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News Motorola unveils Project Ara modular smartphone

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Gareth Halfacree, 29 Oct 2013.

  1. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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  2. GuilleAcoustic

    GuilleAcoustic Ook ? Ook !

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    Good idea ! Hope the pricing will be nice.
     
  3. Nexxo

    Nexxo * Prefab Sprout – The King of Rock 'n' Roll

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    That would be seriously awesome --and for some reason I see it working really well with the WP8 GUI (I know, won't happen --but a guy can dream).
     
  4. Dave Lister

    Dave Lister Minimodder

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    It's nice to see this develop a bit more.
     
  5. Icy EyeG

    Icy EyeG Controlled by Eyebrow Powers™

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    I can happen, if Microsoft embraces the concept. I would guess, though, that it may be against its new "Apple-like" philosophy.
     
  6. rollo

    rollo Modder

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    If only Motorola does it then the only way it would end up on Microsoft handsets is if they declared windows mobile dead.
     
  7. theshadow2001

    theshadow2001 [DELETE] means [DELETE]

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    I love the concept.

    The execution of course could be a lot more difficult. Particularly software maintenance and dealing with incompatibilities due various blocks being used in a phone. Change the camera and your QR code reader app stops working.

    I think the only way this could really work well is if it goes like the pc industry where standards are created and used by the entire industry. Thats very unlikely however.

    Still I hold out hope for the idea.
     
  8. Nexxo

    Nexxo * Prefab Sprout – The King of Rock 'n' Roll

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    If this block system patent is owned by Motorola (read: Google), it may not be licensed to competitors.

    That makes no sense whatsoever. :confused:
     
  9. GuilleAcoustic

    GuilleAcoustic Ook ? Ook !

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    A way to solve the drivers issue could be something already made on old amigas. Bach then, the drivers could be embedded with the hardware, inside an EEPROM.
     
  10. Unicorn

    Unicorn Uniform November India

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    I believe this is possible purely based on the fact that the computer industry at large has been using the same basic principle for decades. I also believe that if anyone can make it work, it's a company owned by Google. If (is there really an if?) it's going to run Android, they will not license it to competitors, but it will still be a more open platform than iPhone and even Windows Phone, although it's not too much of a stretch to think that Microsoft might get on board and that the devices would be capable of running WM.

    This would quite possibly pry me away from iPhone and iOS.
     
  11. Nexxo

    Nexxo * Prefab Sprout – The King of Rock 'n' Roll

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    Would be amazing if one of the swappable blocks would contain the OS. Build the phone you want, with the OS you want. Swap OS as you want.
     
  12. theshadow2001

    theshadow2001 [DELETE] means [DELETE]

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    This is true but you I would hazard a guess that you would probably still need a sort of software layer as a go between the hardware and the software. In a similar manner to how directx interfaces with graphics cards. Certainly not ideal.
     
  13. TheMadDutchDude

    TheMadDutchDude The Flying Dutchman

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    Great to see the Phonebloks thing kicking off. :D
     
  14. Icy EyeG

    Icy EyeG Controlled by Eyebrow Powers™

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    Well, that already happens with Android paying for Microsoft patents. This time, however, the roles would reverse.
    Fortunately, it seems that's not the case:

    (see at 1:40)
     
  15. Dogbert666

    Dogbert666 *Fewer Lover of bit-tech Administrator

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    Would absolutely love to see this work well.
     
  16. GuilleAcoustic

    GuilleAcoustic Ook ? Ook !

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    Here is a little explaination of "How it worked" :

    This is a summarized explaination. If the "driver" copy can be automated from the EPROM to the OS folder, then it's a pure win. With a standardized driver name (e.g: driver.pak) and thanks to the identifier thing, I do not see how you couldn't do it.

    I can imagine, if the OS finds a new hardware and has no driver for it, it copies the driver from the hardware EPROM. You could still drag and drop new driver later.

    I really miss the Amiga. I'm wondering what the computing world would look like if they where still there and a major actor of modern computing.
     
  17. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    See also: devices that show up as USB Mass Storage, which have their drivers (or other software) held on the UMS partition. EPROMs are too small (and outdated) for a driver, but by gosh a 256MB flash partition would be plenty big enough to tell Android ('cos, let's face it, Google isn't going to let Motorola use a different OS here) how to use the device. (Although, to make things cheaper, it's more likely that the phone would just download a driver from the internet - it's a *phone*, after all.)

    It ain't dead, it's just crazy-expensive. Ignoring upgrading an existing Amiga to run the latest AmigaOS (which requires a PowerPC accelerator card, which will set you back an absolute minimum of around £800 and more likely £1,000 plus) there are companies still producing Amiga-compatible hardware. In fact, ACube is currently teasing something new...
     
  18. GuilleAcoustic

    GuilleAcoustic Ook ? Ook !

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    EPROM is just an old habit of mine :D .... I left programming school when USB sticks where still inexistant. I remember buying my first USB stick, a 64MB one (yes Megabytes) for a whoping 70€ 10 years ago. I'm not that old, but computing moved so fast during the last 10/15 years. Yes a flash memory would be better for sure.

    I've seen this, the Amiga X1000. It even has an XMOS coprocessor along side the power PC :

     
  19. Gareth Halfacree

    Gareth Halfacree WIIGII! Lover of bit-tech Administrator Super Moderator Moderator

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    If that's what they're teasing, I'll be sorely disappointed. That ain't new - I wrote about that right here, back in 2010.
     
  20. GuilleAcoustic

    GuilleAcoustic Ook ? Ook !

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    TBH, I do not know, I only had the X1000 name in mind and went to wiki :rolleyes:. But from what I remember, those X1000 where hard to get a hand on.

    EDIT: From what I've read, the AmigaOne X2000 is being beta tested. Not much info on it yet except that it uses a P5020 PowerPC processor.
     
    Last edited: 30 Oct 2013

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