Google to ship first devkits for Project Ara soon

[Feronix]

10 Months ago a YouTube video by Dave Hakkens went completely viral, and right now it is sat at a staggering 20.5 million views. Since then most people have forgotten about this video and have gone back to buying pre-built devices from major brands such as HTC, Samsung or Apple. Except for Google, the company that looked into the concept that many people said to be impossible. The codename for this project: Ara.

If you're still a bit clueless as to what I'm talking about, allow me to refresh your memory with said video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDAw7vW7H0c

Now, Google has announced that they will start shipping out developer kits at the end of July. There are only a limited amount of kits and those interested must apply to Google. They will then review the applications and decide whether you will be sent a devkit or not.

http://www.projectara.com/dev-board-form

Here is a summary of what to expect after you submit this form:

1) Applications will be reviewed in stages; the current review period ends on July 17, 2014, 11:59pm PDT.

2) The next review period will start on July 18 and end on August 17, 2014.

3) You will receive a notification via email 1 week after the review period ends.

4) If approved, dev boards will be shipped to you starting in late July, 2014.

5) Documentation for the dev boards is available at projectara.com/dev-boards/, you may also email ara-dev@google.com for additional support requests.

There are 3 different devboards available, with varying hardware configurations.

We’ve created developer hardware based on the v0.10 MDK to help with prototyping and development of modules for the Ara platform. There are three dev boards: an application processor (AP) board with a strawman TI OMAP 4460 AP and modified Linaro Android; a UniPro switch board representative of the network switching functionality of the Ara endoskeleton; and a general purpose endpoint board for developer-unique functionality that supports the tunneling of legacy DSI, I2C, I2S, SDIO, and GPIO protocols over UniPro. Since we only have limited quantities of developer hardware, we ask that you please tell us about how you plan to use it! We anticipate having a second release of developer hardware around the v0.20 MDK (and ASICs instead of FPGAs for UniPro network processing, as well as multiple APs) in Fall 2014.

The developers expect to release version 0.2 of the Module Developers Kit near the end of the year. At that point they will also release devkits based on the new MDK. The first consumer release, the Gray Phone, is set to release in early 2015 for around $50 (USD).

The Gray Phone will run Android and exist out of a base frame into which the user can install their own components using a magnetic solution. The hardware will communicate via UniPro.

Sources
http://www.projectara.com/dev-boards/
Tweakers.net

 

[maniac]

noice!

 

[Dicehunter]

Awesome news story !

I only have 1 thing to say though -

 

[CreatiXx]

been following this from the beginning,lovely idea and concept. Truly hope it works out, but i wonder. If this becomes a HUUGE succes. Will this mean the end of other Phone company's since the idea is that you wont need a new phone cause you can update the blocks?

 

[Feronix]

been following this from the beginning,lovely idea and concept. Truly hope it works out, but i wonder. If this becomes a HUUGE succes. Will this mean the end of other Phone company's since the idea is that you wont need a new phone cause you can update the blocks?

Well, the idea of the guy who made the Phonebloks video was that manufacturers can shift their focus to making those components, such as Sony cameras, Samsung screens, etc.

There will always be people that don't want to go through the process of building, or even spending the time of looking into building, their own phones and will continue to buy pre-built devices.

Kind of how the mainstream market people still tend to buy high-end devices from Samsung or HTC while there are Chinese brands out there (Oppo, Xiaomi, OnePlus, etc) that offer the same spec for half the price, or the Nokia Lumia line-up which runs WP8.1 instead of Android, simply because people don't know what they're buying and/or don't like change (just prefer to stick to what they know best).

 

[Dicehunter]

been following this from the beginning,lovely idea and concept. Truly hope it works out, but i wonder. If this becomes a HUUGE succes. Will this mean the end of other Phone company's since the idea is that you wont need a new phone cause you can update the blocks?

The phone companies will find a way to patent something somewhere and make something awesome exclusive to them at rip off prices

 

[WYP]

Reworked for the Front Page and Shared on FB.

Thanks to Feronix for finding this delicious piece of news . I will be following this with interest.

 

[RamboOC]

Reworked for the Front Page and Shared on FB.

Thanks to Feronix for finding this delicious piece of news . I will be following this with interest.

Liked would be awesome if I got a dev kit

 

[MadShadow]

This is awesome I need this now!