Gadgetory

hey guys we're here at CES 2016 and i'm here with spot coil from next bit one of the coolest products to come out a kickstarter last year and pretty much in my opinion ever we've already gone hands-on with the next bit Robin last year at September but what we've got here is a much more working model as well as a new color and Scott's going to talk us through some of the improvements has happened since our initial hands-on and then i'll give you some of my opinions and we'll just have a conversation about where next bits going from here cool thank you for coming down and them yeah we had obviously came I came and saw you guys here in Vegas in September yep it was really the one changed since then what's changed and what's been improved what kind of growing pains have you had in the last few months well you know I mean product development it's messy it's the reality and so when we because we did Kickstarter all that's been kind of exposed to people not only to you but to kind of people out there in the world and so you know we had phones in September when we met and they were okay quality but the whole goal between September and now and we're basically about ready to ship is kind of dialing everything in making sure that the gaps between the parts making sure that that are perfect making sure that the machining is looking right making sure that the paint finishes a ride that's on the hardware side and then on though and then on the software side you know what you saw were kind of early prototypes I'm yes it was working kind of you know what I mean so we had kind of high confidence level but now what you're looking at is a phone where where it's kind of starting all get dialed in you know the the the I use one is my daily driver now every day and it's terrific you know but we're filing bugs every day I'm kind of what that's like to kind of live with the phone living the you know making sure not only the kind of core functionality of the software is there but also kind of our enhanced cloud functionality I kind of allowing everybody to not run out of space on their phone kind of bringing that kind of cloud first approach to the operating system I mean that was one of probably my favorite things about the next bit Robin is that where others have just gone oh here's microSD we've tried to take you taking the approach in a completely different way of how do we just be different and that's what you have said the Robin and the next big cloud is where is what really sets the phone apart jab a quick play and I mean when I saw this in September it was we agree was not a janky was an early prototype shafi but broke one that I hope people don't know that you broke one actually diary yes I think we can admit this in this video I was a we're still here talking to us but yes I managed to break one of their what happens with early prototype see the reality is that you like you discover like oh we did this oh there's a problem let's figure out a mechanical engineering fix for that or there's a doubly fix for that or a software fix for that so that's rather I broke it then we found out later on and I will say one thing right down to the hardware just this feels a lot more like I said a there were early prototypes it was the build was there but it was it was ok what we've got here now is a fun I think anyone would be happy to use i will say that just playing with the phone itself like this it's so snappy which wasn't there before and I'm really happy I know guess what is now any app can we use with the cloud right so we can just up no thing do it anymore information you want to reveal about the cloud and the pricing or anything like that well I don't think is any new information it is available for pre-order now for 399 us we're gonna stop pre-orders on january fifteenth and that's mainly because when we actually ship both the kickstarter units which are all going out in February as well as pre-orders we're gonna have limited quantity just kind of coming up the production ramp so that's so we're going to end that this pre orders in a january fifteenth and i think the goal there is actually deliver all kind of kick starter units and pre-orders in the month of februari our retail store our e-commerce store will go live also on February's 16 so we're excited about that and it'll be lots more information about robin and next bit on there as well as forums kind of launching the forums and moving that kind of dialogue from Kickstarter onto our website but then also kind of having that dialogue where people want to have it whether it's on social the forums or wherever you want to make sure people have a lot of avenues to kind of ask us questions and have a conversation about what we're doing and that's really what's that you guys apart it's not just the here's a phone and there's no often sells it really is kind of just we want to bring people into the next bit ecosystem and make people happy yeah I think you know I think it really came from this kind of concept well if we had already started the phone we were talking about our brand to be and feel like the industrial design is fresh we've taken kind of a disruptive approach of baking the cloud in the operating system and we're kinda like you know we want something that kind of feels more i think if i look at traditional marketing you know pretty person holds phone on the stage we film them we all watch that video like oh I can be pretty or I'll hang out with those people I'm going to go buy that phone we just feel like that's I don't know it just feels like BS to be honest with you doesn't feel like vintage and so we wanted to create something that really reflected the values of us as a person of people which translate in the company and I think that means having some transparency and having an open dialogue with people and having you know getting their feedback and understanding what they want us to do not to say we're always going to be able to do that but but I think people want to have a say in what we're doing I think you could see that on a kickstarter you know we have like 10 times the engagement of the other top 25 tech products on kickstarter which was powerful its powerful just kind of seeing people and the one always good by the way its people are telling us like you know you guys have you need to do this you need do that but it was super super fun to kind of be a part of that process and we learned so much from it I agree completely i mean just on the subject of kickstarter because we've obviously seen before that we've got the available in these two colors which i saw and then there's really really cool I mean I wish I big back this