WEBVTT - How Essential Became NonEssential 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.800 Welcome to Text Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 0:00:12.119 --> 0:00:15.080 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 0:00:15.280 --> 0:00:19.040 Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 0:00:19.079 --> 0:00:21.440 and I love all things tech. And you know when 0:00:21.480 --> 0:00:24.400 I posted on Twitter the other week that I was 0:00:24.440 --> 0:00:29.200 soliciting topics for upcoming tech Stuff episodes. Adam whom you 0:00:29.240 --> 0:00:33.080 can follow on Twitter. He has the handle at dead Technology. 0:00:33.400 --> 0:00:37.240 He's also a podcast producer himself. He suggested I tackle 0:00:37.640 --> 0:00:42.200 Essential also known as Essential Products. Folks in the text 0:00:42.240 --> 0:00:46.280 fere know it as an upstart phone company that recently 0:00:46.640 --> 0:00:51.040 went out of business. People outside the text fear may 0:00:51.080 --> 0:00:53.959 have never even heard of it. So today I'm going 0:00:54.040 --> 0:00:56.680 to tell you the story of Essential Products, where it 0:00:56.720 --> 0:01:00.200 came from, what the company accomplished, and then what upen 0:01:00.240 --> 0:01:04.520 in February twenty and why it's shut down now. The 0:01:04.640 --> 0:01:09.720 story starts with some major unpleasantness, but it's something that 0:01:09.760 --> 0:01:13.040 we absolutely have to mention because it plays such an 0:01:13.080 --> 0:01:16.160 important role in the story of the company itself. The 0:01:16.200 --> 0:01:19.959 founder of Essential Products is a guy named Andy Rubin. 0:01:20.319 --> 0:01:22.840 He was one of the co creators of the Android 0:01:22.840 --> 0:01:26.600 operating system, also the developer of the Sidekick and tons 0:01:26.600 --> 0:01:30.319 of other stuff. He had co founded Android way back 0:01:30.400 --> 0:01:34.880 in two thousand three, years before consumer smartphones were even 0:01:34.920 --> 0:01:38.040 a thing. Really, there were smartphones around, but they were 0:01:38.040 --> 0:01:41.600 almost all marketed towards executives. It wouldn't be until two 0:01:41.600 --> 0:01:44.800 thousand seven, with the introduction of the iPhone from Apple, 0:01:45.160 --> 0:01:49.200 that we'd really see a more consumer oriented smartphone. Don't 0:01:49.200 --> 0:01:52.160 get me wrong, this is not the Android story. I 0:01:52.240 --> 0:01:55.800 have covered the Android story before, so let me give 0:01:55.840 --> 0:01:59.800 you the highlights. Google acquired Android in two thousand five, 0:02:00.120 --> 0:02:04.360 just two years into that company's existence. The company kept 0:02:04.400 --> 0:02:07.880 the development of its smartphone operating system hush hush, only 0:02:07.920 --> 0:02:11.880 even acknowledging it after Apple had debuted the iPhone in 0:02:11.960 --> 0:02:15.400 two thousand seven. Then Google announced that it was taking 0:02:15.400 --> 0:02:18.800 a very different approach to Apple. While Apple was creating 0:02:18.840 --> 0:02:22.680 both the operating system and the hardware, starting with phones 0:02:22.720 --> 0:02:25.960 and later doing things like the iPad, it would all 0:02:26.040 --> 0:02:28.240 run the same operating system. But Google was going to 0:02:28.280 --> 0:02:30.920 create an operating system that could run on an entire 0:02:31.000 --> 0:02:35.040 spectrum of hardware from multiple manufacturers, leaving it up to 0:02:35.200 --> 0:02:37.800 the manufacturers to choose whether or not they wanted to 0:02:37.800 --> 0:02:41.000 incorporate Android into their products. Or to go with some 0:02:41.080 --> 0:02:44.640 other operating system solution. In other words, Apple was going 0:02:44.680 --> 0:02:48.239 for a curated, purpose built approach and Google was going 0:02:48.280 --> 0:02:53.080 for a more broad spectrum strategy. The first Android smartphone 0:02:53.280 --> 0:02:56.800 wouldn't even arrive until two thousand eight, a year after 0:02:56.880 --> 0:02:59.440 the iPhone's appearance, and Android had a lot of catching 0:02:59.480 --> 0:03:03.760 up to do. But that broad spectrum approach meant Android 0:03:03.800 --> 0:03:07.560 could appear on lots of different mobile phones at a 0:03:07.600 --> 0:03:11.799 lot of different price points, on multiple carriers, from multiple manufacturers. 