Solana Launches Web3-Focused Smartphone Saga To Improve Crypto-Mobile Relationship

An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: The co-founder and CEO of Solana, Anatoly Yakovenko, had a Steve Jobs moment when he stood in front of an auditorium in New York City and announced the launch of Saga, an Android web3-focused smartphone. "This is something that I fundamentally believe the industry needs to do," Yakovenko said. "We didn't see a single crypto feature at the Apple developer conference 13 years after Bitcoin was alive." People will pull out their laptops in the middle of dates so they don't miss an NFT minting opportunity, Yakovenko joked. "So I think it's time for crypto to go mobile," Yakovenko added.

Saga aims to implement digital asset products and services, so users can easily transact with their cryptocurrency through the device, opposed to a laptop browser. In addition to the announcement of Saga, Yakovenko shared the launch of the Solana Mobile Stack, or SMS, which is a web3 layer for Solana built on the phone. SMS will consist of a number of products including a seed vault, a custody solution, a mobile wallet adapter, Solana Pay for Android and its decentralized application (dApp) store. It "provides a new set of libraries for wallets and apps, allowing developers to create rich mobile experiences on Solana," a press release said.

A number of crypto companies including FTX, Phantom and Magic Eden will partner with SMS and there is also a $10 million developer fund for people who build apps on it. "The builders are coming and they are higher quality than before," Raj Gokal, COO at Solana Labs said. "They're ready for the next leg of user growth." The $1,000 device will have 512 GB of storage with a 6.67-inch OLED display and is available for preorder with a $100 deposit and deliveries will occur in Q1 2023, Yakovenko said.

"Steve Jobs moment"

[martinX]

I can't see the "Steve Jobs moment" from the summary given. He's launching a phone that no-one has asked for and... that's it.

RTFA doesn't shed any light on this odd attempt to make a connection, either.

Good luck?

Re:

[jrumney]

He has cancer?

He wore a black turtleneck?

Re:

[93 Escort Wagon]

He has cancer?

He wore a black turtleneck?

He bought Steve Wozniak a pineapple pizza?

Re: "Steve Jobs moment"

[Incadenza]

He parked in a handicapped spot

Re:

[Entrope]

He traded in his car every few months so he never needed to get a real license plate?

Re:

[Carewolf]

Actually harddrive MP3-players was all the rage when the iPod was released, they just weren't very good.

And smartphones were all the rage when the iPhone was released, and the high-end used capacity touchscreens like the iPhone, but they all shared the feature of not being very good.

No Jobs always provided exactly what the market was asking for, and not totally sucking at it, unlike the competition.

Re:

[codebase7]

Actually, there's some rumors that suggest Jobs was "inspired" by the folks over at Handspring. [youtu.be]

Re:

[martinX]

Lol. After releasing the iPod, there was a *lot* of pressure for Apple to produce a phone.

Re:

[keltor]

And it almost happened several times as well. The Newton pretty much guaranteed the iPad and iPhone would happen at some point.

You think things couldn't get more stupid

[gweihir]

And then something like this happens. The mind boggles.

Something the industry needs to do

[93 Escort Wagon]

"This is something that I fundamentally believe the industry needs to do," ... because my new company's profit potential depends on it.

BTW the story never actually explains what the supposed "Steve Jobs moment" was. It just talks about another huckster trying to find a new way to milk a dying cow.

bunch of bs

[Eubeleus]

So you'll pay a whole bunch of money for a vaporware cryptocurrency nonsense phone that eventually crashes taking all your shit with it?

SIGN ME UP!!!

Re: bunch of bs

[Goatbot]

But the builders are going to better than ever before!

Scramble! Scramble!

[Opportunist]

We need to find ways to dress up the tulips so people would still want them!

Re:

[gweihir]

You know, I never understood tulips. I am planting tomatoes, green onions and some herbs. Maybe that is why this "crypto" craze leaves me completely unimpressed.

Re:

[Opportunist]

I think the Dutch themselves didn't quite get it back then [wikipedia.org].

Why a dedicated NFT phone?

[misnohmer]

Forget for a moment that NFT craze is basically over like the Beanie Babies and their copy-cats. What I don't get is why on earth do you need a special phone to trade NFT's? What does that phone have that cannot be done on any contemporary smartphone with an app? It would be like ebay announcing that the industry needs a dedicated ebay phone because people sometimes bid in the middle of their dates.

Re:

[ZiggyZiggyZig]

What if you want to display your bored ape as a background on your smartphone? Surely there is no other way to do that than having a special NFT phone. After all it's protected by NFT!

Re:

[jythie]

I suspect he is rebranding bundled apps that you can not remove and the phone manufacturer gets a hefty fee from companies that want to make sure THEIR app is the only one installed.

Re:

[misnohmer]

Are you suggesting that anything anyone buys from ebay on their phone is subject to 35% tax to Google or Apple? How about if someone buys $12,000 FSD option using the Tesla car app, are you claiming Google or Apple get $4,200 from each purchase? I somehow don't see ebay or Elon giving up that much revenue, but if you have some supporting facts, please share.

