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Google To Test Build-It-Yourself Ara Smartphones In Puerto Rico

Posted by samzenpus on from the just-the-way-you-like dept.

An anonymous reader writes Google is holding its second Project Ara developer's conference today in Mountain View and is in the process of giving a roadmap on how and when it might get its modular smartphones out into the market. Probably the most notable bit of news we've learned so far is that Google plans to have a market pilot ready to go in the second half of this year. Unfortunately, if you want to give it a shot, you'll need to live in Puerto Rico — the pilot will roll out in that territory in partnership with carriers OpenMobile and Claro. When Project Ara hits Puerto Rico, users should be able to customize their devices using the Ara Marketplace and Ara Configurator apps. Google's ATAP group will also roll out some "food-truck" style stores for consumers to actually check these devices out before they try them out. Google also says that it'll have some 20 to 30 Ara modules available by launch across 10 different categories.

32 of 61 comments (clear)

  1. Drivers by NotInHere · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Does anyone know whether the drivers for all those wonderful devices will be open source? Will they have open APIs at least, or will I have to install the app of the vendor instead, where some "extra features" cost money? Will I give every device connected to my smartphone basically root access, or access to a system bus which can be used to read and write arbitrary data to RAM?

    1. Re:Drivers by exomondo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Well the biggest pain will be the operating system itself, the existing compatibility issues that prevent devices from upgrading to newer versions of Android are only going to get worse once you start adding modules that require newer versions of the OS that existing modules are not compatible with especially when these modules start coming from different vendors.

    2. Re:Drivers by exomondo · · Score: 1

      In theory if the source code is released, well written, and goes into the upstream kernel there shouldn't be a problem.

      Yes in theory, but in practice it certainly hasn't worked that way and I don't see any reason it will change.

  2. What? by fustakrakich · · Score: 1

    Why is living in Puerto Rico 'unfortunate'?

    --
    “He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
    1. Re:What? by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

      Why is living in Puerto Rico 'unfortunate'?

      Because the article says that anyone who has more than 1 camera in their phone is crazy?

      FTFA:

      Google will include an Ara Manager app that lets you manage the modules — for example, if you were crazy enough to load two cameras onto your phone

      If you're in Puerto Rico, no selfies for YOU!

      --
      "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    2. Re:What? by ChunderDownunder · · Score: 1

      Puerto Rico is American soil though, right? Can't Yanks travel freely there without a passport?

      If the devices are locked to a regional carrier that would suck.

    3. Re:What? by gwolf · · Score: 1

      Maybe because they are a surrogate state lacking full self-determination, and belonging colonially to a country with a culture so different to theirs, they will never be granted full citizenship of any real country ever?

  3. Thank god. Finally. by Sowelu · · Score: 1

    It's getting harder and harder to find phones with hardware keyboards or decent battery life. Swap out the fancy graphics card for a second battery, and put a slide-out keyboard on the back, and I will be so, so happy.

    I hope they have a keyboard. I'll be so disappointed if they don't.

  4. Control of RF by The+New+Guy+2.0 · · Score: 1

    A Build-your-own cell phone needs to be secured against misuse of RF networks. Remember, your provider needs to serve more than just you so you can't take up more bandwidth or signal power than you're allowed. A lot of limits get set at the towers...

    1. Re:Control of RF by Sowelu · · Score: 1

      You use prebuilt modules, you're not supposed to really hack or add your own. It's modular, not DIY.

    2. Re:Control of RF by Nemyst · · Score: 1

      It's unlikely that you'd be able to slot in more than one cell module, and that's really the only way you could misuse RF networks.

    3. Re:Control of RF by funkymonkjay · · Score: 1

      all you'd need is a third party module that breaks out the bus on to your traditional IO pins.

  5. Re:I want to make and receive phone calls. by AK+Marc · · Score: 2

    The dumb phones are still available. Do you go picket every new car release, complaining that walking is fast enough for you? If not, then why do you bother to come here to complain about this?

    --
    Learn to love Alaska
  6. Jealousy by Narcocide · · Score: 1

    I am not 100% sure I trust Google in their place in this endeavor, but I am 100% sure its a smart direction to take, and its a smart direction for the rest of the industry to follow, and I'm also 100% sure I'm jealous of Puerto Ricans for the first time ever.

