“The response has blown us away, and further proven that a
fresh approach to smartphones that solves real problems is something people
want in their hands. With that, we are putting new stretch goals in place to
keep the interest high to take us through the end of the campaign, which is in
15 days”
Nextbit, creator of
the Robin Cloud based smartphone, commenting on surpassing their Kickstarter
goal
The idea of a Cloud based Computer is alive and well in the
form of Google Chrome products such as Google Chrome Laptops as well as the
as-yet-to-be-released Google Chromebit as described in my blog article
entitled “@Google
launches Google Chromebit, Haier and Hisense Chromebook and @Asus Chromebook
Flip - @Microsoft Productivity vs @GoogleChrome OS low Price”.
So a smartphone that runs on web apps that are located in
the cloud, albeit new, isn't novel. Still, this didn't stop Americans from
supporting the kickstarter for the Robin, a cloud based smartphone from the
company Nextbit
as reported in the article “The smartphone with crazy cloud storage just hit its Kickstarter goal”,
published September 1, 2015 by Roger Cheng, CNET
News.
 |
The Robin
Cloued smartphone Kickstarter launched on Monday September 1st 2015
has already achieved its initial kickstarter goal of US$50,000 with some 3,182
backers.
With just ten (10) days to go to its Thursday, October 1st
2015 8:45 AM EST deadline, the Robin
Cloued smartphone Kickstarter has already raised some US$1,195,070 in
funding as reported in “Cloud-based
smartphone hits $1M on Kickstarter -- double the original goal”, published
September 15, 2015 by Steven Musil, CNET News.
They'll now be launching their Robin Cloud based smartphone
on Verizon, adding to the AT&T and T-Mobile Version they've made thus far
as reported in the article “Nextbit's
Robin phone, which taps cloud for 100GB of storage, adds Verizon version”,
published September 17, 2015 by Roger Cheng, CNET
News.
So what's so exciting about this cloud based smartphone
that’s got even Telecom Provider excited?
Nexbit's Robin
Cloud based smartphone - Why Cloud OS smartphones may be the next evolution of
smartphones
Founded by former Executives who'd worked with HTC and
Google now CEO and Co-Founder Tom Moss and CTO, Co-Founder Mike Chan and Chief
Product & Design Officer Scott Croyle, the Robin promises to be a
smartphone that has no limitations on Storage of Apps.
 |
Because it leverages the power of the cloud for External
Storage, its measly 32GB of internal storage is augmented by a whopping 100GB
of Free Cloud Storage.
Like the Xiaomi, makers of the low cost smartphone the
Xiaomi Redmi as detailed in my blog article
entitled “US$130
5.5” Xiaomi Redmi Note Phablet goes on sale in China on Tuesday March 26th 2014
- Low-cost Unlocked Phablets the next Tablet in China's Year of the Horse”
, it's being sold directly to customers.
 |
So although you can go to the Carriers and purchase your
Robin smartphone, because it's a kickstarter, your Robin will be shipped to you
by May 2016. Quite a bit of time to wait for a smartphone which may result in
its specs becoming dated! So expect frequient updates of their design to
challenge the latest and the greatest in the future.
The Robin smartphone is a 5.2” IPS LCD Screen made of Gorilla
Glass 4 with a rather rectangular profile. It’s very lightweight at 150g which
isn’t surprising, given its dimensions of 149mm x 72mm x 7mm. It comes in two
(2) colour schemes as shown below:
1. Mint
2. Midnight
It's running Google Android 5.0 Lollipop smartphone with a
1080p screen that’s powered by a Qualcomm's hexa-core Snapdragon 808 chipsets
with 3GB of RAM support. It also support USB-C port, which means no more
fiddling with the microUSB cable to find which end is up.
 |
It’s got a 13 Megapixel Rear-facing Camera with phase
detection autofocus, dual tone flash and a 5 Megapixel Front-Facing Camera,
which means this rectangular beast is perfect for selfies.
For the entertainment minded it has Dual front facing stereo
speakers with support for Bluetooth 4.0 LE, making it easily pairable with a
set of US$300 Sennheiser Urbanite XL Wireless headphones as detailed
beautifully in my MICO Wars
blog article entitled “US$300
Sennheiser Urbanite XL Wireless headphones unique Touch Interface in Wireless
Mode”.