0:03:11.800 --> 0:03:14.400 That meant that people who wanted a smartphone but they 0:03:14.440 --> 0:03:17.720 couldn't afford the more premium iPhone, or maybe they weren't 0:03:17.720 --> 0:03:19.800 an a T and T customer. I mean keep in mind, 0:03:19.840 --> 0:03:22.840 for the first couple of years iPhone was exclusive to 0:03:22.919 --> 0:03:25.000 a T and T in the United States. Well, they 0:03:25.000 --> 0:03:28.600 could opt instead to go for an Android phone, typically 0:03:28.639 --> 0:03:31.600 at a lower price point, and since Apple has a 0:03:31.639 --> 0:03:35.360 reputation for charging more for its products, this wasn't really 0:03:35.360 --> 0:03:40.760 that unusual. In Android phone sales were outpacing iPhone sales 0:03:41.080 --> 0:03:45.240 by eleven Android phones were outnumbering iPhones in the United States, 0:03:45.440 --> 0:03:49.560 and by the Android operating system represented an eight percent 0:03:49.720 --> 0:03:53.400 market share of all smartphones out there the os really 0:03:53.440 --> 0:03:57.080 made up for lost time. Meanwhile, Andy Rubin was now 0:03:57.120 --> 0:04:00.480 a high level executive within Google. He trends position from 0:04:00.520 --> 0:04:03.840 overseeing Android to heading up a division within Google focused 0:04:03.840 --> 0:04:08.120 on robotics. He would leave Google inten and in twenty 0:04:08.240 --> 0:04:11.720 fifteen he would co found a venture capital firm called 0:04:11.800 --> 0:04:16.040 Playground Global, and the tech company A Central Products would 0:04:16.080 --> 0:04:19.919 follow a little bit later. It wasn't until tween, with 0:04:20.000 --> 0:04:22.800 an expose a in The New York Times, that the 0:04:22.800 --> 0:04:26.640 world at large learned more about his departure. The details 0:04:26.680 --> 0:04:30.080 would throw major swerves at the company's he was working with, 0:04:30.640 --> 0:04:34.719 and those details go back to the major unpleasantness I 0:04:34.800 --> 0:04:40.919 alluded to earlier. According to the expose in Reuben coerced 0:04:41.000 --> 0:04:45.320 a fellow Google employee into performing sex acts. And I 0:04:45.320 --> 0:04:49.120 should add that Reuben himself denies this story. But Google 0:04:49.240 --> 0:04:53.480 led an internal investigation that must have found some credibility 0:04:53.520 --> 0:04:57.520 that Reuben was guilty of some form of misconduct or 0:04:57.560 --> 0:05:03.160 otherwise concluded that having Reuben on staff was untenable. As 0:05:03.279 --> 0:05:07.679 Larry Page himself, then the CEO of Google told Reuben 0:05:07.760 --> 0:05:11.760 to resign. Reuben had recently been awarded one hundred fifty 0:05:11.839 --> 0:05:15.040 million dollars worth of Google stock, and in fact, according 0:05:15.040 --> 0:05:18.920 to the Verge, Reuben actually received that stock award while 0:05:18.960 --> 0:05:23.920 this investigation was underway, which is pretty phenomenal. Now. According 0:05:23.920 --> 0:05:26.960 to g Q, Reuben wouldn't see any of that money 0:05:27.160 --> 0:05:30.479 because the directive for him to resign would mean he'd 0:05:30.520 --> 0:05:33.440 have to leave the company before those stock awards would 0:05:33.480 --> 0:05:37.640 actually vest, so he didn't see that hundred fifty million dollars. However, 0:05:38.040 --> 0:05:43.000 Google would famously pay Reuben a whopping ninety million dollar 0:05:43.279 --> 0:05:47.720 exit fee. The public facing story was that Reuben was 0:05:47.800 --> 0:05:50.479 leaving Google on his own accord in order to pursue 0:05:50.560 --> 0:05:54.880 opportunities in creating new startups and making new investments. It 0:05:54.960 --> 0:05:58.680 was the combination of the allegations of sexual abuse with 0:05:58.880 --> 0:06:03.120 the award of early one million dollars that would bring 0:06:03.240 --> 0:06:07.600 incredible criticism down both on Reuben and Google in general, 0:06:07.640 --> 0:06:12.400 and justifiably so. The ramifications of this decision are still 0:06:12.480 --> 0:06:16.240 having incredible effects to this day, and the culture at 0:06:16.279 --> 0:06:19.479 Google continues to be