I don’t think Ulf Washbusch, until recently a Product Marketing Manager for Google Mobile, should be expecting to get his old job back after yesterday’s comments on the new Android phone.
In a blog post he says the phone’s physical design hasn’t changed in 2.5 years, and calls it ugly and old fashioned. He also criticizes the color choices:
It’s funny – but the first time I heard about Android was about 2.5 years ago, when Eric Schmidt told me about the device at Stanford after I got a job offer from Google (yet before I accepted it!). Since then I have seen many iterations of the software. The software. Not the device itself, because sadly it hasn’t changed in many years. The reason many people see the phone as ugly and old-fashioned is simply… because it IS! It’s a design unchanged for at least two years, without iterations on it besides color schemas (it’s now available in Zune-brown along with white and black) and the silly ‘with Google’ description on the back. Don’t ask me what ‘with Google’ means. I didn’t understand it back then and still don’t understand it today.
Ulf adds more thoughts on his Facebook profile: “Ulf is disappointed but not surprised about the ‘G1′. Where’s the cheap data plan? Where do I plug in my headphones? No video player? How do I get contacts in it?”
He’s now working at MySpace, where he says he runs their mobile product operations. My guess is MySpace won’t be thrilled with the blog post, given how cozy they’ve been with Google since joining the Open Social coalition a year ago.
I’d also be surprised if Ulf is correct that the phone itself hasn’t changed in 2.5 years, which predates the first launch of the iPhone. Did it really have a touchscreen then? And a compass, accelerometer and GPS?
Dude the name of the product is “Android”, of course it blows
What were the names they turned down… “The Vulcan”, “Optimus Prime”, “Talkinator”, “Androgynous”, “Hal 9000″
as my dad says, they should give the guy who named the phone a “shit medal”
nice. I agree, Optimus Prime would be a much better name.
Probably not the smartest move to name it after a transformer.
At the hardware level, i think Ulf underestimates the importance of the ‘compass mode’ on the G1. this is precisely what will allow true AUGMENTED REALITY applications to be developed.
Some japanese demonstrated at TC50 what future could be like with augmented reality on iPhone, but forgot to mention the iPhone DOES NOT have a compass. That’s everyone at Techcrunch said their demo is a fake. Their application, on the other hand, could be easily developed on Android. http://www.yout...h?v=KgTwSXK_5dg
But you know what? Actually someone has already developped something like that for Android. The company is called Enkin. A team of 2 german geeks.
Check this out: http://www.enkin.net if you really want to see what future holds.
The difference is that Enkin has a WORKING PRODUCT and it’s a true revolution. Google is in discussion to buy their company. Just imagine the possibilities for Google: create something similar to AdWords but in real life: businesses would pay to have promotions and ads displayed in real time on your phone through augmented reality with the G1. And this will come sooner than you think.
Ulf did no such thing. If you’d bothered to read the article that Michael linked to, rather than swallowing his spin whole, you’d have seen that. The only thing he’s criticizing is the *styling*; he specifically says that the hardware is pretty up to date, certainly better than the iPhone.
http://www.shan...81108/5820.html
Android G2?
Concerning the design of the physical device, damn ugly it is indeed… Expected other things, considering the current design standards set by The iPhone.
wait till LG or Samsung launch their Android Phone
if you slapped android on an iphone it would still be ugly, and that doesn’t include the physical keyboard that makes all phones 20x uglier. if you want a functional business phone that’s fine, but the current iteration of android will never be on a good-looking phone. rim has been trying forever, but their phones look like crap compared the iphone.
apple has savvy consumers, windows & rim have corporate america. who is google targeting? slashdot readers?
True, it’s got a really dated design – it’s a glorified XDA with a different OS – but Hey! At least it’s got a nipple.
So, How Google is going to take advantage of this…
Dealing with hardware is very complex. Making tiny changes can delay your launch for another year or so. Google is a software company and probably wants to focus on creating a great OS and let manufacturers do what they do best. The next wave of phones will be much nicer and easy to use.
Isn’t the whole point of android that it can run on all sorts of different hardware. Thus, why couldn’t have they shopped around for other phones to launch it on. For example, the HTC touch Cruise is a hell of a lot better looking than the dream.
