Way back in 2015, a ragtag group of ex-Nokia employees founded the San Francisco-based Turing Robotic Industries. In 2016 they released The Turing Phone, a smartphone designed to be more secure than typical phones. Things took a turn when Turing abruptly switched from Android to Sailfish OS, and then sent consumers an unfinished build of the phone while the company waited for the final build to be ready.

In 2017, Turing unveiled the Appassionato. Like The Turing Phone, it would be made of liquid metal alloy liquidmorphium, but it would also offer a headphone jack and USB-C port, both of which their earlier phone did not. It was also set to debut with their own digital assistant, Sir Alan, and pricing started at $1,099, a very high price point that’s been in the news lately. Unfortunately, the phone has just now begun to ship. A limited number of beta units have gone out to reviewers, but the phone never hit the market in full, even for those consumers who preordered it.

It’s no surprise that Turing had to file for bankruptcy and suspend their manufacturing efforts at their Finland-based factory. It’s been one stumbling block after another. CEO Steve Y.L. Chao took to Facebook to assure consumers that the company was merely not, but not out, but consumers were unhappy all the same, with many talking about a class action lawsuit. Chao reminded everyone that just because TRI filed for bankruptcy, it doesn’t mean that they’re bankrupt, but if that class action lawsuit gets going, they just might be.

We’ll try to keep up with the TRI story as it develops, especially in regards to what’s going to happen with all those unfulfilled preorders. A thousand bucks (the luxury edition cost $1,599) is a lot of money to blow on a phone that never even showed up.

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