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Google Demos Modular Phone That (Almost) Actually Works
An anonymous reader writes Google's Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) group demonstrated Tango, a tablet with 3D cameras similar to Microsoft's Kinect and a version of the Ara phone that could almost boot to the Android home screen (it froze during the demo) at Google I/O today. Project Ara will give $100,000 to anyone who can create an Ara module that does something current smartphones can't. From the article: "Ara moved from concept render to physical mockup in about six months, and onstage today Google demonstrated a version of the phone that could just about boot to the Android home screen. In the demo above, the phone displayed a partial boot screen before freezing. The full boot time (had the demo worked as intended) would be about a minute, which would be a long time for a shipping phone but is reasonably impressive for such an early prototype. Software is the other thing that Ara's developers need to figure out. Current Android builds ship with support for the hardware the phone runs, but they don't include a whole bunch of extraneous drivers for other modems or Wi-Fi modules or cameras or SoCs. Current phone hardware doesn't change, so Android doesn't typically need to worry about this kind of thing."
Well I've never seen any phone with a built in grappling hook before...
about sex toys, and then I will see child posts with links that made me wish I never did.
"In the demo above, the phone displayed a partial boot screen before freezing."
"Google Demos Modular Phone That (Almost) Actually Works"
Maybe it's just me, but if a phone can't even get to the dialer to make a phone call, that's a little further from "actually working" than "almost."
I mean that seriously. My problem isn't with the phone itself. My problem is with the overly generous summary.
Call me a troll, but if any company other than Google unveiled this phone, and it didn't even boot during the demo, I don't think the reaction would be as positive.
Exactly. That's why a modular PCs were never created. There's no way you can get high performance when the user can pick their own RAM, CPU, motherboard, video card, hard drives, etc.
Oh, wait.
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
It's totally possible to build them. They're just going to be twice as thick and 50% heavier than an all-in-one device, so a few weirdos who post on Slashdot will buy them so they can feel smug about how modular their phones are, while everyone else will keep on buying the thinnest, lightest (or cheapest) phones they can find.
How about something that can read an IR sensor such that:
1. approach woman at bar, place phone on bar next to drink
2. phone takes baseline body temps of said woman
3. chat with woman for 5 minutes
4. phone takes update body temps to see where the blood is flowing
5. pick up phone and get 1 to 10 scale on how "excited" the woman was with me
could work on men too just have to look for different "hot spots"
Exactly. That's why a modular PCs were never created. There's no way you can get high performance when the user can pick their own RAM, CPU, motherboard, video card, hard drives, etc.
Oh, wait.
Size matters. Desktop PCs are easy to make modular (unless you want an iMac). Laptops are harder, and besides removable batteries, only a few had any modular components (like a DVD drive swappable for an extra battery). Phones are much more space-constrained. Every millimeter counts, and modularity takes up quite a bit of space at that scale, because each part needs to be enclosed, securely attach to the others, etc.
In short, a modular phone is possible, but the trade-offs will be severe, and you'll be able to pick one or two things (e.g. speed, battery life, extra features, small size, etc.) but not all at the same time. And the prices won't be good, because manufacturer(s) will lose economies of scale: it'll be hard to compete with Apple and Samsung making millions and tens of millions of identical units.
Q: What does the "B." in Benoit B. Mandelbrot stand for? A: Benoit B. Mandelbrot
One for the business, or for each business, one for the kids, one for the wife, and one for the mistress.
"To those who are overly cautious, everything is impossible. "
Its also slow and potentially doesnt charge the phone when its in use.
Not only is it slow, and potentially does not charge the phone while it is in use, it also potentially does not charge the phone when it's on the charger.
More than once, incidentally including last night, I have placed the phone on the charger before bed and awoke to a phone that did not charge because I had placed it slightly off alignment.
I bought this Google charger for my Nexus 5 to make charging more convenient (no fumbling with micro USB with my glasses off, etc).
That makes my experience ironic.
Great. I'll probably have nightmares tonight about it malfunctioning in my pocket.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
maybe ok for baseline drivers.
But what if I plug in a three year old module to my new phone.
It wants to load old drivers incompatible with current OS revision.
Better to load a device ID of some sort and let the phone go get the proper drivers from a signed website
Ouch
God no, the trend to wireless only is the worst.
I want a high-speed wired interface on my phone. Like, if you can fit a 10g ethernet port in there, I want that. I also want a mini-display port connector.
Radios are for differential transfer and continuity. If I need to move data on and off the device, I want that done as fast as possible.
I'm sure the gNarly Super Apps company will be making that module for you in no time...
********* sig: If you don't like the law, get filthy stinking rich, and buy a better one.
You do it just like on a Linux PC/laptop. The OS comes packaged with all the drivers. And if you have a modular system where you can plug and play random hardware components, you'll need to standardize the interfaces anyway. If you have standard interfaces, it's easy to have a default compatibility mode, where a device will work with a basic driver to provide enough functionality so the user can download and install all the driver updates.
I've actually done 2 of the 3 of those on laptops, to replace broken parts. They're fairly modular under the hood. For proof look at the 2 in 1 tablets- basically a snap on keyboard to a tablet. Laptops could easily have been done that way. They just never made them easier to remove because the manufacturers thought they could make more money by not allowing resuse and 3rd party parts. And of course all the internals have always been modular, that's why you can customize them at dell and hp's websites.
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
Advanced compression algorithms.
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