Google is working with open-source development organization to
develop a special edition of Android for the Project Ara customizable
smartphone.
The $50 configurable smartphone will come with an empty phone frame and screen, and users can snap on or take out modular parts from the rear of the handset to add or remove features.
The smartphone, which will ship early next year, has already sparked the development of Lego-like modules that can be attached. Google has talked about detachable antenna and camera modules, but developers are also considering modules for wireless networking, gaming, storage and thermometers.
Android can already plug and play SD cards. But additional OS
functionality is needed for storage, cameras and other modules that are
typically inside smartphones, but can now be externally added to Project
Ara.
A lot of work is also being done on UniPro transport drivers, which connect modules and components in Project Ara. UniPro protocol drivers in Android will function much like the USB protocol, where modules will be recognized based on different driver “classes,” such as those for networking, sensor, imaging, input and others.
Some attachable parts may not be recognized by Android. For those parts, separate drivers need to be developed by module makers through emulators.
Google already offers a module developers kit (MDK) for Project Ara platform through which developers can take advantage of the UniPro hardware and protocol stack.
The $50 configurable smartphone will come with an empty phone frame and screen, and users can snap on or take out modular parts from the rear of the handset to add or remove features.
The smartphone, which will ship early next year, has already sparked the development of Lego-like modules that can be attached. Google has talked about detachable antenna and camera modules, but developers are also considering modules for wireless networking, gaming, storage and thermometers.
The Ara prototype. Photo: Norman Chan/Tested.com
A lot of work is also being done on UniPro transport drivers, which connect modules and components in Project Ara. UniPro protocol drivers in Android will function much like the USB protocol, where modules will be recognized based on different driver “classes,” such as those for networking, sensor, imaging, input and others.
Some attachable parts may not be recognized by Android. For those parts, separate drivers need to be developed by module makers through emulators.
Google already offers a module developers kit (MDK) for Project Ara platform through which developers can take advantage of the UniPro hardware and protocol stack.
Image: Courtesy of Google
Project Ara
is Google’s attempt to reinvent the cellphone as we know it. Instead of
a slab of glass and metal that you have no ability to upgrade, save for
buying a new device, it’s an attempt to launch a phone where all of the
main components are interchangeable via modules that click in and out,
attaching via electro-permanent magnets. Despite being highly
customizable, it will only come in three main sizes, helping to
eliminate the kind of device fragmentation that currently plagues
Android. Google plans to roll out a “gray model,” a very basic device
that costs as little as $50, as well as higher-end handsets that could
go for as much as $500 and up. The former will be released first —
around this time next year if all goes according to plan — and will
likely be a smaller, Wi-Fi-only version. This bare-bones model will be
followed by the higher-end ones eventually. But Google’s initial
objective is to ramp up a hardware ecosystem that moves at the same pace
as the software it runs.
Image: Courtesy of Google
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