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????手機開發界的兩位傳奇人物——馬特?赫漢森和喬?布里特突然作為Android開發團隊的成員登場。他倆的加盟意味著谷歌（Google）將進行重大變革，這將遠非直板手機和翻蓋手機之間的改變，而是指手機硬件在谷歌的地位將變得和軟件同樣重要。 ????赫漢森和布里特曾是2000年創建Danger公司的三巨頭成員，另一名成員則是如今負責Android的安迪?魯賓。2000年，這三位工程師推出了具有開創性的消費級智能手機，其中包括曾在名流圈中大紅大紫的T-Mobile Sidekick。 ????如今三人組再度聚首。在過去1年里，布里特和赫漢森悄悄加盟谷歌，負責Android內一個名為Android硬件（Android Hardware）的新項目。他們告訴我，自己一直在做東西，這些東西將為Android外圍設備提供設計參考。Android硬件在探索各式各樣的東西，從家庭自動化到鍛煉游戲和機器人，幾乎無所不有。雖然谷歌目前并不打算制造谷歌品牌的Android配件，但布里特表示自己很想看到谷歌將來推出一些自己的Android外設。看來蘋果（Apple）必須小心了。 ????在Danger時，三巨頭決定改變移動產業，他們的想法是讓人們人手一臺微型計算機。于是他們研發出Hiptop手機并被非主流移動運營商Voicestream采用，不過沒多久該公司就被T-Mobile收購。Hiptop更名為Sidekick品牌并贏得廣泛好評，至少在青少年和社會名流這個小眾市場中是如此，這些用戶喜歡用Sidekick的全鍵盤發送短信息，他們終于可以不再帶著自己父親的黑莓手機了。（布里特、魯賓和赫漢森曾講述過Danger早期的故事，如想深入了解這段有趣的歷史，請觀看2004年斯坦福大學一場對話的視頻。） ????隨著Danger的發展，投資者們想物色一名管理者執掌公司，于是魯賓放棄了首席執行官職位。魯賓于2003年離開Danger并創建新公司，Android系統后來即在此誕生。2005年，谷歌收購Android，而魯賓成為谷歌的高級副總裁，是七位直接向首席執行官拉里?佩奇匯報的高管之一。 ????與此同時，布里特和赫漢森則留在Danger繼續工作了好些年，甚至在2008年，Danger被微軟（Microsoft）收購、Sidekick被取消，他們也沒離開。兩人還曾短暫參與過“粉色項目”（ "Pink project"），正是該項目制造出了悲劇而短命的Kin手機（Kin在去年夏天被取消）。在Kin發布后，布里特和赫漢森在同一天雙雙離開微軟。 |
????Matt Hershenson and Joe Britt, two legendary figures in mobile phone development, have suddenly resurfaced as part of the team building Android. Their hiring signals a big change at Google, showing that the company is getting just as serious about the hardware of phones — and this goes well beyond flip vs. candybar -- as it is the software. ????Hershenson and Brit were part of the trio that founded Danger in 2000. The third partner: Android chief Andy Rubin. The three engineers launched pioneering consumer smartphones, like the once-ubiquitous-among-celebrities T-Mobile Sidekick in 2000. ????Now they're back together again. Within the last 12 months, Britt and Hershenson quietly joined Google (GOOG) to run a new wing within Android called Android Hardware. They tell me they spend their days building things that will turn into reference designs for Android peripherals. Android Hardware is exploring everything from home automation to exercise gaming and robotics. While there are no immediate plans to build Google-branded Android hardware accessories, Brit indicated that he would love to see Google introduce some of its own Android peripherals in the long term. The folks in Cupertino (AAPL) have to be paying attention. ????At Danger, the three were determined to change the mobile industry by putting a tiny computer in everyone's hands. They came up with the Hiptop, which was adopted by a renegade mobile carrier Voicestream shortly before that company was bought out by T-Mobile. The Hiptop was rebranded the Sidekick and went on to critical acclaim, at least in its niche of teens and celebrities who loved the ability to text message with a QWERTY keyboard, without having to carry around their father's BlackBerry. [For an interesting and thorough history of the early days of Danger told by Brit, Rubin and Hershenson, have a look at these videos from a 2004 Stanford talk.] ????As Danger grew, investors wanted a manager at the helm, so Rubin relinquished the CEO role. Rubin