shaped by the whole story and 0:06:19.520 --> 0:06:22.400 the fact that top level executives at Google we're covering 0:06:22.480 --> 0:06:26.640 up sexual harassment allegations and other awful things that involved 0:06:26.720 --> 0:06:31.160 quote unquote top performers at the company. Now, I wanted 0:06:31.200 --> 0:06:33.760 to get all that out of the way early because 0:06:33.760 --> 0:06:38.400 the actual incident happened two years before Reuben would create 0:06:38.520 --> 0:06:42.919 the company Essential Products, so it predates the company. However, 0:06:43.279 --> 0:06:46.800 the revelation of what happened and the aftermath that followed 0:06:46.800 --> 0:06:50.719 in and beyond would have a huge impact on everything 0:06:50.720 --> 0:06:53.799 else Reuben was involved with. So now we know about 0:06:53.800 --> 0:06:56.599 this awful act that was lurking in the background. But 0:06:56.680 --> 0:06:59.480 let's get down to the story of Essential Products itself. 0:06:59.760 --> 0:07:03.280 Noing that this scandal and a few others on top 0:07:03.320 --> 0:07:06.240 of that one will come back into factor into what 0:07:06.480 --> 0:07:09.520 actually happened. I really wish that this was just a 0:07:09.560 --> 0:07:13.320 typical text startup story and a failure that you know, 0:07:13.400 --> 0:07:16.720 I could easily cover. But the personal details of the 0:07:16.720 --> 0:07:20.520 company's founder and the company's fate itself are tied together 0:07:20.960 --> 0:07:25.720 pretty tightly. So it's two thousand fifteen. Reuben has left Google. 0:07:25.880 --> 0:07:28.640 The world at large doesn't know the details of that departure, 0:07:28.960 --> 0:07:31.440 and Reuben at this point is married to a woman 0:07:31.520 --> 0:07:35.120 he met at Google named Reri Hera Baru, and that 0:07:35.200 --> 0:07:37.800 will also play a big role in the story to follow. 0:07:38.280 --> 0:07:42.320 Reuben goes on to create an investment firm called Playground Global. 0:07:42.680 --> 0:07:46.760 Playground Global also acted as what is called a hardware incubator. 0:07:47.040 --> 0:07:49.880 That is, it was a company that would fund research 0:07:49.920 --> 0:07:53.360 and development projects related to new hardware products. People could 0:07:53.400 --> 0:07:56.440 come in and pitch an idea and then if the 0:07:57.200 --> 0:08:00.440 board liked the idea, they could approve of it and 0:08:00.480 --> 0:08:04.080 allow the people who pitched it some space and other assets, 0:08:04.160 --> 0:08:07.160 some mentorship, you know, stuff to help them bring that 0:08:07.240 --> 0:08:10.560 idea to life. And this could be anything from mobile phones, 0:08:10.880 --> 0:08:15.080 network devices, smart home technologies, really any kind of hardware product. 0:08:15.160 --> 0:08:17.000 And they also looked at software as well, though it 0:08:17.080 --> 0:08:20.600 was like a seventy thirty split between hardware and software. 0:08:20.960 --> 0:08:24.240 This investment company got its own initial investment from a 0:08:24.280 --> 0:08:28.920 group of limited partners and that included HP read Point Ventures. 0:08:29.280 --> 0:08:32.000 There was the Chinese company Tencent that was an investor 0:08:32.080 --> 0:08:36.679 and kill says Google. The amount of money raised by 0:08:36.720 --> 0:08:40.880 this collection was around three hundred million dollars, So wow, Yeah, 0:08:40.880 --> 0:08:44.760 that's also pretty outrageous since one of the company's pouring 0:08:44.800 --> 0:08:47.439 money into this venture was the same one that had 0:08:47.480 --> 0:08:50.920 pushed Ruben out due to allegations of sexual misconduct a 0:08:51.000 --> 0:08:55.360 year earlier. Though again that wasn't public knowledge, but presumably 0:08:55.480 --> 0:08:57.760 people at Google were aware of it. And a bit 0:08:57.880 --> 0:09:01.760 later in after play Ground Global was off the ground, 0:09:02.240 --> 0:09:06.840 Reuben founded another company called Essential Products. This received funding 0:09:06.880 --> 0:09:11.000 from you guessed it, playground Global in the Series A 0:09:11.200 --> 0:09:15.080 Round of Funding. Reuben raised thirty million dollars for Essential 0:09:15.120 --> 0:09:18.720 Products in order to higher on staff, and one