So, my Notion Ink Adam, PixelQi WiFi model, finally arrived, and let me tell you it sure came quick! I got shipping notification on March 28th, that it was travelling from the factory in china to the shipping depot in china. It arrived in Hong Kong on the 29th and UPS dropped it off at my door on the 31st! It was apparent by looking at the packaging that my Adam was returned to the factory and had the update applied, as you can see where they re-stickered the box.

I spent some time messing around with it, but mostly went right into installing and testing apps! So, I’ll get right to it and make a list of what worked and what did not. Then as I get the app pages up I’ll link each one to their respective pages so you can connect and access them. I am looking for a way to link to them on the Amazon app store also (shouldn’t be too hard) and I’ll get links up for both Google and Amazon. Note, this was all done with the stock OS install, I have not modified the OS in anyway.

Had a couple of issues already, I was using a 2GB USB stick to do some app side loading, and when I removed it, added some more files to it, and replaced it, the sniffer showed the used and max size correctly, but was unable to browse the contents, I had already added Android Mate and tried to use that to browse the contents, but it had the same issue. only a complete shutdown and restart got the USB reading correctly (yes I tested it on my Desktop Ubuntu system and it was still working fine from there). Also, all the leaves I open in the Ribbon are closed after switching to the desktop view of the apps. I also have issues getting the notification bar to disappear and when trying to get it back. And having issues getting the leaves view to go away and the desktop/home screen to come up. you are supposed to do a two finger swipe down, but that doesn’t work. If I tap on the time in the alpha leaf, then I get the desktop.