Ulf is absolutely right, the hw itself is rather old. Why can Apple design a nice handheld but Google who’s operating war chest is much bigger can’t? Why don’t they listen to the mobile geeks?
Google learn the lesson: The iPhone was brought to the masses thanks to geeky early adopters. Design something beautiful that geeks please.
One of the reasons is the fact that Apple controls both the hardware and the software. Google doesn’t have full control over either.
uh, I think the point is that they COULD if they wanted to. Their pockets are certainly deep enough (both cash and intellectual/human capital).
Somehow, it doesn’t look ugly to me. It looks more like a phone than a shiny new toy. What would a well designed G1 look like anyway?
Why hasn’t anybody noted that Android is a phone OS and that the G1 is just one incarnation on one device, with many to follow? The hardware is not Google’s responsibility and we will probably see better embodiments in the future.
Granted, since it’s the first of its kind, many will see the hardware as a representation of the software and in this sense it is a PR issue, but the new devices should ease this misperception.
It takes some time to develop a product before it hits the market. Two years is a normal timespan for such a device. You really think that electronic devices get designed in a couple of months and then hit the market? Even the today’s new cars are YEARS *old*.
I would be a lot more critical of the hardware if this were an Apple product and I knew there’d be nothing else until the next iteration. But isn’t the whole point of Android to be an open platform and enable a lot of different devices? I think the main thing the G1 has to accomplish is to show that Android is ready for prime time and that other handset makers can really rely on it. So it’s probably a good idea to be conservative with the first hardware design, which helps to ensure the stability of the software. As long as the software platform proves to be solid, the fact that the first phone is imperfect may even help to spur the introduction of better handsets. It’s a good way to get the likes of LG to look at this phone and say, we can do a real iPhone killer with our better hardware and Android.
What the hell!! Android is a platform to create mobile applications that transcend the complexities created by mobile manufacturers..
I cant understand why people don’t get it? And what has google got to do with the hardware design!?
Unfair .. Unfair!
Dude, Then why’d you run the article. Were you just trying to embarrass one person? Seems a little below Techcrunch!!
well, he did publish it on his blog and on facebook, so I don’t think he’s trying to keep it quiet. dude.
Michael – I should have prefaced my comments more with what I had in mind. I did NOT want to criticize the Android OS itself, which in fact you will see I am quite a fan of in my next posts. Compared to other HTC devices (such as the Touch or Touch HD) and competitive devices, such as the iPhone I believe the look of the G1 Hardware is somewhat…well…dated. That’s all.
I realize that product cycles take many years and I realize that future Android devices will certainly come in more interesting form factors. Again – I wish the whole team that worked hard on this best of luck.
Somehow I find it strange that I am being described as the ‘Anti-Googler’ now who hates Android or Google for that matter. Both are far from true and I wish you had formulated your article differently or ran it by me for a fact check.
Ulf, fact checks and Arrington: not possible.
“This is *my* blog, *my* opinions and *I* rule”…
Arringtonated: An act of posting an opinion on a company, site or blog by Michael Arrington without fact check or running it by the original poster. Generally observed on TechCrunch.com when Michael is working more than 48 hours without sleep and is high on Red Bull.
Usage: Holy shit dude.. my last blog just got arringtonated and I’m really pissed off.
err, you mean I should have called you to see if you really wrote the blog post I was commenting on? You have a voice, you used it. I commented on that. This isn’t 1970. And your facebook status message made it quite clear what your intended context was.
So the Android Phone is ugly, big deal, how many cellular devices have been brought to the market whose design was butt ugly, like a thousand?
People assoicate this “Android Phone” so much with the damn iPhone its ridiculous, just wait another year and lets see if Companys like Samsung or Motorola can come up with a decent design thats NOT a plain rip-off from the iPhone. But right now everybody seems to want exactly that, imagine if it would have a Touch Screen Keyboard, “Total Ripoff”-Blogs all over the place would occur, prove me wrong.
I personally dont think its that ugly actually, its missing some “Soul” like some people stated but i guess a White One with some cool Graffitti Designs on the back would suit me just fine, freely hacking around with the Appearance included, to me the Message is more “Have a phone thats very personal in Usage and Appearance” instead of “Get the latest, slickest designed fortune eating piece thats gonna be old in 3 Months anyway”. No Pun intended, the iPhone IS and will be cool as hell, but the market isnt just Apple and everybody has to take steps forward, and a little step is better than nothing IMHO.
