First camera modules from Toshiba for Project Ara are out

The first modular smartphone concept from Google  – the Project Ara is said to official at the MWC 2015 expo next month. The modular smartphone will have different independent modules for chipset, battery, display and other components. Japanese giant Toshiba is assigned the task for designing camera modules. The company has now arrived with the first break through in this!

Toshiba has recently showcased three camera parts for the Project Ara that includes two rear positioned cameras – a 5MP and other with 13MP resolution and a front facing selfie snapper of 2MP. The sensor for 2MP is of 1.4 um in size whereas for the other two it is 1.12 um in size.

These parts are now said to undergo mass production and are said to be widely available by next year based on Toshiba’s three year development plans. The Project Ara handsets that would be announced officially this year will also start expanding by next year. Hence Toshiba’s plans seem to be very much in line with that of Google.

Check out the video below that demonstrates a working camera module.

source: Image Sensors World

via: PhoneArena

First camera modules from Toshiba for Project Ara are out

Project Ara to been seen at the MWC 2015 event next month

The modular smartphone concept from Google is still live and the latest news say that some its parts could likely be seen at the MWC 2015 event in Barcelona next month. At the event, round about fifty modular components are likely to be seen out of which we can expect few of them to be shown in complete working condition.

Last month, we say Google announcing the first Project Ara module Spiral 2. The Project Ara for modular smartphone is said to allow users to upgrade the RAM, camera, GPU, display, chipsets and other components wherein you can replace the old parts for new and still keep the same look. Earlier, Toshiba had also announced that the company had partnered with Einfochips for producing chips for the Project Ara handsets. Toshiba has confirmed that it soon to launch the Spiral 3 after which the Spiral 2 would be available to the customers.

The modules are said to be priced in between $50 and $500 and an effort would be made to make it reasonable to the users. Additionally, there have also been reports earlier that few modular parts of the Project Ara handsets would be hot-swappable. You can know about all the previous details about Project Ara here. In the meanwhile, check out the images for the project below.

source: STJSGadgets (1), (2)

Project Ara to been seen at the MWC 2015 event next month

Google teams up with Marvell and Nvidia for Project Ara chipsets

Gearing up further on its Project Ara, Google said that the company has now teamed up with chipset makers Marvell and Nvidia for its Project Ara handsets. Earlier this year, Google had announced that Rockchip could be one of the companies for supplying processor to the Project Ara handsets. Quanta who is a hardware manufacturing partners of Google had created a Project reference design based upon the Nvidia Tegra K1 and the Marvell PXA1928 processor. However, the company hasn’t been releasing this designs as of now.

The concept behind this project was initialized by Motorola and Phoneblocks which was later acquired by Google while buying out Motorola mobility in 2012. The Google Project Ara is basically a concept for making Android-based modular smartphones which parts that are swappable which would give users a truly customized hardware experience.

Google is expected to release more details regarding the project by next month of January when it is expected to roll-out its first Project Ara device. The good thing is that the handsets released under this Project would be costing as low as $50. Things would be finalized by next month. In the meanwhile, check out the video below showing the Project Ara prototype. For more details on Project Ara click here.

source: Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects group

Google teams up with Marvell and Nvidia for Project Ara chipsets

What’s New with Google’s Project ARA?

The first time the story about the Google’s project Ara went out months ago, it has triggered an impressive score of positive feedback. And now Google ATAP division, responsible for the ARA project, has released updates about the revolutionary modular handset. And I am to tell you that they are both good news.

First development on the project is the prototype of its latest circuit board, which you can easily see on the team’s Google+ page. The circuit board is known as the Spiral with advanced electromagnetic coupling for the modules is far ahead other development boards. It is structured around specially made Toshiba chips, which allows more space for developer modules.

Another advancement that we are sure to be experiencing once the handset is launched is the ARA market. It is pretty much works like the Play Store only that it is designed to sell hardware modules to future ARA users. Globant, a famous Latin American software company and a long time Google partner, has confirmed that it is already underway. Two Toasters, another renowned Google collaborator, would also be working on the mobile application. Two toasters is creditable for mobile design, development and production.

