Project Ara Lives: Google's Modular Smartphones Coming To Developers This Fall (recode.net) 39
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.
Hopefully built in America (Score:3)
Wrong way (Score:2)
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.
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It'll be Foxconn, but here on Slashdot that's really only interesting if it's Apple.
Screen? (Score:2)
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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...
If you look at the pictures in the article you would notice that there are different sized screens indicating an ability not only to change/replace screens but to have different sizes depending on what you are doing at the time.
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What makes you say that?
According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Each slot on the frame will accept any module of the correct size. The front slots are of various heights and take up the whole width of the frame. The rear slots come in standard sizes of 1×1, 1×2 and 2×2
That sounds like the screen(s) will be hot-swappable modules that won't necessarily cover the entire front of the device, and there's perhaps the possibility of multiple screens as well. It sounds like even the CPU(and integrated backup battery) will be a module, with the frame being just a structural component and power/data bus to tie everything together - not completely unlike an empty PC case.
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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 t
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Intriguing (Score:2)
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Smartass? Or did you see something I didn't? With a backup battery integrated into the CPU module it seems more likely that Android would keep happily running on the unplugged CPU module while the rest of the phone went dead. Not unlike unplugging everything but power from a desktop PC.
On a related note, I wonder if they have (or are planning to) allow for multiple CPU modules on the same frame. Might have some interesting potential - bare minimum CPU for normal stuff, powers up and transfers control to a
Not Thinner. (Score:5, Insightful)
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
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It's called a battery case, it's great because you can choose if you want thin or battery. My battery case, for example, has a USB port so I can charge other stuff with it.
Re:Not Thinner. (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
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Thank Apple and Jobs. They won't be happy until you can shave with your phone.
Lego Phone: Everything is awesome (Score:3)
so now its just a phone... (Score:1)
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What's the benefit of 8 different wlan chips? Developing in the fragmented Android market is hard enough.
I view these as PCIe style extensions, for things beyond what a normal smartphone does.
lego-tricorder? (Score:1)
This isn't a phone, it's a Tricorder made out of Legos.
Not really modular anymore (Score:1)
TFA Is Written by an Idiot (Score:2)
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?
Modular, but no longer upgradeable (Score:2)
This article misses the critical point that the Project Ara phones will no longer be upgradeable.
From the Project Ara website: [google.com] "The Ara frame contains the CPU, GPU, antennas, sensors, battery and display..."
The whole concept behind Phonebloks [phonebloks.com], 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 batter
How about a QWERTY keyboard? (Score:2)
Not everything can be done by Swype.