And for the “How do i get my Contacts on it?”. Id guess youd move over the vCards or whatever from your PC after you connected the Phone to your Network?
I guess the biggest mistake they made is the lack of an earpiece connector ( if i didnt misread that info ), that could actually kill that phone, whod want a Phone with Media Capabilities if i cannot even watch/listen in public with some headphones? Please tell me i got that part wrong!
i admit it – i was wrong. bigtime. i thought andy rubin would have something to show us – but that thing is a total piece of shit. no audio jack? hilarious. no video? two-year plans? wow. iphone users everywhere breathed a huge sigh of relief today.
I’m a little confused where this comment came from:
“I’d also be surprised if Ulf is correct that the phone itself hasn’t changed in 2.5 years, which predates the first launch of the iPhone. Did it really have a touchscreen then? And a compass, accelerometer and GPS?”
considering that Ulf did specify that the hardware did not change, just the software. Then add in
“The reason many people see the phone as ugly and old-fashioned is simply… because it IS!”
it seems quite obvious that he’s talking about the look and feel of the device rather than how powerful it is and what it’s potential is.
Umang – you completely got it. I think my little post was taken completely out of context. I just personally don’t like the ‘look’ of the device. I did not mention anything about the hardware itself (which surely has evolved) nor the Android OS (which I a quite a fan of).
For Michael to take me and pronounce me the Anti-Googler now is sad to see because that was not my intention at all.
Not so ugly, but it looks fragile when closed
Maybe the accelerometer app will be a hit
He talks a lot about the phone itself, but Google is developing Android not the phone?
That’s correct. I was talking only about the looks of the device, which I highly doubt was even designed by Google. I don’t know why I am now being portrayed as the disgruntled ex-employee that I am not. I think Android (the OS!) is great and even the hardware is quite promising.
android is cool but way too many ways to navigate. With keyboard, the joy stick, touch screen. And no standards for buttons or ui. So only geeks will love it and use it unlike the iPhone which can be easily used by a novoice.
So it’s not just the device the UI also has issue. Now I know why apple didn’t put a keyboard on iPhone. There is no way to make it look cool and still keep clean ui and user experience.
the keyboard will allow playing FPS games.
This guy is a nobody. Product marketing is a joke at Google and this loser was there for all of a few months. He is hardly qualified to judge a dog show.
What makes you say so? The guy is ultra bright, he probably grasps things much faster than the Google old-timers who don’t give a jack about whether Google succeeds with Android.
PM is not a joke at Google; you got this totally wrong…
Come on, there has to be a headphone/headset jack. Even the old Motorolas from the 90s had that. Maybe it’s a 2.5mm instead of 3.5mm.
I think the points about the G1 being T-Mobile/HTC’s responsibility rather than Google’s are fair. There’ll be slinkier Android phones along in a few months I’m sure.
But the fact that the G1 is THE launch Android handset was surely more under Google’s control – I’d be interested to know if they had the option to go with different designs from any other vendors.
Google would have known that the G1’s specs and design would send out a strong message about Android – however misleading that is…
yawn…who cares what a former employee, now disgruntled, has to say?
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!
THAT PHONE IS HIDEOUS.
I WOULD SLAP SOMEONE IF THEY GAVE ME THAT.
IPHONE IS SH*TTING ON THAT.
I like his quote at the bottom of his blog:
“No matter what you do – never forget the people affected by your actions”
If we’re talking looks alone, I’m really impressed with its design. It’s surprising that so many comments take issue with it. It looks heavy duty, powerful, and completely functional. It actually looks like a business device or a good piece of sleek military equipment. …Much better than some flashy/shiny shell. But a modest percentage of the public sure likes their sparkly objects, so you can’t please everyone.
Like someone said: it actually looks like a serious phone too with that bottom angle, as opposed to just an awkward-looking rectangle (iPhone), when held to the head. The G1 will do well. I know I’m not alone in my views.
you’re right, iPhone looks gay.
yeah, that’s what I want….my phone to look like a piece of military equipment.
If people liked heavy pieces of military equipment, they would still be carrying the old Motorola brick phones.
