New Notion Ink Android SmartPad Could Give E-readers a Run for Their Money

FastCompany's Kit Eaton reported today (on the technology blog at FastCompany.com) that two new tablet PCs are hitting the market, ahead of Apple's much anticipated but still rumored Tablet.

Notion Ink's new ablet PC is slated to be unveiled at CES and according to FastCompany, "has not only got a pretty face--it's a damn capable machine."

It is full of power, video capabilities and its touchscreen is a PixelQi unit, which as FastCompany explains, "is a spin-off from the early inventions of electronic paper, and it's combined with an LCD. In other words, it's a dual-purpose screen that behaves pretty much like the e-ink display on an e-reader for daylight, long battery-life performance (and movies too, since it's faster than e-ink) or as a traditional full-color backlit LCD."

FastCompany calls the PixelQi technology "the device's real killer feature, placing it as a direct competitor for the growing numbers of e-readers, and a direct replacement for the netbook."

The other tablet PC being launched is the Archos 9 Internet Tablet, which Eaton describes as "netbook collapsed into a tablet format with a touchscreen."

Read the whole FastCompany article here.