of 0:09:18.800 --> 0:09:23.760 Reuben's businesses was essentially funding another business. The other big 0:09:23.760 --> 0:09:28.120 contributor for the Series A Round of funding for Essential 0:09:28.120 --> 0:09:31.640 Products was Red Point And just to be clear, this 0:09:31.760 --> 0:09:35.400 wasn't illegal, Folks, weren't raising eyebrows or anything. I mean, 0:09:35.400 --> 0:09:38.120 the whole purpose of Playground Global was to fund hardware 0:09:38.200 --> 0:09:41.040 ventures and that's what Essential Products aimed to be. The 0:09:41.120 --> 0:09:44.440 two ventures, by the way, shared the same operating space, 0:09:44.520 --> 0:09:49.640 so Essential Products had common space with Playground Global. They 0:09:49.640 --> 0:09:53.560 were co located in the same warehouse for two years. 0:09:53.840 --> 0:09:56.280 The company got to work on projects, and during this 0:09:56.360 --> 0:09:59.959 time things were pretty quiet. The company didn't have anything 0:10:00.040 --> 0:10:02.840 to announce yet. It would take time to develop the 0:10:02.840 --> 0:10:05.720 hardware and software to a point that Essential Products would 0:10:05.880 --> 0:10:09.920 have anything to announce. So Reuben and his company operated 0:10:09.960 --> 0:10:13.320 out of sight and largely out of mind. What they 0:10:13.320 --> 0:10:16.200 were working on were a couple of different things. Their 0:10:16.240 --> 0:10:19.960 flagship product and the only one from Essential Products to 0:10:20.120 --> 0:10:23.480 ever be brought to market spoiler alert on that one 0:10:24.000 --> 0:10:29.080 would become the Essential pH one smartphone sometimes just called 0:10:29.080 --> 0:10:32.040 the Essential phone, which is fair because it's the only 0:10:32.040 --> 0:10:34.600 thing that ever came out from that company, and this 0:10:34.640 --> 0:10:39.160 one ran on the Android operating system. The other two products, 0:10:39.200 --> 0:10:44.080 which again never emerged beyond the development stage, included a 0:10:44.120 --> 0:10:47.920 home hub similar to Google Home or Amazon's Echo line 0:10:47.920 --> 0:10:51.720 of products that was essentially called Essential Home, and then 0:10:51.760 --> 0:10:55.120 a custom built operating system for that hub, and this 0:10:55.240 --> 0:10:58.080 was one that the company called Ambient. Now I'll go 0:10:58.120 --> 0:11:00.679 over those in a moment, but we have some more 0:11:00.760 --> 0:11:05.520 business e business business to attend to first. In early seventeen, 0:11:05.840 --> 0:11:08.520 the tech media world was beginning to pick up buzz 0:11:08.960 --> 0:11:13.040 that Essential was preparing a launch of a product, and 0:11:13.120 --> 0:11:16.000 that product was rumored to be a smartphone, and it 0:11:16.000 --> 0:11:20.760 would happen sometime in the spring of Around that same time, 0:11:21.120 --> 0:11:24.440 the company was seeking a significant investment to the tune 0:11:24.480 --> 0:11:28.640 of one hundred million dollars from the massive Japanese holding 0:11:28.679 --> 0:11:33.120 company soft Bank, but that deal got scuttled. Now the 0:11:33.200 --> 0:11:36.920 apparent reason for this, for soft Bank's change of heart 0:11:37.280 --> 0:11:40.640 had to do with another tech company called Apple. One 0:11:40.640 --> 0:11:43.880 of soft Bank's interests is an investment arm called soft 0:11:43.880 --> 0:11:47.360 Bank Vision Fund. This is the arm that would have 0:11:47.520 --> 0:11:52.520 funded Essential, and Apple had made a one billion dollar 0:11:52.679 --> 0:11:57.240 that's billion with a B contribution to that fund, and 0:11:57.320 --> 0:12:01.199 analysts concluded that soft Bank backed out of this investment 0:12:01.320 --> 0:12:05.880 with Essential due to that sizeable contribution from Android's chief competitor. 