Regarding the contacts, well I guess you will be able to somehow use your Gmail contacts. Most people aren’t aware of it, but Gmail has a contact management feature. Also, it’s Android, there will be dozens of contact management apps (web-based, desktop, integrated into other apps), that’s the whole point of the phone. It might not have everything out of the box, but there will be an app for it, and unlike Apple nobody is going to control what can be released or not. So, yeah, somebody can create an Itunes plugin for that matter to move your music to the phone and manage contacts I am guessing…. not?
yeah, the design … scale 1-100, I give it a 3. look cheap! seriously, give me 5 me min, i can come up with a way better one.
what’s the h…ck? where all the fr…ken designer at Google & T mobile? … i thought they have a thousand of them. putting out something like this to the market is way too underming years of effort they’ve put on Adroid.
G1 is the phone that has the “software” … but can’t speak for itself. “Don’t judge me by my cover!!!!!!!!!!!” will be their slogan. hahaha, i like that one!
Yeah! May be the designed is old fashion, but the technology it self is up to date…
Doesn’t make sense right…
when we talking about the gadget, it’s depend on individual basis
Am I the only person that thinks the design is fine? It’s just what I want — physical keyboard, good-sized screen. I like the iPhone interface, but I think I like this one even better. And while more or better colors would be nice, that really doesn’t matter much to me. I think it looks good and very usable, and usability is the bottom line for me.
It seems maybe a little large, but I’d definitely want to play with it before making too many judgements. I waited a year for the second generation of the iPhone to roll out, so if I were to look into that phone (assuming it comes to AT&T in the future), I’d probably do the same. Of course, I haven’t read all of the specs for it yet either. Have those been released, yet?
Jake
NoteScribe: Premier Note Taking Software
hey people please give it a chance…is just another option to buy.
It may be ugly and dated, but this is release 1. Think of it as the hardware equivalent of Google’s “beta” designation which it seems to use for just about everything. They’ll iterate quickly and get better.
I have to completely agree with him. The design of the phone is horrible. It lacks style and cool ness, I would have expect more from HTC specially after finally having something like the Touch and that coming Touch HD. If you going to try to come after the iPhone, your phone can’t look the way that G1 is looking!
I being an ex-googler am criticizing any EX Google employee that criticizes any current project that Google is working on now. Dude you don’t work there anymore…time to let it go and move on.
Is Google nowadays just a come and go company in order to have your own social networking startup? Seems like so nowadays, even with their mobile product manager leaving and then turning his mouth against them. That sounds like he wanna start a buzz for his own new website…lol
Well I’m done being pumped up by Google about this phone and it’s not even out yet…..Why you ask???
Well in the fine print on its G1 site: “If your total data usage in any billing cycle is more than 1GB, your data throughput for the remainder of that cycle may be reduced to 50 kbps or less.” BUT IT GET WORSE!! They can even stop your plan for good..just because I got a cool new phone and want to be a power user!!
Let me break it down: 50 kilobits per second is roughly 6 kilobytes per second — about the speed of the dialup modem
One gigabyte is about how much it takes to download the equivalent of a few albums, a decent quality movie, and a decent quality TV episode — not much. Add to that whatever email, Web browsing, file downloading, app downloading, and whatever else you’ll be doing, and it wouldn’t be far-fetched for the power users that Google is courting to hit that 1 gigabyte cap — 34 MB a day — on a regular basis.
In closing I just want to remind you AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint — offer a more liberal cap: 5 gigabytes
I LOVE YOU GOOGLE DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS!!…before it’s to late
Mike, he’s talking about the design not the features. Touchscreen, GPS, Compass are more software and hardware related. The design is ugly. It looks like it was made in 2005 or even 2002. The IPhone just looks a lot better.
Looks like a beta release. Hopefully it won’t stay that way as with some of their software releases.
I don’t think you geeks get it. Google blew their biggest shot at free pubicity with the mainstream media. The blew their chance to set up the epic battle between iPhone and “The Google” phone.
Yeah, they developed the software, so what. Nobody cares about the software. 99% of the public could give a rats ass about what software runs their phone.
This was THE first phone. It should have been a killer device that could go up against Blackberry and iPhone and they blew it. This was their shot. Nobody is going to stand in line for this. When the 3G iPhone came out, every station set a local news crew out to interview all the folks waiting in line to get an iPhone. No lines for Google. You’ll be able to buy all you want.
