Google’s Project Ara wants to revolutionize the smartphone industry within a year
The night before Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) division was supposed to show off the one and only functional Project Ara prototype to a room full of eager developers, someone dropped the phone and broke the display. At any other product reveal, this worst-case scenario would be a nightmare come true. Not to Google: The company made lemonade out of a lemon by turning it into a selling point for the modular smartphone. A year from now, painful situations like this might be easily fixed by simply buying a new display and swapping out the broken one.
Not that it would’ve made much of a difference if last night’s fiasco never happened. Attendees at this week’s Project Ara developer conference wouldn’t have been able to boot up the prototype and play around with it like any typical smartphone — in this case, “functional” is not the same as “functioning” — but at least it would’ve made for a better presentation. Regardless of how it looked, however, we were able to briefly handle the Project Ara prototype and some of its first modules. To be clear, this is an extremely early model and there’s a long way to go before it sees the light of day, but it at least allows us to get a good glimpse of what’s to come over the next year as Ara continues to prepare for launch.
Project Ara brings the modular smartphone from concept to a reality; it almost seems like it should’ve made a cameo in The Lego Movie. The Ara consists of a metal endoskeleton, which is essentially the spine of the phone, and slots for replaceable components known as modules, which look a lot like tiles. (If you’re reminded of Windows Phone when looking at the back, you won’t be the first.) These tiled modules can include anything that makes your phone tick (processor, RAM, WiFi, power jack, baseband, display and battery, for instance), as well as plenty of other features like your camera, speakers and storage space. Each module will connect to the other working parts through capacitive interconnects, which are essentially wireless pads that are smaller than standard pins. Electropermanent magnets not only hold modules in place, but they also act as a toggle switch, which allows you to easily turn that element on and off. As you might already imagine, all modules can be swapped out at your convenience. ATAP plans to feature Ara in three different sizes, ranging from a smaller six-module option to a large-screened model with more modules.
At first blush, it almost sounds like this project only appeals to the same consumers that enjoy building their own computers from scratch, but ATAP insists that it’ll transform emerging markets — more specifically, the 5 billion people on Earth who own feature phones, but cannot afford to get anything more expensive. Today, the division announced that it’s planning to ship a “Grey Phone,” which is simply a prepackaged device that comes with only a screen, processor and WiFi module. From there, users can easily add and take away components as they see fit. It’ll be relatively cheap — the product would cost Google $50 to make, though retail price hasn’t been determined yet — and users on a tight budget can easily add or upgrade modules whenever they can afford to do so.
Longevity is another huge factor; whereas most smartphones today can barely make it through a two-year contract, Ara is meant to last for several years. This means it’ll likely be much less expensive over the long run, and fewer phones will wind up in dumpsters.
According to ATAP, a device like Ara will also bring power of choice to consumer hands. Buying a smartphone often feels like a gamble — a matter of sacrificing some features in favor of others. With Ara, you’ll finally be able to determine exactly what kind of stuff you want in your phone. In essence, it sounds like Google’s hoping to “disrupt” the traditional phone makers like Samsung, HTC and LG (as well as carriers), since the average consumer wouldn’t need to go through those companies to buy a phone anymore.
When it comes to what kind of modules would be available, the sky’s the limit. ATAP has already begun offering a development kit to anyone who wants to put together modules of their own, so there are plenty of possible use cases. One example shown was a pulse oximeter, featured in a long module that extended beyond the rest of the phone’s chassis; there was a thick camera module that could easily be swapped out with different kinds of lenses; and we even listened to developers as they floated the idea of a credit card reader similar to a Square dongle. As of this week, it’s now up to these partners and devs to explore the space and figure out how to make Ara successful.
This all sounds fine and dandy, but it doesn’t come without a setback or two. Despite ATAP’s efforts, it’s still larger, heavier and thicker than your run-of-the-mill smartphone, and there are some concerns with battery efficiency (although the ability to hot-swap batteries certainly helps). Naturally, the team understands that such matters could be a turnoff for potential buyers, so they hope to resolve these issues by the time the next prototype comes around later this year.
