【Mother】

Essential,Mother the smartphone company founded by Android co-founder, ex-Googler Andy Rubin, is working on a new device — a very unusual one.

On Tuesday, Rubin tweeted a few photos and a video of the device, named Project Gem, which looks like a cross between a phone and a remote control.

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Beyond saying that the device needs a "new UI for radically different formfactor," Rubin didn't share many details. Essential's official Twitter account followed up with a few more photos that say the device will "reframe your perspective in mobile," and that it's "in early testing".

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Project Gem certainly looks like a phone — it has a camera module and what looks like a fingerprint sensor on the back, and a screen with a hole punch-style cutout for the selfie camera on the front, as well as a speaker on top. One image shows the device running a calendar, maps, and a weather app, as well as Uber. In another image, phone, camera, messages, gallery, and Spotify apps are visible.

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However, there's no escaping the fact that Project Gem is about half as wide as your typical smartphone. The UI looks completely reworked, compared to stock Android, to accommodate the narrow screen, but the device will certainly be less than ideal for activities such as watching videos or reading.

It's possible, however, that this new phone is meant to satisfy a different need than your typical smartphone, perhaps as a phone companion device -- the type that rids you of addiction to your primary phone (see Light Phone). Without knowing its specs or price, we can only speculate.

In 2017, Essential ruffled some feathers with its Essential Phone, which was way ahead of its time. Its screen had a tiny, elegant notch before the iPhone X, Apple's first notched phone, even launched. It also had a modular design and pretty decent specs. Ultimately, Essential Phone didn't sell very well — a multitude of camera issues were partly to blame — and the company largely stayed silent since then. Andy Rubin's alleged sexual misconduct while at Google — which he denies — certainly didn't help the brand's reputation.