Items tagged with Modular
Dell has just unveiled a rather intriguing new desktop that is incredibly modular in design. Meet the OptiPlex 7070 Ultra, which manages to house a fully functioning PC within its display stand in a zero-footprint design. Dell is billing this hybrid all-in-one as the "world's most flexible commercial desktop". So, why is Dell making this claim? For starters, both the display and the PC can be upgraded independently of one another. Up to three displays are supported with the system and they all can be swapped out at will. That also means that if for some unfortunate reason that you need to switch out a defective display, it's a simple affair that doesn't result in you having to ship the entire...
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Now, more than ever, manufacturers are exploring alternative ways to differentiate smartphones. One savior to the oversaturated smartphone market, that is rife with products with similar specifications, may come in the form of modularity. The promise of a modular phone, is an ability to adapt to a user’s needs in the moment. Purchasing a smartphone is traditionally a long-term investment. What might perfectly address day-to-day use, however, could come up short under specific use cases. We already took a close look at the Moto Z family and see promise in Moto Mods, but modular smartphones are not easy. The long promised modular smartphone program from Google, dubbed Project Ara, which helped...
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Google's Project Ara was ambitious from the start. The goal of Project Ara was to produce a modular smartphone platform, that could updated, upgraded, or augmented, by simply snapping new components in place. The concept seemed like a good idea. If your phone's performance was up to snuff, but you wanted a better camera, simply replace the camera module. Or if you wanted better performance, a more powerful SoC module would be an option. On some levels, it would be like updating a PC.Project Ara had been trudging along for a few years now. Google even cozied up to a handful of hardware partners, and bootable, somewhat functional devices have already been shown. There were grumblings that Project...
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Google parent company Alphabet apparently has zero tolerance for failure and money-losing endeavors. We’ve seen Alphabet toss its Boston Dynamics robotics division to the side, and the company recently slashed Google Fiber’s staff in half. And now it looks as though the latest victim is the ambitious Project Ara modular smartphone platform. Both Reuters and Recode are confirming the news, with the former saying that it represents a “broader push to streamline the company's hardware efforts” according to sources within Google. Project Ara, which was part of Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects group, could possibly live on in some form. Google is reportedly open to licensing the technology...
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When it comes to “modern” gaming consoles like the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, it almost seems like we’re often stuck in the past. Sony and Microsoft released these fixed-hardware platforms, and we’re stuck with them for 7 to 8 years until the next generation comes around, and then the process repeats itself. Compared to what’s happening with smartphones and PCs, the console industry is definitely behind the times. Xbox Chief Phil Spencer wants to change this with future consoles, making hardware upgrades easier. "When you look at the console space, I believe we will see more hardware innovation in the console space than we've ever seen,” said Spencer. “You'll actually see us come out with new...
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Microsoft is actually starting to pick up a bit of steam with its Surface hardware. Back in October, the company unveiled the Surface Pro 4 and the Surface Book, and the company is reportedly developing a Surface Phone to replace its Lumia smartphone family. So what else is in the pipeline for the Surface hardware team? Well if a recently revealed patent is any indication, the Surface team could be looking to tackle the desktop market. But rather than design a traditional desktop machine, Microsoft’s patent details a modular PC design that allows users to easily swap out components or add new functionality when needed. The modular PC includes a large, hinged touch screen display that it attached...
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Google has making some huge strides in perfecting its Project Ara modular smartphone platform. Project Ara will allow customers to customize nearly every aspect of the their smartphones from processors to batteries to wireless connectivity to display. You want a higher resolution display? Just swap out your old display module for a new one. Is 16GB of storage not making the cut for you? A 64GB module upgrade is a simple plug-and-play affair. But while Google is still working through the late prototype stages of its smartphone platform, European company ImasD is putting the finishing touches on a modular tablet platform. The Click ARM One tablet looks to do most everything that Project Ara accomplishes,...
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Google’s efforts to build a modular, “LEGO” smartphone are coming closer to fruition. When we last visited Project Ara back in late December, Google was in the midst of testing early version of its Spiral 2 prototypes. At the time, project lead Paul Eremenko revealed that not only would production Ara smartphones be available in two form-factors, but they NVIDIA’s powerful Tegra K1 would be one of two possible processor options available to developers and consumers. Today, during the Project Ara Module Developers Conference, Google provided another status update on its modular smartphone efforts, and things are progressing nicely. Spiral 2 prototypes mark a huge upgrade from the earlier Spiral...
