iPad killer from, uh, India? - But is there a market for a tablet computer?

MarketWatch ^ | eb. 26, 2010, 9:48 a.m. EST · | John C. Dvorak

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

BERKELEY, Calif. (MarketWatch) -- A new round of pad computers with various features all missing from Apple Inc.'s iPad is coming. Curiously, the most interesting one appears to be coming out of India using the hottest new Nvidia Corp. chip to power it.

Already previewed at various international trade shows, a look at the specifications tells me that unless the thing simply does not work as advertised this could be the hottest and most usable pad computer on the market.

From a company called Notion Ink, it's called the Adam. Compared to an iPad it has a bigger screen, twice the battery life, all sorts of needed connectors including an HDMI connection, camera, multi-tasking and more.

And it is supposed to come out at $350.

What's interesting about this machine is the fact that it will be the first great test of the newest Nvidia Tegra cpu/gpu chip which technically should be an ideal chip for this sort of machine.

[TruthHound]

As a Mac aficionado since 1985, I’d buy an Adam before an iPad.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

The Digital Magazine has me very interested....

No mention of the storage...guess they will just stick something inside and have various size options....

And the Android as the OS is a Huge plus.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Found this:

Notion Ink Adam hands-on & digital magazine demo

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While we were with NVIDIA today, we ran into one of the guys from tablet start-up Notion Ink. We’ve covered their Adam tablet several times here at SlashGear, and so jumped at the chance for a hands-on with their latest prototype unit. The company have confirmed that there will be two models on offer when the Adam hits the market in Q3 2010, one with the innovative Pixel Qi display (at 12.9mm thick) and another (11.6mm thick) regular LCD.  They’ve also sent over a video demo of a Flash-based digital magazine, which you can see after the cut.

[TruthHound]

I thought I saw somewhere that it will take SD cards.

[longtermmemmory]

BUMP!

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

OK...I'll try to find something on that,...onto the screen:

Pixel Qi developing new panel sizes; “several” new customers onboard

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Friday, Feb 26th 2010

t was shortly after Pixel Qi chief Mary Lou Jepsen tipped “specialized tablets with multitouch” back in December 2009 that we got our first glimpse of the Notion Ink Adam, and so forgive us for getting excited when the CEO confirms several more panel customers and different display sizes in the pipeline.  Speaking to E-Ink-Info, Jepsen wouldn’t confirm which new companies had signed up to use the hybrid display but did say that they’re going into “a variety of new product categories.”

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

“Specialized tablets” with multitouch first to use Pixel Qi displays

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Monday, Dec 7th 2009

Pixel Qi have announced that their first batch of production displays will be ready shortly, and confirmed that the first recipients for the panels will be “specialized tablet devices with multi-touch”.  Project lead Mary Lou Jepsen does not reveal the identity of the manufacturer using the Pixel Qi screens – which work as color LCDs in regular lighting, but can be read as easily as e-ink panels in direct sunlight – but did say that the company’s customers will be at CES with her company.

She also says that “increasingly these screens will be super-slim, but some customers prefer the standard thickness”. It seems likely that one or more or Pixel Qi’s initial customers would use the displays for ebook readers, since the technology would both support video and low-power text display.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

From :

Notion Ink Tegra Android smartpad uses Pixel Qi display

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Friday, Dec 18th 2009

The Notion Ink smartpad measures 6.3 x 9.8 x 0.6 inches and weighs 1.7lbs; as well as the triband (850/1900/2100) UMTS/HSDPA, WiFi b/g and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR it also squeezes in A-GPS, a digital compass, accelerometer and proximity, ambient light and water sensors. Connectivity includes USB, HDMI, a 3.5mm headphone jack and a microphone input, and there’s also a 3-megapixel autofocus camera with video recording support. Onboard storage is either 16GB or 32GB of SSD, and there’s an SD slot for augmenting that.

Initially – at least as it’s to be shown at CES – the smartpad will use the regular Android UI, with full gesture support. Navigation is either via the touchscreen or a trackpad, and Notion Ink have added a matte-finish anti-glare, oleophobic and scratch-resistant coating to the Pixel Qi display. Of course, the panel itself can be viewed indoors as a regular LCD, or outdoors in either transflective mode with reduced color vibrancy or fully reflective 64-level grayscale mode. Notion Ink say they’ve been developing a number of applications that should be added sometime after CES, including Office-style software, Flash-based titles and some graphics apps that include physics-based functionality. Ebook reading is also another possibility, and the company are in talks with several (unnamed) content providers.

