This... is interesting. Definitely a wait-and-see, but now that Motorola has Google's backing this actually seems feasible.

Kinda ugly though, it definitely needs a case.

http://motorola-blog.blogspot.com/2013/10/goodbye-sticky-hello-ara.html

Goodbye Sticky. Hello Ara.
Over the last six months, our MAKEwithMOTO team took Sticky, a truck wrapped entirely in velcro and filled with rooted, hackable Motorola smartphones and high-end 3D printing equipment, across the country for a series of make-a-thons. On that trip we saw the first signs of a new, open hardware ecosystem made possible by advances in additive manufacturing and access to the powerful computational capabilities of modern smartphones. These included new devices and applications that we could never have imagined from inside our own labs. Open fuels innovation. See some examples here, here, and here.

After the trip, we asked ourselves, how do we bring the benefits of an open hardware ecosystem to 6 billion people?

Meet Ara.

Led by Motorola’s Advanced Technology and Projects group, Project Ara is developing a free, open hardware platform for creating highly modular smartphones. We want to do for hardware what the Android platform has done for software: create a vibrant third-party developer ecosystem, lower the barriers to entry, increase the pace of innovation, and substantially compress development timelines.

Our goal is to drive a more thoughtful, expressive, and open relationship between users, developers, and their phones. To give you the power to decide what your phone does, how it looks, where and what it’s made of, how much it costs, and how long you’ll keep it.

Here’s a sneak peek at early designs for Project Ara:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TEIBjLMyWCo/Um8z20ChkuI/AAAAAAAAEiA/5VHRyYpSWwE/s640/ara1blogpost.png

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-p3yNXgVr6Ds/Um80F-C2GfI/AAAAAAAAEiI/HzgWlnOSByE/s640/ara2blogpost.png

The design for Project Ara consists of what we call an endoskeleton (endo) and modules. The endo is the structural frame that holds all the modules in place. A module can be anything, from a new application processor to a new display or keyboard, an extra battery, a pulse oximeter--or something not yet thought of!

We’ve been working on Project Ara for over a year. Recently, we met Dave Hakkens, the creator of Phonebloks (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDAw7vW7H0c). Turns out we share a common vision: to develop a phone platform that is modular, open, customizable, and made for the entire world. We’ve done deep technical work. Dave created a community. The power of open requires both. So we will be working on Project Ara in the open, engaging with the Phonebloks community throughout our development process, as well as asking questions to our Project Ara research scouts (volunteers interested in helping us learn about how people make choices). In a few months, we will also send an invitation to developers to start creating modules for the Ara platform (to spice it up a bit, there might be prizes!). We anticipate an alpha release of the Module Developer’s Kit (MDK) sometime this winter.

So stay tuned. There will be a lot more coming from us in the next few months.

--Paul Eremenko, and the Motorola Advanced Technology and Projects group, Project Ara Team

And this is why I'm skeptical...

http://www.popsci.com/article/gadgets/why-lego-style-phonebloks-concept-will-fall-apart

Why The Lego-Style 'Phonebloks' Concept Will Fall Apart
The idea of a modular smartphone with individually swappable pieces is genius. Too bad it's impossible.

By Colin Lecher Posted 10.28.2013 at 9:54 am

The Phonebloks concept, an idea for a block-based "modular" smartphone, is a borderline-brilliant, environmentally conscious, I-should've-thought-of-that victory of design. If you aren't familiar, the idea goes like this: phones (and other gadgets) are usually thrown out after a single piece breaks. (Screen smashed? Toss that piece of junk.) Instead, a phone with discrete, separable, pieces--one block for memory, one for the camera, etc.--would only need to replace the parts that are broken. Plus, it's a truly customizable device: if you want a better camera, just add it in; if you need more speed, replace the appropriate chunks.

But there's good reason to think the whole idea will fall apart faster than a Lego castle in the path of a toddler.

First, there's the problem of technical feasibility. If you're engineering- or electronics design-minded, there's a Reddit thread full of skepticism there for your examination. The main complaint, though, boils down to: This thing would be huuuuge. (In, like, the bad, physical way.) Most phones are cleverly designed to cram as many intertwined electronics inside as possible. It's almost unavoidable that a modular phone, with all the parts deliberately separate from each other and laid on a flat plane, would be gigantic, heavy, or extraordinarily expensive, or fragile. User frumperino sums up the thread nicely with this:

You can't really build a thing that goes into the unforgiving real-world pockets of people out of little user-assembled modules.
The phones we have today are marvels of integration with the components fitting tightly together and no space wasted. Consumer electronics must also conform to very demanding specifications for exactly controlled electromagnetic emissions in order to be certified for sale in any developed country. Meeting these requirements and passing certifications with a new phone means a deeply involved design process where every part of the device is considered together as a system.
But, sure, technology moves fast: maybe there are some smart folks out there who can come together and make it happen. Impossible is a strong word. After all, there have been other attempts at modular phones, even if they didn't make it very far.

