Acer Iconia A700 vs. Notion Ink Adam 2 so far / "Retard Gate" continues

Turns out my friend isn't my friend anymore. Here's what he's tried so far - all of it illegal. Yes, it's illegal.

- Tried to subscribe me to a variety of sites - porn, health, advice, news (hey thanks!). In some cases this idiot even went into the site, registered with my e-mail, added a password, verified it, logged in, and then subscribed me to the newsletter. So much work for so little.

- Tried to get into my wordpress account (I know, I got notifications)

- Tried to get into my blogger account (I know, I got notifications)

- Left 2 links on my blog, to two fake blogs he set up purporting to be me (thank you so much)

It's either (a) a really hard-core fan of Notion Ink or (b) an employee. Either way, it reflects very badly.

In other news, Acer announced their Iconia A700 today. I don't care for Android but that's OK, to each his own. Here's a spec comparison to Notion Ink Adam 2 - delivery date unknown, but it sure will be mindblowing as some fans will tell me.

So, here it is: Acer Iconia A700 vs. Notion Ink Adam 2 as we know so far.

Specification / Other	Acer Iconia A700	Notion Ink Adam 2
Price	$450	Unknown
Availability	Now	Unknown
Processor	Tegra 3 Quad-Core	TI OMAP Dual-Core
OS	ICS	ICS
Screen	10.1" WXGA 16:10 LED 1920 x 1200 HD	We know it won't have a high-res screen. That's all we know.
Interfaces	HDMI, microSD, microUSB, Bluetooth, Wifi	Unknown
Peripherals	front (1 MP) and rear facing (5 MP) cameras	Unknown
Software	?	World's first modular architecture, drag-drop, anyone can build apps etc.

(Let me know if I missed something on either product / got something wrong. Will rectify it)

I haven't added more specifications as we know so little about Adam 2 beyond some of the core elements. And it has now been nearly 6 months since the Notion Ink CEO said he'd be taking his fans on the journey of Adam 2 design.

At the outset I fail to see what the unannounced Adam 2's advantages will even be. It's got to be some unannounced feature. If not, it has to be a fantastic price (like $200) and that's unsustainable for a small company. I'm sure someone will scream that you can't chroot it and it doesn't have a parallel port, but that kind of nonsense is best left ignored. Let's talk about designing to people who actually want their devices to work without fiddling on it.

In a few months we'll have a slew of new tablets, there will be iOS6 on iPads, and no doubt Samsung will make some impressive releases. Which makes me all the more curious what advantage is it for Adam 2? And if it releases end of 2012, it will be a full 2 years since the Adam 1!

Follow-up: Nice try

First, You might want to read this noble effort of getting me some porn access (my previous post). I have a quick update.





Again, another helpful soul is trying to take care of my wordpress account. I think he's trying to the extra mile and make sure my password is reset to something useful. Such a nice gesture. Except that it's illegal of course. But nevermind...

Another update:


He's been busy, my good buddy. Lot more subscriptions today. And that too at work/office time - doesn't your boss know what you're up to?

Hey how about registering me for some good news sites? They're missing. I'm not big into prayers.

[NSFW] I thank you, O' Fan for my porn registrations

[update: my friend has been busy since this post  - see end of this post and the newer post]

How many of you want to browse porn sites at leisure with an account (to, you know, bookmark favorite videos and chat with a bevy of 20 year old hotties, all surprisingly from your local neighborhood, and desperate to have sex with you) but are afraid to register on them? I know I am.

Which is why I'm so thankful to that guy who thoughtfully took the time and effort, and all the trouble to go ahead and register me to a slew of porn sites.

This isn't the first time but the effort the last time wasn't stellar. The last time whoever did it had poor taste in the sites selection and the registrations also accompanied a threatening e-mail, which wasn't no nice. This time it's a better job.

So at some time 7 hours ago, in a span of about 4 minutes, someone diligently went to each of these great porn sites and registered me on it.



gay porn isn't to my interest but I appreciate the other selections, and you all (my readers) can enjoy some fine selections from this afficianado.

And whoever did this - I ask you to please look out for me in the porn universe and time-to-time register me on new and upcoming sites. Thank you for your help. Don't hesitate to drop me an e-mail, though I would also recommend that you not do it from your company network.



But WAITAMMINNUTTTTTTTT!!!



But I have faith in humanity and hope he was trying to do the right thing.

Now if you'll excuse me folks, I have some "browsing" to do. Heheh ;)

update: Whoopeee, I got more reading to do! Thank you friend.

I feel so sad for having left Tabletroms

I feel so tempted to have sweet lovin' conversations with some cheerleadin' chicks out there...

