Monday, March 27, 2017

Android Inventor Teases His Upcoming High-End Smartphone

The inventor of the Android operating system is building a new, high-end smartphone — and today, he gave the world, literally, a tiny glimpse of what the new device will look like.

On March 27, Andy Rubin tweeted a picture that apparently shows a tiny sliver of his upcoming smartphone — specifically, the upper-right corner of the device, which shows battery life, network carrier information, and the time. The smartphone will apparently be the flagship for Rubin’s newest company, Essential Products Inc., which also plans on releasing its own ecosystem of phones, tablets, and smart home devices, according to a January Bloomberg article.

Other than that tiny corner, we don’t know much about the device beside the fact that it’ll aim to compete with other flagships, such as Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Pixel. In fact, at this point, we’re not even sure if it’ll run on Android. Keeping in-line with this year’s expected flagships, Essential’s device will feature high-end materials and an edge-to-edge screen with minimal bezels. The company is also working on its own proprietary version of Apple’s 3D touch, as well as its own charging cables and accessories that will allow the phone to be upgraded with aftermarket hardware features, according to Bloomberg.

Whether or not Rubin’s device will be able to stand neck-in-neck with Apple, Samsung and Google remains to be seen — but the Android creator certainly has some help. Essential reportedly has a 40-person team, with the majority of its employees poached from Apple and Google. Reportedly, the team has also discussed the device with carriers — including Sprint — at this year’s CES 2017 in Las Vegas.

Rubin himself has a pretty prestigious career — aside from co-founding and serving as CEO of Android, Inc., he spent nine years at Google innovating new products. In October 2014, he left the Mountain View company to found a startup incubator called Playground Global — which, among other endeavors, has placed particular emphasis on quantum computing and AI, Engadget reported. Among Playground Global’s investors are tech giants such as Google, Apple, HP and Foxconn — the latter of which has been discussing building Rubin’s new device, according to sources familiar with the matter.

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