Still, in the Phonebloks vision, there's one more potential snag: the companies who make our smartphones and accessories, Phonebloks suggests, would come together to make Phoneblok versions of their products. A camera from Canon, maybe, or a processor from Intel. On the NY Tech Meetup listserv, John Keenan, vice president at Goldman Sachs who's done work in mobile technology, astutely points out how self-assembled gadgets are the realm of tech geeks, even if Phonebloks made the system as easy as snap-on, snap-off. On the business side, meanwhile, making your own software and asking companies to conform to it could be a risky proposition:

- This is certainly possible with PC components today, yet only hard-core techies tend to assemble their own systems. Most people prefer to buy complete systems and let someone else do (at least most of) the integration.

- Microsoft just jumped into hardware with their Surface work, because they realized that the software-only approach isn't resulting in a competitive product in the mobile space (and anything not part of the 'core' device needs ramp-up time if it's not there from the beginning stages). Google licenses Android but only because they have close partnerships, as well as a (relatively) mature and well-entrenched mobile OS - and they still make a core device (Nexus) as a proof-of-concept.

It's also worth questioning how closely companies would need to become involved to make blocks that are compatible with Phonebloks, and if they'd be willing to cede quality control over to a much, much smaller device and team:

- There's no incentive for the manufacturers to do this. In addition to all the above, why would they want to sell you the "backplate" only and lose control of the rest of the handset? Apple and Samsung (primarily) create great devices because they own pretty much the entire device (I say "pretty much" for Samsung) and can ensure quality. Can you imagine Samsung selling the "base" and people snapping in "Joe's GPS module" and "Sam's discount radio chip?" Who would you blame for system failures or battery drain? Samsung, because it's the only common element.... but all these components require low-level access. Apple controls quality end-to-end, because they control all the hardware AND all the software at this point, as all (legal) apps have to go through their approval.

Which all isn't to say, if it works, Phonebloks couldn't be a great choice for the environmentally aware, geeky crowd, or even that there's no chance everything will go perfectly according to plan, and the final product wil be a indistinguishable from the concept video, while every hardware company will want to join in. But there's room to wonder if it's a better idea in practice than execution.

a lot of people told edison that when he was working on the light bulb.

so maybe the first shot might not work but eventually someone will get it right

He was the proto-Steve Jobs in that right.

Second up, he WORKED on the light bulb but it sure as hell wasn't the first light bulb ever. (Humphrey Davy out this bitch)

Also, this is NO lightbulb.

i'm out.
_____________________
"WHOLESALE REUSABLE GROCERY BAGS!!"
@etfp

if it doesn't just fail outright
they'll probably stumble upon a much more clever way to make it work.

is impossible...

**********
"Everyone has a plan until you punch them in the face. Then they don't have a plan anymore." (c) Mike Tyson

https://phonebloks.com/

in case anybody missed it. i guess they managed to get heard

maninpulate the phone to the way that they like, but I'm curious to know if this will actually be feasible.

P.S. I didn't read all of this, but I really wanted to leave a bookmark

It's cool but I don't think people really want it when they see it or have experience with it.

- Size of the phone: to make something that modular, it wouldn't ness be the size that you see there. It's not impossible but it'll probably be larger than most android phones. That backplane type of concept can exist but on something that small?

- The concept of putting electronics with little small modules stuck to it in your pocket. Some of that shit will get lost. Or it'll fall. Something will fall off. One of the best things I enjoy these days are SSDs because there's less moving parts to break. That's what you want to go for. This is incorporating a phone with a bunch of small external parts. How are those things going to attach to the phone? I hope not screws since that's a step backward from how phones are assembled these days.

- There's also an issue of actual communication between these separate modules. That would cause some latency which will probably be pretty damned noticable to the end user.

- Price: Phones are pretty cheap compared to years ago because the components are pretty integrated. This doesn't look that much integrated to me.

- Who would buy this?

ADDON: What OS would this thing run? The OS is about AS important as the hardware. Fuck it. MORE important than the hardware.

i'm out.
_____________________
"WHOLESALE REUSABLE GROCERY BAGS!!"
@etfp

from what i see, this is gonna be at least a couple of years of development

http://www.theverge.com/2014/4/15/5615880/building-blocks-how-project-ara-is-reinventing-the-smartphone

Some next level stuff here... it certainly sounds a lot farther along than when it was first announced.

http://www.cnet.com/news/googles-project-ara-phones-will-be-strange-and-adaptive-but-also-a-lot-of-fun-smartphones-unlocked/

Imagine your phone as the ultimate Swiss Army knife, the perfect all-in-one toolkit. What would you want on yours: A mini screwdriver, a fingerprint scanner, a bottle opener? With Project Ara phones, the attachment possibilities are boundless.

