Google to offer Lego-like modular phone in 2015

U.S. tech giant Google has announced it plans to offer $50 customizable modular phones -- that users can modify themselves -- by early next year.

Google confirmed ongoing work on Project Ara, an effort to create phones that can be easily updated by users by switching parts in an out of the phones like Lego blocks, Time magazine reported.

The project of Motorola's Advanced Technology and Projects group -- which Google sold to Lenovo for nearly $3 billion in January -- has been retained by Google for further work.

A working prototype could be completed within the next few weeks, Google told Time, and modular phones could be in the ands of consumers by the first quarter of 2015.

The devices will utilize a permanent backbone, to be sold by Google, to which different modules created by outside developers can be attached.

"The question was basically, could we do for hardware what Android and other platforms have done for software?" project leader Paul Eremenko told Time. "Which means lower the barrier to entry to such a degree that you could have tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of developers as opposed to just five or six big [manufacturers] that could participate in the hardware space." 

                              POSTED BY MUHAMMAD USMAN 

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Google X Product Designer And Video Star Mike LeBeau Joins Facebook As Product Manager

Facebook might be positioning itself to build new features around voice navigation or voice-activated search into the social network, thanks to the hiring of Google product designer Mike LeBeau.
While at Google and Google X, LeBeau worked as a Staff Software Engineer and Product Designer. LeBeau worked on a number of voice-related technologies, including iPhone Voice Search, the company’s acquisition of GrandCentral and its evolution into Google Voice, Google Maps for Mobile with Voice Search, and 1-800-GOOG-411.
He was an early member of the Android team, working on voice search and navigation features for the operating system. And later, at Google X helped build the voice interface for Google Glass.
Prior to Google, he worked at Tellme Networks, eBay, and PayPal.
But you might best know LeBeau from his acting work in a large number of Google marketing videos, such as 20 Searches [Through Glass] and Explore Nexus S: Voice Functions. For all that, he’s developed a bit of a fan club.
It’s not clear what LeBeau will be focused on at Facebook, but based on his past work it’s probably a safe bet that it will be voice-related.
On LinkedIn, LeBeau writes that he is “starting and leading a super exciting new confidential project.” And on Facebook, he posted the following message to his friends last week:
Big news! After nearly 8 amazing years at Google, I’m moving on! In a sort of last-minute whirlwind change, an opportunity that’s too good to resist has presented itself for a new project I’m crazy excited to go kick off and build a team as a Product Manager at Facebook in New York.
I’ll miss Google so much, but it’s time for the next adventure and I’m super pumped to get started. I can’t even express how grateful I am to all the amazing people I’ve worked with these past 8 years for making my time at Google amazing. I’m bummed to be departing from the Google Creative Lab where I’ve been spending my time the past couple of months, but feel really fortunate to have spent at least a little time among this really special group of people. Please stay in touch!
My last day at Google is tomorrow, March 28, and I start at Facebook on Monday. Here we go!

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