Ace of Spades HQ

October 30, 2013

Motorola's modular smart phone project
— Purple Avenger

They're creating a DIY phone kit. Pick your parts and snap them together.

The design for Project Ara consists of what we call an endoskeleton (endo) and modules. The endo is the structural frame that holds all the modules in place. A module can be anything, from a new application processor to a new display or keyboard, an extra battery, a pulse oximeter--or something not yet thought of!..

Looks kinda cool.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 03:21 PM | Comments (54)
Post contains 80 words, total size 1 kb.

1 First!

Posted by: OG Celtic-American at October 30, 2013 03:22 PM (vHRtU)

2 A Heathkit smart phone?

Posted by: Bertram Cabot Jr. at October 30, 2013 03:22 PM (H0R/1)

3 How about a stun-gun module?

Posted by: OG Celtic-American at October 30, 2013 03:22 PM (vHRtU)

4 If you like your endo...

Posted by: eman at October 30, 2013 03:23 PM (AO9UG)

5 What's the chip marked "NSA"?

Posted by: t-bird at October 30, 2013 03:24 PM (4qiox)

6 Phased plasma emitter with power/focus control? Spider launcher? Nipple gauge?

Posted by: eman at October 30, 2013 03:25 PM (AO9UG)

7 I'll take mine with the plasma rifle module.

Posted by: Boss Moss the Redskin Savage at October 30, 2013 03:25 PM (Kud5A)

8 If you swallow those parts---no baby.

Posted by: Dr Spank at October 30, 2013 03:25 PM (9jLim)

9 Are them Obamafone eligible?

Posted by: LIV at October 30, 2013 03:26 PM (vH4YP)

10 That is no comet.

Posted by: Boss Moss the Redskin Savage at October 30, 2013 03:26 PM (Kud5A)

11 What's the chip marked "NSA"? NSA owns the telcos (well, forces them to give access). The only onboard functions are probably to weaken the Encryption toolchain.

Posted by: bonhomme[/i][/b] at October 30, 2013 03:26 PM (sByIH)

12 Could someone read the article and post the Cliffs Notes?

Posted by: Boss Moss the Redskin Savage at October 30, 2013 03:27 PM (Kud5A)

13 post the Cliffs Notes?

Lego phones.

Posted by: Purp[/i][/b][/u][/s] at October 30, 2013 03:28 PM (4tK7k)

14 Pez dispenser? Coffee spout? Crossbow add-on?

Posted by: eman at October 30, 2013 03:28 PM (AO9UG)

15 A phone with mission modules. It will probably have a missile launcher before the LCS also.

Posted by: Anna Puma (+SmuD) at October 30, 2013 03:29 PM (gMFC1)

16 Fart deodorizer module.

Posted by: OG Celtic-American at October 30, 2013 03:29 PM (vHRtU)

17 Ugly and inefficient? But what about the middle class?

Posted by: Generation W at October 30, 2013 03:29 PM (rCS6C)

18 Ampersand storage area.

Posted by: Boss Moss the Redskin Savage at October 30, 2013 03:29 PM (Kud5A)

19 Life begins when the parts connect!

Posted by: Lurking at October 30, 2013 03:29 PM (GJc4d)

20 Looks neat. Price point?

Posted by: Boss Moss the Redskin Savage at October 30, 2013 03:30 PM (Kud5A)

21 Hmmm...premature epostulation.

Posted by: Lurking Canuck at October 30, 2013 03:30 PM (GJc4d)

22 Your custom phone... You didn't build that.

Posted by: SCOAMF at October 30, 2013 03:30 PM (iy7de)

23 A module can be anything, from a new application processor to a new display or keyboard, an extra battery, a pulse oximeter-- Plasma rifle in the 40 watt range?

Posted by: Comrade Arthur at October 30, 2013 03:31 PM (83xuc)

24 Irony button for those who don't get it. A quiet trimmer for ladies invited to the beach last minute.

Posted by: eman at October 30, 2013 03:31 PM (AO9UG)

25 Price point?

How much junk do you want to snap together? Looks like anything from basic to very high end

Posted by: Purp[/i][/b][/u][/s] at October 30, 2013 03:31 PM (4tK7k)

26 I was just thinking about how I should downgrade to a plain cell phone. This could change my mind.

Posted by: fluffy at October 30, 2013 03:31 PM (tTR4Z)

27 Any thoughts on John McAffee's NSA blocker module.

Posted by: Boss Moss the Redskin Savage at October 30, 2013 03:32 PM (Kud5A)

28 Mass detector to make you look up so you can see the bus that is about to end your life after you walked in front of it while doing something stupid on your phone...

Posted by: OG Celtic-American at October 30, 2013 03:32 PM (vHRtU)

29 ...maybe phone stores should sell term life policies for oblivioids

Posted by: Purp[/i][/b][/u][/s] at October 30, 2013 03:33 PM (4tK7k)

30 Fishing rod and tackle box.

Posted by: eman at October 30, 2013 03:34 PM (AO9UG)

31 I have a lot of 'friends' who would like cell phone parts

Posted by: Bill Ayers at October 30, 2013 03:35 PM (Pr6hk)

32 Uh, oh. Sounds like 'Medical Device' tax will have to be levied on that baby.

Posted by: Mike Hammer at October 30, 2013 03:35 PM (aDwsi)

33 Mass detector to make you look up so you can see the bus that is about to

Ooh, I'm going to want one of those . . .

