If you are one of those who was extremely excited about the prospect of a modular phone by Google, then the news of Project Ara would have been welcomed news. What would have been less welcome though, was the more recent news that Project Ara had hit a few stumbling blocks along the way and was now not expected to arrive until next year. In fact, after what has seemed an eternity of no Project Ara news, the past week has seen daily Project Ara news doses coming thick and fast. With the most recent only coming through this morning and suggesting that Motorola may have taken over the development of Ara.
Of course, the biggest Ara news that emerged over the past week is that there seemed to be a serious issue with the build quality of the prototypes. This information came about when the Project Ara team explained that they were abandoning the use of the electropermanent magnets (which hold the modules together) due to them failing in drop tests. The team did not provide any details to the extent of the drop test failures, but simply sent out the message with the hashtag #FailedTheDropTest, which led to the assumptions it must have failed pretty badly. As such, the team did confirm they were working on a new and better ‘Signature Experience’ method to bind the modules.
Well, if the latest tweets from the Project Ara team are to be believed, then it would seem what started off as a bit of a joke has gotten quite out of hand. According to the Project Ara Twitter account, the electropermanent modules did not fail the drop tests at all. The team did confirm that they are working on an alternative method but stated that the #FailedTheDropTest hashtag was simply meant as a joke. One which did get out of hand and led to the speculation that this is why Ara was being delayed. The Project Ara team are accepting their responsibility for what seems to be crossed wired messages as their latest tweet did come with the new hashtag #WorkingOnOurHumor.