More updates is expected to excite us in the upcoming second Project ARA Module Developers Conference taking place early next year, January 14 at Mountain View, CA and January 21 in Singapore.

What’s New with Google’s Project ARA?

Project Ara competitor Puzzlephone to arrive in 2015 second half

The modular smartphone project from Google – Project Ara seems to have yet another competitor on its way. The competitor known as Puzzlephone would give modularity for three of its parts within the handset. The Brain portion would include the electronics of the handset along with camera. This means users can have in place ew camera snapper modules by replacing its Brain unit.

The second part Spine would include an combo of microphone, display and speakers and the third part known as Heart would consist of a battery module in it. This new modular smartphone concept is being made by a Finnish startup Circular Devices. The OS running the handset is believed to be Android based with an additional support of other platforms like Sailfish, Firefox OS and Windows Phone.

Puzzlephone is expected to arrive in the market sometime in the second half of 2015 and would likely be an affordable mid-range handset. This project does not however offer more customization options like that of Project Ara but still would be a very good modular smartphone. Take a look at some of the info images along with a video.

source: Puzzlephone

Project Ara competitor Puzzlephone to arrive in 2015 second half

Project Tango dev slate from Google with 4GB of RAM appears on the Play Store: Images and Videos

We have a lot many times heard about the Project Ara from Google which is likely to bring a modular handset in the market next year. One more thing which very few people might be knowing is that the same team is working simultaneously on another Google project named as Project Tango which aims at making a smartphone or a tablet that makes use of the two rear camera and two sensors thereby creating a 3D model of the surrounding. Few days back the Project Tango tablet appeared on the Play Store but this was only the Developer kit and not at all for the consumer base. The good thing is that we have arrived with some of the specs for the device.

The Project Tango hosts a 7.02inch IPS display with a 1900×1200 pixel resolution having 323ppi density shielded with a protective Gorilla Glass layer. The device hosts a powerful NVIDIA Tegra K1 quad-core chipsets clocked at 2.3GHz and a Kepler GPU having 192 CUDA cores. The device has some excellent memory options with a whopping 4GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage. At the front is a 1MP fixed focus camera with IR LED and the rear hosts a 4MP camera with RGB-IR sensor and 2µm pixels. The rear camera is also accompanied by a motion tracking camera along with a 3D depth sensing sensor. Additionally, the complete tablet will have a good 4960 battery capacity for power-up.

A bit disappointment that might arrive is that the tablet would be running the Android 4.4.2 KitKat and not the latest Android 5.0 Lollipop. The dimensions shows it could be 15.6mm thick and weigh 370 grams. Well, who always wants to compete with the thinnest/lightest slates when there is a lot more to add to it. The tablet would be priced somewhere around $1000 and we would bring the complete details once they are out. Check out the videos relating to the Project Tango here.

source: Play Store

Project Tango dev slate from Google with 4GB of RAM appears on the Play Store: Images and Videos

Even before launch, Project Ara gets a new competitor Vsenn

Till date, we have heard quite a lot about the modular smartphone Project Ara from Google and now it would be surprising for you to know that even before the project that is expected to get official next year in 2015, it has now got a competitor working on a similar project like this. The name of the first competitor for the Project Ara is Vsenn.

The landing pages of the new company Vsenn shows the company to be founded by an ex Nokia X Product Manager. The plans for shows to be having a modular hardware but seems to offer some limited customizations compared to Project Ara. Vsenn would allow to have any design customizations but limits swapping of only three hardware modules that include the processor/RAM, battery and camera. Reports show that the hardware would be running pure Vanilla and would receive guaranteed updates for the next four years. However, there is no news to it whether Google Apps and Play services would be included or not. Vsenn is said to be focusing largely on the security with “triple layer encryption” and “free access to a VPN network and secure Cloud”.

