> The Ara body contains a fixed CPU, GPU, antennas, sensors, battery, and display. The Ara page says this "frees up more room for hardware in each module,"
HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA OH MY GOD WAIT THEY ARE NOT JOKING AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
>smart
>phone
I guess the industry didn't like the idea of upgradeable phones ;)
>all the shit that should be modular isn't
Jesus Christ, I'm sure some suckers will still throw their money away on this gutter trash.
Moot should do something useful and burn down this department.
>>54674264
litearlly no point to buy it if I can't upgrade SoC, or display or whatever.
Its not a modular phone, its a phone with gimmicks you can slap on the front to add slightly more storage or a shitty camera. wooo
DOA
>>54674354
yeah+it is so ugly that it looks home-made
Desktop-Windows
Phone-Iphone
Tablet-Android
Server-Linux
that is how to roll
>>54674264
THEY
FUCKED
UP
>>54674264
It's over, guys
ARA isn't targeted at developers or /g/fags or people with custom roms or Xposed installed, because making an actually-modular system is too fucking hard for the worlds most valuable company
instead it's gonna be for the special snowflake school kids who want to show off their hurr durr custom phone with pretty colored novelty peripherals, who don't know what an SD card is and therefore will pay $$$ for a snap-in "storage module" that's just SD card mated to a shitty connector in a plastic square case three times its size
>>54674406
>because making an actually-modular system is too fucking hard for the worlds most valuable company
Its not hard at all for a company of this size, is just not profitable to sell something in cheaper parts when you can just charge for an entire phone as soon as the technology deprecates.
>>54674406
It sounds like they originally intended on having a modular phone until they found out how much money it would cost to produce then decided to reinvent it as something else to recoup development costs.
>>54674438
>It sounds like they originally intended on having a modular phone until they found out how much money it would cost to produce then decided to reinvent it as something else to recoup development costs.
It sounds like manufacturers threatened them.
>>54674264
>the ara body contains a fixed gpu & cpu
Why bother?
>the most vulnerable part of a smartphone (screen) isn't replaceable
Lel
Is it Reddit that wanted this? I wonder where this idiotic idea came from. Phones freaking going to pieces in your pocket.
>>54674264
The CPU, GPU and ram would have to be together anyways. A seperate display and battery would be nice. The sensors and antenna makes sense to be in the body. If they seperate the cpu and the battery wouldnt that mean you'd permanently lose 2 spots?
So... what is that is modular? Camera and...?
>>54675138
And crazy wacky gadgets you can add! the possibilities are endless! as long as you buy a new one every year that is.
I think what they mean is there's some base parts built in so you can run it without modules. But if you want to add more battery, processing power etc you can.
>modular phone except for the parts that you would need to be modular
It honestly looks like Google is setting this up to fail so they don't have to entertain cries of "why can't I do X to the hardware?" in the future.
>>54674406
I read an article where they said essentially that its viewed not as a way for tweakers to customize their phone, but as a method for upselling you. Except for a few top-end Nexys and Galaxy devices, Android phones are now a commodity product with thin margins, and the industry views Ara as a way to extract money from sales of modules and accessories, and fuck the technical stuff.
>no modular battery
flop
>>54675138
>... the botnet chip
so what exactly do you put in the modules if all the main parts are accounted for in the main body?
A bottle opener?
A pez dispenser?
>>54675334
some of the modules are literally just "cosmetic"
Ara ara ~ Don't you want a thick phone like me, Anon-kun? ~
>>54675203
So they invented dual cpu/gpu in phones?
>>54675578
It could just switch to the other processor. I highly doubt they wouldn't at least let you add battery.
>>54675604
So you would add a second processor and not use the other one?
>>54674354
If I didn't already have a modular phone I would buy it and put an extra battery in every slot.
>>54675639
I think the built in processor will be shitty just so it stays on while you switch modules. I remember them saying this previously.