  7. Re: First world problems by rossdee · · Score: 1

    They are all third world countries, because they are on the third planet out from the sun.

    When we colonize Mars we can have some fourth world countries.

  8. Re: Could be worse by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Then why do they always insist on flying the stupid fucking Puerto Rican flag at their houses (and some even get it tattooed on their skin)? If they want to be americans, they should have american pride, not Puerto Rican pride.

    I dare you to tell that to all the Texans to their faces.

    --
    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
  9. Re:I want to make and receive phone calls. by Michael+Woodhams · · Score: 1

    How about a pocket computer that just happens to make phone calls?

    --
    Quattuor res in hoc mundo sanctae sunt: libri, liberi, libertas et liberalitas.
  10. A Common Driver Language by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    A CDL (or more aptly Common Hardware Language, CHL) needs to be developed so that all the OS needs to understand in communicating is that it can do certain _guaranteed_ "BASIC modular hardware functions". Basic stuff such as "send.[hardware component].data([minimal template protocol script design here])", "read.[hardware component].data([minimal template protocol script design here])",
    The Modular (Common) Hardware Components themselves should also have this "Basic Modular Hardware Function" i.e. CHL (Pronounced - CH ool) capability built in as a "fall-back" language for Gen-1 devices and will always maintain this backwards compatibility...
    Ultimately this is about what USB should have been from the start.
    Done right, elegantly and enforced. (By done right I mean the science and code has to be air tight, something that NASA (refer to Fault Tree Analysis) would give a pass mark to, and not this tripe "send it to market first and fix it later" bs we have grown accustomed to)

    There is no rush to get this done, just do it right the first time for once. Then we can finally work on doing tablets and laptops, like should have happened years ago (decades if including consoles!!).

    There is no reason why Gen100 hardware parts can't co-exist with gen1 using the latest OS for the device. Removing the hardware abstraction layer from the OS and giving it back to the HARDWARE devices themselves is what this is really about. After all, the OS these days is a glorified UI which 9/10 behaves poorly and against its users wishes.

    Just an added thought, I think there needs to be a backbone (switching) layer to interface the modular devices with. One that accepts electrical & photon interfacing at each node.

    Sincerely,
    Mod PC

  11. Prediction: another Google flop by PapayaSF · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This has all the earmarks of another sounds-cool-at-first Google project that won't amount to much in the end.

    Modularity sounds like a good idea, but in practice, in cellphones, I don't think it'll work. In objects of that size 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. The trade-offs will mean you'll be able to pick one or two things (e.g. speed, battery life, extra features, etc.) but not all at the same time. And the prices won't be good, because manufacturer(s) will not have 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
    1. Re:Prediction: another Google flop by Solandri · · Score: 1

      Modularity sounds like a good idea, but in practice, in cellphones, I don't think it'll work. In objects of that size 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. The trade-offs will mean you'll be able to pick one or two things (e.g. speed, battery life, extra features, etc.) but not all at the same time.

      A lot of people think phones are already too thin. I had to buy a case for mine just to thicken it up so I wouldn't drop it as easily. I dropped my previous phone 3 times in 2 years. I dropped my new one 3 times in 2 weeks before I got the case.

      I think it'll flop, but for a different reason. 4-5 years ago it would've been a huge success. Back then, the advances were coming in quickly and steadily. 2G, 3G, 4G. Single core, dual core, quad core. 512MB, 1GB, 2GB, 4GB. 800x480, 1024x600, 1280x720, 1920x1080, 2560x1440. Today, not so much. Smartphones are pretty close to the point where you can buy one and use it until it breaks. A lot people I know who aren't obsessed with having the latest and greatest have the Galaxy S3 (released 2.7 years ago) and have zero reason to upgrade. It does everything they need, and could potentially need from a phone for the foreseeable future.

    2. Re:Prediction: another Google flop by PapayaSF · · Score: 1

      I agree that "too thin" is an issue. I'd be happy if Apple stopped making iPhones thinner and instead used the space for more battery.

