SAN FRANCISCO, US: Andy Rubin, the co-creator of the Android mobile phone operating system, has launched a new company called Essential Products to sell a high-end smartphone and a home assistant device.
Palo Alto-based Essential said the new Essential Phone features an edge-to-edge screen, a titanium-and-ceramic case and dual cameras. The phone sells for $699 and will run the Android operating system. The price pits it against high-end smartphones including Apple Inc’s iPhone and Samsung’s Galaxy S8.
Essential also launched a household assistant called Home that looks like an angled hockey puck with a screen. The device will compete against the Amazon.com Echo and Alphabet’s Google Home speaker, which are powered by the Alexa and the Google Assistant voice services respectively.
Essential confirmed the Home device will let the user choose between Alexa, Google Assistant or Siri. It was not immediately clear how Siri would be available on Essential. While Amazon and Google have released the software needed to embed their assistants on devices they do not make, Apple has not done so.
Essential declined to elaborate on how it plans to embed Siri on the device, and Apple declined to comment.
The Essential Home takes a page from Apple’s privacy play book. Like an iPhone, the Home will do much of the processing for voice and image recognition on the device itself rather than sending data to remote servers.
Essential also said the Home device will communicate with home appliances like lights and thermostats directly over the home network, rather than sending data to remote servers. Apple’s HomeKit system takes similar approach.
Rubin, Essential’s CEO, co-founded Android and sold it to Google in 2005. He ran Google’s mobile efforts until 2013 before a brief stint running the firm’s robotics division. He left Google in 2014 to focus on starting hardware companies.
Investors in Essential include Chinese tech company Tencent Holdings, iPhone contract manufacturer Foxconn , Redpoint Ventures and Altimeter Capital.
Essential plans to announce a ship date for the devices in the next few weeks. The company did not say whether it planned to sell the phone directly to customers online or in physical stores.
Essential for the first time revealed its staff on its website, listing Wolfgang Muller as head of channel sales. Muller previously ran North American retail operations for phone maker HTC, according to his LinkedIn profile, suggesting that Essential plans to sell phones through retail stores, carriers or both.
Android creator unveils new phone, home assistant device
Android creator unveils new phone, home assistant device
Maersk to resume Suez Canal sailings for MECL service
- Shipping companies are weighing a return to the critical Asia-Europe trade corridor more than two years after they started rerouting vessels around Africa following Yemeni Houthi rebels’ attacks
OSLO: Shipping group Maersk will resume sailings via the Red Sea and the Suez Canal for its MECL service, connecting the Middle East and India with the US east coast, the Danish company said on Thursday.
“Maersk has decided to implement a structural return to the trans-Suez route for all MECL service sailings,” the company said in a statement, adding that this was part of a stepwise approach for its fleet.
Shipping companies are weighing a return to the critical Asia-Europe trade corridor more than two years after they started rerouting vessels around Africa following Yemeni Houthi rebels’ attacks on ships in the Red Sea in what they said was a show of solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza.
Maersk on Monday said one of its vessels had tested the route as a ceasefire in Gaza raised hopes for normal shipping traffic.
The change for the MECL service comes into effect with a sailing departing Oman’s port of Salalah on January 26.
The Suez Canal is the fastest route linking Europe and Asia and, until the Houthi attacks, had accounted for about 10 percent of global seaborne trade, according to Clarksons Research.
The ceasefire in the Gaza conflict, in place since October last year, has renewed hope of normalizing Red Sea traffic.
The ceasefire has ended major combat in Gaza over the past three months, but both sides have accused the other of regular violations. More than 440 Palestinians and three Israeli soldiers have been killed since the truce took effect.
