Project Ara

Project Ara is a very interesting concept allowing us to change and upgrade the device with ease. The modular smartphone idea looks like a mission impossible, but Google is determined to make it a reality pretty soon. Paul Eremenko from Project Ara team has shed some lights on the project’s status and we now know that Ara will have a modified version of Android L on board.

It was pretty easy to predict that Google would select Android as the operating system for Ara. The more interesting part is that users will be able to replace some elements of the device without powering off the phone (i.e. they will be hot swappable). The only exceptions are CPU and display, for obvious reasons. It remains unknown whether the RAM and storage will be replaceable as well. One word comes to mind to describe all this: craziness. If it’s true, this will be one of the most revolutionary piece(s) of hardware in the history of mobile technology. Manufactures like Motorola, Samsung, LG, HTC and many others that release a new phone every 6 months will have to either really lower there pricing or join in and start making these modules to continue making profits. I am really excited to see how Project Ara will change the industry and hopefully benefit then consumer in the end with awesome and up to date Hardware.

Google (or rather ATAP) is working with Linaro to make a modified version of Android. This means that the project should be open-sourced as well as other projects by Google. The Ara smartphone is aspiring to get the most innovative idea of the year title and Google is pushing hard to make it happen.

We should expect a consumer launch of Ara in the first quarter of 2015. Other details remain yet to be seen, most likely to be uncovered during the dev conference scheduled for December. In the mean time you can check out more info on it at the official site here http://www.projectara.com/

Google says the phone is designed to be used by “six billion people”, including the one billion smartphone users and the five billion feature phone users. Google intends to sell a starter kit where the bill of materials is US$50 and includes a frame, display, battery, low-end CPU and WiFi.

Google wants Project Ara to lower the entry barrier for phone hardware manufacturers so there could be “hundreds of thousands of developers” instead of the current handful of big manufacturers. Anyone will be able to build a module without requiring a license or paying a fee.

 Project Ara Development

As some of you may or may not know our beloved Developer Hashcode or Michael Scott is now on the Project Ara team for Linaro.  Hashcode is one of the most innovative Android developers that i know and has done amazing work on many devices. Examples the Kindle Fire and fire HD, Motorola droid and moto lines along with many Samsung Galaxy and note phones. He is the Developer of Safe Strap Recovery which some how lets you install roms on locked devices. I know with hashcode on the team that Project Ara is going to be one awesome device and i can wait to get my hands on one. If you would like to read hashcode post on google plus about this new job opportunity with Linaro please check out this link Hashcodes New Job 

Newest Video from Project Ara

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=intua_p4kE0&feature=youtu.be