How Andy Rubin Kept Android Open-Source at Its Heart

Tom Cheshire | Wired Magazine | November 4, 2011

A year ago at Google HQ in Mountain View, Andy Rubin built a mechanical robot arm. "I put a hammer in its hand and connected it to a big Chinese gong. Whenever Android sells 10,000 units, the gong sounds and you can hear it through the whole building. When I designed it, it sounded three times a day: now it does it every three minutes. I really have to reprogram it..."

Rubin is Google's head of mobile and the creator of the Android operating system. He's also a DIY robotics fanatic, in case you hadn't guessed. At home, he has several remote-controlled helicopters, a retina-scanning entry system ("a great way of managing relations with ex-girlfriends -- no problem giving keys back, just an update to the database"), a laser-controlled Segway, and a home cinema where the lights dim when the titles run -- all designed and built by him. So naturally, he built another robot to celebrate the success of his most famous creation, Android.

It's an unusual way to boast, but Rubin is allowed some bombast. At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this spring, the most important trade show worldwide for tablets and smartphones, 90 per cent of the devices unveiled ran Android...