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Andy Rubin returns to Essential amid questions over his past
Android mastermind Andy Rubin is back at the helm of Essential after his surprise personal leave... although you could argue that he never really left. Recode has learned that Rubin is back "less than two weeks" after the company announced that he'd taken a break. Neither Essential nor Rubin was willing to comment, but insiders claimed that he technically didn't have to leave the building -- he continued to work with his venture capital company Playground Global, which shares the same office spaces.
Android creator Andy Rubin is building a high-end smartphone
It turns out the rumors were true: Android creator Andy Rubin is returning to phones with his latest company Essential Products Inc. According to a report from Bloomberg, Essential aims to bring together several mobile and smart home products under one platform and the company will release a flagship smartphone around the middle of this year.
Android creator Andy Rubin is making a free dashcam
There's been a lot of speculation about what Android inventor and ex-Googler Andy Rubin has been up to with his startup, Playground Global. Is he making a phone? Well, no... but what he is doing could still grab your attention. Rubin tells Wired that his company is making a dashcam with a unique business model: you'll get the hardware for free, but you have to hand over the camera's data in return. It's not clear why Playground wants to make that bargain, although one possibility is that it'll create a visual map of streets around the world.
Former Android boss Andy Rubin could be coming back to phones
It's been a little bit over a year since former Android boss Andy Rubin left Google entirely to start a hardware startup incubator called Playground Global. Now, it sounds like Rubin is going to get back in the Android game, albeit indirectly. A report from The Information claims that Rubin is trying to recruit people to start a new smartphone company, likely funded through Playground Global. It's not clear if Rubin would be an advisor or play a more active role in managing and operating the company, but either way his vast experience with Android would be helpful for a new hardware company trying to get off the ground.