Support for Wi-Fi A/B/G/N/AC and LTE Bands 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7,
8, 12, 17, 20 and 28 means you can connect to the Internet via any router or 4G
LKTE enable cellular Network, a must for this smartphone to really work.
it also a very versatile smarpthone with support for 850Mhz,
900Mhz, 1800Mhz and 1900 Mhz GSM (Global System Mobile) Networks such as AT&T
and T-Mobile as well as 850Mhz, 900Mhz, 1800Mhz, 1900 Mhz and 2100Mhz on the
WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiplex) Networks such as Sprint and Verizon.
Fingerprint sensor and NFC suggests that this smartphone
also comes ready to support Android Pay as described in my blog article
entitled “1
million US Retailers for Android Pay - Why Samsung Pay Alliance with Asus, HTC,
Lenovo and Xiaomi is coming”, should you opt to use it in the future.
The support for Wireless Charging is not included, but the
Robin makes up for this flaw with support for Quick charging for it fairly
large 2680 mAh Li-Ion Battery.
More interestingly is the internal storage of 32GB. This is
augmented by 100GB of Cloud storage an special software that detects the apps,
photos, videos and MP3 files you use the least and slowly backs them up into
the cloud using any available Data Service it can detect, be it 4G LTE (Long
Term Evolution)or Wi-Fi.
This is the magic that’s got everyone excited, as that
means no more running out of cloud storage space and having to choose between
keeping files or deleting them.
Best of all this feature is automated and free, unlike other
manually-initiated third party cloud storage options for smartphones, such as
OneDrive, Google Drive and even Dropbox's Loom for Apple iPhone users as
reported in my Geezam blog article
entitled “Dropbox
acquires iOS App Loom as it steamrolls towards the launch of its IPO”.
Nextbit Robin
Cloud OS smartphone - Why Motorola, HTC, Xiaomi, Asus, Lenovo and LG will
partner with Google and Microsoft
The promise of this smartphone is what has many excited;
unlimited storage on a smartphone. So no more deleting smartphone apps and other
of your precious content!
Currently most Cloud Storage Service are third party app
that you have to install and pay for storage above 100 GB as detailed in my blog article
entitled “How
to create and manage a 100GB Virtual Cloud Drive including Google Drive and
Dropbox - My 100GB+ Cloud Drive Dream as the popularity of my blogs is Hunger
Games Catching Fire”.
To get that much Cloud Storage, you'd have to pay for it;
the Robin comes with free Cloud Storage built in for free, almost like a Google
Chromebook.
 |
However, due to the ease with this can be done, I'm
surprised that Google hasn't thought of make a Google Chrome OS smartphone as
well. Rest assured other smartphone OEM like Motorola, HTC, Xiaomi, Asus,
Lenovo and LG will easily copy this feature in an alliance with their Google
Drive or Microsoft OneDrive.
But what if the OS was also cloud based as well as I'd
predicted a long time ago in my blog article
entitled “HP
TouchPad a target for Modders - PopCaan Raving Chicken Run Lazarus Effect for
Cloud-Based Chrome OS Tablet”?
That is to say, the entire smartphone's interface was just
one big browser window with Web Apps that would only work on the Internet?
Quite possible, albeit that would mean that the price for 4G LTE would have to
be very low for you not to worry about breaking your Data Cap or the caps would
have to be set very high.
Also it couldn’t be Google Android or Google Chrome OS, which
is already hosted on its own set of Google Servers. This implies a new Cloud
based OS, tailored specifically for smartphones, may be in coming in the future
to create this cloud based smartphone that I’m dreaming and speaking about in
my article.
This may seem far-fetched, but with 5G on the horizon by
2020 as pointed out in my blog article
entitled “ITU
publishes 5G IMT-2020 Roadmap - Why US Telecom Providers, @Digicel_Jamaica and
@LIMEJamaica like to travel off the beaten Path”, Cloud OS for smartphones
and even Tablets may not be too far off in the future.
With Cloud Storage getting cheaper and cheaper, the Nextbit Robin, albeit not a Cloud OS based
smartphone, may be the first step in the direction of this delightful and
elusive Unicorn.
Here’s the Link;
No comments:
Post a Comment