After the introduction of iPad, many people questioned the usefulness of such device. They used to say, it is only a bigger iPhone, while looking at you like a wise man. Well, the answer was obviously:Yes as a matter of fact it is, so what? After the success of iPad, news of tablets popping out of every corner of the world started filling technology blogs. Thousands of reviews were published comparing and reviewing an army of tablets while iPad was the only real product on the market. I remember reading numerous posts comparing the specs of different tablets, often leading to a false and misleading conclusions. Misleading because no real comparison can be made, unless the product is in the hands of reviewers and consumers.Like many other Software Developers with a background in Computer Science and a little geeky, I could get a little hostile towards apple products at times and I do research for a better alternative
before making my purchases. We can all agree that today, in the world of tablets, there are only two real products in the market. At this moment, beside Samsung Galaxy Tab and iPad, there are no other products but rumors, specs, photos, promotional videos and misleading reviews. PlayBook, WePad, Notion Ink, Palm and etc are just beautiful sentences. Even if they come out today, it will be a long while before someone can truly say whether they are good enough to survive. When I first heard about tablets, I first started looking for an iPad alternative. Galaxy Tab was the only product available. Samsung has chosen 7" screen for its tablets. While the front facing camera is obviously a great advantage, keeping in mind the need for video chat these days, I am not at all convinced that I would ever use the rear camera. It would be just too bizarre to hold up a 7" device and take pictures with a 3MP camera which is not even that great! The big differentiators was supposed to be the Flash player but the experience was reported sluggish by reviewers and they explained that in the end they preferred to turn it off. Size and proportions do matter specially when it comes to mobility but it could easily affect browsing, typing, move watching and reading experience. To be honest I am not convinced yet to draw conclusion about whether people would go 7" or 10". Personally I prefer a 10" screen as 7" is too small for me to watch movies and type my every-day notes. Another major problem comes with this tablet using a version of Android that is not made for tablets and only customized to accommodate a bigger screen. Many of the application in the android market can run pretty nicely on the device but it is nothing like the experience you could get with application designed for that particular size. However, my main problem with android is the fact that manufactures can change it anyway they want. Except Nexus series with pure android and Samsung galaxy S which also bears a rather raw android OS, the other products are all modified and full of crapwares. Until Samsung makes a 10" tablet carrying pure Gingerbread, I'm not going to buy their tablet.
In the list of long awaited tablet releases, Notion Ink Adam looks the most interesting with its dual core Tegra 2 processor, USB and HTMI connectivity, flash capability, pixel Qi technology, camera and longer battery life. The great thing is the fact that it will be running Android's Gingerbread. The company co-founded by a group of young Indian guys. This makes it even more fascinating. Their ambition and courage in such a wild market is admirable and I wish them success as they could be a role model for many youth with ideas. The specifications were so good which make my mouth water every time I read them but here is my problem with the company: I remember when I first reached their website it was poorly designed, incomplete and lacking information. It was simply a page showing me great specs of an unknown device! The only thing I could find online was a video of one of the Notion Ink guys explaining the features in very bad lighting condition filmed with a poor quality camera. The developer's section was 'coming soon' then, and a few months later, is still 'coming soon'. Their website is still lacking serious information and developers cannot find anything useful. They are currently demonstrating Adam by videos published in their blog, but to me it doesn't mean anything unless Adam is tested on real devices by real users. They recently carried out a miserable pre-order process which more looked liked a joke. More details can be found here. The whole thing is messy enough making me very suspicious about the reality of the product and the ability of Notion Ink to run a massive computing ecosystem. I am not sure how good their android skin, mail application and other pieces of software will work and I think it is impossible to tell without at least a few months of real world tests in consumer's hands. Let's hope for the sake of the competition that it is a formidable opponent for iPad.
Esfandiar Amirrahimi is Web Developer and content manager at PerMont Soft Montreal. He completed his undergraduate program in Computer Science/Artificial Intelligence at Glasgow Caledonian University with First Class Honors. He then moved to Montreal to follow a Master program at Concordia University and he is currently working on Web-based Software Development projects at http://www.permontsoft.com
