RohanShravan
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Notion Ink delays some Adam shipments to February 14th due to touchscreens damaged in transit
The growing pains of being a small company dealing with big demand have bitten Notion Ink again, as the company has had to dish out a disappointing email to some Adam buyers informing them their delivery has been delayed to February 14th. The culprit in this sad case is a shipment of damaged touchscreens, which company chief Rohan Shravan estimates will affect just over five percent of all orders. Touchscreen supplier Sintek has promised to work through the Chinese New Year to refill that stock, so hopefully the bump back to Valentine's Day will be the last, seemingly fitting, one for the Adam. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Notion Ink Adams arrive to eager unboxers, first OTA brings new meaning to DOA
Well, would you look at that? Oh yes, that's a real life Notion Ink Adam on some lucky guy's table after being pulled from its fresh packaging. Sure, that's to be expected considering the 10-inch, Android 2.2 tablets were boxed up and shipped out last week, but after the numerous delays, we've got to say it's a true milestone for the India-based company. However, while the unboxing videos and pictures are flowing in -- there are two right after the break for ya -- there's sadly some rain pouring down on the company's parade today. According to the chaps at Android Police, a few people have encountered serious issues with an over-the-air update that was pushed to these new tablets. Apparently, hitting the update button and installing the software has caused the Tegra 2 Adam to stop booting (picture of that sad sight at the second source link). That's surely a FOF situation (frown on face, for those that haven't listened to the recent Engadget podcast), but word is that Notion Ink has stopped pushing out those updates for the time being and emailed customers about the issue. We'll be keeping an ear to the ground on this one, but in the meantime we'll be here waiting for our review unit to arrive so we can show those amateur, wobbly-cam unboxers how it's really done.
Notion Ink Adam clears FCC, begins shipping 'around Wednesday'
We don't see it in the FCC database yet but Notion Ink's charming Rohan Shravan just penned a post on the company's blog with news that Adam has official clearance from the US government. That's right, after several delays the tiny startup will finally condense its occasionally vapory molecules into a solid slab of shipping tablet starting "around Wednesday" after the hardware receives its FCC tattoo. Remember, Adam was that tablet good enough to earn a Best of CES 2011 honorable mention at an event absolutely flooded with tablets from a who's who of consumer electronics companies. While our first impressions of the production unit were positive, we're holding off on making a final judgement until we've had the chance to perform a full review. Having said that, Adam's final NI3421A01 product code is so nerdy -- the "3421" continues Rohan's tradition of numbering product iterations along the Fibonacci number sequence -- that we're almost tempted to place an order ourselves. Almost. [Thanks, John]
The Engadget Interview: Notion Ink's Rohan Shravan
We got a chance to hang out with Rohan Shravan after we played around with his ultra-anticipated Notion Ink Adam tablet. He talked up some pretty great early sales figures, and went over some of the partnerships his company is forming at this tangled web we call CES. Check it out after the break!
Notion Ink founder claims Adam tablet will go 15+ hours on a charge
The Pixel Qi and Tegra 2-packing Notion Ink Adam has long been one of our favorite pieces of perfectly plausible vaporware, but founder Rohan Shravan's just made a pretty fantastic claim -- he says he's getting a minimum of 15 hours of battery life from his personal tablet and calculates you'll get up to twenty with the 24Wh, potentially user-replaceable battery nestled in its frame. While those are the figures for the $498 transflective version of the tablet and not the $399 juice-gulping LCD, they're still so stellar that they could easily make or break the Adam's sales depending on their veracity. Oh Rohan, please don't let us down.
Notion Ink Adam a week ahead of schedule, adds comic book store and replaceable battery 'concept'
If you ask us, the whole Adam tablet is a concept until Notion Ink delivers something other than promises, but things are looking up for the less jaded among you. Rohan Shravan has updated the world on the Adam's latest condition, disclosing a new replaceable battery 'concept' and the addition of a comic book store. We're not sure whether that means the final retail unit will or won't have a user-swappable cell, but at least we now know that both the Pixel Qi- and LCD-equipped variants of the Adam will share one body design. The switch that turns off the Pixel Qi backlight will do the same for the LCD model, saving battery power when you're either downloading or listening to the Engadget podcast. We're also told things are moving faster than originally scheduled and the FCC should get a look at this long-awaited tablet a week early. As to the rest of us? Who knows, but maybe there is a tablet god.
Notion Ink Adam delayed, this time investors are to blame (updated!)
The last time we brought you news of Notion Ink's long awaited Adam things weren't looking good, but we had some hope since its CEO Rohan Shravan assured us that it would hit some markets in Q3. He also promised that a pre-order page for the Tegra 2-powered, Pixel Qi-sporting slate would launch soon. It really does pain us to say this, but it doesn't look like any of that's going to be happening anytime soon -- we've received word that the company has lost a great deal of cash and that some of its major investors walked away a few weeks ago. As we've heard it, the company missed its July / August timeline to ramp up manufacturing because of a very big loss from an early investor. As such, the India-based company had to look for new funding, and apparently seek out a new manufacturer. We're told they've secured more cash now, but things are on shaky ground. Shravan wouldn't comment on the news, but he did tell us that he still plans to bring the Adam to market before the end of 2010. We admire that persistence and certainly believe the Adam is one of the more innovative tablets out there, but we're gonna hold on to these tissues until we see an order page and some real evidence that things are turning around for the start-up. Updated: Slashgear has an in-depth rundown of Notion Ink's saga. We've still been told that the company has been delayed in bringing the Adam to market because of funding issues, though it has now acquired more cash. Apparently, if all goes as planned, it will begin manufacturing in November and ship later that month or in December. That lines up with what Shravan told us, but again, we will believe it when we see it. Update 2: Here's Shravan's official statement... "We will have the device before the year ends. It will be introduced at a major event after which you can order it online. It has to be placed strategically, as this is our maiden effort. Whatever has happened cannot be changed, but with the support we are getting from all, we might just become a part of the history. Also on the pricing, all the 3 devices will be lower than even the basic model of iPad."
