We’ve been watching the Notion Ink Adam [tracking page] carefully ever since it’s early beginnings. Now, Notion Ink has launched a new website in preparation of the launch of their first device, expected in either December or January.

Their previous site was very flashy, both metaphorically and literally. The flash based aspects of it really hurt the performance of the site. This time around, the site is much more refined, and performs much better. I’m hoping that this parallels what’s been happening with the device itself. It’s important to expectations in check, the people behind the Joojoo know this all too well.

In addition to the weekly information that been revealed over at Notion Ink’s blog, the site offers a few additional clues as to how the tablet’s unique interface will work. Notion Ink hopes to get app developers passion’s fired up with their upcoming “Genesis inch developers contest, but according to the site, that’s still “coming soon inch. If they don’t hurry up, the Adam won’t have the app support it needs for a prime-time launch.

If you love learning up the design process behind this sort of product creation, definitely go check out the new site and their blog. It’s actually really nice to see a startup company creating such a device because they’re happy to give an inside view of the production and design process that you rarely see from other companies (and never from Apple!).

If you need a little refresher, the Adam is an Android tablet with a 10.1 inch screen, which doesn’t sound exciting by itself, but the Adam promises some unique features:

• Pixel Qi Screen
• Back trackpad
• 1080p content decoding with HDMI output
• Support for Flash 10.1 and streaming HD videos
• 140 hours or audio playback and 16 hours of HD video playback
• Modified Android interface: “Not just the expanded screens. You will see slow and steady improvements on all UI areas making Android the perfect OS for tablets inch

It’s been a little while so I think we’re do for a checkup on the Adam which is supposedly still in the works.

Back in February, I wrote up an article entitled “Everything We Know About the Notion Ink Adam inch which garnered a decent amount of attention and showed that there is certainly some interest in the device. Back if February when the device was shown off at Mobile World Congress, people were excited to envision the Adam competing with the (at the time) upcoming iPad, and comparisons between the two were entirely inevitable. Unfortunately, the iPad has been out for several months, while the Notion Ink Adam is still a no-show and we speculated back in March that the Adam could go the way of vaporware (though we’d be happy to be wrong).

So what’s happened since then? Well, we can confirm now that Notion Ink is indeed planning on releasing two versions of the Adam. One of which will have the Pixel Qi screen, and the other will have a standard screen. Both will be capacitive touchscreens, but the Pixel Qi-less option is presumably to have a lower priced option. Aside from that, Notion Ink’s official Adam site is relatively unchanged since we last checked in.

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As we watch company after company announce that they are bringing a slate to the market, it is clear that gadget makers are pushing this form factor as the next big thing. There is plenty of noise out there, but so far there are very few solid devices that are actually reaching consumers. Soon we’ll be looking at a storm of tablets hitting the market, and here is a roundup of the three that I think will have a significant impact on the future of this category and may end up going head-to-head in this emerging device space.

1. Apple iPad

If you didn’t see this coming… well you should have. There is evidence out there that Apple’s mythical slate is the impetus behind this surge of slates. People we’re juxtaposing it with the Joojoo before they even knew that the iPad existed. Apple has the tangible lead on the touch experience on the iPhone and iPod Touch, and now they will be working their magic to translate that to a 9.7 inch screen. The iPad will run a modified version of the iPhone OS (which is in itself a stripped down version of OSX). Apple has two a distinct advantages over the other two companies producing the devices listed below. 1) Huge content library and content partnerships. 2) Lots of money for marketing.

Price: $499-$829

Availability: April 3rd

Official Site: http://www.apple.com/ipad/

Strengths:

• Apple’s renowned industrial design
• Interface based on lots of touch UI experience and Apple’s usual user-friendliness
• Partnership with AT&T for $30/month no contract 3G data plan
• Lots of built in memory (16/32/64GB)
• iTunes/iBooks content library
• 150,000 (iPhone) apps at launch
• Likely one of the first major products to market

Weaknesses:

• Pricey on top-end models
• Restrictive OS (for developers and users)
• No Flash
• No webcam
• Will take time for devs to create ‘killer’ iPad specific apps
• No USB or SD card slot

Update: Notion Ink Adam specifications and links are now in the database.

A  video published last week by the Times of India has Notion Ink co-founder Rohan Shravan showing off what is being called a “final inch version of the ever intriguing Adam tablet. The video has some nice close-ups of the unit, but it still doesn’t seem like the production version (and I hope not as part of the screen bezel comes off mid-interview), though Rohan says that it is final in terms of “look and feel inch and that the device should launch first in the US in June. He also claims that the device will last for more than 10 hours doing 1080p video output. I’ll still have to see it for myself before I believe it, but I sure hope that the Nvidia Tegra 2 hardware is capable of backing that claim. Still no word on pricing. There is also an interesting interview with both Notion Ink co-founders if you care to have a look.

Notion Ink Adam specifications and links.

There has been lots of talk about Notion Ink’s upcoming Adam slate device which will be running Android. One of the reasons why this 10 inch slate has interests piqued it is one of the first devices that we’ve seen using the oft-mentioned, but never quite implemented, Pixel Qi screen, that might be coming to market. The screen has the ability to display full color and motion just like a standard LCD screen, but it can be switched to a transreflective mode which makes it highly readable in direct sunlight, and allows the backlight to be turned off to save power.

We’ve been keeping our eye on this device as the company has been showing various prototypes over the last month or so. This post is here to lay out what we know about the device so far.

Let’s start with the specs. From Notion Ink’s official website:

• NVIDIA TEGRA 2
• Dual Core Cortex A-9 “MPCORE inch CPU
• ULP GPU
• 16/32GB eMMC/SD memory
• WiFi b/g
• 3G HSDPA
• Bluetooth 2.1
• 10.1 inch Pixel Qi display, 1024×600 (transmissive, transflective, and reflective display mode
• Capacitive touchscreen
• Fingerprint resistant (possibly an oleophobic coating)
• 3.2MP swiveling camera for front-facing or rear-facing photos/video
• 3.5mm headphone jack
• microphone and two speakers
• 2x USB 2.0
• HDMI output
• 3 axis accelerometer
• ambient light sensor
• A-GPS
• “Back side trackpad inch

Looking quite sexy and with a brain to match, this is one pad we’ll be keeping a close eye on when we go to CES in Jan.

It’s a large, 10.1-inch 1024×600 device running Android on a Nvidia Tegra T20 platform and has some really noteworthy features.

• Pixel QI screen – Lower power. Better outdoor readability.
• 3G
• A-GPS, Compass, ambient light and water sensor.
• HDMI out
• 3MP AF camera.

You won’t see that lot appear for under $500 but even if it’s $600, it would make a very interesting home-to-office device. 10.1-inches is a little too large for our liking and the 1.7lb weight means it’s a two-handed device but this is definitely an interesting product.  It reminds us of  the ‘Haiku’ Microsoft ‘Origami’ concept of 2006.

The Tegra T20 is unknown to us at the moment so this could also be something that will be announced at CES. Information available at the moment leads us to believe this could be the next-generation Tegra platform. We’re wondering whether this could be a multi-core Cortex A5 implementation; a natural progression path from the multi-core ARM11 that Tegra currently uses.

Notion Ink Tegra Android smartpad uses Pixel Qi display – SlashGear.