Indian Students invent the 'iPad Killer'!

Impressed with Apple's inflated version of the iPhone that is the iPad? A new gadget, developed by seven Indian youngsters could make Steve Jobs' product seem as obsolete as a rock.

'Adam', a new gizmo, is a tablet quite like the iPad - it is powered by Nvidia's Tegra 2 chip and is loaded with a PixelQi screen. The combination of the two results to extraordinarily high battery life and extremely low power consumption. 'Adam' effectively performs twice as good as Apple's iPad. The device was developed by six IIT graduates and an MBA graduate, aged between 23 and 25 - Rohan Shravan- IIT- KGP (2008), Rohit Rathi - IIT- KGP (2008), Sachin Ralhan – IIPM, Mohit Gupta - IIT- KGP (2008), Anirudh Gupta –IIT Delhi (2007), Rajat Sahni – IIT Delhi (2007) and Devanshu Agrawal - IIT- KGP (2008). The gadget is equipped with a 10-inch screen and features some of the technology that was used in the $100 OLPC (one laptop per child) project. Unlike the IMOLED screen, the PixelQI screen lets users read text on the 'Adam' clearly even in bright sunlight.

Coming to the specs - the 'Adam' runs on a dual core 1Ghz processor, weighs 1.7 pounds, boasts a battery life of 16 hours (160 hours when the back light is off!), has a 3MP camera, offers support for full 1080p HD videos, comes with Wi-Fi, 3G and Bluetooth support, supports multitasking, runs Mozilla Firefox AND Chrome browser, and is also loaded with an ambient light sensor, AGPS, a proximity sensor, an accelerometer, a touchpad and an SD card slot. From those specs alone we can guarantee you that the 'Adam' would knock the iPad out of the stratosphere.

The 'Adam', which took almost three years to develop was demonstrated in January at the CES (Consumer Electronics Show), which is the world's largest consumer tech trade show. On Monday the device would be unveiled at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. According to co-founder Rohan Shravan, "We knew that Indian engineers and designers were doing most of the innovative work at Microsoft, Intel, and Apple. We just needed to take the first step. Current PC technology is like a Hummer on a city road."

The 'Adam' is expected to cost a bit less than the iPad, and the device will go on sale in July first in the US. Co-founder Shravan says that the 'Adam' would kick the iPad where it hurts because it has all the features that the Apple product was criticised for not having. "The chip provides an edge over the iPad with its ability to play full high definition videos and Flash on the web browser. It can offer the performance of a computer with the power consumption of a cellphone." The band of seven geniuses are based at Hyderabad, where they formed their company 'Notion Ink'. Since India does not have a lot of people working on Google's Android operating system, and other companies ask for lakhs per month, the founders of Notion Ink decided to hire and train engineers themselves. As of now there are 50 engineers in the firm. The founders even worked with National Institute of Design (NID) in Bangalore to develop a beautiful, easy to use touch/user interface which runs on Android. "We've taken design inspiration from a 400-year tradition - the user interface of magazines!" Shravan says.

According to Rajat Sahni, "We got the infrastructure at their Innovation Center, and the students as well. We knew the technology in and out and started training them. Within two months it started paying off, and we started developing the professional applications for the product we wanted to design. The company is working on an application store platform of its own, where users can find a wide variety of content. It will offer everything from apps, books, video, audio, to magazines, newspapers and comics."

Congrats to the guys at Notion Ink! We hope the 'Adam' arrives in India, and fast!