There’s so much to write about.
1. Notion Ink’s “so far” no news in CES 2012
2. My view on Notion Ink ICS development and developer compensation
3. A closer look at the Rohan Shravan recent “interview” on TR
4. And attached to (3), what is “dual warranty?”
5. Announcement of the jksaur MADAM tablet, with invitation only pre-order payments reserved for current Notion Ink fans – especially those on the NI blog.
I’ll get to CES and ICS / developer compensation a bit later. For now, let’s talk about dual warranty ladies and gentlemen, for this is another concept from the CEO himself.
Here is the source (post #59) in the TR interview. It’s a gem of an interview, and I pointed to one of them recently
In this interview, he said something interesting –
“We intend to release 2 variants of warranties, one specially for Hackers and Geeks to ensure this is not an issue”
Now mind you, I’m more than certain he says things just to please an audience. Has he even thought what this might actually mean in the real world – i.e. if he believed his words carried any weight?
Let’s ask a few fundamental questions –
How does one qualify for a hacker warranty? Do you just have to ask while buying? Is there a hacker-certification process? Why should any buyers buy a non-hacker warranty if they could buy a hacker warranty that lets them fiddle with the device and not be held accountable for it? How do you advertise 2 types of warranties on the product pages? Will there be a different website? Does that mean hackers get different, poorly functional devices they can hack into? How will the legal, operations, returns, service be setup to handle implications of 2 types of warranties? Can people switch between them?
I can bet that not one iota of thought went into the statement. For a small company it’s bad enough to maintain multiple configurations of devices, now imagine dealing with 2 types of warranties to boot. I have never heard of hacker-warranties or different warranties on the same device – maybe they exist and I don’t know about them. Maybe you pay differently based on warranty – a higher fee for hacker friendly ones? I have no clue. So your devices on sale would have A devices x B variants x 2 warranty prices. It’s crazy!
Oh, don’t ask about this on any forums though, you’ll upset people…
Next – compensation to TR developers… now that’s something.
Oh, this one’s going to my list of “things said”, so I’ll revisit this at a later date.
Notion Ink Adam - Failure 
The most hilarious part to me as a programmer is this Genesis bullshit. He can’t even run Android on the device properly and he’s already dreaming about writing something that in reality will be as non-trivial as implementing an entire JVM/CLR with extremely flexible late-binding like Objective-C for user created “plugins”. LMAO.
It is quite something, isn’t it: From app store to some sort of god plugin system, I don’t get it at all.
JK your blog has totally got my ass cracking the hell up big time! I just happened upon you’re blog wondering what ever happened to notion ink. They actually saved me from the peril that was to be by not accepting Mastercard, cause my ass was well on my way to ordering that shit when it first came out. I have since ordered a Motorola xoom and have never looked back. Your comics are especially hilarious and always have me crying in laughter! Thanks!
I live to serve your reading whims, my good sir (or madam)
I think you’re right on the money with dual devices, dual warranties. Nah, anyway that is a joke. In the real world, developers get a BOARD for an additional payment. I guess RS might be trying to prepare the audience for selling devices with secure boot, considering the fact that he himself has alleged that Google is restricting open bootloaders for ICS.
Some of his past statements make me wonder if he knows somebody on the inside in Google’s Android development team or in an OEM’s product development team.
Another priceless gem is presented to us at the end of the latest post on 14th Jan (out flying kites, it seems): the new NI products are ‘designed’ by RS on the very laptop that is the hallowed fount of knowledge gushing out on the intertubes. If someone has the inclination, the laptop could be hacked and designs leaked to the world (if they care any longer). Just a warning, not a suggestion.
Think Jonathan Ive’s secret lab… and Notion Ink’s secret laptop… my my. The secrets they carry. The hallowed… nevermind.
Nah, Rohan doesn’t know anyone on the Android team. I’d bet real, actual dollars that I know more people who work on OEM partnerships at Google than he does. People in the forums still don’t understand that only OHA members get Market and Google Apps access.
As for dual warranties, I think you nailed it. More stuff pulled out of his ass that will be changed and denied in the future. You know, like the slim bezel, matte screen and 15 hr battery life.