• Android Mate
• seems to work good, only noticed one glitch, when you first start up the file explorer it gives you a standard view, if you go into the SD card, thn go up a level it shows you the Actual view for the Adam (adds the USB device option and the second SD card option, neither of witch are available when it launches to the root explorer view
• SWYPE
• installs fine, settings screen works, can assign it as the default keyboard, but when going to use it it force closes every time.
• WiFinder
• installs and works pretty good, although on first test it appears the Adam has a VERY short range, my HTC Evo picks up 6-8 wifi’s in my house, the Adam found 3
• Better Terminal Emulator Pro
• on first launch it is supposed to download extra components, this process fails. I’ll have to check by reinstalling it on my Evo to see if this is just the app
• Su File Manager and Terminal
• installed and launches with no issues; however I never ended up using it on my Evo, decided I liked another app and never got around to trying this one, so I have no idea how to use it! I did notice that the buttons at the bottom of the screen are 80% off the screen, so I cannot tell what they do without pressing them. I also could not get the on screen KB to display when trying to use this app, so it got uninstalled.
• Remote VNC Pro
• Seems to be working fine; however the connection was refused when trying to view my desktop. I’ll have to mess with it some more as I use it on my HTC Evo all the time and have not had issues there… scratch that, just tried and it was refused on my Evo also, probably something not running after my last reboot I just need to check my Ubuntu machine. Will update this after I do so Ok, so after turning on remote desktop again (must have been an update that reset it, or an involuntary restart of the system , I have had a couple over the last 2 months, and those were the only times my system has been restarted, except after a kernel update… this app is working perfectly, I love the extra large display the Adam gives me over my HTC Evo, making it much easier to see what is going on with my desktop machine. Only issue is that I wish it supported dual monitors, but I think that is a limitation of VNC not the App, still it would be nice to put a switch display option in the app.
• Fring
• Installed with no issues, was able to log in and it showed my contacts, will test a call and some texting later
• Bank of America app
• received message “failed to install” from my archived version off my HTC Evo, will try to DL from the BoA website later.
• Flight Director
• installed and played a game for about 15 minutes or so with no issues. It seemed to not want to register my touches when the planes were too close to the edges of the screen, but otherwise worked fine (I just made sure to let the planes fully on screen), also the graphics were just about stretched to the max, edges were just starting to get blurry, but was completely playable.
• Amazon App store
• first thing I installed, of course! And the first thing I noticed, after logging in was that all the apps I purchased for my Evo were sitting right there for me to Download!
• Angry Birds Rio
• Using the Amazon App store, I downloaded AB:Rio and it is fantastic! huge improvement in the game, although most things are subtle. On the Adam I can zoom out and actually see the entire board, on the HTC Evo even zoomed out all the way, I still had to slide the screen left and right on some levels. Have not had that yet on the Adam. plus the larger display is great! I wish I could have a 10.1″ cell phone! It is so easy to see everything on the larger display, no Idea how I existed with a 2.1″ WinMo phone! (I’d use a BT headset of course…) I also put AB:Seasons on my Adam
• Fruit Ninja
• Already bought this from the Google Market, but it was a freebie on amazon, so I added it to my Adam, plays great, but seriously need a graphical overhaul! not made for large screens! made me feel like I was playing an NES on a 55″ display!
• System Panel
• bought this app for my Evo also, I love this app a lot! It is definitively my most used app, a memory manager, CPU/RAM/Battery charge monitor, apk installer/uninstaller, and it does app archiving! However, it is not able to tell me the current CPU speed (blame that on the dual core Tegra2!)
• Battery Time Lite
• Another fantastic App that I have on my HTC Evo, my wife’s old Samsung Moment, and her new HTC Evo Shift, not sure if I can live without it! even though I cannot make a widget on my Adam, having the notification bar information is more than good enough! It even has a setting in the newer version for the Notion Ink Adam so it correctly determines remaining battery life!
• Robo Defense
• The first game I ever bought for Android and either the first or second app too, I love this game, finding out that it works on my Adam is the greatest thing ever. Even though I am on level 1600+ on my HTC Evo, I’ll give it all up to start over on my Adam, just to play on the larger screen! Next I want to play it in windowed mode, so once I get to the point where I can fire it up and leave it sit till the end of the level, I’d love to be able to do something else while waiting!
• Diner Dash 2
• Never heard of it, but it was an Amazon.com freebie, so I gave it a shot. The background graphics are a set size, so it only sets up the top left corner of the screen, the bad news is that anything that pops up in game (the cook, tables, customers) are all set to % of the screen locations, instead of set locations, so you end up with the background image in the top left, tables way off to the right, the cook is hanging out in the bushes, and customers are in the far bottom left corner. All easily fixable by the dev, and issues that can be dealt with while playing. I actually prefer fixed settings instead of stretching as the game retains its look and feel, vs. getting all stretched out and the graphics turning to poo.
• Crystallight
• I really like the concept of this style game so I bought it hoping for some updates, the only thing that has been updated that was useful is the ability to use the search button in place of pressing the trackball to get more info about things. The graphics are very low res and do not stretch to the Adam’s screen size, or ration, so all circles become ovals and the images are very fuzzy, still playable, but gave me a headache after two levels. also the restore feature fails to maintain your place if you exit the game for any reason, so you will have to start the level over. Also wants to connect to the Android Market which I have not installed yet, gave me an error that it was “cannot bind to Market” more or less word for word.
• Network Discovery
• installed fine, took a couple of tries to get it to launch the first time, all of the settings work, was able to download the NIC database with no issues, but the scan finds nothing, nada, zero, zip, zilch!
• FallDown 3D
• Fun 3D accelerometer based game, seems to work pretty good, although the graphics could afford to be higher res. A very addicting game, I found myself playing 4 levels at midnight last night before I could put it down and go to bed! Glad I did too, as I learned the accelerometer in in my Adam is not so good… I could not get to center, I had to go left, right, up, down, but could not stay in the center, and diagonals failed to work most of the time too, needless to say I did not get very far in the game.
• Engadget
• The Engadget app works fantastic, except you are stuck in portrait mode… upside down (the Adam grip is on the right instead of the left), everything else worked great!
• Bubbles
• I love Bubbles, great for the kids, or killing 30 seconds for yourself! worked perfectly, the graphics were a good resolution, could be better, but most won’t notice. It also utilizes the entire display, so good job there on the coding! I did play with it a bit to look at the accelerometers and discovered that all directions seemed to work fine, including the diagonals, except down (in landscape orientation with the camera at the top), this seemed to bring me to center and the bubble stopped moving. the diagonals worked fine in the down/left and down/right, but just tilted down did not work at all. may need to calibrate my Adam? after all I had to calibrate my HTC Evo when I first powered it on back on launch day…
• Gem Miner: Dig Deeper
• Great Game, I love it on my phone, killed many hours there, not so great on the big screen, again gives me deja vu of playing an NES on a movie theatre screen… really big and really out of focus… while it would be nice to see a larger area of the map (even though it is mostly black during a majority of the game, I’d be just as happy if the game played at a set size instead of stretching. All features seemed to work however.
• ConnectBot
• Everything seemed to work fine, since I am planning on wiping my Adam and installing a different rom in the next 24 hours, I did not configure a connection, but tried the quick connection and it seemed to work well, but I have the timeout a bit too fast for me to type my password on a virtual KB! so my Ubuntu desktop closed the connection before I could get completely connected.
• Wolfram Alpha
• installed, launched, and connected to the site quickly and efficiently. worked exactly the same as on my HTC Evo, just wish I could do widgets (soon!)
• Facebook
• installed fine, failed to load. Used a version pulled off my HTC Evo, not available on the Amazon Marketplace yet… I tried going to facebook.com to see if I could DL it from there, but the default Adam browser only sends out desktop mode, and has no setting to change to Android, so websites don’t know I am on an android device, just a generic desktop webkit browser, I may take the time to add Dolphin HD (also not on amazon, not sure I feel like pulling it off my HTC Evo at this point) to my Adam before wiping it to see if I can get Facebook direct from the site and if it will work
• Shoot U!
• love it, bought it, works great on the Adam!
• Smart Keyboard Pro
• Much better than the stock one, takes up less space, has transparency mode, but they replaced the enter key with a search key, wtf
• Tricorder
• Installed, worked great until I hit the EM Spectrum tab, as I have no 3G module in my Adam it just hung on trying to contact it. The wifi data continued to update, but all I could do was wait for the force close window (non-responsive) to pop up and kill the app.
• Rainy Days
• Failed to install
• ShapeWriter Keyboard
• Installed and worked great, although I was incapable of entering a highly complex password using the keyboard and had to switch back to one of the other KB’s installed. Also of note, it has a set size and does not stretch; however it still takes up the entire portion of the screen as if it did stretch…

Ok, well I am going to stop testing here and go to a new Rom next. I wanted to use EdenX as my default Rom, as I wanted to keep the Eden UI while also having more traditional Android options available to me, but the recent announcement of the lead hacker on EdenX quiting work on it kind of makes me want to skip it… we shall see, I have everything setup so I can flash back to stock, so I am not worried.

again, I will get back to adding proper reference links to this post in the future, I guess I’ve either been getting lazy on my writing, or I just have more to say than time to say it in!