Notion Ink, the company behind the forthcoming Adam tablet [tracking page], has divulged lots of info on it’s official blog today about the company’s first device, including pre-order information.

Pricing and Availability

As mentioned in an earlier post on their blog, Notion Ink has sent out emails to people who have commented on their site in the past, and these people will be able to access pre-orders 6 hours before everyone else. If you aren’t among this group of people, you should be able to pre-order the Adam starting on December 9th at 7:30PM EST, presumably from Notion Ink’s site.

The Adam will be offered starting at $375 for the basic Wi-Fi only version, while the 3G version will run $425. If you opt for the Pixel Qi (transreflective) screen, the Wi-Fi only version will be $499 or $549 for the 3G version. Notion Ink says they have 6 different variants available citing the “900 and 850 series inch which may represent different 3G radios for different networks.

Interface

Notion Ink has also given us a good look at the custom interface that they’ve been working on, which I’ve been excited to take a see. I’ll drop the images below for you to peruse. The first thing I’ve noticed is that their choice of “hand-drawn inch icon style doesn’t seem to fit with their hyper-modern interface (which reminds me much of Mirror’s Edge aesthetics). They’ve previously stated that they didn’t want to follow the current glossy icon style that has been popularized thanks to Apple’s iOS app icons.

Based on images alone, I find Adam’s interface to be graphically very sharp and impressive. Unfortunately, we don’t have a clear idea of exactly how it will operate, and intuitiveness and consistency might be an issue (we’ll have to wait and see). I’m happy to see them trying to do something revolutionary though. Android’s app design is more fragmented than the versions of the OS itself. If Notion Ink wants to be able to pull off this app paradigm, their approach will have to be very usable, and they’ll need to publish tight design/usage docs for developers to follow. Otherwise we’ll end up with a messy, confusing, and inconsistent interface which will result in fewer people using the device, and thus fewer developers wanting to develop for the platform. I have at least a little bit of hope as Notion Ink claims to have done lots of user testing in these areas.

The Adam as a Drawing Digitizer?

One of the most interesting points on the afore-linked blog post was that the Adam will include a “digitizer inch and be able to work as a wireless input device for other computers. I wish I had more solid information about this, but their language isn’t very clear. According to Notion Ink, the “Adam comes with an Open Source implementation which converts it into a digitizer inch, and further clarifies by saying “Please note, technically Adam’s way of using the screen as touch input for your computers does not make it fall into traditional digitizer domain, but it’s rather an intelligent implementation and hack in to the system inch. So at this point, it doesn’t sound like were talking about an active digitizer (which is how almost all decent computer drawing pads work). Sounds like an interesting feature, but it might not turn out to be anything more than a VNC implementation.

Mystery Sensor

Notion Ink has been teasing a mystery sensor that will be included with the Adam. In the blog post CEO Rohan Shravan writes:

One of my wish was to design a product where every fortnight you can receive a new update which isn’t just a security bug fix, but a discovery of something which already existed, sort of un-locking a part. This is my first attempt on the same lines!

An interesting concept, but people might take this the wrong way. There’s nothing more annoying than a product shipping with a particular piece of hardware, but having it locked down for no reason. Apple did this with their iPod Touchs, which included Bluetooth radios, but were locked down to only be used with proprietary Nike+ sensors. Eventually Apple opened up the Bluetooth functionality with an update, but it took some time before users were actually able to take advantage of the hardware they paid for.

We’ve been watching the Notion Ink Adam [tracking page] carefully ever since it’s early beginnings. Now, Notion Ink has launched a new website in preparation of the launch of their first device, expected in either December or January.

Their previous site was very flashy, both metaphorically and literally. The flash based aspects of it really hurt the performance of the site. This time around, the site is much more refined, and performs much better. I’m hoping that this parallels what’s been happening with the device itself. It’s important to expectations in check, the people behind the Joojoo know this all too well.

In addition to the weekly information that been revealed over at Notion Ink’s blog, the site offers a few additional clues as to how the tablet’s unique interface will work. Notion Ink hopes to get app developers passion’s fired up with their upcoming “Genesis inch developers contest, but according to the site, that’s still “coming soon inch. If they don’t hurry up, the Adam won’t have the app support it needs for a prime-time launch.

If you love learning up the design process behind this sort of product creation, definitely go check out the new site and their blog. It’s actually really nice to see a startup company creating such a device because they’re happy to give an inside view of the production and design process that you rarely see from other companies (and never from Apple!).

If you need a little refresher, the Adam is an Android tablet with a 10.1 inch screen, which doesn’t sound exciting by itself, but the Adam promises some unique features:

• Pixel Qi Screen
• Back trackpad
• 1080p content decoding with HDMI output
• Support for Flash 10.1 and streaming HD videos
• 140 hours or audio playback and 16 hours of HD video playback
• Modified Android interface: “Not just the expanded screens. You will see slow and steady improvements on all UI areas making Android the perfect OS for tablets inch

It’s been a little while so I think we’re do for a checkup on the Adam which is supposedly still in the works.

Back in February, I wrote up an article entitled “Everything We Know About the Notion Ink Adam inch which garnered a decent amount of attention and showed that there is certainly some interest in the device. Back if February when the device was shown off at Mobile World Congress, people were excited to envision the Adam competing with the (at the time) upcoming iPad, and comparisons between the two were entirely inevitable. Unfortunately, the iPad has been out for several months, while the Notion Ink Adam is still a no-show and we speculated back in March that the Adam could go the way of vaporware (though we’d be happy to be wrong).

