Taking Good Shape - Project Ara Second Developer Conference

[mallenwho]

 

 

Phonebloks/Project Ara had their second developers conference last week - well, two of them. One in San Fransisco (for the American companies designing components as well as the core Ara team) and one in Singapore (for Asia-based electronics and camera manufacturers - the guys making all the android hardware)

 

 

The phones now have 3G reception built into the chassis and Google has shifted their electropermanence magnets to the chassis rather than locating them on the block. It also appears they have adjusted the arrangement of the pins of their main connecting sockets, compared to Spiral 1 design:

 

(Spiral 1, back in mid-2014)

 

 

 

(Spiral 2) 

 

 

As you can see their main goals for "spiral 3" (dev kit 3) are. They include RF performance (radio frequency) which is used for, well, phone calls. will Google shift the phone antenna to the chassis too??

 

 

aannd.. the market pilot is Puerto Rico. Time for me to move to Puerto Rico! =D

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, some of the block parters

 

 

 

 

 

 

All of the medical recording and measuring instrumentation ever. Glucose levels, ph levels, water detector, as little tabs installed in modules, be it disposable or not.

 

 

Sennheiser. Making everything. They have their own sub-blog on the primary phonebloks blog and are the most active module developer. They have been asking community suggestions and designs for the "ultimate sound blok" and three primary things have come up. whether they can put all three in one block or whether they have three different bloks for different folks it remains to be seen. 

 

1) have a super high quality best-of-the-best DAC AMP sound stuffs for all of the audiophiles.

2) have 2 3.5mm jacks, for shared listening, or for higher bandwidth throughput, or for stereo mic recording for an actually usable recording for journalism or publication.

3) some sort of wireless tethering to headphones the likes of yet we haven't yet seen before.

I am a bit disappointed no speaker block, that we may need a second block for a speaker block because there will be no room left on the primary block.

 

 

Innolux is developing (at least the first) screens for Ara. The Screen shown here is a 4.5" "HD" (720p) display, although then audio cut out so we don't know the rest of the specs. It looks great though. And ha;f the appeal of Project Ara is the ease of swapping particularly the screen were it to break. You pay bulk discount price for just the screen replacement, which you replace yourself in 10 minutes. 

 

 

Toshiba, making cameras. There is a flat 2mp camera for anyone not really into that and wanting to save money. Then there are 5mp and 13mp cameras (with a second sensor. Maybe a flash. maybe a light sensor. whatever it was the 5mp did not have it) for those more photographically incined, both with sizable bumps because the camera can't extend through the width of the phone. I'm still waiting for a psuedo SLR compatible mount sensor for full size lenses for actual pro photography off a phone, loosing the viewfinder obviously but that's it. 

I find it interesting that the representative mentioned these are "Reference Designs". Excellent! Asus and Gigabyte Aftermarket Camera designs, right??! =D

 

 

It seems Google is planning to release a base model "grey phone" for $50 with

 

• Screen *(720p) Or (480p) 4.5 inches
• Processor *(1 or 2 core) 1.2GHz
• Battery 1800Mah
• Memory *(4GB or 8GB)
• WiFi (WiFi calls only) - (Cell radio optional)
• Operating System: Android 5.x Lollipop - Google Ara build
• Ram 1GB

but then obviously upgradable with third party stuff of everything. So a great phone for the masses, the people who just don't care/need functionality and a phone for the tinkerers.

And Google is going to facilitate a Google Play-like store for module trading. That will REALLY help with certification and moderation of blocks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Overall a ton of great design and engineering gone into what seem to be already very capable and functional blocks, that would make a great smartphone. That with this chassis, when new blocks roll around in 2016 or even 2020, the capabilities of the phone will continue to change for the good.

