Project Ara, modular smartphone, Google Inc., Googleplex, Mountain View, California, USA

Google is releasing the first nitty-gritty details of Project Ara (formerly from Motorola), the modular smartphone that it plans to release early next year.

"Here are some of the crazy phones you can build with Google's Project Ara"

by Jacob Kastrenakes
April 9, 2014

Hosted by Nathan Cykiert. Written by Ross Miller and Nathan Cykiert. Video production by Zach Goldstein.

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Project Ara, a smartphone you can customize, may seem like a crazy idea, but it's not half as crazy as what it takes to build it. Google's ATAP group, led by Paul Eremenko, takes the DARPA philosophy and applies it to building phones. Eremenko wants five billion customers, but before he gets there, he has to convince developers to create the hardware.

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This week, Norm and Jeremy have a long chat about Google's Project Ara smartphone concept, Norm's trip to WonderCon, camera software tricks to approximate expensive hardware, and whatever happened to Norm's BitCoin.

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The first Ara Developers Conference was held April 15-16, 2014 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. This is the official livestream recording from day 2 of the conference.

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Speaker: Paul Eremenko – Director of Project Ara at Google
Keynote Title: “What if hardware was more like software? Google’s Project Ara and the democratization of the hardware ecosystem.”

Paul's Bio: Paul Eremenko is currently director of Project Ara at Google, in the Advanced Technology & Projects (ATAP) organization. Previously he was an associate vice president at Motorola, where he led the development project of Ara, a project to create a modular hardware ecosystem—rivalling the mobile app ecosystem in pace and level of innovation–around smart phones in an effort to deliver the mobile internet to the next 5 billion people. Paul is also research affiliate at MIT in the Engineering Systems Division.

Prior to joining Motorola and then Google, Paul directed the Tactical Technology Office (TTO) at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Pentagon’s principal engine for disruptive innovation. TTO is DARPA’s systems office responsible for all X plane, spacecraft, ground vehicle, and robotics programs, totalling approximately $500 million annually. Previously, Paul developed and led DARPA’s advanced design and manufacturing program portfolio, and also served as program manager for several space efforts, including the 100 Year Starship.

Earlier in his career, Paul was an aerospace design engineer, the chief engineer for an unmanned aircraft program, and management consultant focusing on technology, innovation, and M&A strategies. He has undergraduate and Master’s degrees in aeronautics from MIT and Caltech, respectively, and law degree from Georgetown University. Paul is also licensed pilot.

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Google's Paul Eremenko talks about the future of mobile and Google's modular phone, Project Ara.

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Marvell & Project Ara Project Ara is a modular smartphone and Marvell is the processor behind the collaboration with Google. I talk to Tony Faccenda about the smartphone you can keep upgrading and what it means for the ecosystem as well as Marvell's role in the entire process.

This interview was shot during MWC 2015 and aired during the Techloung Livestream.

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Project Ara is a new modular computing platform, allowing devices to be customized for style and function. Choose your high-res camera, add a louder speaker, swap in a better battery. Imagine the possibilities. And we’re releasing a developer kit with device later this year. Check for updates here: g.co/ara and follow us on twitter @ProjectAra

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Google lead engineer Rafa Camargo gives a demo of its modular smartphone concept, Project Ara. The prototype phone lets you swap in interchangeable parts by popping them in and out.

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The modular phone dream has evolved...

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