So what’s happened since then? Well, we can confirm now that Notion Ink is indeed planning on releasing two versions of the Adam. One of which will have the Pixel Qi screen, and the other will have a standard screen. Both will be capacitive touchscreens, but the Pixel Qi-less option is presumably to have a lower priced option. Aside from that, Notion Ink’s official Adam site is relatively unchanged since we last checked in.

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As we watch company after company announce that they are bringing a slate to the market, it is clear that gadget makers are pushing this form factor as the next big thing. There is plenty of noise out there, but so far there are very few solid devices that are actually reaching consumers. Soon we’ll be looking at a storm of tablets hitting the market, and here is a roundup of the three that I think will have a significant impact on the future of this category and may end up going head-to-head in this emerging device space.

1. Apple iPad

If you didn’t see this coming… well you should have. There is evidence out there that Apple’s mythical slate is the impetus behind this surge of slates. People we’re juxtaposing it with the Joojoo before they even knew that the iPad existed. Apple has the tangible lead on the touch experience on the iPhone and iPod Touch, and now they will be working their magic to translate that to a 9.7 inch screen. The iPad will run a modified version of the iPhone OS (which is in itself a stripped down version of OSX). Apple has two a distinct advantages over the other two companies producing the devices listed below. 1) Huge content library and content partnerships. 2) Lots of money for marketing.

Price: $499-$829

Availability: April 3rd

Official Site: http://www.apple.com/ipad/

Strengths:

• Apple’s renowned industrial design
• Interface based on lots of touch UI experience and Apple’s usual user-friendliness
• Partnership with AT&T for $30/month no contract 3G data plan
• Lots of built in memory (16/32/64GB)
• iTunes/iBooks content library
• 150,000 (iPhone) apps at launch
• Likely one of the first major products to market

Weaknesses:

• Pricey on top-end models
• Restrictive OS (for developers and users)
• No Flash
• No webcam
• Will take time for devs to create ‘killer’ iPad specific apps
• No USB or SD card slot

Update: Notion Ink Adam specifications and links are now in the database.

A  video published last week by the Times of India has Notion Ink co-founder Rohan Shravan showing off what is being called a “final inch version of the ever intriguing Adam tablet. The video has some nice close-ups of the unit, but it still doesn’t seem like the production version (and I hope not as part of the screen bezel comes off mid-interview), though Rohan says that it is final in terms of “look and feel inch and that the device should launch first in the US in June. He also claims that the device will last for more than 10 hours doing 1080p video output. I’ll still have to see it for myself before I believe it, but I sure hope that the Nvidia Tegra 2 hardware is capable of backing that claim. Still no word on pricing. There is also an interesting interview with both Notion Ink co-founders if you care to have a look.

Notion Ink Adam specifications and links.

I just finished an overview post on the ever-interesting Notion Ink Adam slate over at Carrypad.com. As I researched the slate, I came away rather impressed with it. While we have yet to see production models, what Notion Ink claims to be bringing to the table with the Adam could very well surpass the iPad [Product page] in terms of power/battery life/features is this a result of a small company’s ability to take risks that a large company couldn’t afford?

Most of us are all too familiar with Apple’s practices. Step one for Apple usually involves boiling a product concept down and identifying key uses. Next, they design the product around those key uses and make sure that it works very well for them. Finally they produce a well polished product that generally brings existing hardware together with streamlined software in a way that outshines most products in the category, but because the device is designed around specific uses, they often force their users to do things their way.

Then along comes a relatively small company like Notion Ink. I’ve got to imagine that being small allows them to respond quickly to changes in the market as they are developing their product, which affords them the ability them to incorporate some bleeding-edge hardware (like a dual-core Cortex A-9 CPU, Nvidia’s Tegra 2 platform, and Pixel Qi display.) Additionally, being open about the development of their device leaves the door open for feedback and constructive criticism which will all end up improving the final product.

It’s unlikely that Notion Ink will sell even half as many Adam slates as Apple sells iPads, but I feel that they have a shot at stealing relatively large chunk of would-be iPad users by being bold enough to include things like a swiveling camera and a rear trackpad. Of course much of this potential will be lost if the price isn’t right — as well as how long it takes them to get it to market (neither of which have been announced officially.)

And let’s not forget that both of these devices could fail pretty easily if their OSKs don’t function adequately.

I think this is a big opportunity for Notion Ink, and I really hope they are able to delivery everything that they have been claiming with this product. What do you think, dear reader? Would you take the Adam over the iPad if you could pick either for the same price? Let us know what your thoughts are in the comments below.

There has been lots of talk about Notion Ink’s upcoming Adam slate device which will be running Android. One of the reasons why this 10 inch slate has interests piqued it is one of the first devices that we’ve seen using the oft-mentioned, but never quite implemented, Pixel Qi screen, that might be coming to market. The screen has the ability to display full color and motion just like a standard LCD screen, but it can be switched to a transreflective mode which makes it highly readable in direct sunlight, and allows the backlight to be turned off to save power.

We’ve been keeping our eye on this device as the company has been showing various prototypes over the last month or so. This post is here to lay out what we know about the device so far.

Let’s start with the specs. From Notion Ink’s official website:

• NVIDIA TEGRA 2
• Dual Core Cortex A-9 “MPCORE inch CPU
• ULP GPU
• 16/32GB eMMC/SD memory
• WiFi b/g
• 3G HSDPA
• Bluetooth 2.1
• 10.1 inch Pixel Qi display, 1024×600 (transmissive, transflective, and reflective display mode
• Capacitive touchscreen
• Fingerprint resistant (possibly an oleophobic coating)
• 3.2MP swiveling camera for front-facing or rear-facing photos/video
• 3.5mm headphone jack
• microphone and two speakers
• 2x USB 2.0
• HDMI output
• 3 axis accelerometer
• ambient light sensor
• A-GPS
• “Back side trackpad inch