Project Ara is halfway through a two-year mission. The deadline is a driving motivation for the handful of full-time employees and contractors involved in the project, as the expected timeframe was brought up several times during today’s conference. There isn’t any time for delays, which makes this project even more exciting — if it’s going to happen, it has to be ready to go this time next year. Not only is ATAP facing a ticking clock, but it’s also doing so with a pretty hefty to-do list: It has to entice developers, conduct demonstrations at convincing scales and get consumers interested in taking a chance on a brand-new type of smartphone. It’s not going to be easy, but the journey will be fascinating to watch.
read the original article here: http://www.engadget.com/2014/04/15/smartphone-anti-theft-commitment/
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Apple, Samsung and others to adopt anti-theft smartphone kill switch
Apple and Samsung are duking it out in court yet again, but there’s at least one thing they (and a host of their smartphone making rivals) agree on: users shouldn’t be helpless when their phones are stolen. That’s why, starting in July 2015, all of the smartphones those companies sell in the United States will come with an anti-theft tool meant to help keep your data out of the wrong hands. The full list of backers includes the usual heavyweights: besides Apple and Samsung, there’s Google, HTC, Huawei, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia, along with the country’s biggest wireless carriers. Those parties in total represent a tremendous chunk of the American wireless industry, so your next (or next next) smartphone will almost certainly let you stick it to the sticky-fingered.
And what, pray tell, would such tools do? According to the CTIA, users will be able to remotely wipe and restore their devices (say, from a cloud backup), and prevent them from being reactivated or used by unsavory types. That seemingly simple move wouldn’t just save us all anguish, it could save us a collective total of $2.5 billion a year in replacement costs and insurance fees. It sure sounds like a win for consumers, but some — like Senator Mark Leno, who sponsored a bill to create a kill-switch for connected gadgets in the Golden State — think such tools should be on by default rather than requiring users to opt-in. He’s probably on to something, but at least all these companies have a few months to iron out the details.
read the original article here: http://www.engadget.com/2014/04/15/smartphone-anti-theft-commitment/
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Project Tango teardown reveals the wonders of the phone’s 3D sensing tech
Want to get a better understanding of Google’s 3D-sensing Project Tango smartphone beyond the usual promo videos? iFixit is more than happy to show you now that it has torn down the device for itself. The close-up identifies many of the depth mapping components in the experimental handset, including the infrared and fisheye cameras (both made by OmniVision), motion tracking (from InvenSense) and dual vision processors (from Movidius).
However, the real centerpiece is the infrared projector. As you can see from the pretty light show pictured here, Project Tango maps the environment in much the same way as the original Kinect: it’s creating a grid of dots that it measures to calculate distance. Other parts are relatively pedestrian, such as the Snapdragon 800 processor and 5-inch display, but it’s clear from the teardown that they play second fiddle here — this is an imaging device that just happens to double as a phone. You can see this for yourself at the source link.
read the original article here: http://www.engadget.com/2014/04/16/project-tango-teardown/
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Jaguar Land Rover brings the boardroom to your dashboard with in-car infotainment system
The boundary between your smartphone and your car is growing thinner by the day, and Jaguar Land Rover is the latest in a long line of car companies trying to work out the ideal balance between the two. The company’s InControl Apps system has been in the works for months now, and we got to take a lot at their progress (in a spiffy new Range Rover Evoque, no less) at the New York International Auto Show. Here’s how it works: after you load the companion app onto your Android device or iPhone (don’t worry, the experience is the same for both), you connect it to your car via a USB port nestled in the center console. After that, your handset basically becomes inoperable, while all of your compatible apps appear on your car’s display.
You can initiate phone calls and fire up your tunes just like on any other halfway decent infotainment system, but JLR has roped in a group of companies like Stitcher, Parkopedia and Sygic Maps to tailor their apps to the smallish screen. There’s even something here for people who just can’t stop working — one partner app will read news stories aloud in a not-so-stilted approximation of a female voice, and yet another will help patch workaholics into their conference calls with a single touch.
Now crafting apps for cars is fine, but they’re absolutely worthless if the process of using them is a headache. Thankfully, that doesn’t seem to be the case here: popping between apps and pinching to zoom on Evoque’s recessed touch display was surprisingly snappy. Was it utterly buttery smooth? No, but the whole thing was still a little more polished and thoughtful than we expected. Of course, this represents but one path in the appification of the automobile. Apple namechecked Jaguar Land Rover when it first started talking about bringing iOS into cars after all, so it shouldn’t be too long before a boxy offroader starts playing nice with Siri.
read the original article here: http://www.engadget.com/2014/04/16/jaguar-land-rover-incontrol-apps/
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