Robin is born
over 8 years ago – Thu, Nov 19, 2015 at 10:54:06 PM

Today is day 1

Mike stayed up to the wee hours of the morning to get our dogfood ROM running on Robin. This is the first time we can run the Marshmallow ROM on our own hardware instead of Nexus 5s. Everyone is so excited at the prospect of being able to carry around a Robin to put it through real world testing. There's flashing stations all around Rebel base SF as we load up every EVT (prototype) phone we can get our hands on. We grabbed the first one right out of Mike's hand and made a little movie of it for you:

Ohhh Shiny

Meanwhile Harold just got the cloud activity lights on the back of Robin working, so we wanted to show you that too. It's very soothing, even mesmerizing to watch.

Blue vs Grey

There was a strong reaction to the final Midnight color selection. During the Kickstarter campaign, many backers objected to how blue the midnight colorway was. We heard your reaction and took your advice, making midnight more grey. To remind you what the previous (blue) midnight looked like (old on left, new on right):

Final Colors. Finally!
over 8 years ago – Wed, Nov 18, 2015 at 11:02:59 PM

Saro is back from China, and he brought final phone bodies with him. Which means we can finally show you exactly what the three colorways are like. We had to play with it a little, but we found a way to arrange the three so you can compare the grey of midnight to the black of electric while comparing the blue of electric to the green of mint. We got the lighting just right so it's the most accurate representation of color in natural light. Are you ready? Feast your eyes on this:

Sorry we held off on this update for so long. We were hoping to have a special surprise for you today but unfortunately Mike's computer can't compute fast enough for my deadlines.

Robin (and Nextbit) around the world
over 8 years ago – Tue, Nov 10, 2015 at 09:50:40 PM

Come meet Robin

We’re hosting a series of evening meet ups in the next few weeks in more exciting places (well, exciting for us. You just call it home.) Come meet Nextbit, have a chat and spend some time with Robin. Drinks are on us.

• San Francisco. November 19 at Accel Partners SOMA
• London. November 30 at Graphic Bar
• Paris. December 2 at Sherry Butt
• Berlin. December 3 at John Muir

Watch Twitter and Facebook for invitations to each event. We can’t wait to meet more rebels!

What’s up with Robin?

Scott was in Taiwan, and now Saro is in China resolving the final design and color issues. Last minute developments: many of you were concerned that Midnight was too blue. In response, it has been desaturated so it is clearly more grey in all light conditions but still has a blue / purple tint. Electric looks amazing. Mint has always been amazing but seeing the final version got us excited all over again. You’ll see lots of pictures next week. But to hold you over…

One other change to come from their trips is that the back is now all plastic, instead of plastic infused metal as you were told during the Kickstarter. We did this because it improves the smoothness of the large back surface and the fit and finish of the edges.

Shankar and Mike have been working on porting our Marshmallow dogfood build from the Nexus 5 to the actual Robin hardware, as well as camera tuning and speaker tuning.

The engineering team is making improvements and squashing bugs in the smart storage solution. While the design team is focusing on getting the camera and the first run experience just right.

And the rest of us are sweating day and night to come up with the best ways to share Robin with the big world out there.

Oh and our awesome friends at Dead Zebra delivered the samples of the sheep mascot and we all squealed with delight.

Keep grinding, Rebels!

Ringtones and surveys
over 8 years ago – Wed, Oct 28, 2015 at 12:26:02 AM

We had a great time meeting fans, backers, and new faces at the Big Android BBQ last week. Now we’re back in SF just in time to announce Ringtone Remix winners (yes, there’s more than one).

Christopher Schmidt starts with some subtle clicks and claps over the original ringtone, but if you let Robin keep ringing, he treats you to a wonderful spacey tune. 

Antonio Raele used his talents to turn the ringtone into a booty-shaking house anthem that we can’t believe. We’re astounded that he found a dance tune in our ringtone. 

Niko Korolog created an ethereal melody that Jad Abumrad or Gary Numan would love over a chopped version of the ringtone. This ring will transport you to your happy place. 

Each of these remixes will be included in the Robin ROM and the composers will each receive a free Robin to show off their work.

Survey update

Wow. You must be really excited for your Robins, in just one week 80% of you have already filled out your backer surveys and chosen your phones and other accessories. If you’re having trouble making up your mind, or just want to know how your choices compare to everyone else’s, here’s a few charts to show you what your fellow rebels are picking.

If you’re second guessing your choices, you still have plenty of time to change your mind. You can enter your email address here to re-send your survey. Then you can edit your choices, add/remove add-ons, and even change your shipping information until we need it finalized on Backerkit!  

Tom and Scott are in Taiwan this week, we’re hoping they bring back good news and pictures for next week’s update.

Backer surveys are going out now!
over 8 years ago – Tue, Oct 20, 2015 at 12:03:26 AM

We probably shouldn't be this excited to see your responses, but we are. We can't wait. Tell us what you picked!