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Andy Rubin_by Joi Ito
Android creator Andy Rubin is shifting gears after building the OS at Google for nearly a decade, reports The Wall Street Journal. Rubin is now launching Playground, an incubator for hardware innovators. The company has raised $48 million from Google, HP, Foxconn, Redpoint Ventures, Tencent Holdings and others. Instead of investing in the startups it fosters, Playground will accept equity in return for its support. The incubator will help inventors focus on building new products without worrying about other functions, like manufacturing, distribution and financing, before going to market. Rubin, who previously worked at Apple and also developed the T-Mobile…

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