Google Project ARA
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- benfal991
"Project Ara is the codename for an initiative by Google that aims to develop a free, open hardware platform for creating highly modular smartphones.
The platform will include a structural frame that holds smartphone modules of the owner's choice, such as a display, keyboard or an extra battery."
- benfal990
Will it bend?
- fadein110
This started life on kickstarter
- i_monk0
From 7 months ago:
- organicgrid0
2012 just called...Phonebloks wants its design patent back.
- dbloc0
Total RIP unless they bought them out
- prophetone3
- *bumpprophetone
- It will be available at the end of the year for some developers.sted
- So same old thing that was originally pitched? Still clunky. Still meh. and have fun losing your camera/speaker/batte...lvl_13
- I still like it, clunky, but it's a prototype, looks unique (nothing today looks interesting, imho)formed
- Internet instantly shitting on something shocker! I am interested to see what this leads to - detach the camera and use it remotely, swapping displays etc.face_melter
- i'm too old for this...SimonFFM
- if had a laser then i would be interested its too much of sheep grazing type device. reliance on tech like this is too scary.yurimon
- utopian3
Right to the Google Graveyard!
- Hayoth-1
Google bought phone bloks non-nerds.
- lvl_130
Expensive Legos for adults that will constantly lose the small pieces. No one wants a piece together phone.
- i wood.pango
- the real improvements have stopped, to upgrade a camera every year for a fraction of the cost, etc., etc., would get my money,formed
- Apple's "no flexibility' is a dying model, especially w/ 4k and better opticsformed
- @formed i doubt it would be a fraction of the price. if that's the case, then sure. but people are so used to cheap subsidized phoneslvl_13
- that replacing a piece at a time seems to be just putting a band-aid on an outdated piece of gear.lvl_13
- it's like holding on to that old honda accord because it runs well. meanwhile there are some bentleys' out there just waiting to be had.lvl_13
- But not everyone can afford a new car. If you can just swap the engine to make it go faster without buying a car. why not?pango
- the camera replacement would be a fraction of the cost of buying an entire phone, of course it would be a fraction of the cost, it's just a pieceformed
- I want a better camera for my S5, but the rest of the phone is superb, none of the new phones have anything else I care about, so I won't upgradeformed
- and that's why the market is, for the first time, slowingformed
- and phones are subsidized anymore, so that's a moot point, payment plans, but not subsidizedformed
- *aren'tformed
- fair enough.lvl_13
- formed0
http://www.theverge.com/google/2…
It'll be interesting to see how far this can go. Personally, as I get more and more involved with video I see the reliance on having a phone (Osmo, GoPro, etc., so why not just have a module and a drive as part of the phone? Not much different than the RED, Black Magic or other modular designs, just on a smaller level). I also am enjoying how totally opposite it is of Apple. I still can't believe people would use their phone to shoot 4k, but not have expandable storage.
- dbloc0
I really like this idea.
- instrmntl0
I was supposed to work on the I/O site launch. I hear that the release is now more internally and the launch may be pushed back.
- fairbaken0
what a bummer.. they killed it for me.
Here comes the catch, and you better brace yourself for it: in a bid to become reality, Ara is shedding part of its modularity. Instead of breaking down the unit smartphone into smaller modules, the “smart” of the smartphone was being broken down into smaller modules. What this meant that Ara is no longer a fully-modular affair — you can’t change the phone.
The CPU, GPU, Memory, RAM, Display Size, Display Tech, Antennas, Sensors, Battery — you won’t be able to modify these parts of the phone. Instead, the added bits on top will be your playground.
http://www.xda-developers.com/pr…- ah, what worthless crap this will be:( I was really looking forward to attach a gpu, projector or some major hardware extension like in the heroic age of the pcsted
- The Verge guy popped the battery off, went on how you could hot swap themformed
- I think we'll have to wait and see. It's a prototype, but thinking you could swap a cpu or antenna is a little silly.formed
- why ? replacing the cpu-block after some years would have saved the other components. probably they found out, that in the end they would sell less phones..fairbaken