on Kickstarter want this color you can get it you can't get it there you go guys I on I've missed out there any of you want to send us over to me feel free because this is probably one of the favorite my favorite color of the lot although you can get it in these to the kickstarter exclusive color you guys allowed kick-started to choose this color base that's right that's right so we basically asked people to submit what they wanted we put a file out there so people could do in their own colorway we've got something like 350 entries and then we try to look for some trends sign of some common ground between the entries basically picked five and then people voted on which one they want to see an electric was the one I mean it is pretty hot it all of this ice is like and the other colors are really really nice and I mean I personally would say cause I can't get the kickstart one the gray is just screamed out the other night and it the thing that set to pop more than anything is it's just got the other color button on there just just just just fall that's right just going to be different it's like a little subtle color reading a little pop into the world yeah and that's exactly what you need em so tell us what was the inspiration behind the design of this and write down to you know as I said in our hands on we've gone it's also kind of gone circle around the front and the back which I remember you telling me about yeah what was the design behind that white why go with that and not say rounded curves and the things that the the more traditional design that we see now sure you know worked on a lot of phones in my life and you know there's a lot of different kind of voices and input on in the design process not that it's bad it just it kind of leads to kind of a lot of different value kind of conversations and kind of what you want to do so with this particular design I just wanted to do something a little bit more personal so if that kind of reflected kind of my value set and I think the hope there it's not that my advice is the best phone after but the hope was that you know hopefully there's enough common ground there with people that are there going to be potentially buying our phone are going to like it and that's the hope and I think that's kind of it's one of the things about I think good design should be provocative and that's what I want to do you know I look at like iphone and every android phone we've put them out here on the table not a lot of standing out and so I wanted something that kind of was remarkable that kind of stood out I'm memorable but I also still wanted it to be premium and so so I think you know any one of the iconic for just like onyx saving I don't want to be uncomfortable in the hand I don't want to be hard to use and I want to be robust and I still want to find premium so so really the the premium nature of Robin comes from kind of reduction of detail and the kind of just the honesty and transparency about the design you know like the way we do the dual front-facing speakers there's just a soft depression the Machine holes it's beautiful but then all of a sudden you start to see this repeated sir a circle motif where the front-facing sensors just honest but I try and hide them behind the black piece of glass like you know what we've done in the past or a lot of people do in the past it's just treated very honestly you come over the sides of the volume buttons just very straightforward the design and then again you see the circle motif on the back where again the camera and flash we to try to make the flash as small as possible we just want something that was simple some of them was clean and something was modern and so we chose the same size and all of a sudden you start to see the kind of stuff to see all these details come together to create something that actually actually has a lot of personality well it's let's be fair with all the circle motifs it is you it's it's not there's no one else really doing some people just circle in one part but you guys have said you're the only ones doing circle you started with one you started with two and then suddenly it became almost a kind of synonymous with the Robin grab it's all about the circles it's all about just being is completely different as you can be like you said it's almost like a it's like a little naiveté or a little playfulness on it because like if I were to describe to you that hey you know we designed a phone it's a box you'd be like okay number one boring number two kind of sounds kind of serious and so it needed you know I needed some lightness in the design and so that's where the circles kind of came from they kind of bring that kind of friendliness and lightness to the design I mean it's it's absolutely awesome just even the hardware like I said did I've obviously been quite lucky to be able to see the the transition and the development of it from the very early in September to even last month when we were in London pretty scary isn't it it's difficult for me to say just how much it has improved but it is massively mean if you watched our hands on it was kind of it was there but it was yeah we could see it was still a while away what we've got here is actually a phone that you said you use it as your personal driver I know you've got something that was together and I actually like the fact that we've seen you know the default apps that you guys have got it the circle motif continues through the UI it's almost like if you could design this as a circle you would wouldn't you tomato self so I don't think so that doesn't sound very usable I want to square a screen because that's the type of content that I use so but no I mean I think that I think you're thinking is right is that you know we just wanted something that we're kind of all like we strike in the cord on a lot of different places down from here down to the packaging you know like all these kind of conversations around the product and the brand first of all it's easier to do to be super honest I'd as a startup company if you're kind of paying attention that details there's less noise there's less things that you're dealing with but it's an opportunity to kind of start from scratch on something that's been for me that's been one of the kind of coolest things about being a next bit is that you know I've learned so much just in the the last 18 months and I've been around for a long time so that that's been super powerful and it's been super fun you know like being a part of that and by the way just one other thing when we were looking at those early prototypes I have to say you know I look cash like oh we got all that nail down it's always