At premiere of General Magic doc, tech icons consider the future - CNET
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`At premiere of General
`Magic doc, tech icons
`consider the future
`During a filmic celebration of a legendary startup, and
`Silicon Valley's past, tech VIPs reflect on the
`industry's current uncertainty and where things are
`headed.
`
`Richard Nieva
`
`July 27, 2018 1:13 p.m. PT
`
`1
`
`Left to right: Andy Hertzfeld, Bill Atkinson and Marc Porat, co-founders of
`General Magic.
`Richard Nieva/CNET
`
`As the credits rolled at the premiere for "General Magic,"
`a new documentary about a seminal but little-known
`Silicon Valley startup of the same name, the darkness of
`the theater was punctured by phones suddenly lighting
`up, one by one, like a field of stars. After an hour and a
`
`https://www.cnet.com/news/at-premiere-of-general-magic-doc-tech-icons-consider-the-fut...
`
`11/9/2020
`
`EX2017
`VMware v. IV
`IPR2020-00470
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`

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`At premiere of General Magic doc, tech icons consider the future - CNET
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`Page 2 of 4
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`half of being disconnected while the movie played, people
`were beginning to check their phones, as if by reflex.
`
`It's a scene that plays out in probably every movie theater
`in the world. But on Thursday night at the California
`Theater in San Jose, California, where the film made its
`Silicon Valley debut, the occurrence illustrated the real
`legacy of General Magic: Because of that company, our
`phones are our lives.
`
`The film follows the ambitious '90s startup, spun out of
`Apple, that set out to create the world's first mobile
`computer -- with apps, mail and a touchscreen. The
`device it came up with, called the Magic Link, ultimately
`failed to sell. But it laid the groundwork for Apple's iPhone,
`which ignited the smartphone revolution, and for Google's
`Android operating system.
`
`The rest is history.
`
`And history is what this film, directed by Sarah Kerruish
`and Matt Maude, is all about. Founded in 1990, General
`Magic was a Murderers' Row of tech talent. It included
`CEO Marc Porat; Andy Hertzfeld and Bill Atkinson,
`already legends from their work on the early Mac team;
`and youngsters Megan Smith and Tony Fadell. Smith
`would go on to become a vice president at Google, then
`chief technologist of the United States under Barack
`Obama. Fadell would become the "Godfather of the iPod"
`and play key roles designing the iPhone. After that, he
`founded Nest, the maker of smart home devices, which
`sold to Google in 2014 for more than $3 billion.
`
`In the case of Smith and Fadell (both with acne and long
`brown hair), it's a glimpse at tech superstars before they
`were industry heavyweights. It's like seeing young Lebron
`James in "More Than a Game," the documentary
`chronicling his high school career.
`
`As stacked as the General Magic team was, though, the
`company ultimately failed. It was plagued by a lack of
`focus. In one scene, Hertzfeld, a co-founder, laments all
`the time he put into designing a digital coin-flip feature,
`instead of doing more mission-critical work. The company
`also suffered from being too early. The internet was only
`beginning to emerge, and chips weren't nearly as powerful
`as they are today.
`
`"Our naivete was empowering," Atkinson said in an
`interview. "If we knew how expensive it would be to build,
`we would have given up."
`
`But as much as the film is nostalgic, it also seems fitting
`for the present moment. What grew from the roots of
`General Magic is now a topic of intense scrutiny. The tech
`
`https://www.cnet.com/news/at-premiere-of-general-magic-doc-tech-icons-consider-the-fut...
`
`11/9/2020
`
`

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`At premiere of General Magic doc, tech icons consider the future - CNET
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`industry is facing a reckoning for its scale and influence.
`Giants including Google and Facebook are in the
`crosshairs of lawmakers, who blame the platforms for not
`doing enough to prevent abuse by Russian trolls who tried
`to interfere in the 2016 US election. Facebook is also in
`the hot seat over data misuse by Cambridge Analytica, a
`UK-based consultancy that harvested personal
`information from 87 million Facebook users.
`
`As industry veterans who've seen the sector rise to
`arguably the most powerful in the world, they've got a
`good perch from which to reflect on the current climate.
`
`"I'm aware of problems I never considered before,"
`Hertzfeld said in a question-and-answer session after the
`screening. "When you see the stuff that happened with
`the 2016 election, or the potential for a surveillance police
`state, what I'm hoping is, as an industry we get an
`understanding of what's going on and kind of course-
`correct."
`
`When the subjects of the documentary were asked on
`stage if they're still optimistic about the industry, Fadell,
`who's recently spoken out against tech addiction, summed
`it up.
`
`"Back then I was an optimistic optimist," he said. "Now I'm
`much more of a cautious optimist. Hopeful optimist,
`conditional optimism. But you always have to have hope."
`
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`https://www.cnet.com/news/at-premiere-of-general-magic-doc-tech-icons-consider-the-fut...
`
`11/9/2020
`
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`At premiere of General Magic doc, tech icons consider the future - CNET
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`https://www.cnet.com/news/at-premiere-of-general-magic-doc-tech-icons-consider-the-fut...
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`11/9/2020
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