Notion Ink Adam Eden Update Landing Monday, Gingerbread Wednesday

     Adam owners will finally be able to taste sweet Gingerbread on Monday Wednesday with the release of Eden 1.5. Aside from Gingerbread, the update is suppose to bring several UI enhancements that hopefully make the interface a little bit more user friendly. Also onboard are many news apps such as the long-awaited weather app and Dolphin Browser HD. Another update is slotted for Wednesday with an unspecified changelog. Keep hitting those update buttons people!
     I apologize for misinforming the lucky people that read this article. The Gingerbread update is landing Wednesday, and the Major update to Eden 1.5 is landing Monday. The new Eden will bring many new features including a new look, supposedly enhanced usability (I'm skeptical), and many new apps. Let's hope for the best, and keep hitting those update buttons tomorrow. I'll post a review for you as soon as I can.

Honeycomb 3.1 is Coming

     Today is day one at Google I/O, the announcements are in full swing. Of course, some of the pertain to the Adam. What would that be? Honeycomb 3.1 was announced  that brings widget resizing, USB support galore, and much improved multitasking/task management. What is the biggest takeaway from this? It will be open-sourced for Notion Ink to get their hands on. Honey from the garden of eden tastes even better.

Dolphin Browser HD to Come Bundled with Adam

     Notion Ink is getting its fingers into many pies lately. They have announced today that they have made a deal with the makers of Dolphin Browser to include their phenomenal web browser in the upcoming update. Oddly, Dolphin Browser HD is completly incompatible with the Adam right now. It is even blocked on the Market (using Edenx). Better yet, the update has a timeline set for release in the "third week of this month". Around the same time, the Adam will be available for general sale.

Kindle on Adam!

     No, I haven't gone crazy with the exclamation points today. Rohan announced late last night (sometime around noon in India) that Notion Ink is collaborating with Amazon to bring the Kindle Books app on the Adam. This is likely to come in the next update. This is very exciting especially considering their isn't a pre-installed book app to enjoy your Pixel Qi with. The next question is the possible future inclusion of the Amazon Appstore on the Adam.

Breaking: Honeycomb on Adam (Update)

     I have great news for you folks! Mr. Guy, the same guy to bring you the Pixel Qi toggle app, has now booted Honeycomb on the Adam. It is in very early stages, but it is booted, and that we can build upon. Now it's your turn devs. Take this pice of work to make an awesome ROM complete with NI apps. We are waiting.
     As you can see in the video below, it is still pre-alpha, but it is on its way. This particular ROM appears to be from the EeePad Transformer. The original post can be found here. The devs at TabletROMs.com re doing good!
(Update)
Help make the ROM stable to get a piece of the bounty. You will be rewarded for your dev efforts. How can you lose? See: http://tabletroms.com/forums/content.php?4-Stabilize-the-HC-Rom

Completly Updated Eden Coming to Adam

     We have had light shed upon us this morning in the the latest Notion Ink blog post. The major update that was barely mentioned in the last post got a list of details to go with the images today. The details show that this really is a major update instead of a design change.

The biggest bullet of the list is the core OS. The Adam will get Gingerbread after all. The delay on Honeycomb made them change their minds most likely. Eden needed a lot of improvement and Honeycomb isn't available as grounds for such improvement. The kernel is also getting a nice revamp for you developers out there. To give you ROM developers a nod, the link for the kernel source was thrown up on the blog post at the very top.

Another amazing bullet point is the addition of an overclocked Tegra processor. This could be taken many ways as it is listed as "optimally overclocked". That could just mean that it isn't downclocked by Eden anymore.

Many software additions and changes will take place. Many such additions include chords for music, the weather app, books, and flash pre-installed (sorry, no genesis). Rohan makes mentioned of a completly different browser, which would be nice considering the Eden browser that I'm typing this post on is very half-baked. Take a gander at the full post here .

Engadget Reviews Notion Ink Adam

     All I can say is finally! We (or I at least) have been waiting for a professional review of the Adam since it came out. Since all orders were shipped a while back, it's hard to tell what took them so long. They had some interesting things to say about the tablet. Most of them were bad, but they were also true. They main target of the negativity was, of course, the software and the screen. What else did they say? Read on.

     The Adam only did good enough to deserve a lousy 3 out of 10 rating from the big shots. The software was called upon repeatedly for being slow and buggy. They even went as far as calling it "beta at best". Not a goos sign. They seemed particularly proud of their discovery of a way to make the browser crash on command (multiple taps on the tab wheel). The panels got a nice little overview as to how they worked and such. A small item they touched on was the lack of responsiveness from the capacitive digitizer. It was blamed on the screen protector, but as I found out the screen protector has nothing to do with the lack of touch sensitivity, it is just another one of the tablet's quirks. Oddly, no mention was made about the low wifi signal.

     Engadget did have a couple of good thing to say about Notion Ink's baby. The ports... lots and lots of ports to fill your nerdy heart with joy. It use a "unique" design and an awesome sun-readable display. That was about it on the good side.

     Like everyone that has an Adam knows, the viewing angles are awful, the camera is funky at best, and the software is just bad out of the box. Engadget just reaffirmed what we already knew, but it's nice to hear from the pros. You know Notion Ink didn't do terribly great with their first product when Engadget calls it a prototype running beta software. Get the full review here: http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/27/notion-ink-adam-review/

The Future Looks Bright!

