Camera and More

Hello,

For a change, it’s not Rohan here. Work on Camera is still a WIP. Code for the camera libraries are closed source with NVidia and getting around the camera sub-system is taking longer than expected.

Having said that, if you are waiting for the camera update, voicing at Tegra Forum might help though most of the questions are either deleted or never replied. Here is one of the dev for Adam voicing for support, but even the last suggestion suggests to move on to OMAP

As the lead for the sw, it is extremely important for us to make sure that the roadmap doesn’t break anything on Adam 1. The only option (and better one) was to opt for RenderScript.

RenderScript is hardware independent (though can be tweaked) and development on RS will make sure that Adam 1 stays in SW support for at least 2 more years.

RenderScript and SVG are going to be in out focus for next two-year here at Notion Ink. Below is a very small sample of RenderScript rendering an A3D model of simple sphere, with Earth Map (from Nasa), bump map created using GIMP, couple of lights and animation (not obvious from an image).

Frankly sharing anything on development on next versions of Eden doesn’t make sense till the camera issue is resolved. That’s the last piece of puzzle, and if you can help sport your voice on that forum, possibly we can fix things faster.

As an ex developer of a leading brand you all know about, it is really fascinating to even absorb the idea of how community has made more than 200 ROM variants for Adam. Unlike Adam 1, there will be no short-cuts for 2. If something not working, it won’t go out. Our roadmap is built for next 4 years, so there will be speed differences. But one thing is clear and that’s what I bring here at NI, great products needs stronger fundamentals, and that’s what we will build first.

Last words on the next generation SW approach. We are approaching the era of micro-apps. Every app cannot be tuned in for a particular user. A doctor may have 15 years of formal education and 25 years of practice, but when it comes to sw, he can’t possible build one. But if see clearly, IDEs and APIs like Android SDK and iOS SDK have worked till now to ease the development of the programmers to attract more developers, making things sometimes as easy as making a “task flow” like an accountant would do, “refer” a value in one cell of a sheet to another cell. There is a truck load of information yet to come, but first things first.

Best

V

Back from Hibernation!

Hello All,

We are back from hibernation now! Sorry for the break (much-needed on our end).

Let me know what is flowing across your minds and I will keep you busy reading on weekends!

Regards

Rohan Shravan

Notion Ink Adam Unboxing – The XDA Way

Adam Beta (Tomorrow) Today!

Update(18 Feb):

We have 2 links here:

• LINK 1 : Update Recovery ZIPPED
• LINK 2: Adam Beta ICS ZIPPED

This is how to use these files:

1. Download above 2 files.
2. Rename update_Recovery.zip to update.zip.
3. Copy update.zip and adam_BetaICS.zip to the external sdcard
4. Start the device in recovery mode (Volume Up Key + Power Down on Eden OS/AlphaICS, check for beast ROM)
5. Select “Apply External SDcard update.zip”  (Use Volume Up down keys for navigation, second capacitive button for selection) You are installing recovery image right now. 
6. Once Complete, reboot to recovery mode again (Volume Up Key + Power Down on Eden OS/AlphaICS, check for beast ROM)
7. Wipe the data and select the option – “install zip from SD card”
8. Select second option “choose zip from SD Card”
9. Select adam_BetaICS.zip. Install.
10. Wipe the data and cache
11. Reboot the device
12. Enjoy!

Regards

[17th Feb Post:

Hello there,

Tomorrow you will see release of Adam Beta. List of fixed things working excludes Camera, disabling notifications, compass, light sensor and Microphone.

3G, sleep issue, YouTube HD, graphics acceleration, better wi-fi, better sound and USB working now. Check this link for more. Jump in to report bugs and other issues.

More coming tomorrow.

Warm Regards ]

Rohan Shravan

Guest Post: ICS Team

 

Hello Everyone, 

 

For a change this time we have RaYmAn writing this post! Here we go…

 

Hi,

We have asked NI to allow us to make a guest post on Rohan’s blog in order to make some things clear about how our (The ICS Team) collaboration with Notion Ink works.

The ICS Team consists of the four people RaYmAn, Mrdeadlocked, Kushiel and MrGuy. We all consider TabletRoms our home, but we aren’t the “TR ICS Team”, we are the “ICS Team”. This is a minor distinction but important when considering our collaboration with Notion Ink. There is no official relationship between TR and NI, but we, the devs, do have direct collaboration with developers and other technical people from NI.

We started work on ICS for Adam shortly after the source was released. The initial efforts had some major issues which was shared across all Tegra2 devices as well as few other devices. It wasn’t easy to fix this stuff, but with help from Notion Ink we managed it.

Notion Ink has provided us with invaluable information regarding the hardware of Adam as well as spare parts and replacement Adam’s for those team members (rayman & kushiel) who sacrificed their Adam’s for the greater good (e.g. soldering in a serial port!).

They have also provided us with source code and details on the camera for Android 2.2, without which it would be pretty much impossible to get camera going on ICS. On that note, camera is progressing nicely, but it’s still not quite there yet

To answer some of the questions about how the collaboration works: We have been truthful when asked, and we intend to continue with that. Apart from donations (including several from Notion Ink),  none of us are getting paid for our Adam work, and several of us are not interested in getting paid for it due to tax issues and similar(donations are welcome ). There are multiple reasons for not getting paid:

 

• Notion Ink is an indian company and it can be hard to transfer funds to foreign nationals.
• Tax issues in some of the countries make it complicated
• Getting Paid implies being required to put down x amount of hours work per day/week/month.
• We do this for fun, not for the money!
• We would rather get hardware (e.g. Adam 2) than money.

On that note, it’s also important to consider that the other similar tablets are not getting ANY support at all from the vendors. This applies to Viewsonic Gtab, Advent Vega and others. The vendors couldn’t care less and they provide zero support! With Adam, we have contacts within NI which we rely on for information, source code and general support. Rest assured that a lot of the kernel would have halted without NI’s help.

All things considered, it could be argued that Notion Ink should put more resources towards putting ICS on Adam 1. Realisticly, this might not be possible. Notion Ink is a young company, with a finite amount of resources. They have no choice but to prioritize the resources in the best possible way. It’s understandable that people can’t buy tablets constantly, and continued support is of course important, but again, be realistic. Working on Adam 2 and other new products is the only reasonable business decision. There is no way a company can survive purely on
supporting old hardware.

To sum up: we don’t get paid, we do it for fun. We like hacking on hardware and software and we continue to support Notion Ink and the Adam because we believe in their goals and their desire to make an awesome product! Sure, it helps that they are giving us Adam 2s, so our hacking can continue on that device, but that’s not why we do it!

Thanks to Notion Ink for letting us make this post to clarify our (the ICS team) position in this whole matter.

 

ICS TEAM

 

Warm Regards

Rohan Shravan