You can add additional antenna, sensors and batteries but it comes with baseline ones.
Fixed CPU, GPU and screen sucks but perhaps you can add a switchable GPU chip like some laptops have. I figure you can add additional RAM also.
absolute madmen
A few things:
1) You can swap the battery out easily (even when it's on, read the news), but you can't add battery into the modules
2) Think about it, how the would you ever accomplish battery to the modules? The connections are for data, not power. You'd have to add connections for transfer power for every module, even when you don't need it and it's just for battery.
3) They should have combined CPU/GPU/RAM into a swappable module. It's understandable not to have one module for CPU, one module for GPU, etc, that would be difficult for compatibility reasons.
4) The screen should have been swappable, no excuses
5) Antenna and sensors integrated into the frame is okay, but would have been better if in a separate module
6) Don't always think workers can do anything. They're limited on time, funding, etc and sometimes you just want to get the product out or your initial ideas are far more difficult than you imagined such that you have to make compromises. Anyone that worked on projects have encountered this, not that anyone here knows.
>>54674264
these are essential pieces of hardware if the modules are hot-swappable, no? this is only going to be useful for normies, after all. normies will buy the Ara 2, Ara 2+, Ara 3, Ara 4K, and so on anyways to get the better parts that aren't interchangeable
>>54675334
In the video a dude literally eats a tictac from inside a module.
>>54674264
>Looking forward to Ara so I can debotnet (remove sensors, antennas/radios, cameras) my phone when I'm doing tinfoil things
>maybe I could even upgrade my RAM
>everything important is crammed in the body
Google is dead to me.
>>54675744
>Think about it, how the would you ever accomplish battery to the modules? The connections are for data, not power.
The connections have power as well, how do you think the modules are powered?
>>54675837
You're comparing power from powering components to battery power. Different amount of power.
>>54675744
>how the would you ever accomplish battery to the modules
it's not impossible to have controllers that decide if a line transfers power or data and switch between the two. it's just that it probably wouldn't come to something like this kind of phone until after a couple generations of models. i can see it in the future desu
![snapshot_07.09_[2016.02.14_12.50.27].png](https://i.imgur.com/9YQCqzV.jpg "snapshot_07.09_[2016.02.14_12.50.27].png")
kill yourselves phone faggots
What exactly is upgradeable on these things?
>>54675687
>additional antenna
Nope
(Because FCC)
>>54675898
>tfw wanted ara so i could have 16GiB of RAM
>>54675919
even wifi adapters have removable antennas
>>54674264
>>54675264
The battery is modular.
http://www.theverge.com/google/2016/5/20/11723508/google-project-ara-modular-phone-photos-io-2016
>The battery on this prototype is hot swappable, too. Yup! Caramago opened up the bottom, pulled out the battery, and there was enough juice in the frame to just keep the phone running. It probably wouldn't last very long, but definitely long enough to put in a fresh battery, all without rebooting.
>>54675744
>but you can't add battery into the modules
Source? That's another disappointment, if true.
Point #2 already addressed by >>54675837
>3) They should have combined CPU/GPU/RAM into a swappable module. It's understandable not to have one module for CPU, one module for GPU, etc, that would be difficult for compatibility reasons.
>4) The screen should have been swappable, no excuses
Agreed.
>5) Antenna and sensors integrated into the frame is okay, but would have been better if in a separate module
Mostly agreed, except antenna swapping would've been one of the bigger selling points, e.g. for travel, or when carriers adjust their frequencies.
>>54674423
This.
There was an interview with the lead designer guy (whatever his name is) and they're market studies showed an overwhelmingly large percentage of consumers didn't care for CPU, ram or anything related on a mobile, they simply wanted something modular that can browse the internet, run all the latest "apps" and do all "smart phone things".
>>54676114
No source, just what I think. I think you'd need a another connection just for the high power transfer, which is different from regular powering component transfer.
