ProjectARA
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We tried McDonald's super-engineered shake straw
As part of this year's St. Patrick's Day promotions, McDonald's is debuting a highly engineered, hyper-exclusive straw dubbed the "Suction Tube for Reverse Axial Withdrawal," or STRAW for short. It's only available on two days, February 24th and March 1st, with a scant 2,000 of them spread across the entire country. We managed to get our hands on one, however, and put it to a chocolate-minty test.
Project Ara's death is bad news for the weird side of Google
Last week, Google announced that it was killing Project Ara, the company's modular smartphone initiative. Ara was easily one of the coolest and strangest things Google was working on, but the project always felt like a bit of a longshot. In this world of carefully-built, sealed-up iPhones and Galaxy devices, it didn't feel like there was much room for Ara's intriguing but bizarre swappable hardware modules. But Ara was one of the best examples out there of "Weird Google," and Ara's death is the latest clue that the experimental side of the company might be in trouble.
Google officially ends its Project Ara modular phone initiative
Google has shut down its modular smartphone initiative, Project Ara, a spokesperson confirmed to VentureBeat today. This follows an earlier report from Reuters that claimed Google was finished with Project Ara. We've reached out to Google for confirmation and will update this article as the company responds.
Google's Project Ara modular phone is reportedly suspended
Google's big plans for Project Ara might never pan out. According to Reuters, the big G has decided to shelve its modular phone initiative. Earlier this year, the company said it will be releasing a developer phone with interchangeable components in the fourth quarter of 2016 ahead of a consumer version scheduled for 2017. Alas, that might no longer happen.
Phonebloks creator isn't entirely happy with Project Ara
Dave Hakkens, the brains behind the Phonebloks modular phone concept, thinks Google could do better when it comes to Project Ara. In a blog post, Hakkens said he wasn't happy that the modular phone's latest version puts its processor, battery, antenna, sensors and screen in a single skeleton and that only add-ons like the camera, speakers and projector are available as swappable modules. When Hakkens dreamed up Phonebloks, he envisioned each component as a module you can replace. The Dutch designer announced the concept in September 2013 not knowing that Motorola was cooking up a similar project. The two later collaborated on Project Ara.
Google aims to launch its consumer Project Ara phone in 2017
Despite some grim portents last year, Google's "Project Ara" modular smartphone is far from dead. For starters, it now has its own business unit within Google's mysterious Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) group, and the nearly magical modular hardware we've been anticipating for years is indeed getting closer. ATAP Head of Creative Blaise Bertrand confirmed at Google's I/O conference today that a new developer phone will be available in Q4 of this year with a "thin, light, beautiful" consumer Ara phone to follow in 2017.
Google grabs ex-Motorola president to unify its hardware groups
Rick Osterloh, former president of Motorola, is now Senior Vice President at Google in charge of a new hardware division that includes the company's Nexus devices, living room gadgets and Glass, Re/code reports. This means Nest CEO Tony Fadell is no longer leading Google's Glass initiatives, a role he took on in January 2015, though he'll stay on as a team adviser. Osterloh is no stranger to Google -- he led product development during Motorola's tenure under Google and helped develop the Moto X, Moto 360 and early Droid efforts.
Project Ara delayed because its phones keep falling apart (update: apparently not)
Project Ara, the modular mobile phone from Google's Advanced Technologies and Projects (ATAP) group, has hit some delays, and now we're getting a hint as to what went wrong. The Project Ara team announced on Twitter that the the "electropermanent" magnets that held the different Ara modules together are not strong enough to keep the phone from surviving falls in a drop test. Unfortunately, there's no word on what it will be replaced with, outside of an enigmatic tweet about testing a "signature experience" for attaching and detaching modules.
Modular mobile phone Project Ara is delayed until 2016
The much-anticipated Google-backed modular phone from Project Ara was supposed to make its debut in Puerto Rico later this year. However, the device won't be coming until at least 2016, thanks to an unexpectedly long prototyping phase, and likely won't use the US protectorate as its initial test market, as a series of tweets from company on Monday reveal. The company is reportedly "looking at a few locations in the U.S." to debut the phone but is certain that it won't be happening by the end of the year.
Project Ara will 're-route' market pilot for its modular smartphone
After going a while between updates, Project Ara has sent out a confusing series of tweets suggesting plans for the modular smartphone could change. We don't know if this has anything to do with the recent Google / Alphabet restructuring, but its official Twitter account says the team has been busy "making stuff", and that details on a "Market pilot re-route" are coming soon. We were expecting to see the Google-backed platform debut in Puerto Rico, but that is no longer a certainty. The account finished up by saying "this is not a goodbye" to the island, and left us awaiting further updates next week. Given recent events, we guess it's good to know the lights are still on, but anyone waiting for the chance to piece together their own smartphone will have have to stay tuned. [Image credit: Bryan Bedder via Getty Images]
Here's what Project Ara phones will actually look like
Sure, we've seen prototypes of Google's Project Ara before, but these dummy modules from budget phone maker Yezz mobile are as good a hint to how the phone might actually look in real life. We already saw how Google envisioned Ara to look, but given its plans for a store where you'll be able to browse different components for your phone, it's unlikely things will be that uniform. It doesn't take much to imagine that Ara's customizable nature will mean all the different clip-in components will rarely be an aesthetic match. That's to say, your phone is likely going to be a patchwork of colors and designs, so why not embrace that and go all in? Yezz's prototype modules show us how that future will look.
