There hasn’t really been much information about Google’s Project Ara that was busy developing a modular smartphone. Through a video uploaded on the YouTube channel by Phonebloks, we know that the Google team has recently gone over to Boston at the NK Labs. NK Labs is a company famous for transforming concepts into working prototypes, and thus implying that the modular smartphone has achieved the prototype phase.
Google’s collected research was at the disposal of the team and this allowed the concept to be brought to a working prototype phase. The first prototype is encrusted with blocks assigned for battery, processor, loudspeaker, LED module and a USB charging port. However, the modular components occupy about 50% of the space.
Nonetheless, the second prototype named Spiral 2 is being constructed already and owing to the chips that were custom fabricated by Toshiba, the space for higher number of modules shall be readily available. This will enable developers to have more room to experiment and play with. The ultimate goal shall be letting the 3rd party modules be created using Ara Module Developers Kit (MDK).
The Spiral 2 prototype is scheduled to be unveiled during Project Ara Developer Conference on 14th January 2015 in USA and Europe while it will be released on 21st January 2015 in Asia Pacific.