>>54676161
>they simply wanted something modular
what fucking things did they want modular then?
>>54674264
>contains a fixed CPU, GPU
Biggest fucking meme of a decade.
>>54674264
More room for what? 15 cameras and fingerprint collectors? What else can you slap there that actually matters?
>>54676428
Storage. Maybe a DAC. Full sized ports would be nice.
>>54675261
underrated post
On release it will have high specs, but they will make some serious money on overpriced modules
Literally a stupid meme phone that I'm sure many people will just eat up
>>54674264
Ara~
>>54675744
>>54675837
yeah, the modules arent passive, they obviously require power. Why couldnt you add extra batteries?
I'm guessing there was too much latency. Maybe power consumption and Android issues as well.
>>54676114
>Source? That's another disappointment, if true.
"swap in a better battery"
source:
the fucking video description
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWW5mQadZAY
>>54676523
>I'm guessing there was too much latency. Maybe power consumption and Android issues as well.
So let's just give up. Instead of making a truly revolutionary technology, let's just give up. It costs too much to figure out.
For fuck's sake. I actually was looking forward to Ara expressly because I could upgrade any component. Instead of human-kind filling landfills with one to two year old cell phones all the time we could be upgrading the relevant component modules and recycling the old ones.
Seriously. Processor feeling a bit long in the tooth? Upgrade to a newer one. Need more RAM? New RAM module. Need more storage? New storage module. Screen cracked? New screen module. Battery capacity dropping? New battery module.
It was a really cool idea. I hope it gets picked up later on. Maybe Ara will be a stepping stone. A proof of concept.
>>54677198
the problem is that a.) most consumers don't want that - they don't want to have to know or care about what components are in their phone. They want to view it as a black-box, no-user-serviceable-components-inside piece of consumer electronics that they just buy, turn on, and use. They don't have the skills to upgrade or repair it themselves, and the cost of the labor to hire someone else to do that generally makes it more economical (and much easier) to just toss it and buy a new one when needed.
And b.) manufacturers don't want to cater to the small segment of the market that's tech-savvy and wants a modular phone. They want to sell to the very widest possible market, to maximize both revenue and economies of scale in manufacturing. Also they have every interest in planned obsolescence, they want you to buy a new full-price phone, not just a new battery module.
It's probably worth noting that they likely see the young, tech-savvy male demographic that wants modular geek-o-phones as the least profitable demographic. They care about getting Android updates and will trash you for not providing them, normies don't care. They want rootable phones with an unlocked bootloader, normies don't care. They block ads and remove preinstalled apps that some company paid to have installed, normies don't care. They know how to pirate apps, normies don't. and so on
Let's be honest, they just realized you can't make money off something that doesn't get obsolete or breaks easily. Plus software support requirements would be enormous to support all them chipsets, only Sony ever came close to that with their unified kernel.
>>54677311
See, that's exactly the situation. And the problem.
The general population has been dumbed down to the point where it's perfectly fine and acceptable to be ambivalent and lazy. You don't need to know how it works. It's pretty, it's fast, and you want it. That's it, because we say so. Then, 18 months later (or less, as is becoming the trend), a new one comes out. It's prettier, it's faster, and you want it more than the one you already have. Still don't need to know how it works, but higher numbers are better so it's automatically better.
Absolutely fucking disgusting.
But it makes insane quantities of money. Hence: >>54677392
>>54678331
THE FUTURE
>>54678331
kek
its fucking amazing people thought that literally everything would be removable and people would be able to chose shit like cpu and radios
the people who thought that are fucking braindead
>>54678331
This isn't cringey at all.
>>54678355
It was promised.
>>54678355
We didn't wager jewgle would fuck it up. Making a phone with a removable processor and radios is hard but not impossible. Jewgle only cares about money so of course this didn't happen.
It was doomed from the start anyways to be honest. It was just a novelty thing a few autists like myself would carry around.