There is no word yet when we would get to see the first glimpse of Vsenn hardware or what would be pricing like. Well, one thing is sure that the competition for Google for its new project is certainly onn.

source: Vsenn

Even before launch, Project Ara gets a new competitor Vsenn

Project Ara smartphone to have a plug-in pulse oximeter module

We are all aware about the Project Ara by Google that aims at making modular smartphones with different assembled modules for its processor, display and other parts of a smartphone. Latest reports show that a strong health component could also be associated with the Project. A new plug-in kind of module has been produced that turns the handset into a pulse oximeter. Well, the use of this is found in the medical industry where doctors usually ask for a pulse ox reading in order to determine the percentage of patient’s blood that is saturated with oxygen. This idea was originally thought by the project head Paul Eremenko and wanted the phone to have some health related modules.

Paul has also suggested the Project Ara to be a device that would help determine crowd source data patterns. According to him, Google might also release a consumer pilot of the handset by next year. Precise dates for this would be announced at the Project Ara developer conference in January. In addition to this, there are many other things which the company has planned to bring to this module that includes having some hot-swapping chipsets without switching off the handset and much more. Grab all the details till date regarding this wonderful project here.

source: VentureBeat

Project Ara smartphone to have a plug-in pulse oximeter module

Teasers of Project Ara from Google

The long awaited Project Ara is going to be announced soon. It is going to be announced by Google’s ATAP group in two occasions.  The first project announcement is going to take place in Mountain View, California on January 14 whereas the second announcement is in Singapore on January 21. Both events will have satellite locations. The project Ara which is going to be announced will be the second version.

Peoject Ara is Google ATAP’s idea to create a phone which let users upgrade individual hardware components with new or updated features instead of replacing the entire phone. Its objective is to give users an ability to create their own image of a perfect phone without spending money on the feature that they do not need.

One of the major changes in the second version of Project Ara is the “Spiral 2”. It is what Google ATAP group called the second iteration of the hardware. In “Spiral 1”, half of the space on the device is taken up by components which required holding the various modules whereas in “Spiral 2” together with custom hardware from Toshiba, it will cut down on the space needed so that it allows developers more space on the hardware to work with.

According to rumours, the first Project Ara hardware will be available in January 2015 and it could cost as little as $50.  Based on the timeline, it is possible that Spiral 2 will be the first Ara handset to be sold.

Teasers of Project Ara from Google

Google files for the “ARA” trademark application with the USPTO

The Google Project ARA that aims at making up a complete modular handset with swappable modules for its hardware is catching up much heat these days. Gaining further speed, reports show that Google has recently filed for trademark ARA application with the US Patents and Trademark Office for its device. There is also an expectation that the beta release of the gadget might happen sometime in March 2015.

Google’s filing for a trademark with the USPTO shows that the new modular device from the company wont have its name changed at least when the first device breaks cover. Later on, Google might think upon giving an another interesting name to its project.

Previous reports from the industry have already shown that the modular smartphone would be running the latest Android 5.0 Lollipop where most of its modules like chipset, display etc would be hot-swappable. The search giant has already released an developers board for the ARA handset. It seems that the executives at Google are working at full speed to release the handset in the earliest possible time.

source: AndroidFace

Google files for the “ARA” trademark application with the USPTO

Project Ara from Google to have its dedicated store for modular bits

Well, it seems that Google is gearing up with modular concept smartphone Project Ara and as the expected 2015 release of the Project is getting closer with every passing day, we are getting more and more insight into the Project. Recently at the Prude University, team leader Paul Eremenko said that Ara components would have its special store that would be dedicated modular hardware for the Project.

Paul also said that the Ara MDK would be free and open and would easily be available to all. This means that anyone would be able to create a module. Just like various developers across the globe can easily put their apps on Play Store for Android, module developers for Ara would be able to easily put their hardware on the dedicated marketplace for this project. This would allow various module makers across the globe to directly sell their products to consumers as Google desires.

Well this would certainly prove to be very fruitful platform both for developers and consumers and it would be interesting to see different hardware modules during launch of the marketplace. Just for your information, the Project Ara was initiated by Motorola however, after sold to Lenovo Google has still managed to keep to themselves. The basic price for the modular handset is said to be $50.

