It looks like Facebook is exploring modular smartphones. The social network has filed a patent at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for a “modular electromechanical device” that would allow users to easily swap existing components. This development was first spotted by Business Insider. Continue reading “Facebook’s new patents suggests a modular smartphone is in the works”
Just yesterday, it was reported that Google has killed Project Ara modular smartphone. Now, founder of Project Ara and former Head of Design at Google ATAP, Dan Makoski has confirmed that he is actually in the process of working with Nexpaq on a modular phone.
Continue reading “Project ARA Founder now working on new modular smartphone Nexpaq”
Google had announced in May that developer version of the Project Ara modular smartphone will be released in the fall of 2016. Now as per a new report from Reuters Google is axing Project Ara.
Continue reading “Google reportedly kills Project Ara modular smartphone”
It seems like Google’s Project Ara is getting a new competitor. Vsenn, a Finnish startup has announced that it is working on a modular smartphone running vanilla Android.
Continue reading “Vsenn kicks off modular smartphone project to challenge Project Ara”
A video showing the prototype of Project Ara modular smartphone concept has been released by Phoneblocks. It shows the progress of the Project Ara being developed by NK Labs, a Massachusetts-based contractor.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qsGTXLnmKs
NK Labs is just one of dozens of partners Google is working with in order to make Project Ara a reality. The video shows a little hands-on with the team’s “Spiral 1″ prototype of the modular handset and reveals that the Ara’s “Spiral 2″ build will feature a custom-made Toshiba chip. An existence of the Toshiba chip was first reported in May . Moving on, the video states that the “Spiral 2″ will leave most of the area of the phone available for developers’ functions. Google has announced that it will hold two developer conference in January and the Spiral 2 will be introduced during the conference.
“The principal focus of this second Module Developers Conference will be the next major release of the Ara Module Developers Kit (MDK)–version 0.20. We have been hard at work maturing and improving the Ara platform, and we will highlight the major changes and advances in the MDK. ”
posted Paul Eremenko, Head of Project Ara, Google ATAP on a Google+.
Project Ara was started by Motorola in a bid to offer consumers the ability to change components in their devices, without the need to upgrade their smartphones every time a new one comes around. Modular smartphone will have between 5 and 10 modules, can be customized according to users needs. Targeted towards emerging markets, the phones lets user identify their needs thereby giving flexibility to choose features for their device. For example, users can upgrade to a higher quality camera instead of replacing their existing phone entirely or add a keyboard if you are not comfortable with touchscreens.
Google might have sold off Motorola to Lenovo, but is keeping all those patents and research teams close to Mountain View. Motorola’s R&D initially unveiled a concept called “Ara”, the first modular smartphone that has the potential to totally change the way we look at, and buy smartphones. The concept is pretty simple, as it follows the typical “Build you own PC” method, which grants you the flexibility of choice in interesting permutations and combinations. Ara now belongs to Google, and naturally, we are seeing some momentum here, with them announcing a Modular Development Kit, using which hardware manufacturers or “Module Developers” can create different modules that will eventually turn up on your own custom Ara phone.
Continue reading “Google’s Project Ara gains a Modular Development Kit”
What started as a viral video is now in serious development in hands of Google which owns Android which is the most popular smartphone operating system. Phonebloks, the concept of modular smartphone, went viral towards late 2013 and sometime later, Motorola, then owned by Google, took the matter into its hands and started Project Ara – Modular smartphone.
Continue reading “Google Project Ara gets featured in MIT Technology Review”
