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Robot-Man Behind Google Phone

Engineer Andy Rubin: Gadget fanatic, longtime smartphone innovator

By Jane Yager,  Newser Staff

Posted Nov 4, 2007 11:33 AM CST
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(Newser) – The man behind the Google Phone is gadget guru Andy Rubin, a robotics fanatic whose love of cutting-edge toys puts him at odds with the Google anti-conspicuous-consumption ethos. A Times profile finds Rubin at home in a palace of technology, with a retinal scanner at the door and a robotic arm that rings the doorbell. Ironically, Google itself isn't making any such hardware for phones, just software other companies will use.

Before designing the much-anticipated Google Phone, Rubin, 44, developed the first smartphone, the commercially unsuccessful 2002 Sidekick.  Rubin is now 'director of platforms' for Google; the phone that will take the next step in morphing the cellphone into a mobile computer lies in his hands. 'I want to find something that delights people so they use it,' Rubin says.

Visitors look at an information screen at the Google Book Search stand at the International Frankfurt Book Fair 'Frankfurter Buchmesse' in Frankfurt, Germany, Thursday, Oct. 11, 2007. The world's largest book fair with this year's focal theme on Catalan Culture is open to the public from Oct. 10 to 14,...
Visitors look at an information screen at the Google Book Search stand at the International Frankfurt Book Fair 'Frankfurter Buchmesse' in Frankfurt, Germany, Thursday, Oct. 11, 2007. The world's largest...   (Associated Press)
A visitor passes an exhibition stand of Google company in Duesseldorf, western Germany, in this Sept. 25, 2007 file photo. Google Inc.'s stock price barreled through $700 for the first time Wednesday, propelled by a belief that the Internet search leader will become even more profitable as it plants...
A visitor passes an exhibition stand of Google company in Duesseldorf, western Germany, in this Sept. 25, 2007 file photo. Google Inc.'s stock price barreled through $700 for the first time Wednesday,...   (Associated Press)
An employee steers his scooter along a corridor of the new Google office in Munich, southern Germany on Oct. 16, 2007. Google Inc.'s stock price barreled through $700 for the first time Wednesday, propelled by a belief that the Internet search leader will become even more profitable as it...
An employee steers his scooter along a corridor of the new Google office in Munich, southern Germany on Oct. 16, 2007. Google Inc.'s stock price barreled through $700 for the first time Wednesday, propelled...   (Associated Press)
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