Which ADAM would you choose?

Are the problems real concerning the screens? Lots of people get hooked on Adam because of this new screen they present on their tablet. A revolution. PixelQI is there as a nice combination of two worlds. People who thought of buying an e-reader suddenly see possibilities in a tablet that besides reading can also give them other functionalities. E-book-readers miss a lot of possibilities and Adam looks like the ideal tablet /reader. Outside with back light off it reads as good as an ereader (an Ipadkiller here for sure!); inside with back light on we get a regular colourful screen. Now it seems that colours are not that bright as on a normal LCD. Is it a problem? Can we live with it? Actually I would like high contrast when I watch a movie, but I'd never watch on my tablet , having my superp plasma at home....
The pixelQI also claims to use less energy. That's wonderfull. But how much less then the LCD? Maybe enough reason on itself to take that screen? Or is it just the fact we don't have a brilliant screen. The surface is mat to avoid reflections and reduce finger smudging. At work we don't have brilliant LCD-screens neither. It  would be very annoying for me as an architect drawing the whole day. We miss sometime this high-contrast feeling, but at the other hand never suffer from unwanted reflections. .... Of course these are professional monitors, very expensive, without "blochiness"....
So, these are just some thoughts I wanted too share. What are your feelings? What did or will you choose? (There is a little survey in the sidebar!)

INTAKE THINKTANK

[ERRORUPDATE: click on the title if you want to go to the page] It wasn't possible to correct the error in the page bar above

First a nice little story I heard:

In a forgotten land, a man was sitting the whole day with his feet in the water enjoying every minute of his life. After a few days, an American that saw him can not help himself going to him and tell him to stand up. "Come on man!, Stand up" "Seek a good job and do something of your life!" 

"Why", replies the man

"Well, then you can make yourself useful and get money, lots of money!"

"Yes, but why!" replies the man "What's money good for?"

The American is surprised. "Well, heu..., then you will be able to buy everything and get rich!"

"And????" the man looks to him without understanding...

Finally the American replies: "Well, with lots of money you would be able to buy yourself an island and sit the whole day... with your feet in the water"......

However I would like to sit the whole day with my feet in the water enjoying my Adam, I could probably not resist to keep on thinking about how to make it better yet. That's why I chose this weeks comment from:

Heyloa Keyloa . He said... " I was wondering if a "notion ink innovations" (or something like that) could be added too as a menu. Just a place where people can talk about things that they'd like the notion ink to adopt in an Adam 2 or if possible in "upgrades" of the Adam 1..."

Thanks HEYLOA KEYLOA . I took this under consideration and added a page on the site: "Thinktank" I developed the idea further and would like to start something here:

I would like to start a thinktank about some aspects of tablets, their use and way to work with them. The tablet makers dictate us how we live and what we need, but maybe it should be the other way around. Maybe we should tell them what we want first. Adam is the first tablet developed with input of people from all around the world. That's a wonderful start! Adam 2 will and can certainly be even better. Now that Adam 1 is launched, it is interesting to think about what could have been done better to perhaps even (RE)DESIGN A WHOLE NEW CONCEPT, something compatible or complementary to Adam. What we don't know yet. That's the nice and interesting part of it. We don't know where it will get us.

I'd like to make a group of people from different work fields, and take us through  different phases to finally reach a new product really designed for everyone. Ideally the group would also contain technicians and developers and some people of NOTIONINK too. We want to build further on what NI started and help them.

Phases
1) Inventory: gathering as much as possible information, running ideas, needs,...
2) Interpretation: searching for relations, connections, making schemes, ...
3) Evaluation: what works well, what not
4) the problems: what are the REAL problems and which are less relevant?
5) Alternative options and solutions
6) The design....

Who wants to be part of this? Everybody is welcome.

Best add-ons and comments rewarded :) weekly

Every week I will select one of the best developed comments of the past week, in a special article on the front-page of the blog, signed with your name! So be motivated, creative, imaginative, detailed, attractive, complete, and most important USEFULL...and who knows.

Annotating. How does the ideal app look like? (updated on 10 feb 2011)

Most of the time, peoples needs are very specific but probably can be grouped in similar fields. Look at PDF-annotating. Almost everyone is interesting in one way or another. ... PDF's are HOT: they are relatively light, easy-printable, universal,  capable of handling nice resolutions,...But it's really not so very developed yet when you look at the apps we have at disposition. The choice is limited and are those apps really well-designed?

Can Adam add something to the use of it, having three panels?
I can imagine one panel with the pdf, the second with the annotating tools and stamps and the third maybe a database linked to the annotating information? Actually , do we know if Adam will allow ONE app to work with the three panels? Would we like to have this possibility?
How would the ideal Adam app look like?

Also Printing: We could imagine having the possibility to print it with the used annotating-legend of the placed objects at the site of the page ...


Known APPS:
( it's useful that when you place an app you also give a little appreciation next to the name and also rate it. If bad working apps are allowed here, just do't forget to mention it ;)

*RepliGo Reader is the best annotator for android now: reading very big files, annotating with adaptable sticky-notes, use it as a e-reader, ...

http://www.cerience.com/products/reader/android

View and annotate native PDF documents on your Android-powered device!
RepliGo Reader for Android is the highest fidelity PDF viewing solution available and the only solution available that supports PDF annotations.

