Project Ara prototype gets demoed in a video

[RedRound2]

Project Ara gets demoed by a Google employee and talks about it and how it works for about 20 mins.

 

(Forward it to 5:00)

http://youtu.be/18LU5UtG5-M

So what do you guys think. Personally I'm excited, but there's still a lot of unanswered questions. Hopefully Google will shed some more light on it during the Ara developer conference on April 15th and 16th

[PillowSmoke]

YES!

[AndyCapets]

Can't wait!

[L.E.D]

Hadn't even heard about Project Ara until now.

[Eroda]

this IS Interesting!

[ThreePinkApples]

Woop, this eliminated many doubts I had!

[Kaasgeelheid]

Hadn't even heard about Project Ara until now.

lolhow, this is probably the most reposted topic in this forum ever

[dizmo]

Narp. Not interested unless a company finds a way to bridge both front modules into a solid screen.

[mvitkun]

lolhow, this is probably the most reposted topic in this forum ever

they could probably make the screen extrude out from the base module more and have the two slots under it go into the skeleton of the phone. 

 

where the red represents the screen.

[Kaasgeelheid]

they could probably make the screen extrude out from the base module more and have the two slots under it go into the skeleton of the phone. 

 

where the red represents the screen.

 

@dizmo

 

I think you quoted the wrong guy... 

[dizmo]

they could probably make the screen extrude out from the base module more and have the two slots under it go into the skeleton of the phone. 

 

 

where the red represents the screen.

 

Could...but will they. They could even use the extra space for battery.

The other issue I see is how they plan to keep all the modules in. I'm assuming they're using a weak magnet for the prototype, but magnets are not something I'd want to see in a production device.

Solid, locking click or no go for me.

[mvitkun]

@dizmo

 

I think you quoted the wrong guy... 

lol yeah,sorry.

[mvitkun]

Could...but will they. They could even use the extra space for battery.

The other issue I see is how they plan to keep all the modules in. I'm assuming they're using a weak magnet for the prototype, but magnets are not something I'd want to see in a production device.

Solid, locking click or no go for me.

From what I recall they said the the type of locking mechanism you would want would be much larger and that they plan to keep the magnets,although i recall they had said something about the magnets being an order of magnitude stronger in the actual phone to the point where the force required to remove it can't be exerted by your fingers.The magnets have an on and off state,both being passive and change between the states requires a charge.The on state being 10x stronger,the off state being similar to a regular magnet where you can easily just slide out the module and a slide a new one in.

 

I imagine it'll be something like a software version of a circuit breaker where you can toggle between on/off in a control panel.

So if you need to remove and insert a module you'd toggle it to off,it'd send a charge which would change the magnet to the off state,would weaken the magnet to 10x weaker where it is easy to move the modules,and you'd remove the old module and insert the new module,then toggle the magnet back to the on state where it has enough force where your fingers can no longer move the modules,and you're set to go.

watch the video from 17:30 to hear it from his mouth.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=18LU5UtG5-M#t=1050

 

honestly it's just a matter of how much you want a modular phone,if you prefer/value the unibody design of something like the iphone then obviously a modular phone isn't for you.

[dizmo]

From what I recall they said the the type of locking mechanism you would want would be much larger and that they plan to keep the magnets,although i recall they had said something about the magnets being an order of magnitude stronger in the actual phone to the point where the force required to remove it can't be exerted by your fingers.The magnets have an on and off state,both being passive and change between the states requires a charge.The on state being 10x stronger,the off state being similar to a regular magnet where you can easily just slide out the module and a slide a new one in.

 

 

 

I imagine it'll be something like a software version of a circuit breaker where you can toggle between on/off in a control panel.

So if you need to remove and insert a module you'd toggle it to off,it'd send a charge which would change the magnet to the off state,would weaken the magnet to 10x weaker where it is easy to move the modules,and you'd remove the old module and insert the new module,then toggle the magnet back to the on state where it has enough force where your fingers can no longer move the modules,and you're set to go.

watch the video from 17:30 to hear it from his mouth.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=18LU5UtG5-M#t=1050

 

honestly it's just a matter of how much you want a modular phone,if you prefer/value the unibody design of something like the iphone then obviously a modular phone isn't for you.

 

Ok that actually sounds pretty cool. Hopefully it wouldn't have a huge affect on the battery life of the device, especially if what you wanted to add meant you had a smaller battery section.

The modular idea interests me, however I'm not going to give up certain things just to get it. For example that huge module for the front facing camera would make landscape handling a bit more of a pain for those with smaller hands. It also just looks blah, but of course that's my personal opinion and it will vary.

[mvitkun]

Ok that actually sounds pretty cool. Hopefully it wouldn't have a huge affect on the battery life of the device, especially if what you wanted to add meant you had a smaller battery section.

The modular idea interests me, however I'm not going to give up certain things just to get it. For example that huge module for the front facing camera would make landscape handling a bit more of a pain for those with smaller hands. It also just looks blah, but of course that's my personal opinion and it will vary.

it wouldn't impact the battery life.

imagine it this way;it requires a single electron to flow through the circuit to toggle the magnet from one state to the other,that's the whole point of it being passive in either the on or off states,rather than requiring a constant flow of electrons to maintain the on state and the lack of a flow of electrons for an off state.

[ZetZet]

I'm not that excited. Modular will always have to be bulkier than the one that's made to fit perfectly. Look at apple and how their squeeze stuff in their tiny boxes. This phone might be cool and all, but it will never perform the same.

[onionring]

I'm not that excited. Modular will always have to be bulkier than the one that's made to fit perfectly. Look at apple and how their squeeze stuff in their tiny boxes. This phone might be cool and all, but it will never perform the same.

 

I m getting one if you can get thicker modules for more batteries, my 1 year old Nexus 4 5hours.... yes 5 hours battery life, is killing me,

I d go a decentish cpu(if i can open youtube it s more than enough), decentish screen, 720p is fine, smallest memory i can get, no camera, good 4G module and the rest, a TON of batteries.

 

I don t care if the phone is thicker, that s way better than a wider phone for me. I can even imagine using a 3/4'' phone and I might add a case on it too lol.

 

Also it could perform way better than an iphone IF you wanted to, since you know, there s no apple bloatware(look how last iphones are slowed down purposefully) and the CPUs are upgradable.

[squirrl]

I think i'll stick with my dumbphone. I don't want a slab.

[werto165]

It's a really cool idea. But I can't see it becoming that popular, maybe ill be wrong in a year or two, oh well.