0:12:06.280 --> 0:12:10.959 In fact, while Reuben would not specifically say the name Apple, 0:12:11.200 --> 0:12:14.200 he did state that a party that was involved in 0:12:14.240 --> 0:12:19.000 this investment fund discovered that they were one of the 0:12:19.160 --> 0:12:22.520 potential investments and that this would mean that this other company, 0:12:22.640 --> 0:12:27.920 Apple would have a stake of ownership in his company, 0:12:28.000 --> 0:12:31.960 and that neither party, Apple nor Essential wanted that and 0:12:32.080 --> 0:12:35.520 that was the reason why the deal fell through. Now, 0:12:35.520 --> 0:12:39.120 losing out on a one hundred million dollar deal is 0:12:39.200 --> 0:12:44.400 obviously enormous. Shortly after news broke of SoftBank's reversal, Andy 0:12:44.480 --> 0:12:48.640 Ruben tweeted out a message that included a render image 0:12:48.679 --> 0:12:51.760 of a new smartphone design and it would turn out 0:12:51.800 --> 0:12:53.920 to be the pH one, but we didn't have a 0:12:54.000 --> 0:12:56.720 name for it yet. This was the beginning of sort 0:12:56.720 --> 0:12:59.480 of a campaign of marketing for the phone and for 0:12:59.559 --> 0:13:03.040 the company at large, because Reuben was seeking out new 0:13:03.080 --> 0:13:05.880 investors to replace the fact that he lost the soft 0:13:05.920 --> 0:13:10.880 Bank money. The pictures showed an undeniably attractive smartphone. The 0:13:10.960 --> 0:13:14.480 device had an extremely thin bezel. And the word bezel 0:13:14.600 --> 0:13:17.120 comes from the world of jewelry and watches. It refers 0:13:17.120 --> 0:13:20.480 to the ring of material that holds in place the 0:13:20.600 --> 0:13:24.240 innerds of the thing, sometimes like the glass cover of 0:13:24.280 --> 0:13:28.120 a watch or a jewel in a setting. So with smartphones, 0:13:28.280 --> 0:13:31.640 it's the frame that holds the screen in place, and 0:13:31.760 --> 0:13:35.280 older smartphones had really wide bezels, and in turn that 0:13:35.400 --> 0:13:38.080 eats into the potential screen size, or if you want 0:13:38.120 --> 0:13:39.720 to have a really big screen, it means you have 0:13:39.760 --> 0:13:42.800 a really big phone because of that bezel. The phone 0:13:42.800 --> 0:13:45.800 in Reuben's tweet had an extremely thin bezel, creating a 0:13:45.840 --> 0:13:49.480 sort of edge to edge appearance for the phone's screen. Now, 0:13:49.520 --> 0:13:52.080 this was not the first smartphone to go that route, 0:13:52.200 --> 0:13:57.360 mind you, Sharp's Aquos Crystal phone, which launched way back 0:13:57.400 --> 0:14:02.760 in Twoteen, boasted a bez less screen. The Essential phone 0:14:02.840 --> 0:14:05.520 also appeared to have no three and a half millimeter 0:14:05.679 --> 0:14:08.640 headphone jack, which would be confirmed later, and again, this 0:14:08.679 --> 0:14:11.640 wouldn't be the first smartphone to ditch the headphone jack. 0:14:12.280 --> 0:14:15.920 That would require people to invest in either bluetooth headsets 0:14:16.040 --> 0:14:19.640 or use a dongle adapter to plug into the USBC 0:14:20.160 --> 0:14:22.960 jack that was on the phone and then use wired 0:14:23.000 --> 0:14:27.360 headphones through the adapter. But other smartphones, like Apple's iPhone seven, 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:30.440 which had launched in TwixT also didn't have a three 0:14:30.480 --> 0:14:33.320 and a half millimeter headphone jack, and the headphone jack 0:14:33.560 --> 0:14:37.720 required more space and resources, including power supplies and stuff 0:14:37.760 --> 0:14:40.760 like that, and that takes up valuable space inside a phone. 0:14:41.000 --> 0:14:44.720 So ditching it was a somewhat controversial decision when it 0:14:44.840 --> 0:14:47.720 first started to happen in the industry, because a lot 0:14:47.720 --> 0:14:50.440 of folks like yours truly were dinosaurs. We were still 0:14:50.520 --> 0:14:53.600 using wired earbuds, and we get real grouchy about the 0:14:53.640 --> 0:14:55.880 fact that we didn't have those anymore, we couldn't use 0:14:55.920 --> 0:14:59.160 them without a dongle, or that we had to say 0:14:59.160 --> 0:15:04.440 the word dongle. But more people begrudgingly accepted that this 0:15:04.480 --> 0:15:07.560 move actually meant that phones could be thinner, lighter, and 0:15:07.720 --> 0:15:10.320 that they could dedicate the space that would have gone 0:15:10.640 --> 0:15:14.240 to the headphone jack to supporting other stuff. So sometimes 0:15:14.280 --> 0:15:18.360 progress is painful, but later we're thankful for it. Now, 0:15:18.400 --> 0:15:21.280 the headphone jack thing wasn't entirely clear from that first 0:15:21.280 --> 0:15:25.360 tweeted