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Google’s modular phone may be a long shot, but the prototype is ready and the project is still alive and kicking – and it may now get a boost from the recent popularity of health tech for mobile phones. Paul Eremenko, the head of Project Ara, spoke recently at the Engadget Engage conference and demonstrated a pulse oximeter module that can be connected to the Ara phone. He also suggested that Project Ara will be having a pilot in 2015, with a launch date named early that year. So, why would health tech drive demand for a modular phone? The pulse oximeter module is a good example: if you have asthma or other lung issues, a pulse ox is probably a familiar friend of yours. It measures...
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There's probably a million and one reasons that skeptics can think of as to why Project Ara is doomed. And to be fair to the naysayers, the initiative certainly seemed doomed when Google sold its Motorola Mobility division to Lenovo for $2.91 billion earlier this year. But Project Ara lives, and though it remains to be seen if we'll be touting modular smartphones as early as next year, a semi-working prototype gives hope that Project Ara will reach the finish line. Speaking at Google's I/O developer conference, Project Ara's technical lead Paul Eremenko decided to show what kind of progress has been made by demonstrating the first prototype capable of powering on. It was a somewhat rough presentation...
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Google’s Project Ara seeks to develop a modular smartphone that could revolutionize the mobile industry, but one company--Entegra Technologies--has already announced a modular tablet that it believes will bring about radical change perhaps even sooner. The Entegra Crossfire Pro is a tablet whose components you can swap in or out without upgrading the entire system. At launch, it will sport a 9.7-inch daylight-readable display with a resolution of 1024x768 that supports touch, glove, or stylus input. The device is no featherweight at 2.5lbs. The heart of the system is the quad-core Intel M-Series N2930 COM (computer on module), which itself can be swapped out for another COM when necessary,...
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Even though Google’s Project Ara modular smartphone isn’t a Real Thing just yet (but allegedly will be come January), creative minds are already cooking up intriguing modules and add-ons for the smartphone. One from Samuel Herb, “The Aether Technician”, is a device that attaches to the Ara phone and turns it into a portable gaming system. Dubbed “Flippypad”, the design concept is a hinged controller that L and R buttons, a D-pad, dual flat joysticks, and ABXY buttons. It could ostensibly also house an extra battery, which would be ideal for sustaining long gaming sessions, and the clamshell shape doubles as a protective case for Ara, too. Such a product makes...
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Google’s Project Ara, an effort to develop a modular smartphone platform, sounded at first as much like vaporware as anything we’ve ever encountered, but Google is actually making it happen. In a whimsically upbeat YouTube video, Dave Hakkens (the guy who created the Phonebloks design that appears to be the conceptual basis for Project Ara) visited the Google campus to see what progress is being made on the project. The teams working on Project Ara have figured out a key solution to one of the first problems they encountered, which was how to keep all the modules stuck together. They decided to use electro-permanent magnets, and you can see in the video how that process works. In...
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When Google unexpectedly sold off Motorola to Lenovo after investing heavily in the Moto X and Moto G smartphones and owning the Motorola brand for less than two years, the fate of the Project Ara modular smartphone seemed doomed, but it appears that the project is very much alive and well. According to Time’s TechLand, Google did not sell off a key department: the Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) group, which is responsible for Project Ara. So just how “alive” is Project Ara? The group announced that it’s holding a developers' conference on April 15-16 with a focus on the Ara Module Developers’ Kit (MDK). Further, the prototype will be ready within weeks,...
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Razer has impressed at past CES events with innovative ideas such as Project Fiona (which became the Razer Edge), and the company is looking to conjure up that magic again with Project Christine, a unique, modular approach to constructing a gaming PC. Basically, the machine starts out with a spine of sorts onto which a number of modules can be attached. There are modules for CPUs, GPUs, storage, RAM, and everything else; all of the components sync via PCIe interfaces, so ostensibly all you need to do to upgrade a component is to pop in a new module. Want to upgrade from a single GPU to a tri-SLI setup? Just slap in two additional GPU modules. And so on. Razer’s idea here is that building...
