If you are sick of having upgrade every year to get a faster processor and like to Do-it-Yourself, project ARA from Motorola is going to great be an option to save the world from e-waste.
Project ARA will make smartphones more customizable than the Moto X with blocks/modules that you can put together on an endoskeleton. Motorola is going to make the project open source and work with Dave Hakken, creator of Phonebloks. Modules can be a new processor, display, keyboard or sensor.
Phonebloks showed the need for a smartphone that you can keep and be available all over the world.
Motorola will release alpha software. for Module Developer's Kit (MDK) in the winter.
Motorola's ARA team uses Tumblr, owned by Yahoo to make its announcements.
Motorola is actively seeking Ara Scouts. Over the next 6 - 12 months, we'll be doing research to shape the direction of Project Ara.
Their philosophy is that a phone designed for 6 billion people should be inspired by thousands of people around the globe.
The project is part of Motorola Advanced Technology and Projects group, led by Regina Dugan, a former DARPA chief.
"We want to do for hardware what the Android platform has done for software: create a vibrant third-party developer ecosystem, lower the barriers to entry, increase the pace of innovation, and substantially compress development timelines."