Use RepliGo Reader to view Gmail PDF attachments just like you would see them on your desktop. RepliGo Reader can also be used to view online PDF files or files that have been saved to your media card. Use the device’s browser to navigate to a PDF online and RepliGo Reader will render the file for viewing. Utilize the ability to highlight, cross out or underline text, add sticky notes, and then send the changes via email or to an online storage account.

RepliGo Reader supports embedded fonts and renders text and graphics clearly at any zoom level. Image-based PDF files that use the latest compression types are also supported.

A special reading view reformats pages into a single column, making reading easier. A Night Mode makes reading in low light conditions more comfortable. PDF Bookmarks and text search are supported for easy navigation of large documents.

RepliGo Reader for Android is a powerful application for mobile professionals that require immediate access to important PDF files without making compromises.

RepliGo on Adam!

Ebooks: creating them yourself (updated on 31 march 2011)

I found this software:   http://calibre-ebook.com
It allows you to create and convert your own ebooks. Let say you have a pdf. You can make an ebook of it. It's for free and runs on different Os systems (apple Os, windows, Linux).

E-book creation tutorials

Various tutorials on how to create/convert e-books with calibre.

• A guide on e-book conversion by John Schember, a calibre developer ABCs of e-book format conversion .
• A step-by-step guide on converting HTML and Microsoft Word formats using calibre.
• Another step-by-step guide on creating ePub files starting from OpenOffice/Word.
• Read the Conversion Section of the calibre User Manual for an in-depth understanding of how conversion works in calibre

I don't know if we will be able to read ebooks files (epub? which formats?) But then this software can create lots of formats, starting from Word, Openoffice, Pdf's, Html,.... Surely Adam can read various files(I hope;). I even remember seeing on the NI-blog an image where I think we can see the pages curl (I like that:)

Free programs like scan2pdf can help here with scanning (through your printer) but interesting is the new booksaver coming up:
see "http://www.gizmag.com/book-saver-scanner-from-ion-unveiled/17532/"
With the ionaudio booksaver: coming on this spring and presented at CES 2011 we get for the price of 150$ a Booksaver that claims to be able to convert 200 pages of a book in ereadersformat in 15 min.

Somebody with experiences?
(To be clear: this chapter has the meaning to create ebooks from materials that you own and are permitted to copy for personal use, not for selling and making profit)

EBOOKSTORES ALL OVER THE WORLD
In meanwhile  we can still find local internet-stores for buying ebooks:

* ALL LANGUAGES:
http://manybooks.net/  (for free: different classic books in all languages for free)
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page (free books all languages, different types)

* DUTCH:  
http://www.cosmox.be/e-books (NEW! epub: buying, they have lots of recent popular books)

http://www.ebook.nl/ (epub: buying, have all recent popular books)
http://www.selexyzebooks.nl (epub: buying, have all recent popular books)

http://www.bol.com/nl/m/nederlandse-boeken/digitaal-gratis/ (to be rated yet)
 

* FRENCH:  

www.ebooks-gratuit.com (For free! different formats: uploaded by people: french comics, books,...)

* ENGLISH:      

http://www.free-ebooks.net (to be rated yet)

http://www.planetebook.com (to be rated yet)

http://www.getfreeebooks.com (to be rated yet) 
http://www.archive.org/details/texts
http://www.amazon.com
http://www.baen.com/As a starter for SciFi and Fantasy fans out there I highly recommend Baen Books
They have a free library with several hundred books and the books you pay for are usually $6.00 or less

                           (can some people help me search and make this list bigger?)

Solaro on Adam: will it replace our learningbooks?

Students. Adam is there for you. Apparently Adam will work together with the SOLARO app.The new post of Rohan today shows you how Adam and Solaro (will soon be available on Adam) can work together to help students learn in the digital environment. It seems to be some kind of internet-learning software. I don't know it so will check it out and inform you. We got this news just after I started this blog. Good news!
Apparently it provides Math, science and English arts. Right now California, British Columbia etc. More states will be added in June . The question is: will it be useful for other people around the world?
What do you think?

www.solaro.com

What is SOLARO?

SOLARO is an innovative E-Learning solution with materials that are 100% compliant with each regions's core curriculum standards and customized to meet the unique learning needs of each individual student. SOLARO was built with three core principles in mind: Learning, Assessment, and Remediation.

What's in it for me?

Teachers:

Dynamic content aligned to your regional curriculum

Diagnostic assessments with detailed reporting that tracks progress and achievement

Ongoing visibility into the strengths and weaknesses of the class and each student

Students:

Customized instruction based on your individual learning needs

A motivating incentive program that encourages learning and rewards success

Access to lessons and homework on smart phones and tablet devices

Parents:

A safe, reliable, and accessible learning environment

Real-time reporting and updates on the progress and content mastery for each of your registered children

A proactive approach to your children's education by continuing the education process outside of school hours

This is a site for you.

Hallo there, hello Adam, hello world.
If you are open to help people and share some experience, or if you have question, this is a place where you can find your way. Being mostly concerned about people to work well with their tablet and use it at their maximum potential I'm interested to know what people do with their tablets and how they use it. If there are real pregnant needs, I suppose that it better to make a front about the item and who knows we will be heard. I hope Rohan from Notion Ink will read us and who knows share one of his ideas here too.
So feel free to share here.

To be clear this is a site that will only trie to gather and order information.

Also I don't have a structure really developed yet, but wanted already to start something up now. So in meanwhile I'll try to manage the information and publish regular summaries . Later , maybe with your help I'll be able to make a real site. Thanks
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