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.

Comments

Hopefully built in America

[WindBourne]

If they will build it in America, my gut feeling says that the military will start buying these in large quantities.

Not Thinner.

[Lumpy]

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

Re:Not Thinner.

[Dracos]

THIS. The industry needs to hyping thinness as a virtue: it brings less battery capacity, weaker chassis, and compromised usability (because less edge is less grip area).

And still no full QWERTY keyboard that I can find among the modules.... no sale.

Lego Phone: Everything is awesome

[jfdavis668]

Everything is cool when you're part of a team

Re:Screen?

[Immerman]

Okay, I think you're right - the article was a little non-informative, but the actual project ara page (https://atap.google.com/ara/) contains the blurb

The Ara frame contains all the functionality of a smartphone plus six flexible slots for easy swapping.

Which does suggest that at least touchscreen, radio, and CPU are integrated. Possibly the battery as well.

That's a shame, though I suppose it shouldn't be a huge surprise - the screen is the single largest and most fragile component of the phone, makes sense to integrate it into the rigid frame for added durability. It would be nice if they at least left the CPU as a more tightly-integrated module, even if you need to remove a bunch of screws to replace it. I mean screen + CPU is most of the cost of the phone - permanently integrate them both into the frame and you gut the upgradeability that was the core appeal, and the modules just become novelty stuff. I mean how many people are really going to want several different "extras" on their phone?