photo, but the image first shared on March two, 0:15:25.400 --> 0:15:28.120 thousand seventeen, would be the first taste of what was 0:15:28.200 --> 0:15:31.000 to come, and it helped Reuben get other investors to 0:15:31.080 --> 0:15:34.240 line up to take the spots soft Bank would have held, 0:15:34.720 --> 0:15:37.840 so essentially he was able to get new investors for 0:15:37.920 --> 0:15:40.960 the Series B round of funding. That round of funding 0:15:40.960 --> 0:15:45.080 would be official in June of but I'm not quite 0:15:45.280 --> 0:15:50.080 at that point just yet. At the end of May seventeen, 0:15:50.320 --> 0:15:53.400 just before the Series B funding round would become official, 0:15:53.760 --> 0:15:57.160 Reuben would take the stage at the CODE Conference and 0:15:57.200 --> 0:16:00.720 he was interviewed by Walt Mossburg, and it was at 0:16:00.800 --> 0:16:03.960 that presentation that he would reveal more information about his company, 0:16:04.320 --> 0:16:08.120 his company's plans, and their planned products. More on that 0:16:08.520 --> 0:16:11.320 in just a moment, but first let's take a quick break. 0:16:18.960 --> 0:16:22.240 At the CODE conference, Ruben showed off the Essential Phone, 0:16:22.440 --> 0:16:25.000 or what would later be called the pH One. He 0:16:25.120 --> 0:16:27.240 explained that the bezel of the phone was made out 0:16:27.240 --> 0:16:30.240 of titanium and that the reason for that was because 0:16:30.280 --> 0:16:32.960 he needed a really strong material that could stand up 0:16:33.000 --> 0:16:36.480 to the typical forces of phone might experience without buckling, 0:16:36.880 --> 0:16:39.320 because other phones around this time were usually made out 0:16:39.360 --> 0:16:42.680 of aluminum, but aluminum would dent if it had been 0:16:42.720 --> 0:16:46.040 made as thin as the p H one's bezel had been. 0:16:46.520 --> 0:16:48.720 He explained that the back of the phone was made 0:16:48.760 --> 0:16:52.320 out of ceramic and that it was resistant to damage, 0:16:52.440 --> 0:16:55.120 so that was also really important, and it came in 0:16:55.160 --> 0:16:58.320 both a glossy or matt finish. He also explained that 0:16:58.400 --> 0:17:01.680 the camera on the phone was behind the screen itself, 0:17:01.760 --> 0:17:05.200 so if you look at a photo of an Essential phone, 0:17:05.240 --> 0:17:07.359 you'll see that the lens of the camera is at 0:17:07.440 --> 0:17:10.479 the top center of the very top of the screen, 0:17:11.040 --> 0:17:14.280 with the screen actually wrapping around the lens. It's not 0:17:14.400 --> 0:17:17.080 in its own section like its own little black band 0:17:17.119 --> 0:17:19.200 at the top of the screen. The screen is both 0:17:19.240 --> 0:17:21.240 on the left and right of the lens as well, 0:17:22.440 --> 0:17:24.480 so would be in the center of a notifications bar 0:17:24.560 --> 0:17:27.800 in other words. Of particular interest was a pair of 0:17:27.880 --> 0:17:32.040 magnetic pins on the top back section of the phone, 0:17:32.480 --> 0:17:36.199 and these were designed to interoperate with various accessories for 0:17:36.280 --> 0:17:39.960 the Essential Phone, so rather than plugging an accessory into 0:17:40.000 --> 0:17:43.280 a port, you could snap it on. You would align 0:17:43.359 --> 0:17:46.200 the pins on the phone with the pins on the 0:17:46.240 --> 0:17:49.640 accessory and the magnets would click together. The accessory would 0:17:49.680 --> 0:17:52.439 just snap into place, and the phone would detect the 0:17:52.440 --> 0:17:55.800 accessory through a wireless connection at the same speeds as 0:17:55.920 --> 0:18:00.000 USB three. So that would mean that this accessory would 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:03.119 raw power and other capabilities from the phone, and it 0:18:03.160 --> 0:18:06.399 could in turn enhance the phones. This would mean the 0:18:06.440 --> 0:18:09.520 accessory would draw power from the phone as well as 0:18:09.560 --> 0:18:12.680 tap into the phone's networking capabilities, but it would also 0:18:12.840 --> 0:18:16.120 enhance the phone in some way. So what kind of 0:18:16.320 --> 0:18:18.960 accessories are we talking about. Well, the one that got 0:18:19.000 --> 0:18:22.880 featured in that talk and in various reviews and news 0:18:23.000 --> 0:18:26.199 articles for the phone was a three hundred sixty degree 0:18:26.400 --> 0:18:29.760 camera accessory. It looked a little bit like a periscope 0:18:29.840 --> 0:18:32.159 for the phone. So you would snap it on with 0:18:32.240 --> 0:18:36.119 these magnetic contacts and the phone would detect the accessory. 