     Many moons ago Rohan mentioned a major update coming in the future for our beloved Adams. Today we see the first signs of the upgrade. While he doesn't into much detail about the software itself, he does provide four lovely screen shots of a completely revamped Eden UI. Along with a completely different style, the status bar seems to be making a come back. All of those apps we have been missing such as Weather, Books, and Eden (appears to be called chords in the preview) will be making an appearance as well.

The full post, found here, is entitled "Closer to the Blue". One can only guess that blue means Honeycomb. Major updates to Eden like this are enough to keep most of us happy until the big blue drops. We'll see if function lives up to form when the update drops "soon". We will be waiting eagerly.

The Wait For Honeycomb on Adam is Getting Ridiculous

     Full faith was resting on Notion Ink to give us an update to Honeycomb for our Adams. After the Adam was released many speculated that Honeycomb may never see the light of day from behind a Pixel Qi screen. Rohan has assured us multiple times that Notion Ink will do everything in their power to bring us the fabled Android for tablets. Now it looks as if the issue may be out of their hands.

     Google has decided to hold off on releasing the source code because it wasn't made for use on phones. This is old news, and can be fixed if Notion Ink becomes best friends with Google. There is a very slim chance of this happening, but one can hope. Now it appears that Nvidia won't be supporting the Adam's Harmony based internals for future updates. This is only rumor, but it is very worrisome. Will the Adam ever get Honeycomb? The world may never know for sure.

Week Two: No Weekend Special

     I thought there was new technology that needed to be talked about. Where are the promised updates Rohan? The people want answers. For those of you that may not know, Rohan (Notion Ink CEO) promised upcoming weekend special updates starting last Saturday. This is the kind of thing that causes distrust in the community.

Roebeet is Stepping Down

     It just seems like the fledgling Notion Ink community is falling apart these days. Albert Wertz (Notion Ink Hacks Official) has put his Adam up for sale, and now Roebeet is handing off the Edenx project to anyone worthy of taking over. Anyone that would like to be considered for the duty should drop a post here: http://www.notioninkhacks.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=2049. Edenx is one of the best ROM's available for the Adam, and Roebeet will be missed. He isn't going anywhere, but he won't be in charge of Edenx anymore.

Notion Ink (Rohan) Finally Updates the Public

      It has been nearly a month since the last post from the mysterious company. Most of our needy questions have been answered this time along with a few exciting things to keep the fun going. Rohan is going to start the weekend specials again for the few and far between blog posts to stop. More good news after the break.

     First and foremost, you can stop posting your infinite questions to the Notion Ink blog. THe official Notion Ink forum is coming in the next few days. Coming with the forums will be the ability to live chat with the support team. Let's hope the support team can take the strain that the anxious fans will undoubtedly put on the system.
     Rohan gave full details on the delays put on Adam deliveries, and assured us that every Adam has been shipped. The sleep/wake bug that has plagued so many Adam's was the fault of the manufacturer according to Rohan. To solve this issue, they will be using a different manufacturer from here on out.
     One of the more interesting points that was touched on was the Honeycomb issue. He addressed the issue of Honeycomb being closed by sending a special request to Google for the source. I would give it to them if I were Google, but sadly I am not. Let's hope they do get some kind of agreement with Google not just for Honeycomb, but for the Android Market as well.
The full blog post is here:http://notionink.wordpress.com/2011/03/29/breaking-the-silence/

No Honeycomb Source Code! What It Means to an Adam Owner.

     Google is getting a little more strict on their open sourcing as of recent. They will be holding off on the release of the Honeycomb source until further refinements are made. The refinements in question are to make Honeycomb more phone friendly to developers and hackers. The pot isn't all sour as large manufacturers will  get access to the code.

     Now the big question here is will Notion Ink qualify as a "large" company in order to receive the rights to the hive. Probably not, but we can hope. The update will probably take a lot longer than many had hoped. What we know for sure is that the small developers that give us ROMs won't be able to so for a while. This is really a bad ordeal for Adam owners.

Galaxy Tab 8.9 & 10.1 First Impressions (Adam Beware)(Video)

     It looks like we have a couple of worthy adversaries to add to the list today. They are the most iPad like Android tablets I have seen thus far. The Galaxy Tab's are to be sold based on the amount of memory with a 16 and 32 GB variant. The big story from here is that they will both be wifi only at launch. The prices are as follows:

	16 GB	32 GB
Galaxy Tab 8.9 WiFi	$469	$569
Galaxy Tab 10.1 WiFi	$499	$599

     The 8.9 Tab will have an interesting accessory that causes worry in the Adam realm. It has USB in/out. The one thing the Adam excels at, and they made it available on a Samsung device, but you still has to buy the dock connector add-on to use it. The insides are the usual dual-core 1GHz chip and 1GB RAM that we have come to expect by now. The rear cameras are both 3MP while the front shooters are rated at 2MP. Both have the usual front-facing cameras. Another feature that has potential to shoot the Adam down are the stereo surround sound speakers that the tablets have. They must be good for Samsung to boast like they do. The Galaxy Tab's are also the world's thinnest tablets, coming in at 8.6mm in thickness (just 0.2mm thinner than the iPad).

     The story isn't just about the hardware this time around. Samsung, most likely in an effort to differentiate themselves, have skinned Honeycomb over with Touchwiz 4.0. It may not be all bad news, however, as it seems that Sammy has tried to do a little more than replace the launcher this time. Touchwiz replaces the home screen with what they call "Live Panels". In the demo below you can see that you can actually open up certain apps in little windows. Windows on an Android-powered tablet is refreshing to say the least. Tablets might be getting some desktop savvy to them. The video is courtesy of Android Community.