The phone will probably get a hundred crappy reviews. The Wall Street Journal totally dissed it on day one.
Nobody in the mainstream media is going to write up the second version. You get one shot and they blew it.
No epic battle. This thing will die with a wimper. Its ugly and old looking. Game over. Footnote in tech history.
You geeks can put Android up on the shelf with your Zune and PC Jr.
Software on mobile devices doesn’t matter to most consumers because there isn’t enough standardization or mobile software out there yet. But that sure will change.
Right now, Windows Mobile is on a lot of phones. Regardless of how much money MS has made on that, they have used partnerships with manufacturers and telecoms, more than looks or hype, to market their OS. Android can do the same thing. The phone manufacturers and telecom companies will create enough hype for them in the long run.
No one in the mass market (outside of Silicon Valley) cares what OS is running on a phone. Nokia has the largest global penetration and I bet 90% of Nokia owners cannot name what OS runs on their phone. Because they don’t care. This isn’t the PC industry, folks. This is Google’s first foray into a complex mobile industry, and this is a bad start. Most people aren’t going to care what the future potential is, they’re just going to see a shitbag phone, know Google has something to do with it, and conclude that Google makes crappy phones. It doesn’t matter that they didn’t do the hardware, people will make that association because that’s the nature of this industry.
It’s too bad because HTC is otherwise on such a roll. And for anyone trying to rationalize the phone’s appearance because 2 years is a long development cycle, rememeber that the iPhone took over 2 years to develop also.
If you’re going to be late the party, at least look nice.
Google’s first foray into a complex mobile industry? How about T-Mobile’s and HTC’s first foray into manufacturing and promoting a tool for tapping into a “platform”? Apple certainly opened the door for mobile “platforms”, and there is a shift in the mobile industry. How is it that Google is the naive one here?
huh?
. They’ve both been in the game a long while. I hope it’s not generally believed that HTC is new to this industry. They’re been big outside the US for quite some time.
T-Mobile’s been there, it’s called the Sidekick. HTC’s been manufacturing since you’ve been in diapers, son (well that’s probably not true, but it certainly sounds dramatic
MS didn’t sell WM by impressing customers, they did it by partnering with manufacturers. Google is doing that now. They are sort of late to the game, but no one has critical mass (because hardware does not have a network effect), so it doesn’t matter. Google is ahead of everyone except Apple in developing a cross-device platform for mobile web applications.
Interesting to bring up MS. Check out their financials, Windows Mobile ain’t exactly a profit center.
Google’s ahead of everyone? If by ‘ahead,’ you mean they have crap hardware and are on a lower tier network, then yeah, I guess so. Actually, they don’t even have that. The damn phone isn’t even out! They have nothing and are ahead of no one.
My point is that the OS matters a whole lot to consumers. They just don’t know it… yet. And since the OS doesn’t matter a whole lot yet, no one has critical mass and hardly anyone is going to mind switching mobile OSs at this point in time.
Sidekick was hardly a platform. T-Mobile and HTC have no idea how to build a mobile web application platform. And it doesn’t matter how old HTC or Deutsche Telekom are. Google offers a new service that neither HTC nor T-Mobile can come even close to providing.
I am actually very exited for several reasons:
I believe Google will push Apple to the corner forcing Steve to give up his aggressive approach towards its paying customers and its developers who are trying to make a buck.
But most of all I am excited because of android’s gaming capabilities, with the support of a strong open source community this could finally merge the mobile and gaming worlds.
If you are into mobile gaming you must visit http://www.androgamez.com
“I believe Google will push Apple to the corner forcing Steve to give up his aggressive approach towards its paying customers and its developers who are trying to make a buck.”
wrong.
Very wrong, phone has been out for 2 months an it has already faded into obscurity. The difference between this and Iphone can be summed up like this: Will this phone make people want to switch to Tmobile, don’t think so. Does Iphone want to make people switch to ATT, absolutely..
honestly at first glance i wasnt fond of the design but it has since grown on me.
hey, check out G1 vs iPhone stand side by side.
http://images.p...1-vs-iPhone.jpg
G1 looks doom. like a copycat version.
definitely, can’t get a chance!!! (maybe …, next time then)
I think there are too many people comparing Android with iPhone. Of course the first Android phone is not going to get the same hype as the iPhone. Android involves many different companies. Google doesn’t want the same kind of media attention as Apple got with the iPhone. Companies in the OHA will want some of their own attention. Compare Android with Windows Mobile or Symbian.
