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Kogan shows off Agora prototype, promises retail model will be way cooler
So, what's up with Kogan these days? It's just been a few weeks since the Australian shop went back to the drawing board with its Android-based Agora series, but Ruslan Kogan himself is talking up big plans for the redesigned version -- whenever it gets around to launching. According to Gizmodo Australia, Kogan says he wants the retail Agora to feature a 3.8-inch full touchscreen in concert with Cupcake's virtual keyboard place of the physical portrait keyboard he'd originally envisioned; cool, yes, but sadly, he'll have to play second fiddle to the Magic at this point. In the meantime, he's carrying around his original prototype, which looks... shall we say, not ready to ship. Then again, a hand-built Android set is better than no set at all, eh?
Back to the drawing board: Kogan working on a redesigned Agora
It's always fun to root for the little guy, but more importantly, it's fun to root for the $200 unlocked Android phone with 3G, right? It wasn't clear what would become of Ruslan Kogan's dream of building his own Android set after Google apparently told him the Agora's design wasn't such a good idea, but let's be honest: the dude probably didn't build his Australian off-brand electronics empire by giving up every time he hit a bump in the road. We talked to Ruslan today to confirm reports that there's a new model in the works, and he assured us that his company is "certainly in the process of redesigning and launch [sic] the improved Kogan Agora" -- which presumably means he'll be putting a phone onto the market that'll overcome the app compatibility issues that kept the original model from shipping this month. We don't have a timeframe yet, but considering how quickly he was able to pump out the first draft, we wouldn't be surprised to see something within a handful of months.
"Shining" phone steals a little Agora magic
Okay, we don't really know what's going on here, but a "Shining" phone that looks almost exactly like the original version of the Kogan Agora Android phone just popped up on Alibaba with a three-day delivery time and a 100-unit wholesale price of $240. Of course, the Agora was just delayed indefinitely, so this could just be nothing; contracting design and development out to faceless Chinese manufacturers like Kogan's doing is pretty much a deal with the KIRF devil, and those are definitely renders on the site, not actual pictures. Still, we're dying to see a flood of non-G1 Android handsets shake up the mobile market, and if getting stoked over sketchy Asian copies of semi-vaporware Australian phones is how we have to get our kicks, well, we're looking for new friends with an extra 24 grand and a healthy sense of forgiveness.[Thanks, Raymanism]
Kogan's Agora gets tweaked ahead of release -- in Photoshop, anyway
You're bound to face a few hiccups when you're a no-name brand trying to source an Android handset from a no-name ODM buried deep inside a Shenzen industrial park, and it seems Kogan's going through those growing pains right about now. The Australian company still says the Agora and Agora Pro will ship before the end of January (barely), but it looks like they're down to the wire with tweaks to the phone's design. For starters, the soft keys are gone -- not much use for those in Android anyway, last we checked -- replaced with a decidedly WinMo-esque set of home and back keys; the keyboard's been redesigned, too, and the d-pad is looking more usable than it had been before. For the Agora's price point, we're still sold on this thing -- but only if we can get something more than a printout of a pretty render delivered to our doorstep.[Thanks, Big Mike]
