Categories
Gadgets

Second Round Of Notion Ink Pre-Orders Imminent

The first batch of Notion Ink Adam units have started reaching the customers and the blogosphere is just starting to get hit with all the unboxing videos. In case you are already desperate to get your hands on an Adam, you should be able to, very soon. Notion Ink is learned to have contacted several fan blogs and forums with pre-order invitations. In a recently published blog post, Notion Ink Fan Greg wrote,

“You may have seen how Notion Ink Hacks and Notion Addicts recently offered an opportunity for their members to receive an invite for the next round of orders… Well, guess what? If you have already been following Notion Ink Fan, you too can receive an invitation to order an Adam when the next batch is available. “

Similar messages have also been posted on a few other message boards. If these posts are any indication, we should be seeing Notion Ink open up their website for the second round of orders as early as this week. Are you buying one?

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Gadgets

Notion Ink Adam Pre-Orders Start Arriving

Several delays, negative PRs and technical glitches later, the much anticipated Notion Ink Adam has finally started reaching the mailboxes of customers who had pre-ordered the device last month. Greg at NotionInkFan has managed to talk to one of the customers who have received their Adam unit and according to him, the software update that customers are required to perform soon after unboxing could take as much as twenty minutes. Greg has also published a few unboxing pictures that you can find on his website here.

Rohan Shravan at Notion Ink had noted last week that the Adam units started shipping from their Chinese plants on Wednesday last week. After a stopover at Hong Kong, the devices are being dispatched to the recipients across the globe. As of now, some customers in UK and India have reported to have received their device. Have you got your Adam? Do tell us in the comments below.

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Apple Gadgets

iPad 2 Production To Start In February

The second generation iPad model is expected to launch in April of this year. More specifically, the device is rumored to launch in the American market on either April 2 or April 9. Keeping in line with this launch date, we hear Apple partners would begin production of this next gen iPad variant next month. While this latest piece of information does support the April launch rumors, it still contradicts other rumors that hinted at a January production.

The Chinese Commercial Times – the newspaper that has published this latest report also notes that Foxconn will be Apple’s largest partner in this production with Pegatron serving as an able second partner. While the report does not specifically state this, there have been speculations earlier that Foxconn and Pegatron will be involved in the manufacture of iPads that will work on GSM and CDMA chips respectively. That’s completely a rumor though and needs to be taken with a pinch of salt.

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Gadgets Motorola

Motorola Xoom Launch On February 17

Motorola Xoom, the highly anticipated Honeycomb tablet computer from Motorola could be launching as early as February 17. This information is courtesy a  leaked screenshot of the Best Buy inventory database that has recently been doing the rounds across the blogosphere. According to this document, Best Buy stores across the United States will begin to stock the tablet starting February 16th. Also, the launch date has been explicitly mentioned as February 17th.

Motorola Xoom tablet launch

This is interesting considering that we received details about the Xoom pricing just days back. Also, you may recall that the initial rumors pointed out to a launch date around April and May of this year. While all of this is speculation at the moment, we would like to assume each of these rumors carry a grain of truth in them. Verizon is expected to come with a Wi-Fi only model to start with followed by the launch of 3G-enabled tablets. We are also likely to see 4G LTE capable Xoom tablets sometime down the line.

If these rumored launch dates are any indication, we could be seeing a Wi-Fi only variant launch in February followed by tablets capable of carrying cellular data sometime around April of this year.

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Apple Gadgets iOS

iPad 2 Rear Camera Resolution Only 1-Megapixel?

A number of next generation iPad cases were outed in the past few weeks that have indicated at the possibility of us seeing two cameras – one on the front and another on the rear side of iPad 2. Now, developers scouring through the snippets of code on the latest iOS SDK have confirmed these rumors. The code does contain references to the two cameras.

However, in what could come as a huge disappointment, Apple could be offering a minimal 1-Megapixel rear facing camera and a VGA resolution front facing camera on this upcoming device. This is unlike popular speculation that the iPad 2 could offer an iPhone 4-like 5-Megapixel camera. This is also lower than the camera specs on the first generation Samsung Galaxy Tab that came with 3-Megapixel and 1.3-Megapixel cameras.