Perhaps most importantly for a web-browsing tablet, battery life estimates are impressive.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Back to the screen:

What’s Happening at Pixel Qi – Mary Lou Jepsen’s Blog

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August 26, 2009 at 9:43 am ·

Above is a comparison between the new Pixel Qi screen and other screens available – enjoy! – Mary Lou

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

And:

Dedicated eReaders, multiple mode Screens, multiple purpose Devices

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December 19, 2009

Notion Ink’s new smartpad, which is powered by PixelQi multi-mode screens, is hard to categorize i.e.

It’s neither a dedicated eReader like the Kindle, nor is it a LCD screen multi-purpose device.

It changes the game totally.

So far we’ve had to choose between -

1. Dedicated eReaders that are great for reading, with screens that work in sunlight and don’t hurt the eyes. However, they can’t really do much apart from reading.
2. Multiple-purpose devices that are ‘good enough’ for reading. They might not specialize in reading but they do a lot of other things.

It’s been a clear demarcation. Now, with Pixel Qi screens we suddenly have a whole new category.

Let’s consider the impact.

Screen suited for reading books

Consider the Pixel Qi screen in eReader mode -

Reflective Black and white (64 shades of grayscale).

The screen has a lot of pluses -

1. Black and white with 64 shades of grayscale sounds intriguing – current eReaders have black and white with 16 shades of gray.
2. It’s reflective so it works in sunshine.
3. It uses very little battery power in black and white mode (as compared to color LCD screens).
4. You can watch video in reflective mode – something that eInk probably won’t get for at least 2 years. 

Take a look at this video which shows both the black and white mode and the screen in sunlight –

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Stacking more stuff on this thread:

Adam, the ipad killer made in India

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Posted 16 February 2010 - 11:06 AM

Apple's iPad was, it's fair to say, awaited with the kind of breathless anticipation usually reserved by nubile nymphets for rakish
rockers. But even as consumers rave about it, the technoscenti are already looking ahead ─ to a product that could make the iPad seem outdated, and, what's more, is completely Made in India.
India is, of course, regarded as a software superpower but hasn't really made waves in IT hardware so far. That could soon change, thanks to the Adam tablet PC of Hyderabad-based Notion Ink. Adam has generated enormous buzz on tech websites and gadget blogs ever since an early prototype was first demonstrated at the CES (Consumer Electronics Show), the world's largest consumer tech trade show in January this year. Today, the final product minus the custom user-interface will be showcased at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, where the finest minds of geekdom will be congregating to check it out. But first, we persuaded the company to show it to us at the BVRIT Innovation Centre in Hyderabad, where they are based.





Never heard of Notion Ink? Its founders are six IITans and an MBA grad. With an average age of 24, they believe India has what it takes to compete with the most innovative tech companies in the world. “We knew that Indian engineers and designers were doing most of the innovative work at Microsoft, Intel, and Apple. We just needed to take the first step," says co-founder Rohan Shravan.

“Current PC technology is like a Hummer on a city road,” quips Rohit Rathi, the youngest of the group at 23, and, along with Shravan, one of four co-founders from IIT Kharagpur. Two are from IIT Delhi while Sachin Ralhan, the eldest at 25, is a childhood friend of Shravan and Rathi and an MBA from IIPM. Apart from Ralhan and Rathi, the other five are all aged 24.

What's so different about their tech? Three years in the making, the Adam tablet is the first device in the world to integrate two breakthrough power saving components - nVidia’s Tegra 2 chip and a PixelQi screen. Together, they help it achieve twice the battery life and performance of the iPad.

“The chip provides an edge over the iPad with its ability to play full high definition videos and Flash on the web browser. It can offer the performance of a computer with the power consumption of a cellphone,” explains Shravan.

Adam’s 10-inch screen integrates many innovations first used in the $100 OLPC (one laptop per child) project. Unlike traditional screens, PixelQI screen has a dual mode, and can be read in bright sunlight like an e-reader. With the backlight off, the company claims that it can increase battery life between charges by a factor of five.