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Motorola has embarked on the ambitious and exciting Project Ara, an effort to realize the vision of the PhoneBloks concept of a modular smartphone, and it sounds as though things are rolling along faster than most might expect. In an interview with YouTuber (and professional ultimate Frisbee player) Marques Brownlee, Motorola Mobility CEO Dennis Woodside dropped some information on Project Ara’s progress (around the 12-minute mark). “There is a prototype,” he said. “And it is pretty close [to the original PhoneBloks concept]”. He said that the device has a basic skeleton, and that “the components literally slide in and out.” However, Woodside also noted...
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Our eyes got all misty dreaming about the future portended by the Phonebloks modular smartphone design when we heard about it in September, but thanks to Google-owned Motorola (as well as Dave Hakkens, the Phonebloks designer), that future could be coming astonishingly fast. Motorola announced that it’s actively working on modular smartphone designs via its Project Ara. It’s a project of the Motorola Advanced Technology and Projects group, and the very words Paul Eremenko uses to describe it in a blog post are a breath of fresh air: “We want to do for hardware what the Android platform has done for software: create a vibrant third-party developer ecosystem, lower the barriers...
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Xi3’s modular computers are intriguing to say the least, and now the company is expanding to the data center with a unique take on drive clusters in the FreeForm dataCENT3R. The structure features two vertical steel support posts with seven horizontal curved steel bars perched atop a metal base that has wheels. Attached to the horizontal bars are up to 96 Xi3 modular computers or microSERV3RS. The whole schmeer measures about four to eight feet tall depending on how many drives are installed, and the structure is seven feet wide and two feet deep. “For decades, I.T. Administrators and Professionals have been handcuffed into a paradigm that says Data Centers have to be built a certain...
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Although Xi3 made CES headlines for other things this week, the company has some tasty wares to show off in the form of its unique modular computers, and we got a firsthand look. There are just a handful of models in the lineup thus far, but despite their small size, these machines pack a wallop. The X7A is the highest end unit in the group and should offer dual- or quad-core APUs (up to the 3.2GHz R-464L) with up to HD 7660G graphics (supporting a max resolution of 4096x2160) and 384 programmable cores. What sets Xi3’s computers apart is the modularity of the devices. Essentially, the motherboard is split into three smaller boards, each with a different purpose and set of chips. For example,...
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Ultra Products has just announced a new line of fully modular power supplies, dubbed the X4. We have actually had one of the 1050W units in house for a couple of weeks now and think it is a solid product. Our Ultra X4 has been used to power Core 2, Lynnfield, and Bloomfield test-beds for recent articles, and we really took it to task on an octal-core Intel-powered rig complete with dual Radeon HD 4870 X2s and the unit never faltered once, despite some hefty workloads. Full details of today's announcement are below, along with some specs, availability info, and pricing... Ultra Products Unleashes X4 Modular Power Supplies Energy efficient, fully modular, enthusiast power supplies with industry-leading...
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Corsair launches modular 'Professional Series' 450W PSU- HX450W delivers the performance and features that technology enthusiasts demand, including industry-leading 7-year warranty - Fremont, CA, – Corsair a worldwide leader in high performance computer and flash memory products, today announced the HX450W, part of the newly-established Corsair Professional Series of enthusiast-class, modular power supply units. The new Corsair Professional Series incorporates the existing HX-series of PSUs, which includes the multi award-winning Corsair Professional Series HX1000W, and the new Corsair Professional Series HX450W is engineered to the same exacting standards. "The Corsair Professional Series of...
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Today’s power supplies are a far cry from those that were available just a few years ago. With the increasing power demands of the latest GPUs and high-end processors, the need for ample, stable power has increased exponentially. With more and more attention being paid to efficiency and energy conservation, one has to question though, just how much power do you need? Not too long ago, a 750w PSU was considered huge and today we are seeing PSUs rated as high as 1600 watts. Naturally, the demands for such wattage vary depending on personal needs, but in most cases this kind of capacity is simply unnecessary, not to mention expensive. In this article we’re going...
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