 

 

EDIT: Solidenergy is developing battery tech for ara. The company, started in 2012 has developed an anode tech that is half the size (twice the density) as current gen models. That should be ready to go Q1 2016

http://blog.phonebloks.com/post/109873051733/project-ara-will-use-a-revolutionary-battery

 

[JAKEBAB]

Wow!! I legit didn't even think of things like ph testers etc that is freaking amazing!!! Why Puerto Rico tho? wtf and why is sennheiser even asking the community if only Puerto Ricans are ever going to see it?  :blink:

[nj4ck]

Wow!! I legit didn't even think of things like ph testers etc that is freaking amazing!!! Why Puerto Rico tho? wtf and why is sennheiser even asking the community if only Puerto Ricans are ever going to see it?  :blink:

Puerto Rico is just the market pilot, not the finished thing. They needed a small, self-contained market where mid-range devices sell well, hence Puerto Rico. Once the final product is finished with all the high-end hardware and so on, it'll be available to anybody.

[AlexGoesHigh]

Wow!! I legit didn't even think of things like ph testers etc that is freaking amazing!!! Why Puerto Rico tho? wtf and why is sennheiser even asking the community if only Puerto Ricans are ever going to see it?  :blink:

puerto rico is just field testing like a beta of sort for the hardware, my guess is that they want to start ara at the low and affordable end then slowly build up to high end parts availability 

[SIGSEGV]

Lasers or I'm not interested

[SirRoderick]

Lasers or I'm not interested

I imagine laser blocks are a thing for sure, or will be

[Toddwjp]

Since looking at the pH block there's no need for a height restriction we could get some very interesting blocks, and I wasn't a hundred percent sold on this but things like sound blocks and other specialised hardware could be what make this phone epic.

[Guest Kloaked]

Oh god. I hope those modules don't have logos from every brand on them. That's going to look so dumb.

[The_Strict_Nein]

Project Ara News =

[Nizkus]

Oh god. I hope those modules don't have logos from every brand on them. That's going to look so dumb.

Even if they do, you could easily just put skin on top of them.

[linusforsell]

Awesome news, and it's great to see that so many companies are interested in developing modules. Can't wait to see where this goes!

[Guest Kloaked]

Even if they do, you could easily just put skin on top of them.

True. I just wish I didn't have to do that.

[mallenwho]

Oh god. I hope those modules don't have logos from every brand on them. That's going to look so dumb.

the design of the blocks is going to be 

bottom - no protection, maybe insulation. sitting directly on the aluminium chassis

middle, block electronics and components and working things, for whatever it does.

upper, a insulating and waterproofing membrane but a very thin layer

top: plastic sheidl that clips over the block and gives it it's outwards "slab" appearance. besides speaker and camera blocks, these should be standardised and easily 3d printable. Sure companies may ship with their own logo on them, but kits will be availiable and many services have sprouted up saying they will offer patterns or pictures on peoples' phones. 

 

So no. not even a skin required. 

[Thony]

Wow the specs fot 50 dollars

Imagine what you could get for $350.

[Techteen14]

I want to buy a gray phone as soon as it comes out (the biggest one) and constantly upgrade it so when my OPO starts to slow down or breaks, I can have a top-of-the-line smartphone ready.

[Thony]

I want to buy a gray phone as soon as it comes out (the biggest one) and constantly upgrade it so when my OPO starts to slow down or breaks, I can have a top-of-the-line smartphone ready.

Ifbthe grey phone has the skeleton compatible with the highest end parts then im on it too in couple of years

[PillowSmoke]

[mallenwho]

Ifbthe grey phone has the skeleton compatible with the highest end parts then im on it too in couple of years

 the chassis for these things are insane. each blok port has a custom google-designed socket (internal) that has up to 8gbyte per second throughput, plus power. Larger blocks like battery or processor have two of these sockets availiable. The chassis are the same for the best phone and for the grey phone so phone bottlenecking will not be an issue for the next ten years. And powerful components will follow.

[SpaceCore]

[Ex14]

-snip-

Hi, this is abit late (just watched it ;, but the other conference is held in Singapore, Not Shanghai. And no, We're not part of China.

[mallenwho]

EDIT: Solidenergy is developing battery tech for ara. The company, started in 2012 has developed an anode tech that is half the size (twice the density) as current gen models. That should be ready to go Q1 2016

http://blog.phonebloks.com/post/109873051733/project-ara-will-use-a-revolutionary-battery

[shujin]

so the most important thing for this project to work is the battery I hope they'll do well . if yes I'll surely buy one

[TECH_CULTURE_Sam]

This is amazing, I can't wait for this to become a regular thing for consumers to buy. This could change smart phones forever...