Essential was already struggling when Andy Rubin's past caught up to the fledgling startup, leading to its eventual dissolution. A big chunk of the Essential team has forged onward as OSOM with a greater focus on privacy. It'll be releasing its first smartphone soon, known as the OV1. It comes with a neat privacy-centric cable, which the company is showing off again ahead of release.

Naturally, this phone will have a standard USB-C port that works with all your existing cables. However, it will ship with a special "Privacy Cable." We've seen renders of the cable before, but this is a new image showing the phone awake (more about that in a moment). It's still USB-C, but there's a switch on the plug that turns the data lines on and off. That means you can use this cable to get a quick charge at any compatible plug without fear. We occasionally hear reports of fake charging ports delivering malware and stealing data, and while this isn't a common occurrence, OSOM has you covered.

OSOM also notes that some previous renders of the OV1 were a little unrealistic when it came to bezels. However, the new render is allegedly an accurate representation of how the phone will actually look. The bottom chin is slightly larger, but it doesn't look outlandish. The phone screen also shows the Brave browser and Signal messaging shortcuts, both of which claim a similar commitment to user privacy. There's no official release timeline for the OV1, but we do expect it this year.