Made in India tablet PC!

Apple may have had more than its share of the limelight, but a team of India's finest geeks are taking aim at its prima donna. They want to be India's first complete product company, and are starting first, with Adam

The iPad may have whet the consumer's appetite for tablet PCs, by the end of this year he can expect to be spoiled for choice. Major manufacturers plan to follow suit with tablet implementations of their own: The HP slate and the Lenovo U1 Hybrid will run Windows 7 and have more in common with a traditional laptop, while Dell and Archos will be based on Google's Android operating system. But most promising of all, is a Hyderabad-based company called Notion Ink, which has already made waves at CES 2010 with the Adam tablet.

Adam will be the first device to use Pixel QI's transflective display, which can function in two modes: In the black and white mode, it consumes very low power and can be read in bright sunlight. This mode will help the Adam tablet function as an e-reader, like the Amazon Kindle, but the device can also switch to full colour mode, where it can use nVidia's Tegra2 processor to play rich 3D games and high definition movies at 1080p.

"The possibilities are enormous. It has GPU which can allow high definition gaming, it has special screen will makes it an e-reader as well. It is Wi-Fi enabled, so it's an internet-at-go device too." said Rohan Shravan, founder of Notion Ink.

On the Adam, the power-efficient Tegra 2 chipset promises to deliver 16 hours of high definition video, and 160 hours in E-ink mode on a single charge. It will also have a swivel camera that will allow users to use the device as a web cam and a camera. The Adam will also support popular media formats, and will have an HDMI and three USB ports, and can be used like a mini-desktop with a port each, for a mouse, keyboard and external storage. The tablet runs on Google's Android OS, but has a completely redesigned user interface.

Notion Ink has done collaborative work with National Institute of Design, Research and Development Campus at Bangalore to define the elements of the operating system, internally codenamed "Pamphilus" .

The company aims to launch the product in India between second and third quarter 2010. While its founders cannot fully commit to a price point, it is unlikely to be retailed at Rs 15,000. "It is unlikely that Adam will retail for $327, as internet rumours will have you believe" said Rajat Sahni, Director, Business and Partner Development at Notion Ink. "However, the Adam will not demand a 40 per cent margin; as we do not see this as a premium device." He added.

"As a kid, I wanted to learn a lot of things. But I belonged to a lower-middle class family. Now, I've the opportunity to create an enabler which will realise the dreams of kids like me." says Rohan Shravan, founder of Notion Ink in the Notion Ink blog. We rarely hear of an Indian company making waves in the world of consumer electronics.

Notion Ink has been quietly working away at this concept since 2007. Starting off as a team of Six IITians and one MBA grad, the founders believe that they can take on the best of the companies in the world. "We wanted to design the product ourselves – internal hardware integration, operating system personalisation, and build a touch user interface that would tie it all together." said Rohan.

Adam will launched first in US and other markets. The Indian edition of the Adam tablet will not be 3G enabled: "Practically speaking, there is no 3G in India, so we won't be using a 3G module in a region that is so sensitive to price." said Rohan.

Notion Ink will be showing off a functional prototype of Adam this month at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Specifications
* Screen: 10.1-inch Pixel Qi transflective display
* Processor: nVidia Tegra 2
* Connectivity: Wi-Fi , 3G (Optional), USB, HDMI
* OS: Custom Google Android implementation (code named Pamphilus)
source

Things you didn't know about BlackBerry

There was a time BlackBerry was synonymous with Push email service and Qwerty keyboard. The features go a long way in making Blackberry a sought-after business mobile phone. However, over the years other companies too embraced the two popular features of Blackberry phones. And on its part, RIM, the Canadian company behind Blackberry, too opened up to multimedia features in its phones.

Competition may have toughened up in the last few years, however, Blackberry continues its success march with its Bold and Storm models being a huge consumer hit.

Here's over to some little-known facts about Blackberry.

 

The first BlackBerry device was introduced in 1999 as a two-way pager. The model had thumb keyboards, with a thumbwheel for scrolling its monochrome text display.

In 2002, RIM, the Canadian company behind BlackBerry phones, launched a phone that supported push email, text messaging, fax, Web browsing and many other wireless information services. The first true BlackBerry, Blackberry 950, was code-named LeapFrog.

 

Wondering how did the most popular business phone got its name? Canada's Research in Motion called on US-based Lexicon Branding to help name its new wireless email device in 2001. The firm wanted RIM to do away with the word 'email' for the device, though the term was quite popular.

Later someone suggested that the small buttons on the device resembled a bunch of seeds. Lexicon's team explored names like strawberry, melon and various vegetables before finally settling on BlackBerry.

 

As of May 30, 2009, RIM's BlackBerry subscribers stood at approximately 28.5 million globally. BlackBerry supports over 375 wireless networks in 140 countries around the world. The US government uses more than 500,000 BlackBerries. Last year in January, RIM shipped its 50 millionth BlackBerry smartphone.source