0:18:36.160 --> 0:18:38.440 You would be able to capture three hundred sixty degree 0:18:38.480 --> 0:18:41.800 photos and video using the camera. When you were done, 0:18:41.960 --> 0:18:44.080 you could just remove the camera from the back of 0:18:44.080 --> 0:18:46.520 the device, just pull it free, and then you could 0:18:46.560 --> 0:18:49.959 snap on some other accessory if you had one and 0:18:50.000 --> 0:18:52.439 you wanted to and Ruben's point was that he was 0:18:52.520 --> 0:18:56.159 pushing devices to move towards a truly wireless kind of future, 0:18:56.400 --> 0:18:58.800 you know, one where you wouldn't need any ports at 0:18:58.840 --> 0:19:01.840 all in a phone. You would charge your phone wirelessly, 0:19:02.160 --> 0:19:05.159 and you'd use a system like these contacts to enhance 0:19:05.200 --> 0:19:07.800 the phone's features. And this was a big selling point 0:19:07.880 --> 0:19:11.080 in the philosophy of Essential. For one thing, in an 0:19:11.160 --> 0:19:15.200 ideal manifestation, you could buy a basic phone and through 0:19:15.200 --> 0:19:19.240 this interface you could boost its capabilities with various peripherals. 0:19:19.280 --> 0:19:22.920 And this was the underlying principle of modular phones in general. 0:19:23.160 --> 0:19:25.320 And this also was not a brand new idea. I 0:19:25.320 --> 0:19:28.760 don't want to suggest that Essential invented this. Other companies 0:19:29.000 --> 0:19:33.560 like Motorola had toyed with modular phones, but it hadn't 0:19:33.600 --> 0:19:37.560 really gained much traction, and honestly, it still hasn't when 0:19:37.600 --> 0:19:40.159 you look at the current market. But another way to 0:19:40.240 --> 0:19:43.800 look at it was that the wireless data transfer technology 0:19:43.880 --> 0:19:46.840 meant that for future devices, the company could place the 0:19:46.880 --> 0:19:50.080 contact points in a different position on the back of 0:19:50.119 --> 0:19:53.560 the next phone, for example, and the older peripherals would 0:19:53.560 --> 0:19:57.440 still work with the new models. One of the downsides 0:19:57.600 --> 0:20:01.000 of other modular designs, at least according to Ruben, is 0:20:01.040 --> 0:20:05.480 that they frequently involved physically connected modules that make up 0:20:05.520 --> 0:20:09.159 a phone. But then if you redesign the phone form factor, 0:20:09.520 --> 0:20:13.720 then those modules won't connect, they don't fit with the 0:20:13.760 --> 0:20:17.920 new form factor. By making this sort of a magnetic contact, 0:20:18.440 --> 0:20:20.840 you could as long as you kept the same pen arrangement, 0:20:21.280 --> 0:20:25.200 you could place that wherever you wanted along the backside 0:20:25.200 --> 0:20:27.359 of the phone and still be able to snap stuff 0:20:27.400 --> 0:20:30.479 to it, and presumably still be able to use older 0:20:30.520 --> 0:20:33.680 peripherals with newer models of phones. So it was a 0:20:33.760 --> 0:20:38.280 kind of future proofing. For another thing, getting rid of 0:20:38.400 --> 0:20:41.960 ports means that you could in the future do stuff 0:20:42.000 --> 0:20:44.760 like create form factors that are more resistant to water 0:20:45.000 --> 0:20:47.439 and dust and other stuff that could work its way 0:20:47.480 --> 0:20:50.840 into the electronics of a device that has an open port, 0:20:51.440 --> 0:20:54.640 So you could create a sealed electronic system that could 0:20:54.640 --> 0:20:59.240 be far more water resistant or even potentially water proof. Now, 0:20:59.320 --> 0:21:02.080 that was not what the essential phone was because it 0:21:02.160 --> 0:21:05.760 did have a USB C ports. Ruben acknowledged on that 0:21:05.880 --> 0:21:09.480 stage that we were not yet at a point where 0:21:09.480 --> 0:21:13.720 we could easily transition into a truly wireless form factor, 0:21:14.040 --> 0:21:18.440 because charging stations like on an airplane or in hotels. 