Technology

The Red Hydrogen One is real. I&ve held it in my hands. Itsitting face down on my desk right now as I type these words.

None of this is to say, of course, that it needs to or even should exist. The Hydrogen One is less a phone than an idea that manifested its way into existence through sheer force of will. Ita testament to the fact that just because a concept is potentially disruptive doesn&t necessarily make it good. Not with a starting price of $1,299 (and $1,599 for the titanium version), at least.

The handset functions best as a conversation piece. Itbig and itbold and itbizarre, sporting a massive footprint that dwarfs even the Pixel 3 XL, flanked by serrated edges that bring nothing to mind more than John Rambohunting knife. And certainly the size, weight and build of the product should leave little question that the thing could double as a weapon, should you find yourself in a tight spot.

Of course, in this crowded smartphone market, getting noticed is half the battle. And the Hydrogen One has no problem on that front. I got a lot of &whatthat& when I took the handset for a spin, capturing friends and food in 3D courtesy of the dual stereo rear-facing 12-megapixel cameras.

The next question is usually something in the area of &why& That one is a bit more difficult to answer. After a few days with the phone, I&m still struggling with a justification for the front-facing Holographic 4-View display that doesn&t lean heavily on novelty. Thereno denying that itneat — or at the very least interesting. But I&m struggling to imagine a future in which most or even some of my picture or video viewing is done on this sort of device.

Red has leveraged a new take on the sort of 3D displays we&ve seen on products like Nintendobygone 3DS. Created in partnership with a company called Leia, the technology works thusly:

Leia leverages recent breakthroughs in Nano-Photonic design and manufacturing to provide a complete lightfield &holographic& display solution for mobile devices, through proprietary hardware and software. The Silicon Valley firm commercializes LCD-based mobile screens able to synthesize lightfield holographic content while preserving the normal operation of the display.

All of that results in an image that provides a sense of depth to the viewer, without the sort of eyestrain found in similar tech. On the face of it, however, it looks pretty similar to those old holographic baseball cards they made back in the day. It also means that, in spite of the 515ppi 5.7-inch display, images can sometimes feel fuzzy. Another interesting side effect is a fair amount of light bleed from the top and bottom of the screen while in four-view mode.

Content will certainly be an issue going forward. Thatalways an issue with these sorts of formats. Right now, the phone offers a slew of short nature photos, along with free access to a pair of movies (&Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them& and &Ready Player One&) available as an exclusive to AT-T subscribers.

Then therethe content you capture yourself. I will say I was surprised at some of what the rear-facing cameras could do. Turns out they handled low light fairly well. That said, my amateur photography skills ended up with my capturing some pretty wonky shots with uneven depths. But even if I were a better photographer, I can&t really imagine looking at my own images in 3D is a compelling enough use case to make the considerable investment required.

I realize I&ve been pretty harsh on this $1,300 phone. And there are, indeed, things to like here. The build quality is at the top of the list. Itcertainly not to everyonetaste — the Hydrogen One is big and garish and won&t fit in the pockets of your yoga pants. But itdefinitely solid. Redalways had that going for it. The thing is built like a goddamn tank.

And while, again, I can&t imagine the technology having a lot of stickiness (we can meet back here in five years and you can make fun of me when every phone has some version of the tech), itutterly fascinating. Itprobably even more so when, letbe honest, you&ve got a little bit of that sticky icky in your system. Also, shout out to the company for not cutting other corners here, including battery — 4,500 mAh is downright absurd.

Another little-discussed feature (because we&ve gotten plenty of other things to focus on) is its modularity. Like an SLR, the rear camera can be swapped out. Of course, those modules aren&t coming until next year, so itnot exactly a selling point at launch. When it does arrive, it will include things like an extended battery. It does look like the companypainted itself into a bit of a corner with regards to module size, similar to what Motorola did with its Z line.

The Hydrogen One is available November 2. Iteasily one of the most ambitious, bold and fascinating smartphones I&ve ever seen. If the device does, indeed, flop, it will have done so with the sort of audacity rarely seen in a space full of me-too devices. If you&re going to fail, fail big. At least that way you won&t be forgotten.

Today at the Firebase Summit in Prague, Google announced a number of updates to its Firebase app development platform designed to help it shift from an environment for individuals or small teams into a full-blown enterprise development tool.