      I'm not sure you're right about technological advances, though. While I'm not obsessed with the latest and greatest, I think it's impressive and meaningful that phones are getting to have near desktop-level processors, excellent cameras, etc. But I find it hard to image that Google will be able to create modules 1) with more impressive specs than an iPhone 6, and 2) be able to sell them at a competitive price.

      --
      Q: What does the "B." in Benoit B. Mandelbrot stand for? A: Benoit B. Mandelbrot
    3. Re:Prediction: another Google flop by swb · · Score: 1

      A lot people I know who aren't obsessed with having the latest and greatest have the Galaxy S3 (released 2.7 years ago) and have zero reason to upgrade.

      You've just defined your sample population axiomatically. People who don't want the latest features are by definition people who don't want to upgrade. You can write it backwards as "people who don't want to upgrade don't want the latest features" and it means the same thing.

      Smartphones are pretty close to the point where you can buy one and use it until it breaks.

      Now just do a Google search for people bitching about what the latest mobile OS release (if they can even get it) does to their 2 year old device. I hear more from Apple iOS users than Android users but that's often a function of the fact that Apple devices can get iOS without waiting for carriers to approve them, unlike many Android devices which get abandoned by the carriers and never see an update. Lots of complaints about how slow the devices are.

      Sure, you can use it as it came out of the box, but app vendors often follow OS releases and can abandon older OS releases pretty easily because so many people have updated devices with updated OSes. I flow my iPhones downward (my wife get's last years, the home phone is the one before that, the one before that is used as an iPod for my son on long trips). At one point the iPod lost half its apps when I updated it because the device couldn't run iOS 7 and couldn't run apps that now required 7.

      IMHO, a modular phone will solve much of this by letting users get a faster processor / memory module without replacing what (at least since "retina" displays) is a great display. Networking modules could get replaced if/when there was a network feature everyone wanted -- I have an iPhone 6+, but IMHO the 802.11ac is lost on me and any incremental upgrades to LTE are probably worthless without widespread carrier support for the enhanced LTE features (if I would notice them at all).

      It also adds to user choice -- a lot of iPhone users were put off by newer, larger phones or the lack of a choice on any platform for something that wasn't Galaxy sized or bigger. Deciding you want a smaller display would be trivial on a modular phone.

      I also think that the highly integrated SoC hardware model adds to OS performance hits on older systems and lack of extended OS support by the large number of architecture changes and required driver and OS tuning. If the devices were more modular you either wouldn't get stuck (new CPU module) and it would push OS makers into thinking more modular about their OSes rather than tailoring an OS release to whatever the latest hardware in the current model is.

      More importantly than any of this, however, is that phone hardware is rapidly getting to PC performance levels and its getting very close to the idea that a smartphone could become a base module itself in a PC, possibly with a wide range of crossover (where PCs would actually use smartphone modules by default). Sure, you can do a bluetooth keyboard and HDMI output now, but it's less than what it could be.

    4. Re:Prediction: another Google flop by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Now just do a Google search for people bitching about what the latest mobile OS release (if they can even get it) does to their 2 year old device.

      this is all but over. it's getting hard to find a smartphone without multiple processors and at least 1GB of RAM. When they are all at least dual-core and are mostly quad-core and have at least 2GB then it will be a long, long time before anyone needs to replace them, just like what happened to PCs.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    5. Re:Prediction: another Google flop by tlhIngan · · Score: 2

      Modularity sounds like a good idea, but in practice, in cellphones, I don't think it'll work. In objects of that size 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. The trade-offs will mean you'll be able to pick one or two things (e.g. speed, battery life, extra features, etc.) but not all at the same time.

      A lot of people think phones are already too thin. I had to buy a case for mine just to thicken it up so I wouldn't drop it as easily. I dropped my previous phone 3 times in 2 years. I dropped my new one 3 times in 2 weeks before I got the case.

        I think it'll flop, but for a different reason. 4-5 years ago it would've been a huge success. Back then, the advances were coming in quickly and steadily. 2G, 3G, 4G. Single core, dual core, quad core. 512MB, 1GB, 2GB, 4GB. 800x480, 1024x600, 1280x720, 1920x1080, 2560x1440. Today, not so much. Smartphones are pretty close to the point where you can buy one and use it until it breaks. A lot people I know who aren't obsessed with having the latest and greatest have the Galaxy S3 (released 2.7 years ago) and have zero reason to upgrade. It does everything they need, and could potentially need from a phone for the foreseeable future.