0:21:18.880 --> 0:21:22.080 Those almost always requires some form of cable. You've got 0:21:22.119 --> 0:21:25.560 to plug them into the USB port and then plug 0:21:25.640 --> 0:21:28.359 that other end into your device. You aren't likely to 0:21:28.440 --> 0:21:33.640 find charging pads in most charging hotspots, so the Essential 0:21:33.640 --> 0:21:37.679 Phone had a USB c port for that reason, and 0:21:37.760 --> 0:21:40.320 it was a compromise made in an effort to try 0:21:40.359 --> 0:21:44.480 and transition electronics to a more wireless approach. Let's get 0:21:44.520 --> 0:21:47.840 to some of the specs of the Essential phone. So 0:21:47.920 --> 0:21:50.480 it was an Android phone, but without a lot of 0:21:50.520 --> 0:21:53.000 the added stuff that was found in phones from other 0:21:53.080 --> 0:21:57.919 manufacturers and on various carriers. Another selling point for Essential 0:21:58.000 --> 0:22:02.400 was that users could expect at Android experience with as 0:22:02.480 --> 0:22:06.960 little added on software, often referred to as bloatwear tacked on. 0:22:07.640 --> 0:22:10.640 With some Android handsets, you're dealing with stuff that gets 0:22:10.680 --> 0:22:13.879 added on by the hardware manufacturer as well as whatever 0:22:13.920 --> 0:22:17.600 phone carrier you're using, and this all can bog down 0:22:17.640 --> 0:22:20.720 the phone's performance, and users typically don't care for it 0:22:20.840 --> 0:22:25.280 very much. A lot of it tends to replicate various applications, 0:22:25.359 --> 0:22:27.359 and so you don't really need it all, and often 0:22:27.400 --> 0:22:30.080 you can't remove it. Ruben did not want that to 0:22:30.119 --> 0:22:33.560 happen with his phone. The phone's processor was a qual 0:22:33.680 --> 0:22:36.800 Calm snap Dragon eight thirty five, which is an eight 0:22:36.840 --> 0:22:39.800 core processor running at two point four or five giga 0:22:39.880 --> 0:22:43.240 hurts clock speed. It also had an adren No five 0:22:43.320 --> 0:22:47.560 forty graphics processing unit. It sported four gigabytes of RAM, 0:22:47.760 --> 0:22:50.320 had a d twenty eight gigabytes of data storage space, 0:22:50.400 --> 0:22:54.840 did not have a memory card expansion slot. It had 0:22:54.880 --> 0:22:58.920 to thirteen megapixel rear facing cameras capable of shooting four 0:22:59.000 --> 0:23:02.240 K resolution video you at thirty frames per second. Uh 0:23:02.400 --> 0:23:05.359 you could set the frame rate higher, but doing so 0:23:05.480 --> 0:23:08.560 would reduce the resolution, so you could shoot up to 0:23:08.720 --> 0:23:11.480 one twenty frames per second, but that would make the 0:23:11.520 --> 0:23:15.160 resolution seven twenty P, so you've downscaled quite a bit. 0:23:15.520 --> 0:23:18.000 It also had a forward facing camera that could shoot 0:23:18.040 --> 0:23:21.640 at the same resolutions, but it was an eight megapixel camera, 0:23:21.680 --> 0:23:24.560 not a thirteen megapixel like the rear facing ones. The 0:23:24.640 --> 0:23:28.080 Essential phone supported Bluetooth five point o l E, the 0:23:28.280 --> 0:23:31.400 low energy Bluetooth standard that would draw less power from 0:23:31.440 --> 0:23:35.480 the battery. It had NFC chips near field communication chips, 0:23:35.680 --> 0:23:39.320 had WiFi compatibility obviously. It had a rear fingerprint sensor 0:23:39.440 --> 0:23:42.520 for unlocking the phone and for authorizing purchases and stuff, 0:23:42.920 --> 0:23:45.320 and it came in a variety of colors, from pure 0:23:45.440 --> 0:23:49.680 white to black moon to ocean depths, because of course 0:23:49.760 --> 0:23:53.000 those were the names they used. Reuben revealed that the 0:23:53.040 --> 0:23:55.919 phone was available for pre order at the cost of 0:23:56.080 --> 0:24:00.080 six hundred nine nine U S dollars. That's going to 0:24:00.240 --> 0:24:03.200 change before too long, so I'm gonna have to get 0:24:03.240 --> 0:24:05.040 back to that price in a little bit. But first, 0:24:05.080 --> 0:24:07.560 let's talk about some of the other stuff Ruben had 0:24:07.600 --> 0:24:11.840 to announce at the Code conference. Ruben also talked about 0:24:11.960 --> 0:24:16.200