For what it’s worth, Notion Ink Adam, the highly anticipated Android-based tablet shipping this week will come with a 3.2-megapixel swivel camera that will outdo both the Galaxy Tab and the rumored iPad 2.

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Gadgets Motorola

Motorola Xoom Price Rumored To Be $799

Motorola Xoom – the Android 3.0 tablet with a dual core 1GHz processor, a 32GB flash storage and 10.1″ screen – is among the most anticipated tech launches this year. The tablet gained huge publicity when it was unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this month.

While there has not been any official communication regarding the launch date and price, we have heard from Motorola executives from South America that the tablet will launch in April and May of this year. While the price remains elusive, the Xoom could be priced at $799 if a leaked Verizon document is anything to go by. The document contains a list of  product prices and launch timelines and contains a ‘Minimum Advertised Price‘ of $799 against the Xoom. The price is set for the period between January 21 and July 21 of this year.

If true, Xoom could seem to be priced higher than the equivalent iPad. As you would know already, the 32GB 3G-enabled version of iPad costs $729 in the US market. What do you think? Are you planning to buy one at this price?

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Apple Gadgets

China Unicom iPad 3G To Start Selling In China

China has been one of Apple’s important markets outside North America. However, stringent government regulations had meant the company was not allowed to sell the 3G variant of the iPad in the country – until now. An Apple spokesperson has confirmed that his company has managed to seek Chinese government approval to sell iPad 3G in the country. Like with the iPhone, China Unicom will be in charge of distributing and marketing the iPad 3G in the country. Chinese customers already have access to the WLAN variant of the iPad which is simply the domestic Wi-Fi equivalent.

Although clearances have been given, Apple has not given us an exact date when the device will actually become available on the stores. We will update you about that when we get to hear more about this.

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Gadgets

Notion Ink Adam Unboxing Pictures

If you have ordered a Notion Ink Adam, you should start seeing them in your mailbox anytime in the next couple of days. That’s because Rohan Shravan has posted his own unboxing pictures that he apparently received from the airport today. Shravan notes that Adam units were shipped from China on Wednesday to their main logistics center in Hong Kong. Shipments to the different parts of the world must happen over air from Hong Kong.

In his latest blog post, Shravan also gives us a glimpse into the unboxing. As revealed earlier, the Adam does not exactly come in a rectangular box and instead comes with props that can be used as an Adam stand.

Notion Ink Adam

Interestingly, customers shall be prompted for a firmware update soon after booting that is presumably to incorporate software changes made after the manufacturing process. You can check out all the unboxing images at the Notion Ink blog here.

Adam firmware

Categories
Gadgets HTC

HTC Flyer Tablet Launch In March?

We earlier heard that HTC could be launching a new tablet computer named HTC Scribe soon. This speculation came by way of a trademark application for ‘Scribe’ filed by the company where the product was explicitly described as a “tablet computer“. Now, if the latest rumors are anything to go by, HTC could be launching another tablet before Scribe reaches the market.

According to sources, HTC Flyer – an Android 2.3-based tablet should be launching in March of this year. The sources describe this tablet as simply a larger version of HTC Desire. Also, this device is expected to upgrade to Android 3.0 by June of this year. What’s interesting is that HTC is also expected to launch two other tablets during the same period. These tablets – possibly one of them could be Scribe – will launch directly over Android 3.0.

This could mean HTC is prepping at least three tablet computers that can launch by the summer of 2011. This is definitely an interesting rumor and something we will keep a tab on.

Categories
Gadgets

Proximity Sensor On iPad 2 – What Does This Mean?

A new nifty piece of code discovered in the iOS 4.3 beta firmware has revealed that the next generation of iPad could come with a proximity sensor. Traditionally, proximity sensors have been employed on touchscreen phones to disable multitouch functions while making a phone call. Not surprisingly, the availability of a proximity sensor on an iPad has caused a number of speculations about possible phone-capabilities.

Apparently, the proximity sensor is going to be provided in iPad 2 for an entirely different reason – case lock. The proximity sensor could possibly help the iPad automatically lock itself when an iPad casing is closed and then unlock when opened.

Some users also speculate that such a feature could be useful in future variants of the iPad that may come without the Home button and Sleep/Wake buttons. That however, is purely speculation at this point.

What do you think of this feature? Do you see other use-case scenarios for a proximity sensor on an iPad? Tell us in the comments.