like a tightrope you know I love a product of Elam I love kind of working on this stuff but you know like even on those early days you're never for sure that hey we're going to get all this stuff nailed you just have to have confidence you've got a great team then you just gotta drive drive drive and kind of you know make sure that we're held accountable because we you know what he's gonna hold us accountable people that are buying this phone so I completely agree i'm like i said it you've nailed it you actually it's like whether there wasn't he done let's get a review unit in your hands i agree i think we should every do that but one of the things that one of our users said was we've saved four so far we've seen the demos of the next week we've seen so far really only been the gallery that's been backed up to the cloud and back and maybe spotify so you want to maybe just show a couple of the a couple of other apps just so you can see that it is just he's pretty much any app on the phone is now available to go to the cloud yeah sure so I but would you ever go to the screen here alright so so I think with the way this phone is configured right now is we basically just forced a bunch of apps to offload and the algorithm though for for consumers is is it's basically a simple q and so as you start installing apps you start taking photos we start backing that stuff up to the cloud but by default we do it when you're plugged in on Wi-Fi so there's no extra battery drain the toad data consumption and then as you've used the phone for six months or nine months a simple q kind of gets developed if you use a nap it goes to the back of the queue if you look at a photo goes to the back of the queue and so what bubbles up are the things that you're the least likely to open so for example if I come over here and I'm like you know what I actually have an open pandora in a while I can just tap this now it's restoring Pandora so what's happening is it's pulling the app back down from the cloud and once it gets pulled back down it'll install it it'll hook back up their credentials and app data which are on the phone and once we launch that you can see it's that dot actually shows that it's actually doing the installation process now once we launch it all your radio stations will be there so it's like it's never been removed once it's been restored but it's just it's great to it's a great way like you said one of the that got from personally for me about the Robin was that case scenario being at a festival or something where you're you're struggling you've got no extra storage you run out of space this is what you need is something that just you can just almost take stuff out the phone that you don't need to make sure you have enough space to capture those memories without having to sit there for hours sort through the gallery and then have to and then have to deal with all of that's right and by the way when you get that message first of all you've missed that moment it's gone and it's never going to come back again and then you've actually got to go delete stuff on the fly and figure out okay I'm not going to open that up again which app should I can remove we don't think that with the power the resources the cloud you should actually have to do that you shouldn't have to make that yes you're going to want to clean out your phone at some point but when you're on the flying you're in that moment that should not be the case completely agree so so here pandora is actually downloaded so I'm just gonna launch Pandora it's working guys it's right this is just any pretty much any app on your phone that you don't need it's greatly it's about all these these radio stations that's off and run it so it's already been logged back in just let's go away from the Robin for a second let's just talk about next week because we obviously professed for time but how many devices did we get it just took numbers Kickstarter and pre-orders what was the total figures if they don't know I don't remember I think they have about 3,600 backers on Kickstarter we're not announcing the numbers on pre-orders but I'd have to go back and actually get the number actually number device i think it's around 3500 or something like that close devices and then the last question i have for you is because everyone wants to know we've got this amazing product what's next from next bit thanks to you knew we would offer special smokable well look I think we have first of all we've heard from the community a lot of things like they like the community asked us for a cdma skew so we're working super hard to try to get that they asked us to cipa to Australia so we've added that in from a software perspective you know we've heard stuff like I want my photos to be better i went battery life to be better i want the setup of my next phone to be easier so there's lots of things I think that we can use the cloud to kind of enhance each one of these areas so yeah we've got a we've got to get this out the door and then then we can start focusing on some of those next those next features by the way we have also we do have some kind of things that we're working on that which will come q late q1 early q2 like support video support so right now we do photos and apps will add in video support pretty pretty shortly thereafter and then also the ability to look at your photos in on another platform through a web browser so we're working on we're working on those things already awesome and yeah well thank you very much for coming down and giving us another look at the robin but not just the robin that i've seen but the robin that's the actual robin the air actually go down people really get I never says anything guys it's a lot smoother and it's a lot nicer than it was in September even in December that I can personally say having seen this the sheer amount of growth in the development of this means that not only will is a fun great as it is now but we know that the future that you work hard on development on product development I really make sure that the user experience remains premium at all the time yeah I think that's the help right and I will say if you don't have one already I really like the Robin purposely wait for my review unit stop all right absolutely have thank you very much Scott thanks very much Scott coil for coming down having chat to us about the Robin it's a really good product and like I said you'll be able to see this and see some of the footage with the new version just the improvement in the performance stay tuned to android authority calm because we are your source for all things android and we're here live from CES 2016 until next time