What about the pricing? The company has not yet taken a decision on this crucial aspect, but is clear that Adam will definitely be competitive vis-a-vis Apple's iPad. It expects to start retail sales, at first in the USA, from July onwards.

Notion Ink worked with National Institute of Design’s R&D development campus in Bangalore to build a unique touch interface that runs on Google’s Android mobile operating system. As a startup, it faced many obstacles in filing patents and finding the right engineering talent. “India doesn’t have people working on Android. And the companies that have, charge Rs 1 lakh per resource per month,” says Rohan. “So we came up with a social solution - We opted to train engineers ourselves.”

The company trained and then recruited over 50 engineers at BVRIT in Bachupally, Hyderabad. “We got the infrastructure at their Innovation Center, and the students as well. We knew the technology in and out and started training them. Within two months it started paying off, and we started developing the professional applications for the product we wanted to design.”

The company is working on an application store platform of its own, where users can find a wide variety of content. “It will offer everything from apps, books, video, audio, to magazines, newspapers and comics,” says co-founder Rajat Sahni.



The company sees more and more users reading newspapers on e-readers and tablets in the near future, and has designed a lightweight product that adapts well to this purpose. They showed us a version of how a digital magazine would look on the Adam. “We’ve taken design inspiration from a 400-year tradition - the user interface of magazines!” chuckles Shravan.
The men behind Adam

Rohan Shravan- IIT- KGP (2008)
Rohit Rathi - IIT- KGP (2008)
Sachin Ralhan – IIPM
Mohit Gupta - IIT- KGP (2008)
Anirudh Gupta –IIT Delhi (2007)
Rajat Sahni – IIT Delhi (2007)
Devanshu Agrawal - IIT- KGP (2008)

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Gotta see this...

[swarthyguy]

Thanks for all the info.

One simple question, with the camera built in, if you buy two, will one be able to converse in real time video with someone located in the CONUS? Seems like you should be able to!

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

See updates.

Particulary the video available at link on post #30.

[dan1123]

The biggest problem I see is it has no option for pen-input.

Typing on a touchscreen is not why I would buy a tablet computer. I want to be able to quickly sketch out diagrams with my ideas at meetings and such, and the pogostick “stylus” is not a good substitute.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Hyderabad, India

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Hyderabad has developed into a major hub for the Information technology industry in India. It is the Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Capital of the Country.

map at the link.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

That is likely a software question...an android question...I don’t know.

[RightOnline]

Impressive. I must add, for those here who give a damn, that I’ve spent years in the high performance computing (HPC) field. Supercomputing, in other words; primarily Linux clusters. If you look at the Top 500 list, published twice a year, of the most powerful systems on the planet....you’ll see many of the systems I used to “own” for Big Blue (in a worldwide marketing sense).

In that field, nVidia’s GPU technology is a serious game changer. In HPC, clusters are used for serious modeling/simulation, and that means serious number crunching. GPU’s are perfect for this. Think of them as math co-processors on steroids.

Traditionally, we all used generic Intel or AMD CPU’s (almost always dual proc) “pizza box” servers lashed together for clusters. Blades came later, but the idea was still the same: lots and lots of “cheap” servers running off-the-shelf CPU’s lashed together to run massive problems.

The core issue there (no pun intended) is that CPU’s do certain things very well; they aren’t dedicated math co-processors. What nVidia and their brilliant Tesla architecture brought to the table is highly significant.

Now....and I’m pulling these numbers out of my, um, ear......rather than 20 racks of Intel or AMD CPU-based servers in a cluster, you may have five racks: 2 with CPU-based servers (or maybe 3), 3 racks of GPU’s (Tesla’s...maybe 2 racks). You get the idea. FAR smaller node count, and offloading the serious number crunching (utilizing CUDA) to the GPU’s vs. more generic CPU’s.

Huge cost savings, huge power savings, huge cooling savings, far more efficiency.

That, folks, in a nutshell, is the future (frankly, the real present) in supercomputing.....and nVidia deserves one hell of a lot of credit for it.

[Marine_Uncle]

Looks like it could be a big winner compared to it’s competition.