geekhack
geekhack Community => Other Geeky Stuff => Topic started by: Melvang on Thu, 30 January 2014, 11:10:25
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https://phonebloks.com/en/goals
I wonder if some of these ideas could be adapted to keyboard design?
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Maybe Moz's Blox is a start?
http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=48326.0 (http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=48326.0)
then combine with these
http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=41004 (http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=41004)
:D
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http://ergodex.com/mainpage.htm ?
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becasue its a terrible idea
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becasue its a terrible idea
Why is this a bad idea?
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becasue its a terrible idea
Why is this a bad idea?
Well for many reasons really... it's impractical you'd have to essentially make the motherboard of the phone compatible with millions of different devices and software, making it efficient and expensive to develop. Then you have the cost and dev of making sure all the components work together and to bug fix that would again be super expensive.
On top of that the phone wouldn't be optimised in any way becasue you can ever optimise the millions of different hardware combos (meaning horrible battery life and software that will only run well on the high end parts), this would also make the phone pretty big and bulky with styling and strength massively compromised.
You'd be basically turning the phone into a PC which is the exact opposite of what you would want to do becasue a PC's size, durability and power efficiency aren't the selling points for them.
I'm not putting this very well at all... but you would end up with an ugly more expensive device with slow software and worse battery life.
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https://phonebloks.com/en/goals
That's brilliant. But now that Google has sold Motorola to Lenovo, I bet their plans have been screwed up a bit.
Their site also links this interesting video on planned obsolescence:
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Google and Motorola have picked this idea up, not sure if it is in collaboration with Phoneblocks but none the less http://www.dscout.com/ara
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Google and Motorola have picked this idea up, not sure if it is in collaboration with Phoneblocks but none the less http://www.dscout.com/ara
Google recently sold Motorola.
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Google and Motorola have picked this idea up, not sure if it is in collaboration with Phoneblocks but none the less http://www.dscout.com/ara
Google recently sold Motorola.
But retained the division working on project ara
http://www.droid-life.com/2014/01/29/motorolas-project-ara-and-advanced-technology-group-moving-to-googles-android-team/
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Google and Motorola have picked this idea up, not sure if it is in collaboration with Phoneblocks but none the less http://www.dscout.com/ara
Google recently sold Motorola.
But retained the division working on project ara
http://www.droid-life.com/2014/01/29/motorolas-project-ara-and-advanced-technology-group-moving-to-googles-android-team/
Fair enough, though I still think its a horrible idea. The only thing you should be able to upgrade/replace on a phone is the battery.
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Google and Motorola have picked this idea up, not sure if it is in collaboration with Phoneblocks but none the less http://www.dscout.com/ara
Google recently sold Motorola.
But retained the division working on project ara
http://www.droid-life.com/2014/01/29/motorolas-project-ara-and-advanced-technology-group-moving-to-googles-android-team/
Fair enough, though I still think its a horrible idea. The only thing you should be able to upgrade/replace on a phone is the battery.
So the only thing that you should be able to upgrade on a PC is the power supply?
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I refer to my previous thoughts on the matter: Phonebloks (http://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=48520.msg1041298)
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Google and Motorola have picked this idea up, not sure if it is in collaboration with Phoneblocks but none the less http://www.dscout.com/ara
Google recently sold Motorola.
But retained the division working on project ara
http://www.droid-life.com/2014/01/29/motorolas-project-ara-and-advanced-technology-group-moving-to-googles-android-team/
Fair enough, though I still think its a horrible idea. The only thing you should be able to upgrade/replace on a phone is the battery.
So the only thing that you should be able to upgrade on a PC is the power supply?
What kind of stupid ****ing question is that?
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Google and Motorola have picked this idea up, not sure if it is in collaboration with Phoneblocks but none the less http://www.dscout.com/ara
Google recently sold Motorola.
But retained the division working on project ara
http://www.droid-life.com/2014/01/29/motorolas-project-ara-and-advanced-technology-group-moving-to-googles-android-team/
Fair enough, though I still think its a horrible idea. The only thing you should be able to upgrade/replace on a phone is the battery.
So the only thing that you should be able to upgrade on a PC is the power supply?
What kind of stupid ****ing question is that?
The exact same line of logic as your statement. The only thing that should be able to upgrade is the power source.
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Google and Motorola have picked this idea up, not sure if it is in collaboration with Phoneblocks but none the less http://www.dscout.com/ara
Google recently sold Motorola.
But retained the division working on project ara
http://www.droid-life.com/2014/01/29/motorolas-project-ara-and-advanced-technology-group-moving-to-googles-android-team/
Fair enough, though I still think its a horrible idea. The only thing you should be able to upgrade/replace on a phone is the battery.
So the only thing that you should be able to upgrade on a PC is the power supply?
What kind of stupid ****ing question is that?
The exact same line of logic as your statement. The only thing that should be able to upgrade is the power source.
