notion Ink. The device that fits my bill. Exactly to the point. The Adam.

Allow me to introduce Notion Ink. The company is a actually a collected initiative, headed by one Rohan Shravan. And what they want to do is bring out change in the world. Atleast in the way the world moves. Technically. You should definitely get my point here

The company was started to promote one product, The Adam, which is the brainchild of Rohan (forgive me for addressing him by first name, but I think we are close ) that would in a way revolutionize the way the standard thinking is set. And that too using available resources- as you get to read more on this and get to watch a lot of videos related, you will realise that its nothing new, everything is available, but that perfect blend never came up.

What makes it more interesting is that this company is from Hyderabad, India.

So what all does the Notion Ink do? Allow me to paste from my previous location.

”toss around the whole of the machine or play around with the internals, software and hardware, after I buy it, whatever it is. I want to read Ebooks and PDFs and Comics at ease and at my choice, unrestricted by developer or manufacturer claims. I want my own softwares to run on the device. I want that ‘complete freedom’ feature – which is rare, but is awesome. Call me spoilt, but I also wanted to watch movies once in a while. . And maybe songs, a little bit of document works, facebook poke my friends, browse the internet, chat, webcam-chat also will be preferable and even feed my kitten.”

Ok, Atleast not feed my kitten, but everything else will do fine. Allow me to detail.

The Adam Tablet features products that are majorly developed and brought about in India itself.

It runs on an modified version of the Android OS from Google. So there itself is an open source option. Btw, They are promoting software developers for the same, so if you have any idea that you think no one else has got and that you would like to contribute, do it.

It features a 10.1” inch Multi-touch display, which you can use to read even out in the sunniest of days and in the darkest of rooms. Storage comes to a 32GB SD card. Quick, Responsive and lower power consumption. The same for the processor which is an ARM core. The motherboard itself is nVidia based so you can expect a graphics unit planted along. So don’t be surprised if you get to play your favourite 3D games on it. As far as i have seen around (from Videos), UnReal Tournament 2004 looks great.

Besides all this, you can watch movies in HD quality, listen to music, (best part) read Ebooks. If you think all this will be available on the comprise of battery power, look again. It boasts a freaking music time of 140 hours and 16-24 hours of movie watching..That’s like one WHOLE DAY of battery power, and that too just for movies. If you just use it for reading, wait to see that you get nothing less that nearly 8 days of battery power.. :O

You even have the modern connectivity stuff, all packed in one go. Bluetooth, WiFi, 3G, you name it, its there. Btw, the 3G and the Wifi versions will be at different prices. As i have seen speculated prices around, the former will be close to $850 and the latter at $390. So that shows you are getting a total bargain of an awesome product.

Listing out the Features, it will have the

• Pixel Qi transflective display, and it will have a 10.1 inch screen with a resolution of 1024 x 600, and it measures 6.2 inches by 9.4 inches by 0.5 inches thick and weighs in at 1.35 lbs.
• 180 degree Swivel
  Camera for still
  photography and video
• Dual-Core ARM®
  CORTEX -A9
  MPCORE™ Processor
• Enhanced NVIDIA graphics technology, enabling full flash acceleration, next generation 3D rendering performance for most compelling UI and games.
• A full color :LCD transmissive mode; a low-power, sunlight-readable, reflective e-paper mode; and a transflective mode, which makes the LCD display visible in sunlight, all in One! Proprietary Algorithms for automatic brightness control.
• Up to 1080p video encode/decode and support for HD Web streaming formats, such as YouTube HD
• Over 140 hours audio and over 16 hours of HD video playback
  
• Books, Comics, Magazines, Applications, Videos, Movies, Songs and much more! Consolidated access to the world of entertainment and media.
• UI areas making Android the perfect OS for tablets. Its Open, and developers are waiting for Android + Tegra powered SDK!
• 3G and WiFi Connectivity,
  Multi-touch Support
• Now all major ebook formats supported. And with amazing proprietary light sensing technology and display, digital reading was never so pleasing!

Size and Weight

Height : 158 mm
Width : 239 mm
Depth : 13 mm*
Weight : ~600-650 gm

System on Chip

NVIDIA TEGRA 2
Dual Core Cortex A-9
ULP GPU

Storage

16 / 32 GB eMMC

Communication

WLAN – 802.11 b/g
Bluetooth 2.1 A2DP
WWAN – 3G HSDPA

Display

a) Pixel Qi Display
10.1″ TFT Liquid Crystal Display
WSVGA (1024 x 600 pixels) resolution
Transmissive, transflective, and reflective display modes
b) Non-Pixel Qi Display
10.1″ TFT Liquid Crystal Display
Capacitive touch panel with multi-touch
Matt finish/ Anti glare Coating
Scratch resistant and Finger print
resistant surface

Touch Screen

Capacitive touch panel with multi-touch
Matt finish/ Anti glare Coating
Scratch resistant and Finger print resistant surface

Camera

3.2 MP Swivel Camera**

Audio

Two loudspeakers
3.5 mm Headphone jack
Microphone Jack
Built in microphone

Input/Output Ports

USB 2.0 Host – 2
HDMI
MicroSD slot
SIM Card slot
DC connector
Docking Port

Power & Battery

Universal Charger
3 cell standard battery

Sensors

3-Axis accelerometer
Ambient light sensing
A-GPS

Keyboard / Mouse

On screen keyboard
Back side trackpad**

Features list completely take from notionink.in

And to spice up the excitement you will already might have, a few videos lined up.

And a comparison for all you purists and comparists out there..

BTW… one short notice. This will only be out by June 2010. Wait till then. And possibly after i get the deal in my hands, I will be able to able to deliver a more detailed review.

Cheers

P.S. You can Follow NotionInk officially through : Their Website, Their Blog, Twitter, Facebook,