Android Vision Abandoned! (Pixel Fold et al)
It's an old, old story, of course. Boy meets girl, no wait... the OTHER old, old story. Android device manufacturer has a vision produces a genuinely different, stunning piece of hardware, then gets swayed by misguided user complaints that "it's not close enough to all the boring stuff that's available elsewhere" and so compromises its vision in a redesigned version 2 that's nowhere near as 'pure' as the original. And, as a result, often gets abandoned or forgotten. I have some examples. I'll go chronologically. You may not have heard of the Planet Computers Gemini - an Android-powered landscape-first QWERTY clamshell phone that was simply stunning - I reviewed it here in Phone Show 340, so do go watch: Yes this was a full smartphone, despite not having an outside display - a system of LEDs told you who was calling. If ever that happened - 99% of my device use these days doesn't involve phone calls! The Gemini was opened for almost everything...