Ohh so you never bothered to read my previous post... I'm sorry I though the point of making a thread on a forum based around reading and typing was that people read replies. Clearly your pretty good at this.
So in reply, no. The PC market and the phone market have almost nothing in common yet idiots like you seem to think that making them essentially into the same thing is a GREAT IDEA. It's not.
As you can only read short sentences lets try it like this, what do all PC's (mac's included) have in common in terms of there function?
-they should work
...much else?
What about mobile phones?
-they should make calls
-they should be portable
ok... thats about as general as we can be right? So... taking that, how best do you make something portable?
Well, you make everything in that phones hardware work together and fit together in one small machined case. So that all the parts are in sync and designed around one another.
**** that was two sentences, think you can cope with that?
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Alright no need to get pissy.
All I am trying to say is conceptually what is wrong with being able to upgrade individual components of a cell phone? I am not talking about the software part of being inherently inefficient. I merely saw a post on facebook, watched the video clip, briefly checked the website, and posted here. All of a sudden the entire concept is getting bashed left and right about how the software won't work, it will be to big and bulky, and it will be ugly. In the last few years phones have been getting bigger. Look at the Galaxy S series and the Galaxy Note series of phones. I do realize that these are smart phones with the note probably be aimed more toward the business person than the average user but the trend is still happening. I personally would love owning this if it were brought to an actual consumer ready product and wasn't a total brick in your pocket.
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Alright no need to get pissy.
All I am trying to say is conceptually what is wrong with being able to upgrade individual components of a cell phone? I am not talking about the software part of being inherently inefficient. I merely saw a post on facebook, watched the video clip, briefly checked the website, and posted here. All of a sudden the entire concept is getting bashed left and right about how the software won't work, it will be to big and bulky, and it will be ugly. In the last few years phones have been getting bigger. Look at the Galaxy S series and the Galaxy Note series of phones. I do realize that these are smart phones with the note probably be aimed more toward the business person than the average user but the trend is still happening. I personally would love owning this if it were brought to an actual consumer ready product and wasn't a total brick in your pocket.
Alright no need to get pissy.
All I am trying to say is conceptually what is wrong with being able to upgrade individual components of a cell phone? I am not talking about the software part of being inherently inefficient. I merely saw a post on facebook, watched the video clip, briefly checked the website, and posted here. All of a sudden the entire concept is getting bashed left and right about how the software won't work, it will be to big and bulky, and it will be ugly. In the last few years phones have been getting bigger. Look at the Galaxy S series and the Galaxy Note series of phones. I do realize that these are smart phones with the note probably be aimed more toward the business person than the average user but the trend is still happening. I personally would love owning this if it were brought to an actual consumer ready product and wasn't a total brick in your pocket.
I don't mean to be pissy but you took my quote out of context to try and disprove my argument without addressing it in any way. The concept is terrible becasue your designing by a comity so your ****ed from the outset.
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I think baldgye makes some good points.
As much as I want to like this idea of interchangeable parts on a phone, it's so severely inherently flawed that I wonder if anyone involved knows much about computing or mobile phones.
I'm also not really convinced it solves any problem well enough to have a place. It would be nice if the current lineup of phones were easier to work on, though.
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What if we were to scale the idea up to a little big bigger form factor of either a tablet or a laptop?
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Do any of you have experience porting android/cyanogenmod to devices?
I have a little and as far as this goes I am pretty sure you could do this with AOSP/CM based builds without that many issues.
The only time you would really need to change rom's is if you change the SoC.
I have a note 3 and I could care less about the size. For me it is about customization.
If I could get a device that is truly modular then I would buy it.
The only real major issue I see is that it would have to be in a case. the design from the concept video leaves all the hardware pretty exposed and would be guaranteed to break something if you dropped it.
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What if we were to scale the idea up to a little big bigger form factor of either a tablet or a laptop?
There are numerous problems with the Phoneblok concept.
First, form factor.
The issues stem from the function of the devices. What do laptops, tablets, and cellphones have in common? They are all made to portable, and as a result they have a small form factor. To have a functional, portable, and small form factor device all of the components have to be intricately wound together. By hard wiring components together you are able to make the device's housing smaller. Which is obviously something that consumers want, more compact devices. If you wanted to say, incorporate the ability to upgrade and change major components of a device you would increase the size, massively. Then you'd have a desktop. Which would defeat the purpose of say a phone, which is something that can be conveniently carried on your person, generally in your pocket.
One of my problems with this idea is that it is oversimplifying some massively complex. Programming such a device would be a absolute nightmare. It disregards how technology moves, and how fast it moves. Almost every component of a smartphone is improved on each new release. Camera, processor, speakers, antennas, battery, GPU, CPU, memory, screen, and other new technology. It's more conventional to replace the entire phone every year or two instead of buying a new motherboard and processor to incorporate the newest parts (that you'll be buying anyways) for your massive-bulky software programming nightmare Lego phone. The speed at which phones become more advanced and improved is much faster than a computer. The two simply aren't comparable.