Source | Via

Project Ara from Google to have its dedicated store for modular bits

Project Ara smartphones to have module hot-swapping

Google Project Ara initiative that aims as making a fully customized smartphone as per the users need has went out a step ahead in its development program. For those who are still unaware of Project Ara, this is a project where you can have a device of your choice. This means you can select the RAM, memory storage, display screen and almost everything and have the device of your own choice. Recent reports coming from Linaro Connect US 2014 conference that the Project Ara will incorporate a feature for module hot-swapping, meaning that users would even be able to swap parts of its modular phone when the smartphone is powered on.

This means that during the usage if your memory storage gets full, users would be able to swap the memory on-the-go and continue with their day ahead. The great thing would be users would even be able to swap the battery without turning the phone. Yes, there is a power reserve feature that will continue to flash the smartphone screen even in no battery condition.

There would other two parts also that would not be hot-swappable and it is the display and the processor of the device. Google is working on this great initiative with just a $50 entry price to it. The pricing for different blocks is not known yet. We can expect the first Project Ara smartphone to go official anytime in January 2015. It is supposed to run a modified version of Android L  that would be very interesting.

Project Ara smartphones to have module hot-swapping

Google plans to hold an event in India on September 15! Android One expected to be unveiled

Mountain View based tech giant Google has officially announced that it holding an even in India on September 15 after sending out press invites for the same. The company is to hold the event on Monday at 12AM and announced that more details would be unveiled as the event date approaches closer.

It seems that the company is plaaning to reveal few plans of  its Android One program. The Android One program was announced at the Google I/O this year and said that the program associated phone makers like Spice, Karbonn and Micromax to take part in it. On revealing Android One, Sundar Pichai has said that it wants to take the Android experience to entry-level smartphoes. This means that all the phones that come under the Android One shield will have stock Android.

The title “Block the Date” also shows that along with the android One, the search giant might also plan to release few details regarding its Project Ara. Project Ara aims to make smartphone where everything can be customized right from the chipset to the screen thus thereby giving users a complete package of what they actually need. Just like all the Google fans, we would waiting with excitement for the event on September 15.

 

Google plans to hold an event in India on September 15! Android One expected to be unveiled

Google"s Project Ara devices will start at $50

Project Ara has been one of the most appealing ideas to come across the world in recent times. The preparation began at Motorola’s Advanced Technology Group, but has since altered to Google because that team was not a division of the awaiting sale of Motorola to Lenovo. The central theme is to produce modular smart-phones that can be easily upgraded and customized, and a new report has a surprising announcement about what manufacturer will be building processors for Ara devices.

According to Nikkei, the big names like NVIDIA, Qualcomm, Intel, Samsung, or even MediaTek producing the processors for Project Ara devices. But, Toshiba will be manufacturing semiconductors for the modular smart-phones, and the company was in support for this with Google since October. Toshiba will allegedly produce “three types of processors for the phone, to be used both in modules and the phone itself”. This looks like that not all Ara devices will have replaceable processing modules, but that is ambiguous.

Toshiba will have prototypes available by this fall, and will set in motion the mass production in starting of 2015. The concerned part of the report is that it suggests that Toshiba will be a “preferred” contractor at first, but will turn into “the sole chipmaker for the phone about a year after its rollout”. We need to notice that it is uncertain precisely what this seems to pretend. It seems to claim that Toshiba will have rivalry at first, but will eventually happen to be the only processor manufacturer for Ara, It will send a signal which will mean that other manufacturers with no reason to struggle in the first place. It could mean that Toshiba will be the sole manufacturer which functions with an official Google Ara gadget, but other devices in the Ara line from other manufacturers might be open to a variety of modules from diverse suppliers.

One thing which can’t be avoided is that the report also provides a bit of intelligence on the gadgets themselves. The report restates  the news that Project Ara gadgets may open in market for selling at as little as $50 unlocked at first. Devices will differ in size, and such size-difference will make them capable to hold anywhere from five to ten separate modules. It sounds as though each will have the same basic functionality that you would expect, but the room for more modules would be used to exchange in and out things like exercise-trackers and extra batteries.

 

Google"s Project Ara devices will start at $50