Improve crypto-mobile relationship

[xalqor]

One improvement I would like to see is less articles on Slashdot about cryptocurrency when I'm browsing on my phone. I don't think this product will help me.

Re:

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

One improvement I would like to see is FEWER articles on Slashdot about cryptocurrency when I'm browsing on my phone.

A grammar search-and-replace function would be nice too.

Re:Improve crypto-mobile relationship

[ZiggyZiggyZig]

Well I for one welcome our potentially grammar-correcting, UTF-8 non-compliant, dupe-generating Slashdot Phone!

Re:

[drinkypoo]

All this effort to remove Swastikas but none to get rid of the grammar Nazis

Mocking grammar should be reserved for people who try to correct other people's

Web3 and crypto in the same sentence

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

My brain went into buzzword overload immediately and quit reading.

Re:

[Carewolf]

Web3 is crypto BS. They are not separate bullshit, they are the same bullshit.

Re:

[nightflameauto]

Amateur. I've been reading Slashdot so much I need at least six buzzwords to approach overload. You develop a tolerance over time.

Steve Jobs moment

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

Anatoly Yakovenko, had a Steve Jobs moment when he stood in front of an auditorium in New York City and announced the launch of Saga

A 15 people in the audience who had come in for the complimentary glass of punch applauded loudly.

Technology reuse

[dromgodis]

So let me get this straight: Web 3 will be implemented using SMS?

Excellent! Even my first cell phone could handle SMS.

Re:

[dargaud]

Yeah, this guy should be strung out just for attempting to reuse and co-opt a well known and much used acronym.

Re:

[gweihir]

I am all for that. Corrupting minds starts with corrupting language.

Re:

[dromgodis]

I'm not sure I'm ready to receive pictures of apes instead of slightly incoherent messages from grandma just yet.

Jeez...

[divide overflow]

Beyond the obvious hucksterism and painful buzzword B.S. it really irks me that they have the nerve to try to rebrand the universal SMS acronym from Short Message Service to "Solana Mobile Stack." It's a cheap and shameful attempt to insinuate itself into people's heads for their sole benefit.

Re:Jeez...

[ZiggyZiggyZig]

I think it really means "Sorry Monkeys Stolen"

Re:

[aRTeeNLCH]

For those who overlooked it, the punctuation in that acronym is correct, so no apology but instead an adjective.

Yes I develop app

[locater16]

Hello yes I would like to develop app. It's a... web. 5.0 Spider. A spider web, if you will. It will, capture live monkeys, and digitize them. I will digitize real monkeys on a spider web made of lasers, because web 5.0 is all about lasers. Lasers will now be money. Put your digital real monkeys in your laser wallet. But I'm gonna need about $10 million dollars for this app. Digital laser wallets and spider webs aren't cheap you know.

Re:

[algaeman]

Can this be repurposed to "capture" live apes, say 5-6 feet tall? You just might get your $10M after all.

Re:

[ZiggyZiggyZig]

Can it use multiple slurp juices?

A prediction

[ukoda]

I predict that anyone who is worried about missing "an NFT minting opportunity" during a date is not going to get laid.

Re:

[dromgodis]

Darwinism is playing into our hands with this one.

Re:

[DrXym]

It's funny to search NFT on Twitter or Facebook and look at this insane culture. They're all bragging about the pictures they've bought, some fly by night NFT minting, or promoting other transparently obvious scams that involve NFTs in some way. It's idiots all the way down.

Ever wonder why they're "involuntarily celibate"?

[nickovs]

People will pull out their laptops in the middle of dates so they don't miss an NFT minting opportunity

And then they wonder why, when they look up, their date has left, never to be seen again.

Bloatware?

[jythie]

So... he is essentially talking about a phone where its bloatware is its selling feature, and the 'manufacturer' gets paid by various crypto companies to ensure their app is the one pre installed?

Reminds me of the early days of the internet where companies were convinced that people would be willing to pay a subscription fee to get spam.

Re:

[codebase7]

More like mandatory hardware protections to ensure that the NFTs aren't copied like any sane device can nowadays. Sure money for bloatware installations is nice, but unless they can stop the massive use of Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V (They can't), their markets will never rise above fad-levels. Their 15 minutes is almost up as well. As such they are desperately pushing this non-sense in hope of getting the market to a point where their NFT trading apps can start whitelisting devices that won't allow the NFTs it inter

It's like an alternative version of reality

[DrXym]

Who are all these assholes opening their phones in the middle of dates looking for NFT minting opportunities?

Ignoring your own daughter is what comes to mind

[Gavino]

Ignoring your own daughter, or working staff to the bone. These are the things I think about when I hear "Steve Jobs moment". Guy was an asshole, albeit a very successful one.

Because...

[VeryFluffyBunny]

...fools & their money are so easily parted.