Facebook working on a modular phone

Facebook is looking to develop a modular phone and - gossip we've heard before now got more solid backing. A patent application filled by the company revealed it is trying to build a device that can be used as a phone.

This is the second time we hear about such idea after Project Ara. That one was Google's attempt at a modular phone that went under before making any significant impact. Most of the team behind Ara went to Facebook, though and now they work at Facebook Building 8 - the lab that is responsible for the patent application.
Officially Facebook declined to comment, but according to sources, the Building 8 crew is heavily focused on developing cutting-edge camera and machine learning tech.
The device can be used as an Alexa speaker or a phone, but the patent also notes that “millions of devices” connected to a server could be loaded with different software based on components that are swapped out.
Source | Via

Comments

Post a Comment

Kindly Comment Only related to Post

Popular posts from this blog

How Need for Speed Rivals Competes With Other Next-Gen Racers

Image
“The Need for Speed brand is reaching some of the largest audiences it’s ever reached in its history.” It’s a big year for racing games. At this year’s E3, every single press conference featured at least one driving game, and many seem to be boasting similar next-gen features. In a crowded category including Gran Turismo 6, Forza Motorsport 5, DriveClub and The Crew, EA showed off Need for Speed Rivals , the latest entry in the long-running series and the first title from EA's Ghost studio in Gothenburg. In an interview with IGN, EA Labels president Frank Gibeau explained why he thinks Rivals stands out from the pack, plus commented on whether he thinks Need for Speed will continue to be an annualized franchise. “ A lot of the driving games we go up against are simulations. The way that we think about it internally is, that’s like going to the symphony. Ours is about going to a Jay-Z show. “I think we do a really good job capturing the feel of driving and gett...
Read more

Samsung Galaxy Mega 5.8 I9150

Image
Available as Samsung Galaxy Mega I9152 with Dual SIM card slot. General 2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 - GT-I9150 GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 - GT-I9152 (SIM 1 & SIM 2) 3G Network HSDPA SIM Optio nal Dual SIM Announced 2013, April Status Coming soon. Exp. release 2013, May Body Dimensions 162.6 x 82.4 x 9 mm (6.40 x 3.24 x 0.35 in) Weight 182 g (6.42 oz) Display Type TFT capacitive touchscreen Size 540 x 960 pixels, 5.8 inches (~190 ppi pixel density) Multitouch Yes - TouchWiz UI Sound Alert types Vibration; MP3, WAV ringtones Loudspeaker Yes 3.5mm jack Yes Memory Card slot microSD, up to 64 GB Internal 8 GB storage, 1.5 GB RAM Data GPRS Yes EDGE Yes Speed HSDPA, 21 Mbps; HSUPA, 5.76 Mbps WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct, Wi-Fi hotspot Bluetooth Yes, v4.0 with A2DP, LE NFC No USB Yes, microUSB v2.0 Camera Primary 8 MP, 3264 x 2448 pixels, autofocus, LED flash Features Geo-tagging, touch fo...
Read more

The Elephone "Vowney" has a QHD display and 3GB of RAM for $299 and it runs Windows 10 Mobile

Image
For a number of quite sound marketing reasons Windows-powered mobile phones rarely come near to the hardware in current Android powerhouses, but with the introduction of Windows 10 and sophisticated features like Continuum, this is set to quickly change. Higher-end offers, like the Acer Jade Primo are starting to appear and it naturally, it was a matter of time before China OEM's enter the market as well. The latest such offer comes courtesy of Elephone. Its "Vowney" model was first spotted a few months ago and if rumors are true, it does promise to dual-boot Android and Windows 10 on quite a capable hardware platform. There are actually two versions of the "Volney" (which, by the way is still a working title). One includes an octa-core Mediatek MT6795 SoC and boots only Android, while the other runs on a quad-core Intel CPU and can dual-boot both platforms. The first also has a 20.7MP camera and a 3800 mAh battery. In the Intel model, the came...
Read more

Samsung Galaxy S5 Zoom/K Zoom passes through the FCC

Image
Now that the Samsung Galaxy S5 is out of the way, the next big things from the South Korean manufacturer will the usual spin offs like the Zoom, Active and Mini variants. The Galaxy S5 Zoom aka K Zoom has been making the rounds in the rumorland for quite a while now. The Galaxy S5 Zoom has passed through the FCC and the official announcement might just be around the corner. The report from the Fedral Communications Commission confirms that the model number of the K Zoom will be SM-C115 and reveals that the upcoming smartphone will support NFC and LTE connectivity. If the rumors are to be trusted, the S5 Zoom will sport a 4.8-inch Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 720 x 1280 pixels. The device will be powered by the company’s new Exynos 5 Hexa chipset with six-core CPU and 2 GB of RAM. The camera department will see a 20.2 megapixel rear snapper with 10x optical zoom and Xenon flash. It is said to come with optical image stabilization among host of o...
Read more

Samsung has detailed its October security patch

Image
Releasing proper, extensive and comprehensive changelogs seems to be a dying practice nowadays. Don't believe us? Well, just open up the Play Store or App Store page for a few of your favorite apps and enjoy informative statements such as "bugs fixes" and "added new features". The point is that some still take documentation seriously and this should frankly always be the case when it comes to security patches. In keeping with this spirit, Samsung has published a detailed rundown of its October security patch. If you are interested, definitely check it out at the source link. As for a quick rundown, it covers a total of 68 Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE), some of which in the Android OS itself and others related to the company's own devices. An interesting highlight includes what is said to be a possible security weakness in the iris scanner matching algorithm for the Galaxy Note7. The latter could have potentially caused...
Read more

Samsung Gear Fit flexes silicon muscles in a tear down

Image
The iFixit team has been all over Samsung’s latest offerings in both the smartphone and wearable departments. The latest gadget to pay their tool shop a visit is the Gear Fit. The Gear Fit is easily removable from its wristband with a simple push and this enables wristband makers to offer a wide variety of options. As you’d expect in a device that’s so small, everything is soldered on the main chip with only the display, battery and shell being stand alone parts. There’s 16MB of flash memory located next to the 32-bit 180MHz ARM Cortex CPU. Interestingly, the Broadcom dual-band 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0+HS chip packs an FM receiver on it. Overall, iFixit rates the repairability of the Gear is 6 out of 10, which isn’t optimal, but it’s okay. You can replace the battery of the Gear Fit without having to go to a Samsung service representative to do so, but you have to have at least some skills with the tools. The Gear Fit is in stock now over at major online retai...
Read more