I've got no news for you folks. As some people would like us to believe Notion Ink is hard at work on Adam 2, it's going to be amazing, you can chroot it (oh yeah!), it's all google's fault even the lack of blog updates, and Adam 2 will blow your mind away and you're stupid if you don't buy it -- but then again if you buy it and then feel unhappy it's all your fault and you're stupid either way.

Er...  I know, what's happening to JKS MADAM 2 you ask. I'm finalizing the software development process - just looking around for forums with developers to do it free for me. Worked for some other companies, why not for me eh?

Adam 2 - Promises made so far. Keep an eye.

Some of those kind folk at TR and NI blogs kept telling us all through Adam 1 that NI made no promises, never mind the plethora of evidence. They have no credibility left, and it's interesting to see very little commentary on Adam 2. Yes, it doesn't feel nice to be led on, does it?

Now, let's look at the sorry saga of Adam 2.

It's now Week 6 since the last post, after the CEO of Notion Ink said once again that they're back from hibernation and "will keep you busy reading on weekends." , “Let me know what is flowing across your minds and I will keep you busy reading on weekends!” - April 5 2012, Rohan Shravan, “CEO” of Notion Ink.

It's a lack of shame and ethics on that company, its founders and investors.

So far, here are the things we've heard for Adam 2. All directly from Notion Ink.

Jan 6 - 2012 (see post 59): "We intend to release 2 variants of warranties, one specially for Hackers and Geeks to ensure this is not an issue"

"Every Software we will release will make available a template (read about Templates in C++) which you can tear down, Cut, Copy and create your own applications. This all will be done by a normal user, not programmers. We have a very strong perspective that programmers should not be the only ones who create apps. They shou"ld create plugins, cos need of a doctor is different from the needs of an Engineer. Genesis will be the Store House of these plugins, plugins which will help expand any application, or let you create one from scratch by drag and drop mechanism"

8-Jan - 2012 "Our mission is to promote and pursue community based development" (can someone tell me, especially those big supporters at TR, what this community based development for ADAM 2 is?)

21-Jan-2012 - "Adam II will release the world’s first Modular Based Software Architecture which will further expand the scope of application development and use nearly every single hardware feature in a “user customizable” application. Drag and drop features will enable easy application modification and Open Source Module will further expand the use cases and tablet deployment"

Apart from this, there's the usual Quicklogic partnership. There's been little from NI on Adam 2 (ignoring that nonsense about infographs), and I have no issues with that so long as they make it clear that there won't be, instead of misleading people.

Now, when Adam 2 does come out (if it), we'll see how much of this is real. I bet not a lot, and there will be idiots coming and telling us that Notion Ink meant something else and it's all your fault for buying it.

MADAM 2 - Genesis of an amazing new tablet. Customer strategy.

Today, I'll talk about the customer segmentation strategy of my new tablet.

The thing about the tablet market is that it is an expensive market to enter. Apple is dominant and is able to garner both premium pricing due to the design and OS ecosystem, and lower sourcing cost due to its massive scale.

Others, over the years, have struggled mightily. The big ones like HP just gave up, ASUS, Acer and so on have struggled, Blackberry Playbook is a bit of a joke. Was there a Motorola tablet? I don't even remember, xoom or something, right? The smaller companies tried too. There was that Singapore based tablet that vanished, there was that Techcrunch crunchpad debacle, and I've also heard of this company called Notion Ink that had 100 employees at one time and after 5 years have no viable product. So, we know that this is a hard market to enter. To make money, we need to sell in big volumes, hope to keep sourcing cost low, and make money.

As I like to tell everyone, you need to know exactly who your customer is. In our case, it's everyone - doctors, engineers, students, hipsters, grandmothers (we will have dual rotatable cameras so grandma can see two grandkids at the same time) and all others.

And therefore, to make sure we reach that market, I've decided on the following three extremely important design consideration.

1) My tablet will be rootable - in fact, it won't work properly out of the box at all. This is a brilliant move in engaging the community and as everyone knows, their grandmother, doctor, dentist and others can easily root their tablets and compile OS'. I'm amazed no one thought of this before! It is critical that users be able to customize their tablet.

2) I believe slim tablets are passe. In fact, after spending hours poring over design, we've decided to take a fresh perspective on tablets. And you, my dear reader, get to glimpse at this beautiful concept.... and we call it "double bezel bombshell" -  concept pictures coming soon (and real pictures coming soon after that)

3)  An Awesome "middle kingdom screen" - this is our new partner and we will introduce them soon. The MKS, as we call it fondly, is a cross between a laptop screen, a retina screen, an e-ink screen. It's not quite as vibrant as retina, not quite as bright as a high-res laptop screen, not quite easy to read as an e-ink screen  and that's where our genius lies. You can't quite watch a movie happily (we assume you've customized your video player with kubuntu and bigbuntu), the books won't quite be as good as a kindle, the working quality won't be as good as most other tablets, but NO ONE ELSE CAN DO ALL THREE, YOU GET IT!!

