Google Ara modular smartphone demo

[dougp]

Uh... No

You can't much improve on the density of current lithium cells, so capacity is directly correlated with volume. Samsung is one of the few that still has a removable back so you can Google to see how large the batteries are compared to the phone. Now compare that to what's seen in the Ara and it looks like 2/3 the size at best. That's a big problem IMO

Since we don't know much about functionality, I'm making an assumption that all power-required items besides the actual battery themselves are baked into the phone mainboard, or display portion. Thus the 2x2 would be sufficient.

 

[kpkp]

Since we don't know much about functionality, I'm making an assumption that all power-required items besides the actual battery themselves are baked into the phone mainboard, or display portion. Thus the 2x2 would be sufficient.

Maybe it's because english isn'y my 1st language... but I have no idea what are you trying to say. Can you be a bit more clear, thx?

The "endo" has a small battery to enable you to hot swap, that's all.

 

[dougp]

Maybe it's because english isn'y my 1st language... but I have no idea what are you trying to say. Can you be a bit more clear, thx?

The "endo" has a small battery to enable you to hot swap, that's all.

It can still have the circuitry inside the "endo" that's required for the batteries, leaving the modules to actually be the "battery" itself. Or, I could be wrong, I'm not an engineer.

 

[JEDIYoda]

So I see others, like myself did not watch the whole 2 hour + video.....you would think the video would answer that question!

 

[kpkp]

@JEDIYoda
It's just 20mins or so, the rest of the video is about other stuff....

@dougp
We will see in april, but based on the picture I attached it doesn't seem the case.

 

[EightySix Four]

I've put a lot of thought into this since the first prototype images were making the rounds and I'm still having a hard time thinking about the software side of this and how well Android is going to manage swappable hardware. For example, he spoke of having a module with your applications and data but I thought Android was in the process of moving away from the Dalvik JIT compiler to compiling on installation? If the underlying hardware changes, wouldn't you have to recompile those apps?

I'm not saying it can't be done, I just see how long it has taken Google to polish Android up to this point, and I'm having a hard time imagining this being as seamless as we would like.

The electro-permanent magnets are cool though.

 

[vshah]

I've put a lot of thought into this since the first prototype images were making the rounds and I'm still having a hard time thinking about the software side of this and how well Android is going to manage swappable hardware. For example, he spoke of having a module with your applications and data but I thought Android was in the process of moving away from the Dalvik JIT compiler to compiling on installation? If the underlying hardware changes, wouldn't you have to recompile those apps?

I'm not saying it can't be done, I just see how long it has taken Google to polish Android up to this point, and I'm having a hard time imagining this being as seamless as we would like.

The electro-permanent magnets are cool though.

certain module swaps might require a reboot, while others would not.

 

[tfinch2]

"This video is private"

 

[EightySix Four]

certain module swaps might require a reboot, while others would not.

I didn't say hot-swappable, I said swappable in general. Hardware swaps are tough on the O/S.

 

[BrightCandle]

I think this is quite possibly my next phone. All depends on the modules and what having this system costs me in terms of battery life and soc performance and screens. In the end its likely to provide better options than any phone made as an all in one but initially I suspect its going to be more limited.

 

[luv2liv]

youtube link now dead.
i think most people will want super thin phones than a modular phone though. just look at all the compromises companies took to make super thin laptops

 

[kpkp]

Someone cut and re-upload the video, for the ones who missed it.

 

[quikah]

They claim to have devices in peoples hands next year but didn't have a functional prototype to show?

 

[Red Storm]

They claim to have devices in peoples hands next year but didn't have a functional prototype to show?

Next year could be anywhere from 9 to 21 months away.

 

[Graze]

They claim to have devices in peoples hands next year but didn't have a functional prototype to show?

People's hands as in product tester and not end user necessarily

 

[quikah]

People's hands as in product tester and not end user necessarily

Yeah, it is open source, the end user is the product tester. Well, I am pretty sceptical about their timelines, but who knows.

 

[maziwanka]

isn't this similar to phonebloks?

https://phonebloks.com/en/goals

 

[Mopetar]

Seems pretty nifty, but I can see a few issues with it. The first is that there are only a few screen sizes you can reasonably have that fit well with the block sizes they've chosen. The second is that the market for this is a bit of a chicken and egg problem where it's hard to get third parties to make modules when the install base is tiny and it's hard to get people to buy into the product when there aren't many different manufacturers making modules.

I think we'll see the first version of this in about two years' time, but I don't think it will be something worth owning outside of a few particular niche cases for at least another five years after that while the market develops and the bugs get worked out.

 

[OneOfTheseDays]

I can't see this as ever being anything more than a hobby market.

Smartphones are too costly and cost savings are only realized through integration of components at the SOC level.

 

[Red Storm]

New blogpost about the MDK (Module Developer's Kit) for those who are interested:

https://plus.google.com/+GoogleATAP/posts/FmJ9Qb7Cqsw

 

[kpkp]

New blogpost about the MDK (Module Developer's Kit) for those who are interested:
https://plus.google.com/+GoogleATAP/posts/FmJ9Qb7Cqsw

Graphical preview of the MDK:

 

[PowerYoga]

cool concept but probably too expensive for the average consumer, and i'd hate to drop my phone to have it scatter in 20 different directions to be kicked around by 15 people.

 

[roguerower]

Great concept and I'm looking forward to this coming to fruition.

 

[kpkp]

You could probably put more than one battery module right?

This has been confirmed in the MDK.

My biggest concern is the electromagnet that they use. Electromagnets normally use lot of power

The magnets they use, use power only when they change state (on/off).

 

[desura]

I like it.

Only...

It would be an utter nightmare for warranties and returns. I also imagine that if someone dropped their phone they might lose a few modules.

Not idiot proof enough, could never be.