Ara's mix-and-match nature lets you upgrade components a la carte, and play around with leftover ports.

Google's current design for an Ara handset -- the endoskeleton, in Ara-speak -- features 12 connection ports for snapping on rectangular modules like the battery and processor (really!). The main point is that Project Ara's somewhat radical (and provocative) approach to smartphone-building is also one that for the first time gives buyers a form of creative expression not just over what their device looks like, but also what it does.

For instance, when your phone is fully charged, you could swap out the charging port in favor of a near-field communications (NFC) chip to make mobile payments. Or maybe it's the regular camera module that gets the boot, in favor of one with a specialized infrared nighttime lens.

If you were so inclined, you could even temporarily replace a nonessential unit, like that selfsame camera, with a tiny pack of breath strips to combat a garlicky afternoon out.

Crazy sexy cool

I can't actually imagine a scenario in which I would unclip my smartphone camera for a pack of breath strips that fit just as easily in my pocket or purse, but someone at Yezz has.

As part of its role in launching Google's first Ara phone pilot, Yezz, a Miami-based phone-maker, created a coffee table book of 100 concepts for the modular phone. A whole lot of these are practical, like an extra battery and dual-camera modules, wireless charging and an LED flashlight.

Others are more fanciful, like a snap-on Pico projector or ultraloud speaker, a pill box or a CB radio. Then there are the attachments. Imagine picking up a flip cover that also houses an e-ink screen, or a snap-on game pad for playing retro titles.

Athletes could swap in any number of modules with more powerful, sensor-based functions for their sport. Health-care providers and patients could likewise add a specialized module for tracking certain long-term conditions.

Eyes on the customized prize

What's unique about Project Ara phones is the deep level of customization that they promise.

"Customization" is one of those catch-phrases that's usually (and ironically) saddled with a more fixed meaning than the word suggests. You can always personalize your experience through cases and apps (or by rooting the phone OS to apply your own ROMs.) In a rare turn, Motorola gives you Moto Maker to control the Moto X's finish and accents.

Choosing your storage capacity is the only real way to affect the internals of conventional phones, apart from selecting the actual make and model itself. This is exactly Ara's appeal, and its main argument over going the usual route.

For its Puerto Rico pilot, Google partner Yezz plans to sell a basic model Project Ara phone, which customers can then augment through those aftermarket modules. While basic at first, those extras could balloon into those much more specialized features.

It's easy to then envision how, like Moto Maker, buyers could build their phones online, starting with the color and size of the endoskeleton and then piecing together modules from third-party vendors, each with various backplate designs.

In terms of smartphones, it's hard to get more bespoke than that.

What'cha gonna do with all that junk?

For all the creativity that Project Ara phones could bring, they aren't without their logistical entanglements.

A fully-functioning phone will use up almost all of the endoskeleton's modules, leaving maybe one or two ports free. So the reality of owning a bunch of swap-in modules is less practical. Where are they going to go when you aren't using them?

I imagine a handful of extras gently clinking around in a small carrying case, or maybe neatly arranged in a zippered organizer. Perhaps your deluxe camera dangles off a keychain. Or maybe most of them live at home, where you keep them as collector's items the same way that Mobile World Congress-goers went crazy for these adorable Android pins.

Then there's the question of how well they actually work. We've seen demos and plenty of mock-ups, but until we start hot-swapping hardware features, there's no way to know.

Stirring the pot can do some good

Project Ara is an enticingly wacky idea that promises the most creative expression a person can have with the device that, for many, never leaves their side.

It may not catch on, especially at such an early stage in its development. Even if Ara never gets past its pilot program, though, I still like what it represents: a wild, but still attainable, concept that we can have some fun with; or, at the very least, a mental exercise in building our individual dream phones.

Although as a mobile society, Ara isn't our first collective pass at a modular phone, it is the only one to make real headway, floating on Google's resources as a lab experiment.

Most famously, Dutch designer Dave Hakkens launched his own concept, Phonebloks, in 2013. Google cites another Ara forebear, however, a teeny tiny phone called the Modu 1 that you dressed up in hardware "jackets" and a new interface to suit your taste. We first saw that one as a preview device all the way back in 2008 and again as a commercial product in 2010.

It may not sound too hopeful that modular phones haven't caught on in any meaningful way in the seven years since Modu first emerged, but from my perspective, that's OK.

We need those reach-for-the-stars ideas in all areas of technology development, to inspire us past the sameness of so many devices. Besides, these ideas tend to transmute, growing beyond their initial hardware limitations and morphing into something stronger when engineers iron out the technical kinks.

Ara is a fun idea that won't overtake the mainstream soon, but the important thing in dreaming up all manner of modular clip-ons is that it sets brains thinking about what's possible for phones, and what's next.

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

the article said that the device was going to be released in Puerto Rico at first, but it didn't list a date and that date wasn't yesterday.