Google's Project Ara Modular Smartphone Will Ship to Developers This Fall [Video]

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Posted May 21, 2016 at 3:33pm by iClarified

Google has announced that it will ship a developer edition of its Project Ara modular smartphone this fall. The company has been working on a way to let users build a custom smartphone out of interchangeable parts. For example, you might add a wide-angle camera module, a larger battery, an e-ink display, louder speakers, or any one of many other modules created by Google and other manufacturers.

In an interview with Wired, Rafa Camargo, Ara's technical project lead, demonstrated how far Ara has come.

He picks the black phone up from the white table in front of him, flips it over, and taps the power button. It turns on. Next, he picks up a camera module from the table, pops it into the phone, opens the camera app, and quickly takes a crisp photo. “There’s your camera, live,” Camargo says.

About 30 people within Google's Advanced Technologies and Products Division are already using Ara as their primary phone.

The current device being demonstrated is a prototype and bulkier than the final version that Google plans to ship to customers next year. The team has been working over the past year to standardize the modules so developers could actually start to build them. The connectors were redesigned to support constant connecting and reconnecting and a proprietary port was created that uses the UniPro standard. The phone will have six of these ports and each can push up to 11.9 gigabits of data per seconds.

Blaise Bertrand, ATAP’s master of creative, also showed Wired a non-working prototype that was sleeker in design but still thicker and chunkier than they'd like. Bertrand is confident that thin and clean are adjectives he can work with.

The developer edition of Ara will be a 5.3-inch fairly high end device that can function as a normal Android phone. The frame contains the CPU, GPU, antennas, sensors, battery and display. Google is looking to developers to help create modules ahead of its consumer launch.

“The key here,” Camargo says, “is to develop the functionality you don’t get on your smartphone today. I’ll give you the smartphone, so you don’t have to worry about it.”

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Read More [via Wired]

Google's Project Ara Modular Smartphone Will Ship to Developers This Fall [Video]

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digim0d - May 24, 2016 at 1:05pm

I learned nothing from this commercial except it's half phone / half Legos.. The commercial explained nothing except that this phone will help a guy get to first base with my daughter while watching TV sitting on the couch ... hell no Google!!!!

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joshWUa - May 22, 2016 at 10:01pm

Might end up switching with this technology and dumping iPhone. It seems it's gonna disappoint this year from the rumors I hear.

Rexco Chin - May 22, 2016 at 4:51am

I think this is the 1 think that China can't copy ha ha ha

Ricky - May 22, 2016 at 4:12am

Wasn't this first introduced my Phoneblok or something like that.

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iPhone Killer - May 21, 2016 at 9:54pm

it's coming to a town near you this fall "Applecalypse Now" Damn can't wiat to see it. Finally an iPhone Killer.

jenya - May 21, 2016 at 6:12pm

finaly we can create build own style and let develop others to create. innovation, creation, fantasy - this is where i see future going to. not being dependent on monopoly. google really becoming as a base for alternative thinking minds.

SayingWhatEveryonesThinking - May 21, 2016 at 4:18pm

Yeah, this is a pretty dumb idea. Why not just have one phone with everything you want built-in so you don't have to worry about losing "modules" and pieces? Maybe with a better OS that's more intuitive? Oh wait, that's called an iPhone.

AverageReviewer - May 21, 2016 at 5:14pm

Lmao as an iPhone user even I know you're wrong lol thanks for the joke. iPhone doesn't have it all, you want a phone that has come closest to having it all then look at the Galaxy S7 edge, that phone is the closest to perfect that you can get right now. iPhones can only view videos in max of 720p as of right now after that you don't notice a difference, compare that to the Galaxy S7 edge's amazing AMOLED display and there is no comparison, the results speak for themselves. Camera is also better on the S7 along with being basically waterproof for underwater pictures along with wireless fast charging or even wired fast charging, takes my phone an hour to even get 50%, absolutely ridiculous that people keep claiming Apple is the best when it's just not true, that was the case when the iPhone 5S was released but after that other companies caught up and exceeded what apple calls "standard" no I'm sorry apple but the new standard is being waterproof, amazing camera, better battery life, and a better display.

Imri - May 22, 2016 at 10:30am

I had read a review comparing all cameras of most flagship phones, gs7 is indeed better but not by that much, and they have very different styles, and you are comparing a gimmick phone to a flag ship. What I meant by gimmick is galaxy used to add useless stuff before it was even ready to use by the consumer... Even now not everything is perfect as far as I know... Btw battery life is maybe a bit better but iPhones have improved as well, and about speed, the benchmarks of iphone 6s and plus modules are faster than gs7 so don't get to excited buddy ;) more cores isn't always better..

stevenlacross - May 21, 2016 at 4:10pm

Well, it would have been great if the screen was removable and also the memory chips, like if they come out with an ara 2 with better specs, all you have to do is snap off your old memory chips and put them on the new phone and all your data is already transfered over. As well as if you break the screen, you can just order a replacement screen and snap off the old one then snap on a new one. Otherwise snapping on and off other modules will probably not be happening. Once you pick the ones you want, that'll be it.

U - May 21, 2016 at 4:07pm

Wonderful! One can finally go back to carrying a camera bag on bis back full of lenses, filters, flashes, and no doubts, super gps, gamepad, screen extender, wifi extender, movie projector and no doubt very imaginative and ground breaking MODULES! Misplacing, losing them, buying a bigger bag as module collection increases in number, 9H what fun! Thank you Google!

Daniel Carr - May 21, 2016 at 3:49pm

I think it has potential and you can't dis it until you try it.

MDizzle - May 21, 2016 at 3:41pm

My two year old daughter has a toy very similar with lots of little exchangeable pieces to it. Carrying around multiple pieces to it is annoying and most of the pieces have been lost. I don't see this being successful nor functional.