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Google Cellphones Hardware

Google To Test Build-It-Yourself Ara Smartphones In Puerto Rico 61

Posted by samzenpus 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.
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Google To Test Build-It-Yourself Ara Smartphones In Puerto Rico More

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

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  • Drivers (Score:5, Interesting)

    by NotInHere ( 3654617 ) on Wednesday January 14, 2015 @08:23PM (#48815917)

    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?

    • Re:Drivers (Score:4, Insightful)

      by exomondo ( 1725132 ) on Wednesday January 14, 2015 @08:50PM (#48816061)
      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.

  • Why is living in Puerto Rico 'unfortunate'?

    • 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!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gwolf ( 26339 )

      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?

  • 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.

  • 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...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Sowelu ( 713889 )

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

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Nemyst ( 1383049 )
      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.

  • 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.

  • A Common Driver Language (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    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 (Pronou

  • Prediction: another Google flop (Score:4, Insightful)

    by PapayaSF ( 721268 ) on Thursday January 15, 2015 @02:59AM (#48817723) Journal

    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.

    • 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

      • 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 t

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by swb ( 14022 )

        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

        • 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.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by swb ( 14022 )

            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 awfu

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        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 t

  • 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.

  • 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.

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