Sure it is not going to be easy to market the Android OS. But It’s pretty obvious it will do sort of well, at the very least. Android is a pretty good opportunity for many different companies to make a lot of money. This is not just Google going it alone.
Wait until Motorola and the others comes out with devices…
Let me comment on this from Europeans point of view. Right, Europe, one of the most important cell phone markets:
1. The phone itself looks outdated and a little ugly.
2. The software may be the best that ever came out from any vendor.
3. I don’t care because the phone looks ugly!
Conclusion; if you design a phone looking really good (HTC Diamond) people will even buy the Windows Mobile running crap. If Google had designed a killer phone, if it would look hot, we would not be discussing this and Android or the gPhone would become a huge success immediately.
With this hardware design however, i seriously doubt this. I mean, you’ve seen the iPhone, HTC Touch, HTC Diamond and now this? I have an iPhone, so I know what I am talking about.
I want my cell phone to be great looking and then i’ll decide on the software running it, like 99% of the consumers do. Maybe the next device then…
1. The G1 is not a piece of jewelry, it is designed for actual use.
2. Only an idiot would purchase a cellphone based on fashion.
3. There are lots of idiots, but we’re not all idiots.
4. Apple fanboys, like Right-wingnuts, are a vocal bunch not a large bunch.
5. A G1 should be compared to a laptop computer. An iPhone should be compared to a pair of women’s shoes.
1. The G1 is not a piece of jewelry, it is designed for actual use.
– Ignorant. A phone is designed to be used as…well a phone, all i use is that one function: CALLING PEOPLE. It’s so simple, and i want it to look good, not like a retarded piece of sht on a stick.
2. Only an idiot would purchase a cellphone based on fashion.
– No only an idiot would say that. You might as well say anyone wearing any fashionable clothing is an idiot, but meh.
3. There are lots of idiots, but we’re not all idiots.
– Yes, you are.
4. Apple fanboys, like Right-wingnuts, are a vocal bunch not a large bunch.
– Apple is crap, stop comparing crap to other crap.
5. A G1 should be compared to a laptop computer. An iPhone should be compared to a pair of women’s shoes.
– A phone is not a laptop.
The guy calls it ugly and old fashioned. I may be both myself and I get more work done than anybody on the Internet, except for maybe Scoble. Here is my point: I want something that gets the job done. Not later, not in a bit, NOW.
I don’t care what it looks like, what they call it or if the design is from last year. I still miss my Treo 650, remember two clicks away? It was their freakin programming rule / design theory.
I don’t want to reboot it 3 times a day like WM6, I don’t want to get memory errors every web page like Opera Mini, I don’t want to wait 10 seconds every time a launch a new app, I don’t want to shut down programs like I am using Windows 98.
I just want what I want and I want it now.
If Android is the name then fine. If it does the job the best it can be done I will buy it. All I want is a browser that works, a battery that has more life than the energizer bunny and I don’t want to have to screw around with the thing.
I do not think that is too much to expect from a $600 phone. Do you?
Also, so you don’t waste your time pointing out it is not $600, you pay way more than that by the time you pay off your 2 year contract etc. So $600 is cheap. If it works that is…
The T-MOBILE Android G1 has a QWERTY keyboard. The IPhone doesn’t.
An IPhone is like a lady wearing a high heeled PRADA shoes while climbing Mt. Rainier. Why suffer ?
Go on Michael,
Try you best! Interview a man, a woman, a turtle, an elephant!
Try as much as you can to bash Google…
You haven’t managed to make even a dent so far, you sure as hell won’t manage to do so with THIS KIND of pathetic posts…
Thank god, the web is no about YOU… its about all of us
http://the-anti...t-me-me-me.html
Yeah, OK. No. The differences between the G1 and the iPhone are miniscule. What “design standards”? One is rounder with a metal backing with less buttons at the bottom.
Aside from that goofy bulge at the bottom of the G1, the differences are barely noticeable. Most of you will have tacky cases on your iPhones anyway, negating the style factor.
I also find it hilarious that people are using the black model as a standard, since the black model looks like a cheap Palm PDA. The white model, about 1000x better looking, resembles clean Japanese gadgets.