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Former HTC designer Scott Croyle has left Razer's Nextbit
We haven't yet seen Razer's debut smartphone, but the team behind it is bidding farewell to an exec that played a crucial role back in its early days. Scott Croyle, who quit HTC as the Senior Vice President of Design, has left Nextbit as of September after a three-year run. His new gig? Going back to his design consultancy roots with the formation of Attic, a San Francisco-based studio covering hard goods (which obviously include consumer electronics), soft goods and furniture. Croyle is joined by former One & Co colleague Jony Ive Daniel Hundt, who was the lead designer of the Incredible, Incredible 2, Desire 816, Desire 820 and more. Prior to HTC's acquisition, One & Co was also known for designing Microsoft's Arc Keyboard plus Arc Mouse, as well as the original Amazon Kindle.
An early look at Nextbit's 'cloud first' Robin smartphone
Nextbit wanted to celebrate the launch of its debut smartphone today at a party in San Francisco, but it turned out to be a celebration of success as well. In just under 12 hours, the startup reached its $500,000 Kickstarter goal to fund the Robin, an Android phone that isn't only "cloud first," but also surprisingly design forward as well. We had a chance to get an early look at what the final product might actually look like (though bear in mind these are all still prototypes) and asked Scott Croyle, Nextbit's Chief Product and Design Officer -- who's also a former design lead for HTC -- a few questions about the phone too.
App maker Nextbit wants to build smartphones that 'stand out'
Earlier this week, mobile software startup Nextbit revealed that it's about to launch its first smartphone. The move comes as no surprise -- it'd be silly for a company to hire Scott Croyle, HTC's former head of design, just to work on some cool continuity software on Android, right? We caught up with Nextbit CEO Tom Moss at Hong Kong's RISE conference and learned that not only will Foxconn be manufacturing the phone, but the design will "easily stand out" from the crowd.
Nextbit is bringing iOS-like app continuity and 'limitless' storage to Android
You may just about recall that Nextbit, a startup formed by ex-Googlers, has been collaborating with Cyanogen on a "really cool" secret project. As it turns out, this is all about the continuity experience across Android devices -- very timely given the recent launch of OS X Yosemite and iOS 8.1, which boast a set of continuity features. Nextbit's offering is dubbed Baton, and as the name suggests, it lets you quickly pass an app's state from one Android device to another, meaning you can continue playing on the same level in a game, editing the same document in an app or browsing the same web page right away; with the precondition being the second device must also have Baton and the same app installed. Better yet, app developers don't have to do anything at all; existing apps should just work.
Cyanogen and veterans from Google, Amazon and HTC are building 'something really cool'
Is your Tuesday evening missing a sense of ambiguous mystery? We've got something for you: Cyanogen and a start-up named Nextbit are working on "something really cool" for mobile devices, but won't say a word about what it actually is. Nextbit has been around for awhile, but its goals are nebulous at best. "The future of mobile is just getting started," its website reads. "We're building the groundbreaking technology that will take it to the next level." Cyanogen's partnership with the company was only just announced today, and it brings precious little information to the table -- offering only a survey suggesting that testers for the mysterious project may need to wipe their device (preferably a Nexus 5 or Nexus 7) to participate.
The man behind HTC's hardware design is leaving the company
If you've used any HTC device in the last five years, chances are you've witnessed Scott Croyle's handiwork first-hand. Unfortunately, his time at the company is coming to an end as HTC has confirmed that Croyle is moving on to other to-be-determined projects. Croyle, who joined the company in 2008 as part of the One & Co acquisition, has been directly involved with building HTC's flagship devices ever since. Now, he'll be handing over the baton of responsibility to Jonah Becker, who's been Croyle's right-hand man in the studio. The move will be a gradual transition, as we're told that he will stick around in a consulting role for a while to finish up his projects (M9 anyone?).
The Engadget Interview: VP of design Scott Croyle talks HTC One at MWC 2013
It's no secret that we're big fans of the HTC One here at Engadget -- we've already written at length about the handset's hardware design, software features and imaging chops. At MWC, we were lucky to spend some time with Scott Croyle, VP of design, to discuss the company's latest superphone. We talked about the handset's delightful zero-gap aluminum and plastic unibody and how HTC wanted to "break down that last barrier" of integrating antennae in a metal casing without making compromises. He explained that the One's design was inspired by high-end watches, and it turns out that the zero-gap machining process was developed in-house specifically for this device. Some of the antennae (such as WiFi and GPS) are actually machined as part of the unibody and coexist on the same aluminum panel. We then chatted about the gorgeous 4.7-inch 1080p display which was supplied by the same manufacturer which provided the screen for the Droid DNA and One X, and the daring Ultrapixel camera, which packs four million large (2µm) pixels and OIS. Mr. Croyle mentioned that while the business side is incredibly important, the decision to use Ultrapixels was focused on the needs of consumers. We asked if limiting the number of pixels was in any way driven by the software -- the desire to implement Zoe and perhaps curtail the massive amounts of data gathered and processed by the feature. It turns out that the development of the sensor and optics started a long time before the software. As for Zoe, "nobody's redefined what a photograph could mean" and HTC was eager to try something new. Our full video interview is yours to watch after the break.
HTC exec Horace Luke leaves company for 'personal reasons'
HTC is out a top executive with the departure of chief innovation officer Horace Luke. The exec has been gone for some time now, having exited at the end of April. The Taiwanese phone maker formally announced the news this week, citing "personal reasons" as the motivation behind the CIO's exit. HTC had nothing but kind words for Luke, who had been with the company since 2006, stating that he had "nurtured a culture of innovation." The company's vice president of design, Scott Croyle, has stepped into the Luke's vacant position.
