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It’s alive. Just a few months ago we saw the first prototypes of Google’s Project Ara modular devices. Fast forward to today at I/O and the ambitious project is already working with real devices. Paul Eremenko, the lead for Project Ara, actually powered on a modular phone for the first time in public.
Unfortunately there are still a lot of bugs with Project Ara. They were able to get to the boot screen, but after that it consistently froze. It’s not the most successful demo, but it shows that they are making process. To make things even more exciting Eremenko issued a challenge to developers. For anyone that creates a working module that lets a phone do something “a phone has never done before” they will receive a $100,000 prize.
That may sound like an impossible thing to do, but Project Ara is all about doing the impossible. A modular phone has never been done before, but yet today we saw one power on for the first time. This could be one of Google’s most exciting projects. We can’t wait to see how it grows.
Follow along with the Day 2 live stream right here.
Wow, there is no bottom bezel on that thing..
Give it a change holder. Basically a magnet module….coins will magically attach themselves to the module….ta-daaaa 100k in tha pocket! (hopefully not in change)
That is an interesting idea, it would not work in the USA given that our coins are not very magnetic, which would be sad if we could not participate. But that is the point of Ara. You can swap out things that are useful for you where you are.
money wasting
phone modules size is changing every year therefore it is just a dream to have the same size of modules over a decade
money waste for Google