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Project Ara Lives: Google's Modular Smartphones Coming To Developers This Fall (recode.net)
Finally, there's some update on Project Ara, an open hardware platform for creating highly modular smartphones. Google announced on Friday that a test version of the modular smartphone will be released to developers in the fourth quarter. Google, which owns Project Ara, added that a thinner version of the phone will be made available to consumers next year. Recode, reports: The revamped Project Ara design puts the core phone technology together in the phone's frame, with room for six interchangeable module slots. Modules can also be inserted and ejected while the phone is running, Google said. Onstage Friday at its I/O developer conference, Google demonstrated a camera module, taking a picture of the session discussing Ara. It also talked about other modules, including one to allow diabetics to monitor their blood glucose. Google said it made enough progress with Ara that it is spinning it out of its advanced projects team and into its own business unit.
If they will build it in America, my gut feeling says that the military will start buying these in large quantities.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
So does this mean the screen isn't replaceable? Swapping a broken screen was the biggest sell of the whole modular phone idea for me...
They've managed to work around the issue of running android without a CPU plugged in.
With 3D printing, I can just download and print any kind of phone I want at home. Duh. Luddites.
Dear Google Thinner is STUPID. make it the same thickness but with more battery. make that sucker go 3 days easily without the need to charge. 5 days if you want to be epic
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Everything is cool when you're part of a team
So now its just a phone and not the full DIY kit that was promised. Basically six slots with probably six options, and you can just elect to skip things like NFC to save money. At least that is what it smells like. I'd love to be wrong by them offering like 8 different wlan chips or something.
All Project Ara articles should remind the reader that Google isn't serious about making a phone like this for consumers. This is evident by their position that putting user removable batteries and microSD cards in Nexus phones would be too complicated for consumers.
The military desires more, not less, durable items.
What the military really needs is specialized cases that offer additional capabilities in conjunction with already durable smartphones.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
N/A
This isn't a phone, it's a Tricorder made out of Legos.
Very Nice..
From Syed Aashir Hussain
"Most of the modular promises have been toned down—now all the "base components" of a smartphone are built into the Ara body, just like a normal smartphone. The Ara body contains a fixed CPU, GPU, antennas, sensors, battery, and display. " http://arstechnica.com/gadgets...
"Of course, people stopped upgrading and customizing PCs about a decade ago."
I'd upgrade every three years if I could afford it, you stupid ass. As it is, I still manage every five or six. How does somebody who cares so little about computers manage to get a job writing articles about them?
This article misses the critical point that the Project Ara phones will no longer be upgradeable.
From the Project Ara website: "The Ara frame contains the CPU, GPU, antennas, sensors, battery and display..."
The whole concept behind Phonebloks, which grew into Project Ara, was that everything was to be upgradeable. When a new CPU came out, you could just upgrade the module. If you wanted better gaming performance, you could drop in a better GPU module. If you needed a larger battery, or if the current battery performance was poor, you could swap it out. If you wanted a better display, you could just upgrade the module. The idea was to create an ecosystem when you didn't have to replace the whole phone if a new upgrade came out.
Yes, the new Project Ara is modular, but only to the point of secondary functions. Key functionality (ie. Display, CPU/GPU, battery and cellular) is not modular, and therefore not upgradeable. This goes completely against the original concept of Phonebloks and Project Ara.
A company wants to stick pedestrians to car hoods, now gives us a mobile phone that falls to bits BY DESIGN.
Seriously, you can either be a HOOD BADGE for Google Self Driving Cards or be on your knees looking for that bit that fell off or stand on a bit of mobile phone LEGO (worst pain in the world).
Not everything can be done by Swype.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.