The concept is interesting, but horribly flawed from a engineering prospective. It is a horribly inefficient concept. It is also uneconomical. I have a feeling Motorola's Ara is going to die a horrible painful death. Or it won't really be that "customizable."
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Almost every component of a smartphone is improved on each new release. Camera, processor, speakers, antennas, battery, GPU, CPU, memory, screen, and other new technology.
Drivers...
edit: processor architecture as I mentioned above is the only thing that can not be handled without making a new build.
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Almost every component of a smartphone is improved on each new release. Camera, processor, speakers, antennas, battery, GPU, CPU, memory, screen, and other new technology.
Drivers...
edit: processor architecture as I mentioned above is the only thing that can not be handled without making a new build.
Context, "It's more conventional to replace the entire phone every year or two instead of buying a new motherboard and processor to incorporate the newest parts (that you'll be buying anyways) for your massive-bulky software programming nightmare Lego phone." Without getting into any of the technological specifics the concept is simply uneconomical. I am honestly surprised the Ara is even being conceived.
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What if we were to scale the idea up to a little big bigger form factor of either a tablet or a laptop?
If you scaled it up for a laptop you would have the same problems... The reason why this method works so well for a PC is that a PC isn't required to be small, sturdy, light or battery effecient. And even in this environment people still mostly prefer pre-built machines...
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Almost every component of a smartphone is improved on each new release. Camera, processor, speakers, antennas, battery, GPU, CPU, memory, screen, and other new technology.
Drivers...
edit: processor architecture as I mentioned above is the only thing that can not be handled without making a new build.
Context, "It's more conventional to replace the entire phone every year or two instead of buying a new motherboard and processor to incorporate the newest parts (that you'll be buying anyways) for your massive-bulky software programming nightmare Lego phone." Without getting into any of the technological specifics the concept is simply uneconomical. I am honestly surprised the Ara is even being conceived.
I give up. you just don't understand how operating systems work.
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If you were to apply this to keyboards: Every key is its own block you place on a big board placed inside the tabletop of your desk so that you can create some magical keyboard.
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Almost every component of a smartphone is improved on each new release. Camera, processor, speakers, antennas, battery, GPU, CPU, memory, screen, and other new technology.
Drivers...
edit: processor architecture as I mentioned above is the only thing that can not be handled without making a new build.
Context, "It's more conventional to replace the entire phone every year or two instead of buying a new motherboard and processor to incorporate the newest parts (that you'll be buying anyways) for your massive-bulky software programming nightmare Lego phone." Without getting into any of the technological specifics the concept is simply uneconomical. I am honestly surprised the Ara is even being conceived.
I give up. you just don't understand how operating systems work.
Yes, I completely forgot, I don't know anything about operating systems! As a result, all of my other points are completely invalid. Even though I never touched the subject of "how operating systems worked" (maybe that's why I don't know anything, because I didn't bring it up?) My only software related point was how much of a nightmare it would be to program a phone like the Phoneblok concept. Of course, my entire argument was based purely on my complete lack of knowledge about drivers. It had absolutely nothing to do that the general idea is simply uneconomical. That's why I didn't go into detail about drivers, and instead focused on how the idea is simply uneconomical. Because again, my obvious lack of knowledge in concern to how technology works.
But no, I apparently know absolutely nothing. I'm sorry I ever decided to voice my opinion, I made a poor choice. I completely forgot that people shouldn't address the overall point someone is trying to make, instead cherry-pick what they want to address, interpret it however they please, and ignore everything else the person said.
I can't believe I was so daft. My sincerest apologies.
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Motorola actually released a concept of what it's supposed to be... I like the concept of it, but I really don't see taking off without ridiculous costs.
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Yes, I completely forgot, I don't know anything about operating systems! As a result, all of my other points are completely invalid. Even though I never touched the subject of "how operating systems worked" (maybe that's why I don't know anything, because I didn't bring it up?) My only software related point was how much of a nightmare it would be to program a phone like the Phoneblok concept. Of course, my entire argument was based purely on my complete lack of knowledge about drivers. It had absolutely nothing to do that the general idea is simply uneconomical. That's why I didn't go into detail about drivers, and instead focused on how the idea is simply uneconomical. Because again, my obvious lack of knowledge in concern to how technology works.
But no, I apparently know absolutely nothing. I'm sorry I ever decided to voice my opinion, I made a poor choice. I completely forgot that people shouldn't address the overall point someone is trying to make, instead cherry-pick what they want to address, interpret it however they please, and ignore everything else the person said.
I can't believe I was so daft. My sincerest apologies.
putting your butthurt aside I will tell you why it is economical.
The screen on your phone costs more then the rest of the phone. Same goes with tablets.
if you were able to treat the screen like a pc monitor and reuse it on another device it would end up saving you quite a bit in time.