Notion Ink

The Week-End Special Part – III

Posted in Uncategorized by Rohan Shravan on October 2, 2010

Hello there!

Here is your week-end special, taking you further into the development decision we’ve made.

Lets talk about the camera again, but this time about the position. Few people noticed the change in its location. I mentioned it in the last post as well. When we made the camera at the center top edge of the Adam, we realised that it is only usable in landscape mode, cos in portrait mode your thumb is too close to it and obstructs a view. Interestingly for the same reason you can find that the front facing cameras are always on the left top edge and it made a lot of usability sense as well. It solved 3 issues for us, perfect placement of GPS antenna, lower interference b/w GPS signal and batteries, and use of standard 3-cell (and it felt better for taking background images as well).

Here is how it looks:

This decision was made in September last year and since then you have noticed the change. (I saw some people talking about the same in the comments to thought of clarifying).

My love for Golden Ratio

I must tell you that I have a very deep obsession for the love of Golden Ratio. Most of the design choices have been influenced by it, like the dimensions as explained in the image on the left:

where R1/R2 ~ Golden Ratio (1.61803..)

and it doesn’t stop here, cos it’s embedded into nearly all curves of Adam!

The screen format in 16:9 is more closer to Golden Ratio than 4:3.

Our UI also has a lot to do with the same which I will start explaining from the next briefing (and believe me I have tons to share!).

I am not sure how deep up you want to go into the electronics and design of the device, so I will stop here (if indeed you want more details and in specific something special, you can post it in the comments and I will explain that part).

This is the major junction where we will shift from the design and electronics to the UI and Software.

I believe all of you had questions on the UI and here is a small snippet:

  • UI is heavily accelerated and is based on Open GL Engine;
  • It features a very new concept of Multi-tasking which is going to be little different and controversial (soon we will know why)! Adam does multi-tasking in a way none ever has done. Gone are the days when we hold menu button for long to switch apps or windows! (I have a post dedicated on this in coming weeks);
  • It supports full 3D effects;
  • Icons are not glossy and web 2.0-ish as you find on all the current generation of devices;
  • Special Contrasting features have been used to support PQ display;
  • and yes it supports multi-touch.

More to come in the coming weeks!

With Regards

Rohan Shravan

597 Responses

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  1. A M Fu said, on December 5, 2010 at 13:20

    Rohan.

    I am happy to see that the Adam will be officially launching in no time soon.

    I am really fascinated by the Adam. But, it is not only the Adam device that I see true potential but it is also the company (i.e. the Notion Ink team). I like what I see in how you are managing the company.

    I plan not only to buy the Adam device but also shares in your company. Will look forward to the day you go publicly listed, I’ll put “pre-order” for those shares too!!

  2. GERARD Charles said, on December 4, 2010 at 22:37

    Cette Tablette est l’avenir. Il faut préserver l’Equipe Fondatrice de perdre le sens de cette Expérience.

    Si tout est Ok, l’Humanité dira merci.

    ***L’angle, bien Vu ***

    Je me vois déjà avec une Tablette Pixel Qi.

    Rohan shravan est j’espère le nouvel Homme qui montrera la voie. Que Dieu et sa famille le préserve.

  3. Merlyn Donio said, on October 24, 2010 at 10:03

    Thank you very much my friend, you are very kind in sharing this useful information with? others…. The details were such a blessing, thanks.

  4. Ted Naifeh said, on October 21, 2010 at 00:25

    I must say, I’m not an early adopter, but I will most likely make an exception for this. Looking forward to developing Longbox content for it.

  5. Rom said, on October 19, 2010 at 09:35

    Seems the only thing I wud miss in my ‘adam’ is the excellent international Radio Indigo in FM radio of Bengaluru. After all, the Worldspace satellite radio that abruptly pulled out from India was not portable unlike ‘adam’.

    Gud morning from Bagalur.

  6. Dobrivoj said, on October 17, 2010 at 19:22

    Dear Mr. Rohan Shravan,

    I will quote you… “For the PQ models we had ab “LED On/Off” switch which will also be in the normal LCD models. Benefit? Now its in your manual control to switch off the screen when you are just listening to music or downloading something. LCDs consume somewhere around 1.8-2.4W an hour! So you will be able to save a LOT!”

    I have a suggestion that might make ADAM more interesting.

    You should offer the possibility of choosing the size of the ACTIVE SCREEN, for example 7″, 4″ etc. as well as positioning the ACTIVE SCREEN on any part of the ADAM SCREEN. That way you could regulate power saving more efficiently and the screen would STILL BE ON… JUST NOT ALL OF IT!!! That would be a very good move because lots of users are avoiding OFF MODE regardless of the power saving benefit. All of us like to know what is going on, on the computer, and in what phase the action we started is in.
    Please consider this option. I believe that you’ll be the 1st on the world to use this function… at least I never seen anyone use it before.