This is the differentiator! And this is something our customers have always wanted, a truly mediocre experience.

So, with those design principles, we've been busy. In my next post I will introduce you to two of our close partners, true game changers.

Announcing...The JKS-MADAM 2, the only competitor to iPad

My fans have been waiting for a long time for this announcement. I have been working feverishly on various elements of JKS-MADAM 2 to take a fresh perspective on the whole tablet development concept.

Since the 2nd world war we've seen various development in computing, but what is clear is no one has achieved singularity. Not cingular mobile, not Einstein, not Apple. Borne of a strong desire to change the market, I first had to conceptualize my vision statement, and after much thought and study of various companies vision statement, my brilliant marketing department (with my help of course) came up with this:

"We aim to transform the computed transformation landscape by schrodinger imaging and technicrystallizing such that every aim of singularity is achieved. We will take our customers on a journey of quantum characteristics, especially the uncertainty principle, while we dazzle with world with synergetic multi-scopal transformational serendipity. We are young at heart but ancient in capability. We will change your lives"

Clearly, as you can see, anyone will find it easy to understand what we do, and that is exactly the point.

Once we achieved this, it was time to think of a transformational product. But as my idol Steve jobs said, nothing without focus on design, and that's where this new journey began. In the next post, genesis of MADAM 2.

And hold on to your panties, the pre-order announcement will come in a few posts. I invite all leading technical companies, especially light reading, to begin speculating and get ready to interview me. I limit all my interviews to questions about my visionary capabilities and what I think of the world 5 years from now.

Week 5...and MADAM is near.

Week 5. Silence.

Anyone know what's going on? drop me a mail.

“Let me know what is flowing across your minds and I will keep you busy reading on weekends!” - April 5 2012, Rohan Shravan, “CEO” of Notion Ink.

No shame, not one bit.

Fear not friends, I'm busy getting an announcement ready for the best tablet that will never be made, the JKSAUR MADAM tablet! You can copy cells from one to the other! you can workflow and even funeral directors can build apps on my app! It comes with a revolutionary software never made called HO, imagine the possibilities with inbuilt voice recognition control, for e.g. you could say 'what's up ho?', and we will also be introducing the greatest comic store. Anyway why am I rambling, wait for an official announcement in the next couple of days, we also have plenty of partners signed up!!

Week 4...

So, week 4.

"Let me know what is flowing across your minds and I will keep you busy reading on weekends!" - April 5 2012, Rohan Shravan, "CEO'' of Notion Ink.

Nothing in last 4 weeks. And they were back from "Hibernation" and wanted to keep us busy reading on weekends. Once in a while it would be nice if they didn't mislead.

"Our mission is to promote and pursue community based development, and this is the only way we can work on simultaneous projects." - Rohan Shravan, January 2012. hey can someone show me how they're promoting and pursuing community based development in Adam 2?

Week 3...

http://notionink.wordpress.com/2012/04/05/back-from-hibernation/ - April 5.  "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!"

3 weeks now without a post.  Guess they went back to hibernation after 2 exhausting weeks.

Credibility? pssht, who cares about useless concepts like that, right?

tablet opportunity can be as big as a billion dollars in 5 years!

http://www.lightreading.in/document.asp?doc_id=220713

Latest interview with Notion Ink's Rohan Shravan. I love the softball questions, and how you read so many words and learn so little. But here's two things I learned

- "The product is near completion" (but no timeline when it will be release

"The tablet opportunity can be as big as a billion dollar for us in the next five years." - Right. Just like how it was going to be 100 million dollars as he said 2 years ago.

Why are these "journalists" so afraid of asking hard questions? I don't know.

Just so you all know, my MADAM tablet opportunity is worth $10 billion in 3 years. I swear.

(the 3 comments to the article, if actually true, would be quite telling)

Two weeks...

"Let me know what is flowing across your minds and I will keep you busy reading on weekends!"  - April 5 2012

That lasted all of two weeks. Nothing last two.  Now I wait for a NI knight to come and tell me that what NI really meant was "some weekend in a month and not every weekend because he really didn't say that"

 

Just so you know: This isn't about quicklogic. And one more thing...

I guess need to make it explicit. This isn't about QuickLogic - though if the NI CEO publishes two posts calling them partner it's only natural some attention turns to them.

However, it does seem like they're a pretty interesting, technically highly competent company, and hopefully their new product lines (with their VEE technology, which I've been told and corrected multiple times after my last post, that it is effective and based on a proven background) will significantly help propel them forward. Oh, their pico projector is very cool (here's the actual product link), I might even buy one because I see some real practical usage with it. Now I sound like a salesman ;)

One more thing: WordPress gives me backlinks to threads that link my blog or posts. In a recent TR thread one of them responded to this "partnership" thing with something along the lines of  "the CEO of the company doesn't know everything that's going on."