Google acquired Firebase 4 years ago to help developers connect to key cloud tools like a database or storage via a set of software development kits (SDKs). Over time, it has layered on sophisticated functionality like monitoring to fix performance issues and access to analytics to see how users are engaging with the app, among other things. But the toolkit hasn&t necessarily been geared towards larger organizations until now.

&[Todayannouncements] are going to be around a set of features and updates that are catered more towards enterprises and sophisticated app teams that are looking to build and grow their mobile apps,& Francis Ma, head of product at Firebase told TechCrunch.

Perhaps the biggest piece of news was that they were adding corporate support. While the company boasts 1.5 million apps per month running on Firebase, in order to move deeper into the enterprise, it needed to have a place corporate IT could call when they run into issues. That is coming with the company expected to announce various support packages in Beta by the end of the year. These will be tied to broader Google Cloud Platform support.

&With this launch, if you already have a paid GCP Support package, you will be able to get your Firebase questions answered through the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Support Console. Once the change is fully launched, Firebase support will be included at no additional charge with paid GCP Support packages, which includes target response times, a dedicated technical account manager (if you are enrolled in Enterprise Support) and more,& Ma explained in a blog post.

In addition, larger teams and organizations need more management tools and the company announced the Firebase Management API. This allows programmatic access to manage project workflows from IDE to Firebase. Ma says this includes direct integration with StackBlitz and Glitch, two web-based IDEs. &Their platforms will now automatically detect when you are creating a Firebase app and allow you to deploy to Firebase Hosting with the click of a button, without ever leaving their platforms,& Ma wrote.

There were a bushel of other announcements including access to better facial recognition tools in the Google ML kit announced last spring. There were also improvements to Crashlytics performance monitoring, which includes integration with PagerDuty now, and Firebase Predictions, its analytics tool, which is now generally available after graduating from Beta.

All of these announcements and more, are part of a maturation of the Firebase platform as Google aims to move it from a tool aimed directly at developers to one that can be integrated at the enterprise level.

This is it, startup fans. We&re in the homestretch for big savings on tickets to Disrupt Berlin 2018. That means you have just five days left to save up to €500 on two action- and opportunity-packed days with some of the best and brightest minds in the tech startup world. The early-bird price becomes extinct on Friday, 2 November. Haven&t you waited long enough Buy your ticket today.

We&ve recruited a killer line-up of Main Stage speakers — tech luminaries, business legends and game-changing investors — to share their perspective, experience and insight. Herea quick peek at what we have in store for you — and be sure to take a gander at the Disrupt Berlin agenda:

• Kaidi Ruusalepp, founder and CEO of Funderbeam, will discuss how her companyshaking up the traditional startup funding model by using a marketplace approach, a modern syndication system and a blockchain-based platform.
• Pieter van der Does, CEO of payments company Adyen, will share how the startup quietly built its empire and took a profitable company public.
• Denys Zhadanov, VP at Readdle, will talk about the mobile app companybootstrapped success — 100 million downloads and counting.

Opportunity at Disrupt Berlin abounds at every turn, but it shifts into overdrive once you enter Startup Alley, our exhibition floor. You&ll find more than 400 early-stage startups showcasing the latest technology products, platforms and services. Collaborate, recruit, invest, connect — it all happens in Startup Alley.

While you&re in the Alley, be sure to check out this yearTC Top Picks — our curated cohort of exceptional startups spanning these categories: AI/Machine Learning, Blockchain, CRM/Enterprise, E-commerce, Education, Fintech, Healthtech/Biotech, Hardware, Robotics, IoT, Mobility and Gaming. Here are just a few fine examples:

• Nuzzera: Your Spotify for news — the first two-sided market for professional journalism.
• MakerBrane: A digital and physical platform that lets anyone design, build and trade their own play worlds.
• FinMarie: Germanyfirst online financial platform for women.

And, of course, you don&t want to miss Startup Battlefield — the crown jewel of Disrupt. Watch up to 15 outstanding early-stage startups go head-to-head to win $50,000 cash, hoist the coveted Disrupt Cup, earn invaluable investor and media attention and launch their companies on a global stage.

Disrupt Berlin 2018 takes place on29-30 November, and the finish line for saving up to €500 is Friday 2 November — just five days left. Buy your passtoday, and join us in Berlin at the best possible price.