Posted by: Kathy Sibelius at October 30, 2013 03:36 PM (d7tB2)

34 Phaser.

Posted by: BackwardsBoy, who did not vote for this shit at October 30, 2013 03:36 PM (0HooB)

35 Or Taser. Either/or. I'm not picky.

Posted by: BackwardsBoy, who did not vote for this shit at October 30, 2013 03:37 PM (0HooB)

36 Next up: your education is substandard and everyone will be required to get a Phd.

Posted by: Darth Randall at October 30, 2013 03:39 PM (Zswg6)

37 Just waiting 'til CGI Ace Federal chimes in on this....

Posted by: MrScribbler at October 30, 2013 03:40 PM (kaGpp)

38 And the PhD will be issued when the child graduates 6th grade. Kindergarten is bachelors.

Posted by: Anna Puma (+SmuD) at October 30, 2013 03:40 PM (gMFC1)

39 Motorola, a Google company.

Posted by: BackwardsBoy, who did not vote for this shit at October 30, 2013 03:41 PM (0HooB)

That phone looks way too complicated for me. Hell, the smartphones are wacked in my opinion.... I still have an old fashioned Motorola that opens and shuts and basically makes and takes phone phucking calls (I've had it for ten years now...just got a new battery for it and was informed that the company will not be distributing those batteries anymore 'cause everything is smartphone now)....

I must be old. I think my next phone will be a Jitterbug.

*cough*

GET OFF MY LAWN!!

*cough...... cough...... ack.....*

Posted by: Some Guy in Wisconsin at October 30, 2013 03:41 PM (CbN7e)

41 Nice, but I can't afford it.

Posted by: BackwardsBoy, who did not vote for this shit at October 30, 2013 03:43 PM (0HooB)

42 couldn't most of this be accomplished by just outfitting a phone with various ports and slots (like USB)? "So many slots you don't know what to do with them!" -Bevis

Posted by: wooga at October 30, 2013 03:44 PM (LaNBQ)

43 It's a phone. It's a damn phone people! Must everything be some ornate expression of your personal sense of self? Even when I was young I would have thought this silly. The technology, cool, but the product itself, silly. That said, cheers to Motorola for recognizing that there's money to be made and for capitalizing on it.

Posted by: Niedermeyer's Dead Horse at October 30, 2013 03:48 PM (DmNpO)

44 Enough with the doo-dads. Tell us where to put the wires...

Posted by: Muslim Armorer's Association and Mosque at October 30, 2013 03:56 PM (4qiox)

45 couldn't most of this be accomplished by just outfitting a phone with various ports and slots (like USB)? Like a PC? With lots of dongles and things hanging off of a box? I don't think that would be very interesting to a consumer as a pocket phone device. This snap-together design preserves the phone as a single object form-factor.

Posted by: bonhomme[/i][/b] at October 30, 2013 04:01 PM (sByIH)

46 It's a phone. It's a damn phone people! Must everything be some ornate expression of your personal sense of self? Technology blurs the line between functions. Consumers of "smart-phones" want a pocket computer. It's not just a phone anymore, and trying to define it by that single function is Quixotic. The hounds are loosed. Good luck getting them back in the barn on your own.

Posted by: bonhomme[/i][/b] at October 30, 2013 04:04 PM (sByIH)

47 I found a T Mobile plan where you spend $100 and get 1000 minutes and you have a year to use them. No monthly bills.

Posted by: Boss Moss the Redskin Savage at October 30, 2013 04:25 PM (Kud5A)

48 Had this idea 15 years ago when I got my first cell phone. 'Bout time they got around to it.

Posted by: Alvin "teh Chipmunk" Toffler at October 30, 2013 04:27 PM (l5fCd)

49 And the 'make me a sammich' mode? Yeah, that's what I thought.

Posted by: EROWMER at October 30, 2013 04:35 PM (OONaw)

50 Looks kinda kludgy. They would sell more with the snap in components AND a jazzy skin to go over it.

Posted by: joncelli at October 30, 2013 04:49 PM (kNnPz)

51 This looks like vapourware. You can't just 'snap' bits of a phone together like that. The backplane is going to have to be super-fancy to have even a hope of making the parts interoperable, and super-fancy = expensive. Is it going to be cross-barring RF, baseband analogue and digital between the components? Sounds pretty doubtful. To get everything to talk to everything else the interfaces are going to have to be very rigidly defined, and that means you lose the integration you get when the phone is a monolithic design. Sure, it's a neat idea, but neat ideas have a habit of breaking badly when they collide with reality.

Posted by: David Gillies at October 30, 2013 06:10 PM (wscOM)

52 It's a neat idea- modularity would be great when you decide to upgrade, or even downgrade. New model camera module this year? Don't need to buy a new phone, just the module. Decide that something costs too much, or is rarely used? Remove it. Niftiness aside, FastCompany has an article pooh-poohing the idea:

http://tinyurl.com/lqyqzhb

Not sure I accept everything in the article- for one, I think this is more of a hobbyist/casual user idea, not for professionals who need a phone for work, but anyway, it's interesting.

Posted by: Sam Hill at October 30, 2013 06:58 PM (Wt6HB)

53 subscript test _tm

Posted by: Mike Hammer at November 02, 2013 11:43 AM (aDwsi)

54 subscript test2 _tm

Posted by: Mike Hammer at November 02, 2013 11:46 AM (aDwsi)

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