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Project Ara: Inside Google's Modular Smartphones
harrymcc writes "Google is releasing more details on Project Ara, its effort — originally spearheaded by Motorola — to reinvent the smartphone in a form made up of hot-swappable modules that consumers can configure as they choose, then upgrade later as new technologies emerge. Google is aiming to release about a year from now."
Because you could upgrade your phone without interrupting the current call?
Have you read my blog lately?
From the pics in the article, it's pretty fugly... However I'd still buy one but it would be the first phone I've owned that I'd buy a case for.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
I think this type of technology can be used to curtail government spying and also it can be a fun way to build your own phone to your own specifications the way people build their computers from parts.
If the phone building blocks only have to implement specified interfaces and do not have to be provided by any specific vendor, it could become possible finally to have actually secure phones, where a building block could be inserted to pre-process and encrypt the signal in a 'sandbox' in a way that would make it impossible for the network provider to snoop on your communications.
I can even see the strongest encryption that is possible used made available with this technology: one time encryption pads. How about this for a business idea: build and sell pairs of one time encryption pads and encryption modules, which would allow 2 (or more) individuals to encrypt their communications with a pre-made list of keys that can be shared beforehand. In fact a modular design can make it possible to have individual one time encryption pads to be used for different phone numbers (or some form of identifier that is first shared over the open network and then switches to the correct encryption pad once the session is established).
Fuck the NSA, this can really fuck up their entire snooping operation.
You can't handle the truth.
How much do you want to bet they end up like most "upgradeable" PCs -- never touched from day of purchase until they hit the landfill or the recycling company.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
I do remember upgrading CPUs from 486sx to dx to adding in a 66mhz overclocking chip etc...
However, it wasn't very long before upgrading a cpu meant buying a new motherboard.
A phone on the other hand... if you want it to be small and lightweight with no bulky connectors... it won't be field upgradable. Look at ultrabooks with their soldered on ram and SSD modules vs a W series Lenovo with dual expansion bays...
I also seem to recall at the S5 launch that the audience applauded the phone being dust and waterproof. Not sure how you can do this with all sorts of connectors.
Though I do applaud them for trying and maybe something good will come out of it.
Nerds, criminals, and the ultra rich perhaps....but mainstream acceptance and profitability are question marks.
R & D costs on a mass market phone are relatively easy to recapture with millions of identical units sold, and as fascinating as these are, I suspect their dissimilarity will lead to higher consumer cost.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
Kinda like Mobile ITX?
...or a tablet or a desktop or a smartphone and the use of its peripherals, depending on what I plug it into?
Or does this just get me the a smartphone that sends me in a constant search for drivers and debugging why my Nikon camera module causes my Linksys RF module to crap out?
I'm interested in the former but not the latter.
My Blackberry Q10 has a removable battery, and it reboots itself whenever I set it down on a desk too hard. Most or all smartphones with removable batteries that I've used in the past did the same thing.
If we can't even engineer a phone so a non-soldered battery stays connected on a mild shock, how are we going to allow for users to replace every component of their phones?
The idea here is that Nikon mass-markets the cameras, and you plug it into your Motorola processor with a Lenovo battery and a Linksys broadband module.
And you have a Total Mess. Because most of it kind of works, but the drivers for the cameras are a bit out of date or not compatible with the system version you need for the battery....
What you outlined is a dream - but not a dream for consumers. Yes in the abstract it sounds great but the reality as I and everyone else bore witness too in the PC era, is that the real life result is a mostly functional mess that needs constant upgrade or maintenance to keep working.
We are moving away from the PC era as we know it because real people, who just want to do stuff, do NOT want to be jiggering bits of things together like someone stranded on an island with boat wrecks to assemble a raft out of.
There's probably enough of a niche market that the device might survive... but I'm really dubious we're going to see a Nikon Camera module, as much as they wish it would be so. More like we'll see several camera modules from companies you've never heard of and cannot announce, and the rest of the components will be the same...
The main thing that might keep this effort afloat is if they come out of the gate with Steampunk modules. Then I'm in.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I don't understand the concept. Can someone make a car analogy for me?
Yes, Google, that has done everything it can to kill the microSD slot, physical keyboard, and removable battery now wants to swing back towards upgradable phones. Whatever.
Does anyone remember when 486SX computers came and it was a big deal that you could later upgrade the processor to a 486DX computer, making them totally modular and cool, and then like ten seconds later, Intel came out with the Pentium with a completely different bus and the entire system was obsolete? That's about what this sounds like. The second you get in your hands the all-updatable 64-bit system, every phone moves to 128-bit chips and you're stuck with half as many pins on your plugs just to get your phone up to current technology.
And the producer of the camera (or any other discrete component) can't be responsible for drivers instead of the OS why?
They are - just as they were in the PC era.
And it will work out just as well.
This has all happened before, and will all happen again. Not just a TV show tagline, it's the tech industry in a nutshell.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I find nay saying comments and articles about this project a bit humorous. Modular phone components will be successful. There are a number of reasons for upcoming success. First, history is basically repeating itself. Early computers were very complicated devices and not really up-gradable. Many components were interfaced using external ports. As the development of the computer moved forward components became more modular and often lived inside the case. Sound cards, video cards, daughter boards, game cards (for controller ports), expanded HD plugs, special processing boards, etc. You could buy a "basic" system and adjust it to meet your needs. It is true that many of these components are now part of the motherboard. The difference is phone technology appear to be at about the same place computers were when computers went more modular.
Second, some of my generation (mid 30's) and many of the next generations basically live from their mobile device. There is no doubt in my mind that individuals would like to customize their device to meet their lifestyle. Currently individuals can only choose hardware combinations dictated by the manufacturer. Sort of like buying a house with only a few options with the type of furniture, drapes, counter tops, tables, lamps, and other decor chosen for you by someone else. Individuals will customize their hardware given the option, and those configurations will suit their usage better. If they need to change they can swap a part out.
Finally, upcoming generations are inundated with technology. They have more exposure to the usage of these devices. While not all of them my be what was once considered a "nerd" many of them will be able to choose modules and snap them into place. The article even states that they are building the device so it doesn't take a tech person to swap modules.
This type of hardware will be welcomed. The format will bring a large number of other developers to the scene that otherwise could not have entered.
Phones are already fragile, why would I want something put together like legos?
Inside a phone the connections between components are very tiny and complicated and would be near impossible to implement in a macro connector. You would need to serialize the signals and have redundant circuitry in every component.
It would just be more expensive since you can price each thing separately.
And as for upgrading as new technologies emerge, most of the pieces of a smartphone get better pretty consistently, and would likely need the other things to be improved anyway, i.e. a new super high def camera module would require the updated processor core.. and the graphics module... and the enhanced screen so you can see it, and a larger storage block to hold stuff... and a better battery cause it really sucks the juice... hm. Then I would need to open all 6 of those boxes and disassemble my phone and piece everything together correctly, to my case and cellular module (which is the only things I didn't have to upgrade) and then figure out why something isn't working.
Being able to swap radio modules could be fantastic if it reduces the friction involved in switching carriers.
Then you only have used smartphones with really crap build quality, or you've been denting desks/tables everytime you put down a phone.
Asus Padfone is for you then