Engadget Daily: Google's modular phone explained, Facebook tackles office comms
When Lego meets smartphones, something resembling Google's Project Ara comes out. Google's been outlining its eventual plans for its modular phone, and it involves high-end specs, a debut in South America, and some very pretty smartphone bits and pieces. Meanwhile, Facebook is aiming to tackle the dour world of office communications -- hopefully including Pusheen stamps.
Swapping smartphone modules with Google's latest Project Ara prototype
Google's modular phone concept is one step closer to reality. With today's announcement of the latest updates to Project Ara and an upcoming pilot program in Puerto Rico, Google has made serious strides in bringing the unique swappable-module phone idea to market. Today, we had a chance to take a look at the latest version of the concept -- code-named Spiral 2 -- and it's certainly a much more polished version of the device than we've seen previously. Indeed, Paul Eremenko, Project Ara's lead, says that the look of the hardware here is "final," or at least very close to what we'll see come final release.
Google plans to let you design your own Project Ara phone with an app
OK, so far we know that Project Ara's Spiral 2 prototype is in good shape, Spiral 3 should be even better, and that devices will hit Puerto Rico before anywhere else. Now we turn our attention to how you'll configure your very own Ara device, a decidedly incomplete process that Google's Jason Chua demoed using an as-yet incomplete Ara Configurator app.
Google details Ara Manager app for wrangling all your modules
We've known that there'll be an Ara Manager app to help Android users grok their shiny, new modular toys, but we've just gotten a better sense of how it'll actually work when Ara devices trickle into the wild later this year. At its most basic, the app -- which should come pre-loaded on Ara phones -- allows users to lock and unlock the modules currently slotted into the phone by using a bit of current to disengage the electro-permanent magnets holding them in place. We knew that already, though: What's new?
Google's first test market for Project Ara will be Puerto Rico
Want to get your first taste of Project Ara, Google's modular phone project? You might have to move to Puerto Rico. That's because Google has designated the US territory as the market pilot site for Project Ara. Why Puerto Rico? Well, according to Paul Eremenko, Project Ara's lead, the island is very "well-connected" and has a designated free trade zone that would make it easy to get developer modules from around the world. Puerto Rico also apparently has a very diverse "mobile-first" market, and entry-level phones make up a great majority of sales. But perhaps more importantly, Puerto Rico is still under FCC jurisdiction and would therefore make a great test market for the US. The first two carriers to offer Project Ara will be Open Mobile and Claro, both of which offer 4G LTE coverage in addition to 3G. As for when exactly this will happen, well, Google didn't say, but we'll tell you as soon as they do.
Project Ara's next prototype will stand equal to a top-tier smartphone
Long ago, Google once said it hoped to get an official, final Project Ara device -- the so-called gray phone -- onto the market by January 2015. It doesn't take a math whiz to realize that window is rapidly closing, but that doesn't mean Google's taking the whole modular smartphone thing any less seriously. Project lead Paul Eremenko shed a little more light on Ara's future at Google's second Ara Developer Conference, and dropped a few juicy details about forthcoming Spiral 3 Ara prototype in the process. He also unveiled the latest design for the Ara, which you can peek in the gallery below.
Watch Google's Project Ara modular phone conference right here
Want to know what Google and partners are cooking up for the next wave of Project Ara, their initiative to develop modular smartphones? You have an easy way to find out: Google is streaming its Project Ara conference live. The Mountain View event is bound to include a few treats, whether it's more advanced (or at least cheaper) prototypes, new modules and other updates. Tune in below and you might just learn about the future of mobile technology before your friends.
Here's what happened at Engadget Expand 2014
If you didn't get to come out to the Javits Center in New York City for this year's Engadget Expand, but still wanted to see what all the fuss was about, we've got you covered. The entire two-day celebration of tech and talks has been whittled down into a megamix of sorts, giving you a sample of the sights, sounds and people that make Expand so great. Care to hear DARPA's director talk about the future of neurotechnology, glimpse Google's modular Ara smartphones, gawk at dancing robots or even see Engadget editors go head to head in a toy car race? It's all right there in the video below. Hope to see you next year!
Taking apart Google's modular smartphone
What do you want to know about Project Ara? Does a modular smartphone actually work? Yes. Is it very different from Android phones? In a basic how-a-phone-all-works, yes indeed. Paul Eremenko, Technical Project Lead on Google's modular phone project just called in at Expand NY, and he brought along the latest working prototype. Modular phones do indeed work: you can take out a component without bricking the device, it can already run Angry Birds and we just got to play with one.