>>54678331
>Make condom holder module
>Make millions
You can thank me later.
>>54678403
wasnt it 'promised' in the kickstarter? that makes people who believe it even more fucking retarded.
>>54678416
even with your epic jewgle memes XD you have no idea what you are talking about. you have no idea the shit that would go into something as useless as making that shit removable. if it actually happened everything would be so expensive you dumb shits wouldnt be able to afford it even for a shitty novelty
>>54675261
This
Start preparing your shekels for buying the same parts (overpriced) instead of a new phone.
So you can put a better camera to take selfies or switch to a non-shit battery
Good thing every exec at Google shits money or else they would have to worry about the garbage they put out
>>54678453
You say 'shit' a lot
Kinda goes together with your opinion
>>54678571
>gets called out for being a gullible kickstarter child
>LOL YOU USE SHIT A LOT!
great job
Fucking dropped before I even held it. Sad.
>>54676209
Camera, battery, and that's about all that normies care about.
If you want something portable that you can upgrade GET A LAPTOP
>>54674264
So in otherwords, they removed what made the ara desirable in the first place?
>>54674438
Apparently they found out that if you drop a phone it usually breaks, but in the case of the ara it didn't break but all the modules went flying instead.
>>54678416
>Making a phone with a removable processor and radios is hard but not impossible.
It's pretty close. Not only does it have to be compact enough to compete with other products on the market, but it also has to be durable enough to survive several years being bashed around and stressed in someone's pocket or bag. And then there are the challenges of making some kind of bus fast and small enough to interconnect everything reliably.
And after all that, it has to be the same price as a normal smartphone.
>>54680682
If I had a nickel for every time some smart-aleck made this stupid joke...
>>54680732
See, if you drop a phone anyway there's a pretty good chance you're fucked regardless, so why would it even matter if you had to spend 20 seconds picking up the parts and then turning it back on because it still works?
Using "oh shit stupid people drop their phone" as an excuse to remove what was effectively the primary drawcard from the device means it's dead on arrival to the target audience.
>>54680758
Motorola seem to have managed to make a virtually unbreakable display, so that particular selling point is gone already. Apple, Samsung and all the others will have something similar very shortly.
>normies are afraid to change things
>power users can't change what they wanted all along
And of course it's gonna have some sd6xx soc because HURR only flagships are allowed to have decent hardware. It's gonna flop harder than a whale on a beach.
>>54680569
>>54676161
Normies fucked us again.
>>54680811
It'll be released as another Nexus in a couple of years, giving Google a platform to design and standardise swappable hardware on Android, which some manufacturers are already doing.
>>54680839
>which some manufacturers are already doing.
Yet another way that Google fumbled this project.
>>54680937
By which I mean they squandered their lead, and are now releasing a year behind LG and Motorola.
>>54678355
Nah mate, you're a fucking retard, they could simply fit all soc(CPU, RAM, modem) on one SMALL module(yes, those parts are that small) without breaking any regulations, even bandwidth wouldn't be an issue because the most demanding parts would be interconnected inside. Like a stripped down phone.
>>54680994
>even bandwidth wouldn't be an issue
It would be with a swappable display. That's probably why they abandoned the obvious killer feature of being able to replace a broken screen.
>>54675490
I wonder if they're gonna market it under a different name in japan
>>54681058
HDMI has similar bandwidth, only the latest version are faster, and you'll need 4k to saturate it. Alright, just use a big slot then, it has two connectors.
>>54681137
That means that both the SoC module and the display need to support HDMI and all the physical connectivity to go with it, which needs to be mechanically strong enough to last for years.
Micro HDMI support has been done before, but the increase in bandwidth to support modern resolutions would make it a lot less tolerant of a poor physical connection or electrical interference.
>>54681211
HDMI was just an example, obviously they would use their port. Their port is 11 gigabit, the latest HDMI is 18, one port is more than enough for full HD, two ports would handle 4k.