    My name is Dobrivoj Kanurski and I am a composer. I live in Serbia . I was really happy when I saw with what enthusiasm you are creating it. I wish you all the best in creating ADAM and hope it will come very soon to the world market.

    Regards,
    Dobrivoj Kanurski

    • Arioch said, on October 17, 2010 at 22:22

      this would require LED vack light, and not just regular one, but one with fine-grain conrol. No one yet done this.
      Maybe in Adam 2 ?

      Though i thought too about backlight+colour over main windows and grayscale w/o backlight on passive sidebar applets :-)

  7. Ishwar said, on October 17, 2010 at 14:57

    Hi Rohan,

    I too am fascinated by the Golden Ratio!
    Can’t you use this to determine the placement of the camera too on the top edge (in landscape orientation)? It could be placed at 61.8% of the total length from the left edge. Right now from the picture, it “feels” placed too much to the right…

    Best wishes,
    Ishwar.

  8. Robert King said, on October 17, 2010 at 10:41

    Hello from Robert King, I am most interested in your Adam product
    and possible interest:
    more on my background in creative and business can be found at
    http://www.linkedin.com/in/stylela

  9. Marc Dimmick said, on October 12, 2010 at 06:22

    I don’t know about you lot but the talk about Apple and iPad are getting boring. I learn’t a long time ago never to get into a discussion about Apple and any of their products with an Apple User. It never is a discussion about technology but more a religious technology debate.

    If you are happy with your apple products then that is great go and play with your apple products, but stop trying to convert others. If the product is that good then it will take over the world because everyone will want to get one, but until then keep it to yourself.

    The Adam is something different a lot of us are excited for that difference and the opportunity to see the advances it has proposed. We will continually be here and when its released will buy one or more. And it may not meet all our expectations, but we have been involved with its evolution and it can only get better.

    But if the Adam does no be the success that many of us believe it will then it too can become a boutique computer company like other boutique companies, with their religious followers, like some other company I know.But I find that most people in this space do their research, find what they need and use it. If it does not do the job move on and not follow blindly.

    The issue is some of the boutique computer companies just don’t realise it and keep trying to convince everyone else that they are not a boutique company and that they too can work in the enterprise.

    Bottom line is if we are talking about technology and having a constructive debate fantastic, but PLEASE re-frame from this religious technology debate, its boring. Just look around see what happens when fanatics get involved, it just become repetitive and boring.

    Praise to Notion Ink our new technology alter, live long and prosper. :) lol

  10. PowerBuilder said, on October 9, 2010 at 17:29

    Hi dude,
    I read your blog,This is a wonderful blog.I was able to get the
    information that I had been looking for. Thanks once again.
    PowerBuilder development company

    • Dr8k said, on October 12, 2010 at 02:44

      Um… admins – you let a spam post get through :) ^^

  11. Jay Choudhary said, on October 9, 2010 at 14:02

    I hope .. that adam support DLNA … i have DLNA NAS drive with all my movies music document stored there..

    • David K said, on October 16, 2010 at 00:08

      Same here.

    • Arnd said, on December 5, 2010 at 14:22

      Yes, I would love to have a NLNA device that actually works!

    • Arnd said, on December 5, 2010 at 14:22

      Yes, I would love to have a DLNA device that actually works! TV fails, Android Phone Fails…

  12. Klang said, on October 9, 2010 at 13:58

    … slightly disappointed going to sleep…

  13. wtff said, on October 9, 2010 at 13:54

    10:27, breakfast in Hamburg, Germany
    holding my breath in joyful expectation

  14. dr nabakishor H said, on October 9, 2010 at 13:51

    Hello Rohan,

    What happened to the update promised today?.

    (under full of suspense!!!)

  15. Pic said, on October 9, 2010 at 13:41

    Hum… now 17h10 in Japan, for a French guy (10h10) waiting some hudge news…
    best regards ^^

    Ad

  16. Sekhar said, on October 9, 2010 at 13:30

    3:00 AM in dallas, tx here…eagerly waiting for the update, will sleep now, keeping my netbook just beside my bed to be able check it first thing in the morning

  17. civil said, on October 9, 2010 at 13:27

    I know the new post is going to spring up as soon as my head hits the pillow lol. Oh well might as well get the few hours of sleep and catch up when I wake up. To those who are up and waiting, enjoy when it updates.


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