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Andy Rubin Says Essential's Ambient OS Will Be Open Source, Hints at Better Update Cycle (theverge.com)

Posted by msmash on from the going-forward dept.

An anonymous reader shares a report: Playground CEO Andy Rubin, whose new company Essential unveiled a new premium Android smartphone and Amazon Echo competitor yesterday, says his company's Ambient OS smart home platform will be open source. That means that Rubin, who rose to fame in the tech industry for co-founding Android, essentially wants to apply the same open source philosophy that made Android the most dominant mobile operating system to the smart home. [...] Rubin did agree that Android's upgrade rate was much lower, but said that his new venture's Ambient OS had "a solution for that." He stopped short of describing what that solution was, however, noting only that it was "more of a managed service on the back-end."

28 comments

  1. Better update cycle by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 2

    A new version every hour!

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    #DeleteFacebook
    1. Re:Better update cycle by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      And each version will have a silly nickname associated with it.

    2. Re: Better update cycle by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Next release candidate is said to be named "whistling cocks"

    3. Re: Better update cycle by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nice going "Whistle Dick"

  2. That's nice. But by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    When it comes to privacy, all the action takes place on the server side. Particularly with phones, which send a steady stream of location tracking information. All that data has tremendous marketplace value.

  3. :\ Hmm... by ilsaloving · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Is it just me or is this whole Essentials enterprise starting to smell a bit fishy?

    All these announcements with vague details are making my alarm bells ring.

    1. Re::\ Hmm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Agree - this seems like a bunch of really cool ideas without the manpower behind them to actually make them real. Rubin has my attention, but I'm already skeptical. For a startup like this to fly, he should be delivering early on rather than just speaking about what is allegedly going to happen with these products. We have no reason to trust at this point.

    2. Re::\ Hmm... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      fish oils are considered 'essential'

  4. Re:That's nice. But by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

    ...location tracking information. All that data has tremendous marketplace value.

    Not mine. The marketplace value of "still at the same location" for over a month non-stop is worthless.

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    #DeleteFacebook
  5. OS Didn't Make Android Popular by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Open Source never had anything to do with making Android popular. Being licensed to other manufacturers at the right time made android what it is today. It was the only "modern" smart phone OS in competition with Apple at its release and flooded the market through its manufacturing partners. All the other Smart OSes that came afterward have fizzled (even efforts to make a fully open Android Rom.)

    1. Re:OS Didn't Make Android Popular by MightyYar · · Score: 1

      Being licensed FOR FREE is the essential part. There were a handful of mature mobile OSes at the time, some much more mature. But none that were free to use and modify. Microsoft and Palm were both happy to license you for a fee. Maemo and Blackberry had proprietary solutions ahead of even iPhone. (Technically I think Maemo was "open source", but I don't think all of it was free to sell. Like Android, it had a Linux kernel.)

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
    2. Re:OS Didn't Make Android Popular by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mature does not mean modern. All of the OSes you mentioned had klunky interfaces compared to Apple and early Android. Most that were touch, relied on pens and were resistive touch. There's a reason none of them were installed directly into Apple clone hardware successfully, they couldn't handle what a general consumer wanted in a smart phone. Modern smart OSes were designed from the ground up to handle all of them.

    3. Re: OS Didn't Make Android Popular by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maemo / Meego even today feels ahead on the now 8 year old Nokia N9...

    4. Re:OS Didn't Make Android Popular by MightyYar · · Score: 1

      You are correct - Apple changed everything.

      With that said, early Android was an interface nightmare, too. It was 2-3 years before it was on-par with the iPhone (maybe even before it was really usable?). WebOS (which oddly still lives on in TVs), and MS both gave early Android a good run feature-wise, but they were not free as in beer.

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      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
  6. Nonremovable battery by WaffleMonster · · Score: 4, Interesting

    For all the talk about expandability and planned obsolescence = BAD I come to find out essential phone's battery is non-removable.

    The wording on privacy is vague. They don't just come out and say they won't do x, y and z. Privacy policy on their website is the same boiler plate we'll do whatever we please including retroactively changing terms whenever we feel like it with no recourse machination.

  7. Re:That's nice. But by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I just built a cinnamon bun stand outside your window and have fans pointing your direction.

  8. Re:That's nice. But by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

    I'm sure my smartphone-that-never-leaves-home will appreciate it.

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    #DeleteFacebook
  9. Re:That's nice. But by IMightB · · Score: 1

    Thanks Dick, I'm allergic to cinnamon.

  10. So does that mean I can modify it myself? by gweihir · · Score: 1

    And then build it and put it on my phone? That may finally convince me to go to Android.

    --
    Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    1. Re:So does that mean I can modify it myself? by squiggleslash · · Score: 3, Informative

      If you buy the right Android phone, you can do that already. Go to xda-developers.com for help if you need it.

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      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    2. Re:So does that mean I can modify it myself? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Even as someone who is quite tech-savvy... xda-developers.com is such a gigantic waste of time. "Use the search.. there is a sticky thread... with dead links..."

      I just want a working phone.. not find new problems.

    3. Re:So does that mean I can modify it myself? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      well, better find new reality. Cos this one is nothing but trouble. And all the baseband processors are designed by Hitler, so to speak.

    4. Re:So does that mean I can modify it myself? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I just want a working phone.. not find new problems.

      Then xda-developers is probably not the place for you. Parent was specifically responding to someone who wanted to build it and put in on their phone, which is _not_ what you do if 'you just want a working phone'.

  11. Re: That's nice. But by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Justin is that you?

    I didn't know his name was Dick. Learn something new everyday.

  12. Who has Amazon Echo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Who is stupid enough to have a listening device placed in their home for 24x7 monitoring? I'm just curious.

    1. Re:Who has Amazon Echo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      there are idiots everywhere...

    2. Re:Who has Amazon Echo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Who is stupid enough to have a listening device placed in their home for 24x7 monitoring? I'm just curious.

      Who is stupid enough to carry around a tracking device everywhere they go for 24x7 monitoring?

  13. Release the complete set of f'ing code already by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That's the only decent solution. The lack of a complete set of source code for drivers and firmware components are the real problem. If users were reliant on crappy hardware (chipset) companies we wouldn't have this problem.