      People don't really care for modularity.

      Judge by an example of modularity - the desktop PC. It was the ultimate - you could swap anything in and anything out, drivers are basically a non-issue with them either built in or auto-downloaded, etc.

      And yet, people went for smaller and more integrated... laptops. Desktop sales used to dominate PC sales until a decade ago when laptops outsold desktops and have continued to do so since.

      And these were desktops in all shapes and sizes - from small and tiny to huge hulking monsters with plenty of space for a dozen hard drives if you desired.

      Of course, you can still buy desktop PCs these days, as they're the go-to form factor if you want ultimate performance (with a cost to match - laptops have gotten pretty low in the pricing tier and decent desktop PCs are pricier now).

      The idea of a "PC like cellphone" will cater to a niche. The question becomes whether that niche is big enough to sustain a market and whether or not the driver model can tolerate crappy code. (Most of Windows' issues stem from the fact that hardware manufacturers write crappy code - the goal is to sell hardware, so if you can cut corners on a driver because that's a huge expense, that's more profit to you). it's why Linux gets good marks on that department - those who can write kernel code are often in charge of writing drivers, and they're more interested in getting their hardware working properly and well over trying to chuck something out the door quick.

    6. Re:Prediction: another Google flop by swb · · Score: 1

      The bitch fest about iOS8 on iPhone 5 which is dual core and has 1 GB RAM was pretty damn loud.

      I do think that as each device rev usually gets a pretty significant SoC change which inevitably leads to performance tuning focusing on the new hardware platform. Sure, they backport to older hardware but there's a lot of diminishing return in tuning the new OS for older hardware.

      It's even worse for Android than iOS because of the wide range of platforms used for any given Android release.

      I think there's an awful lot of "port and pray" going on which is probably coupled with more than a little cynicism on the part of vendors that shitty performance is an acceptable state to motivate new handset purchases.

      I just think a more modular platform would make it more difficult for OS vendors to focus their OSes as much as a single-platform target and be so half-hearted about platforms that aren't the OS launch platform.

  12. So which "fun" modules can we choose from again? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The modules that completely fill the handset displayed:

    - 8MP Camera
    - WIFI / BT
    - USB Charger
    - Band 5 Antenna
    - 3G modem with band 2 antenna
    - Nvidia Tegra K1 with Marvell chip
    - Battery
    - Speaker module

    sooo........ I'm struggling to see which one of these can be swapped out without completely gimping your phone.

  13. So am I by gwolf · · Score: 1

    I was born in Mexico. So is my wife — A proud Argentinian. We are as Americans as Puerto Ricans, as Cubans, and as nationals from tens of countries.

  14. The solution is... by funkymonkjay · · Score: 1

    SystemD! done and done!

  15. modular laptops by funkymonkjay · · Score: 1

    remember those being the next hot thing? well, look how they turned out. I have a feeling this could have the same fate. also, with the phones being so cheap there's is little reason to upgrade in piecemeal. I think the one thing that it does bring to the table is expansion ports for third party products - PCI slots for phones.

  16. Re:I want to make and receive phone calls. by Coren22 · · Score: 1

    Are you going to tell me that a 13$ phone isn't dumb enough for you:

    http://www.walmart.com/ip/Veri...

    --
    APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
  17. Re: First world problems by Coren22 · · Score: 1

    I think many don't know the actual meaning of third world country. Many seem to equate it with being a poor country, which is exactly what it doesn't mean.

    1st world : NATO
    2nd world : Soviet Block
    3rd world : unaffiliated.

    like 90% of the countries in the world are 3rd world, and none are 2nd world anymore as the soviet union kinda crashed.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T...

    --
    APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
  18. Re:Did Slashdot's CSS just change? by Zaiff+Urgulbunger · · Score: 1

    Yep... been fucked for me for a couple of days now. I use the Threaded view and opening sub-threads is even worse because the new CSS has disabled the right scroll bar!

    I mean, I know /. was never great for it's HTML or CSS, but this really is crap.