eBay user claims that they are selling an unreleased Essential smart home hub
A prototype for the Essential Home smart home hub is available on eBay. The device was announced in 2017 by the brand behind the Essential Phone. Essential Products closed its doors in 2020 without releasing the smart home gadget.
The Essential Home would have been a circular device with a touchscreen display and similar functionality to a Google Nest Hub or Amazon Echo. It was billed as a smart home hub that would integrate every ecosystem. Essential said you could control the device with touch or voice commands and that you would be able to ‘glance to activate’ the hub.
The eBay listing has very little information about the gadget, claiming it is an “Essential Inc never released smart speaker prototype”. The product images show that the device is running Android 8.1.0, though Android was never officially confirmed as the OS.
Essential said the operating system would be Ambient OS, enabling the multi-ecosystem compatibility and processing all data locally rather than in the cloud. This OS would also allow the gadget to provide real-time information such as traffic times and calendar notifications.
At the time of writing, the Essential Home prototype is listed on eBay for US$900 before shipping, with Buy It Now and Best Offer purchasing options. It is unclear from the listing whether the smart hub is capable of more than booting up.
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