>>54677512
C O N S U M E R I S M.
Born in 1970 here, it's always been like this.
>>54681266
The display is almost always going to be in use while the phone is being used, so that bandwidth is consumed constantly, and has to contend with (say) a HD camera, so given that competitors are already on QHD displays, that's a minimum of one additional dedicated port, and all the additional physical space it needs, and yet no tolerance of failure. And on top of that, they need a custom chip to interface the display's interconnect to their port.
>>54681124
Nobody buys Android phones in Japan anyway so I doubt they would mind a milf phone.
Ara ara
>>54678331
wat
My english might be shit and I retard as fuck, but whats up with that "screen is not swappable" ?
https://youtu.be/fobCn4GUts8?t=21s
>>54680631
Is this bait?
>>54676477
Why you need dac? Nowdays any dac even in cheap chink phone, produce same sound as sosony hi-fi placebo integrated to their phones.
>>54681425
It's a mock-up, citation is here.
http://arstechnica.co.uk/gadgets/2016/05/google-project-ara-developer-edition-release-date/
TOPLEL
But no worries, we can replace 3.5mm jack!!!!
>>54681463
A more powerful amplifier might be useful to support high ohm headphones.
>>54681475
aww, thanks for that anon!
That explains things.
> The modules will now be for the camera and speakers, a fingerprint reader or an extra display.
What's the fucking point.
Ara ara~ What a blunder
>>54674264
Featuring innovative modular features such as removable memory cards replaceable battery and ejectable sim tray!
>>54675744
>4) The screen should have been swappable, no excuses
This, that would be actually useful and pretty easy to accomplish. And maybe then we'd finally get an e-ink only phone.
>>54675687
>I figure you can add additional RAM also.
That RAM is going to be slow as fuck and pointless.
Do you have any idea how many leads you need to put on the circuit board for RAM?
(Hint: it's a fuck lot. 10 isn't going to cut it.)
>>54675744
>The connections are for data, not power.
>What is USB?
0/10 go back to drawing board
>>54684182
>has never heard of windows readyboost
face the fax, your and idiot
>>54683244
>find one of these abortions on the sidewalk
>has fingerprint module installed
>remove fingerprint module
>get into phone
>>54684268
readyboost is a disk IO buffer, nothing to do with ram
it also serves no purpose with ssd's, which all phones use
>>54684516
-- oh, should also mention, the reason people use and recommend it for low ram machines is because there's less spare memory to use as a disk read cache
now, a ram read cache is still useful for ssd's, as ram is much faster than ssd's, but if you're already using an ssd as the main storage, there's no advantage to backing it with another ssd
I used to stumble across a site that sell modular phone that cost like 600$ for lowest spec? does anyone still have it?
>>54674383
I would go for Android phone and IPad
>>54675138
seeing as the camera is one of the few components making sizeable progress in smartphones this isn't too bad
>>54684658
no it isnt
>>54684680
cpu and gpu development has slowed massively, people are still using GS3s
>>54684738
your point being?
>>54684765
My point being that it's not that big of a nail and it's not going in any coffins.
Anyone who expected that ara will be good or usefull is an idiot. The mobile industry is full of kikes,anyone giving more then 300dolars for a phone is mentally ill.
>>54684765
cameras are developing rapidly, other things aren't, so only cameras being swappable is sensible
>>54674264
>Implying Consumer computers will ever be modular again.
OEM don't like Modular devices because they can't sell their shit to you.
>>54674264
How is this different than LG G5 then?
>>54685360
No one that actually cares about how photos look will use their phone to take pictures though.
>>54674264
>Battery
>B A T T E R Y
>THE FUCKING BATTERY
Holy SHIT
Google's gone full fucking retard
>>54684359
Yeah because fingerprint data is stored in the module, goddam retard.
>>54685907
A visual guide on missing the point.
>>54685993
No.
>>54686010
A visual guide on denial.
