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from the part-ing-is-such-sweet-sorrow dept.
The dream of upgrading the CPU/RAM/sensors in your smartphone using Lego-like components is dead:
It sounds like Project Ara, the ambitious modular smartphone concept birthed in Google's ATAP division, is finally dead. A report from Reuters says that Google has "suspended" Project Ara in an effort to "streamline the company's hardware efforts."
Project Ara never seemed like a particularly viable product, and after the announcement in 2013, progress came slowly. The device was delayed past its 2015 commercialization deadline when plans for a Puerto Rican "food truck" pilot launch fell through. Earlier this year, the device was delayed again to 2017, and the Ara team announced that Ara would pivot from fully modular to having a fixed CPU, GPU, antennas, sensors, battery, and display. After that announcement, Ara was watered down so much it barely had a reason to exist.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 03 2016, @03:43PM
if the plugable modules would have birthed a industry standard and if the modules would have been
maybe two sizes, like the size of a micro SD for one type of module and double micro SD in area and "fatness" for the second type,
it might have worked.
tho i doubt it's possible to have a (one type of) connector that can accept a replaceable CPU -or- a camera.
one needs like 4 cables/connectors whilst the other ... alot more.
tho, fuzzily imagining this thing, it would have been more or less a case with 5 micro SD-like slots and 2 or 3 "big" micro SD slots for all the components .. sold separately... hopefully getting a FREE android OS upgrade in teH same box that holds the new replacement CPU ... not ^_^
(Score: 2) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Saturday September 03 2016, @04:09PM
The EOMA68 Free/Libre and Modular Computing Devices [soylentnews.org] standarrd primarily uses USB for interfacing with the rest of the system.
They do make USB cameras and cellular modems.
The only problem is that It may be a little bulky for the cell-phone form-factor.