Build Your Own Smartphone

Consumers are now awaiting the release of Spiral 3 which will be released not just for developers but also for general public. Project Ara’s Spiral-3 is tentatively scheduled to be released on a pilot basis in Caribbean island country Puerto Rico. Tired of using the same smartphone for a year? Wish you could change its settings and change its looks as per your ideas? Google with its usual aim to provide you with answers has brought in the trend of modular phones with its Project Ara. Modular phones as they are commonly called, can be customised where users can add or remove software and hardware in the phone as per their requirement. Project Ara’s Spiral 1 and 2 were previously released only for developers to modify and tweak its features.

eInfochips, an Ahmedabad-based company has partnered with Toshiba to build and design these smartphone modular chips. They will also offer Google expertise on platform porting, multimedia integration, application development, and performance optimisation, among others. The eInfochips website says that Ara modular smartphone users will be able to pick the camera they like, rather than picking a phone for its camera. They could add a sensor to test if water is clean. They could have a battery that lasts for days. They could have a louder speaker, gaming console, or use the smartphone as their car key. The smartphone will function on the Android platform and will come in three different sizes. The modules, which will come in three dimensions — 1x1 inch, 1x2 inch and 2x2 inches, will be certified by Google.

eInfochips and Toshiba have also unveiled the ARTOS12 Development Kit at the Project Ara Module Developers Conference 2015, which took place in January this year. The kit features MicroSD and USB slots, high-speed interfaces for connection to the application processor bridge and quick-start documentation. “Toshiba will make chips which can be used in modules and in the base plate, and will give idea on what kind of modules can be developed,” says Shardul Kazi, Senior VP and Chief Technology Officer, Toshiba, US, in a report on www.bgr.in. With this smartphone, Kazi has said, the skeleton or the base-plate body and the hardware applications can be modified by the customer as it will be designed on a magenetic ship module. “The price (for Spiral 3) will be fixed by Google. However, different modules will be priced in the range of $50 to $5,000 (approx Rs 300 to Rs 3lakh),” says Shardul according to Digit.in. He has also said that the cost might be cut, making the phone affordable to consumers.

kaviya@newindianexpress.com 

http://www.newindianexpress.com/education/edex/Build-Your-Own-Kind-of-Smartphone/2015/02/23/article2677060.ece