Why is /g/ so retarded? Of course you can't upgrade each individual parts, it's an soc. No of course it doesn't have a universal motherboard for all upcoming unknown socs. What, you think they'll fabricate one just for you? Do you know how expensive that would be?
Also it has a battery included so you can motherfucking hot swap components, do you think it will work without power? It doesn't mean you won't be able to use up all the slots for battery modules.
Fucking hell.
>>54685349
The original idea of Ara WAS useful. And paying more than $300+ for a phone is expensive but I can understand the investment since your phone is something you always check, always use.
There are good investments (paying more for a bigger/nicer monitor since you use computer 8+ hours a day), and there are bad investments (paying extra for something you'll only use a few times).
If anything, you're the idiot for not understanding that.
>>54686834
You are moron,you give 300 dolars more to get 10% of performance boost at the moment. Diminishing returns in phone industry are beyond belivable. And dont spew shit, differwnce between 300 dolar chink monitor and 900dolar monitor is huge,differwnce between chink phone of 300 dolar and phone that costs 700 dolars is just not worth it the money. Fucking neo g... Hey but please be a good goy
>>54686208
>What, you think they'll fabricate one just for you? Do you know how expensive that would be?
So modules that are only compatible with this platform should be designed to fit it?
>>54686834
>$300+ for a phone is expensive but I can understand the investment
>for a phone is expensive but I can understand the investment
>a phone is expensive but I can understand the investment
>phone is expensive but I can understand the investment
>is expensive but I can understand the investment
>expensive but I can understand the investment
>but I can understand the investment
>I can understand the investment
>can understand the investment
>understand the investment
look at this fucking moron, he thinks phones are an INVESTMENT hahahaahahaahahahahahahahahaahahahaahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahahhahahahahahhahahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahahahah
how are people this fucking stupid, allowed on the internet, let alone capable of shitposting this retarded shill shit all day?
tl;dr learn what the word investment means before trying to use it in a sentence you degenerate fuck.
>>54678355
>muh hindsight bias
F U C K
U
C
K
O F F
F
F
/v/tards and fake look i built muh pc
>omg ARA is so rad stick it to the man
everyone else
>That won't work SoC aren't modular its cheaper to buy a new phone points of failure etc
>>54685494
More slots. Arguably easier swapping. Hot-swappable battery.
But yeah, the concept's been watered down to the gimmicks.
>>54678355
it'd be nice if you could add on those things though.
the base cpu deals with the phone/nsa spying part which is the only way phones will ever be introduced into the masses..
but if i could say addon next years cpu/gpu/ram to run emulators and whatnot, while the base nonreplaceable cpu deals with the texting/calling part of the phone, then i think the phone could work really well.
shit like usb ports, audio jacks etc should just be there anyway.
so you buy the phone which is just the screen and mic/speaker then you can swap in and out shit like modern camera or those stupid barometer and whatnot, while still being able to keep up with the better next generational hardware to keep it going with the trends, that'd be incredible.
non removable battery is a dealbreaker sadly, and the fact that the camera will take up ten times as much space as it would've if it wasn't replaceable makes it not even worth the effort.
i'm a fan of ergonomics and these retarded ass fuckhuge phones make me cringe.
>cpu, gpu, ram, modem, sim, some memory for the rom, sdcard on one small module with lots of connectors
>various bodies with all the other shit
There. Way easier to implement, way more useful, less memes. Want a tablet? Get a tablet body, insert, all your data is instantly there. Or a phablet body, laptop body, watch body(who knows?), DSLR body, fucking CAR BODY, you name it, while the interface, settings and data remain the same. You could even do that without rebooting with some kind of hibernation mechanism. But nah, they just wanted to show off gimmicky "modules".
>>54688940
No, I agree with him. You are the idiot.
Signed t. employed
>>54689154
>muh kickstarter gullibility
HAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHA
>>54674383
Linux ThinkPad too
