The Man Behind the Google Phone

The New York Times is running a background piece on Andy Rubin, Google's 'gadget geek', and the newly re-opened battlefield of the cell-phone market. There is some discussion of a conflict with Apple, of course, but primarily the article focuses on the Rubin's past. They do so by exploring the storied connection between computer makers, the internet, and the humble cellphone: " Mr. Rubin may be one of the clearest links between the computing industry's recent past and its rapidly emerging future -- and the embodiment of how Google hopes to bridge the two realms. In the spring of 2002, the Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page began sporting flashy smartphones on their belts that could gain access to the Internet and their popular search engine wherever they roamed. With a switchblade-style flip-out screen revealing a tiny keyboard, the phone, known as the Sidekick, became a fashion accoutrement for urban hipsters and Silicon Valley's digerati. More versatile than e-mail-centric BlackBerrys, it was one of the first smartphones to seamlessly integrate the Web, instant messaging, mail and other PC applications."