Uh. Listen to the webcast. The CEO of QuickLogic said that he met with both the NI founders. He said more, but listen to the webcast. Aside that, QuickLogic isn't a huge corporation, and in smaller companies CEO's will almost always have knowledge of the prospect pipeline and how further along the key prospects are to conversion. OK, even if you ignore all this, partnership announcements will almost always have a reciprocal announcement at the same time. Just find me one before today's date. And while you're at it, get me one for TI and Amazon too please.

QuickLogic - Notion Ink Partnership story gets more interesting

In a post a few days ago, I commented on why I'm skeptical of this being a partnership. Over the last few days, this story has become more interesting - so read on.

First, let's look at Rohan Shravan's statements on the Notion Ink blog (bold emphasis mine)

"Our partner for VEE and DPO technology, as you already know is: Quicklogic (image)"

"both of which are a part of a single brilliant package developed by one of our partners (who also holds the trademarks for VEE and DPO). In the next blog we will introduce our partner and what exactly DPO does"

So, anyone with a rudimentary understanding of what the term "partnership" means (as opposed to 'supplier', for e.g. Apple is not my partner because I purchased an iPad.), will infer that there is some sort of a mutual agreement between the companies and they're doing something together.

Now, let's take a step ahead. On May 1st, QuickLogic had its 2012 Q1 conference call. You can listen to the call by registering here. You can read the full transcript here (though the Q&A is not in there). Perhaps it was my blog post, or something else, one of the analysts pointed out about Notion Ink's claim of working with Quicklogic and posed a question to the CEO of QuickLogic about the "nature of the engagement or prospective customer"  (you can listen to it around the time in the image below. It doesn't have a time tracker)



And this is what Andrew Pease, the CEO said (I'm summarizing/paraphrasing - listen to the call for the full detail)

"First of all I was  surprised to see that appear on his blog..... we have no indication of the production schedule..."

He goes on to say multiple times that he has no indication of what the production schedule is. Think again - on his blog, the Notion Ink CEO calls them a "partner", touts the technology, and yet the partner is surprised to see the blog post and has no clue of the production schedule! It seems they unwittingly became a "partner" and they didn't even know that. The QuickLogic CEO does indeed make a few complimentary comments on NI (though he seems to think Adam 2 is for the Indian market) and says  "they're grateful to be mentioned on the blog", of course he'd say that - you don't want to diss your potential customers. Even if they're Notion Ink.

Read that again. The CEO of the "partner" was very surprised to see this on Notion Ink's blog.  Shravan pulled a fast one on this again - think this from QuickLogic's perspective, it is a surprise.

Also, given this is a public company that is trying hard to do well, associations or implications of any potential revenue streams will garner interest. This post on Yahoo finance is an example. And therefore, companies like Notion Ink should at least have the sense to clear their post with the partner company before splashing announcements. Recollect that he called Texas Instruments a "partner" and made a "press release" except that I've never found an equivalent from TI.

And as far as the followers of Notion Ink are concerned, just remind yourself once more if they are being honest in how they communicate. Remember once more that one of their most critical technology suppliers has no indication of the production schedule even at this point.

I will keep you busy on weekends! Oops, I just made that up. And Adam2 will be AMAZING

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

Er. Weekend's up.

Also, ever wondered why the latest posts have just 10 and 17 comments? It's got to be one of the two things (a) No one is commenting (b) They're moderating most of it out

I'm guessing (b) because whatever is "flowing across" our minds isn't what they want to publish. The cheerleader chicks too seem to have given up on the praises, which is a pity because I much enjoyed their comments.

Since Notion Ink mentioned that they're partnering with Quicklogic, I looked around for a reciprocal partnership announcement or press release from QuickLogic, but I can't find one. Anyone knows where? I mean when I search for "Quicklogic" and "Notion Ink" all I get are... MY BLOG posts. That's crap ;)

And in other news, there's that guy from G Tech Labs proclaiming that Adam 2 will be ... Amazing. So he apparently knows something we don't. I really hope he isn't basing it on plastic models and pictures. Would be nice if NI's partners stopped hyping them until we SEE the product in action, and as I said, it needs to fulfill some lofty promises that have already been made.

Hey, where did Dhyani go? I mean infographs were supposed to be a "long and fun project" out there and we've heard nothing more about it.

Update: Just a quick trip on the web -- publicly available information seems to indicate that  "Dhyani" isn't with Notion Ink anymore. But of what I found, I think this man is quite talented in what he does.