left Danger in 2003 to form the company that would later become the basis for Android. Google bought Android in 2005, leading to Rubin's role as Senior VP at the company -- one of seven reporting directly to CEO Larry Page -- today. ????Brit and Hershenson, meanwhile, stayed on at Danger for years, even after Microsoft (MSFT) purchased the company in 2008 and went to work killing the Sidekick. They briefly moved into the "Pink project," which produced the ill-fated and short-lived Kin phone (it was killed last summer). After the Kin's introduction, Brit and Hershenson both left Microsoft on the same day. |
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????赫漢森表示，自己當時駕車離開微軟的停車場，隨后直接去了谷歌的44號樓，即谷歌Android團隊所在地。而布里特原計劃“休假一年”，不過他表示通過在谷歌園區吃午餐，了解以前的同事們正在干什么，自己幾個月后就被“引誘”進了谷歌。 ????在谷歌，他們的新職責決定了他們兩人將大部分時間都花在實驗室里，手持烙鐵，設計新產品和新方案。換句話說，他們又回到2000年時創建Danger的時代——在租來的辦公室里和魯賓一道對著機器修修補補。 ????只不過現在是2011年。智能手機成為了主流而且地位極其尊崇，不再只是說唱歌手以及帕里斯?希爾頓口袋里的潮物。 ????而且和Danger不一樣的是，布里特和赫漢森現在加盟的是一家科技巨頭，而非新創企業。Android在市場份額上甚至即將超過iPhone。正是這點吸引了Danger的創建者們再次聚首，他們的目標是將自己想展示的硬件和功能帶到新的Android設備中。對于谷歌而言，僅僅向運營商提供Android軟件是不夠的，如今它還希望能影響手機制造商們打造產品。 ????Android硬件團隊所設計的新的原型設備可能到達數億用戶手中，甚至可能贏得數十億用戶。而這一切正是魯賓和Danger員工們一直夢寐以求的。 ????有一件事大家可能感興趣：布里特和赫漢森都在使用谷歌Nexus S手機，盡管他們都嘗試過新的Android Sidekick手機并且很喜歡它的鍵盤，新的Sidekick仍然保持著2000年左右的原型機的風格。 ????譯者：項航 |
????The way Hershenson tells the tale, he drove almost directly out of Microsoft's parking lot and over to Google's Building 44, home of the Android team. Brit wanted to take "a year off", but says he was lured into Google within months by having lunches at the Google campus and learning what his former colleagues were up to. ????At Google, their new roles dictate that the pair spend most of the time in labs, soldering irons in hand, engineering new products and product uses. In other words, they are back to a version of the rented office space they were tinkering around on robots in with Rubin when they launched Danger back in 2000. ????Except today, it's 2011. Smartphones are mainstream and supremely powerful -- it's not just rappers and Paris Hilton who carry around the state-of-the-art in their pockets. ????And unlike with Danger, Britt and Hershenson are involved with a goliath, not an up-and-comer. Android is turning out to be bigger than even the iPhone in terms of market share. That scale is what attracted and the former Danger founders to get the band back together, with their goal being to build the hardware and features they want to see show up in new Android devices. It's not enough for Google to just provide Android software to carrier -- now they hope to influence what handset makers build, too. ????The new prototypes the team engineers at Android Hardware could end up in the hands of hundreds of millions, if not billions of people, which, after all, is what Rubin and the Danger crew were shooting for all along. ????In case you were wondering: Brit and Hershenson both carry around Google Nexus S phones, though they've tried the new Android Sidekick and love the keyboard, which stayed true to its circa-2000 origins. |
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