Now I have so much more to write about. I’ve got much to write about that post (damn, I’m falling behind because I still haven’t managed to get to his interview in TR)
But there is something that really got me going, and here is the exerpt from the Notion Ink blog,
http://notionink.wordpress.com/2012/01/21/notion-ink-partners-with-texas-instruments/#comments
This is a statement from the CEO of Notion Ink.
I understand your view, but the fact that ICS is not done in-house is not correct. We haven’t released the ICS build till now. There is an update button in settings, unless that gets active all ROMs are alpha ROMs. We also need to get the community up and engaged. Mr Deadlocked is not alone, and it’s not that we don’t have special relations with them, but I don’t find I fair to publish or share our relations with TR.
This is very, very interesting – and I think it’s time to tie a few things. Post coming tomorrow, partially addressing TR developers.
(And then I’ll turn my attention to Adam II)
Update: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/21/notion-ink-adam-ii-omap-4/ -engadget weighed in. I’m falling behind! No!
Notion Ink Adam - Failure 
I think it would be fair for them to disclose their relations with TR so that nobody speculates it is unhealthy.
By the way, I am unable to post the following comment to their latest post
“A good move, which would be in the danger of being rendered meaningless unless you follow through on quality, delivery and time to market.
I feel that devices such as these tablets should not try to be all things to all people at the same time. If at all needed, functionality could be extended through alternative application suites.”
Might be just a glitch.
Oh by the way, wasn’t he speaking about the OMAP 5 platform earlier?
There’s something bugging me. The relation between TR and NI.
NI is releasing the ROMs (so it should be official irrespective of who developed it) and they mention TR helped it. And TR for some reason defending the tablet and [xxx] in unison, there’s something brewing there. Both TR and NI does not explicitly say the relation (See Rohan’s post).
By this they are striking two birds on single stone. No one cant complain NI is not releasing ICS update (because NI is announcing in their official blog) and no one can criticize the quality since it is developed by “community”. So it is win-win for both. And TR does gets compensated for this, so they dont make any noise when NI almost says as if they developed them and they routinely defend in their forum.
It does not matter if TR developed on spare time or fulltime, if it is coming from NI, it should be deemed official and people should able to review it without upsetting the gods from TR. Right now the ROM is in a zombie state, and no one would acknowledge whether it is official or not. This works for both NI and TR.
I think both NI and TR is not transparant on what’s happening.
At least the last we knew (based on comments here and TR by Mr. DL) no one was being compensated — unless that changed in the last couple of days with the scrutiny.
You are Andre right?
Er, no sir. I thought that was clear from blog. Assuming you’re talking about Andre who used to be in NI 2-3 years ago? Or somebody else?
“The OMAP44xx platform’s smart multicore architecture pairs its main CPUs with several differentiated features including programmable accelerators, hardware composition engines and a dedicated ISP. Imagination Technologies’ super-fast PowerVR SGX5xx GPU and enhanced memory architecture add still more functionality while an OMAP-specific distributed composition architecture enables advanced image and video layering for crisp, HD visuals. These elements and more are the force behind the OMAP44xx processor’s ability to enable fast and fluid multitasking while maintaining ultra-low power consumption.”
Not sure I would call Notion Ink a “partner”, I would call it more of a customer of TI. I am assuming they are going with OMAP4460 cause it is the reference board for Android 4.0, starting off with the galaxy nexus. Also the latest OMAP 4 the OMAP4470 does not come out till 2nd quarter of this year.[2]
The Samsung Galaxy Nexus uses OMAP4460 and based on raw hardware performance, it gets beat by the Samsung Galaxy SII ‘Exynos 4210’ on raw performance.[1] The GPU associated with the OMAP4460 the SGX540 is not the best of what is current available.
However ICS 4.0 is smoothest version of android to date, and the fact that Galaxy Nexus uses ICS means it will be pretty stable for those companies who decide to use the chipset for the tablet.
If they manage to sell the tablet at completive price ,design the hardware to be reliable, and just load stock ICS 4.0, it could sell.
However this company has had poor performance based on
1.)Build quality of Adam 1
2.)Providing Customer Support
3.)Setting and not matching expectations
I am not sure if they managed to correct their internal processes to take care of 1, 2, 3 also not sure how they are going to differentiate themselves, from other tablets that might be using the same chipset like Archos.
[1]http://www.anandtech.com/show/5310/samsung-galaxy-nexus-ice-cream-sandwich-review/9
[2]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OMAP#OMAP_4
The Adam II is revealed, and like the title of this http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/21/notion-ink-adam-ii-omap-4/ engadget post, Dreams are about to be shattered once more.
However, this comment is with reference to an earlier post made by [Rohan], about the fact that every component will be made or assembled or whatever in house. So after that post, they suddenly let fly a press release on all the parts of the Adam II made out of Texas Instrument’s hardware. So, what is being done really, hardware wise, in house. Hmm..
Yup, NI is a TI partner. Sure. By their logic I can call myself an Apple partner because I spend $200 a year on the dev memberships and a few thousand more on hardware. As someone else said, “customer” is much more likely.
Don’t even get me started on the ROM bullshit. I just hope MrD can parlay this into full-time employment, he’s clearly got skills.