There's life yet in Google's Project Ara as the modular phone endeavor just got its own developer conference. Make that conferences.
Google's Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) division sang the news on its Google+ page (where else?), revealing the first Ara Developers' Conference will go down April 15 - April 16.
It will be an online affair with a live stream and interactive Q&A, though a small number will be able to attend in person at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif.
This will be followed by two more conferences sometime in 2014. The first will focus on the alpha release of the Ara Module Developers' Kit (MDK), which Google plans to release online in April. The MDK will essentially contain everything anyone needs to build an Ara module, or any component that can be used to build a smartphone, be it a keyboard, battery, processor or something else.
Why this matters
All was quiet on the Project Ara front after Google sold Motorola to Lenovo last month. The project was under Motorola's wing, but since Google kept ATAP in the divorce, Ara went along too.
Now that Project Ara has its own developer conferences, it appears Google is putting its chips on letting people mix and match their own handset parts.
In addition to its ready-made phones like the Nexus 5, Google is working on more experimental fare like Project Ara and Project Tango, an Android phone that creates 3D maps of a user's environment using Kinect-like sensors.
The April conference should shed light on whether Ara modules will ever make it into consumer hands or whether this moonshot is doomed to stay grounded. Either way, Google looks prepared to go all in.
Know what else is going down in April? Build 2014.
One Ubuntu phone that won't launch any time soon is the high-end Edge
Chinese manufacturers Meizu and BQ will launch the first Ubuntu phones in the fall of 2014, according to Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth.
The company is starting with lesser-known manufacturers so it can ensure those companies dedicate enough resources to focus on "placing the right device in the right hands," Shuttleworth told CNET at MWC 2014.
He said both manufacturers "are established at getting into difficult, entrenched, or congested markets" by identifying their target markets and "thinking very carefully" about branding and retail strategies.
That's key since the first Ubuntu phones "will be astonishingly great in some areas…but will come across as weak in others," Shuttleworth said.
Making plans
Ubuntu's launch will be focused on China and Europe for 2014. The early phones will be available in the US, but China and Europe will be more important initially, Shuttleworth said.
He admitted that Ubuntu "won't have 650,000 apps in the app store" but said building that up will be a focus. Part of that has been making sure app developers can use the same tools to develop on Ubuntu that they use for iOS and Android.
"We're perfectly aligned with Google and Apple so if you've got an HTML5 app that works with Android or iOS, it will work with Ubuntu, with only a tiny amount of friction that just one person can take care of," he said.
It's unclear exactly where Ubuntu will go after that, though Shuttleworth revealed that the company is "at board level with quite a few household names" in terms of manufacturers.
But one Ubuntu phone that won't hit the market in the foreseeable future is the ambitious Ubuntu Edge. Despite raising huge amounts of cash, the Edge also fell short of its massive $32 million (about £1.92m, AU$3.57m) goal "by a record," Shuttleworth admitted. And he doesn't consider that a success.
Sony outdid itself with the launch of the Xperia Z1 Compact, bringing all the power of the full fat version and shrinking it down without much compromise. But those internals won't stop it being compared to the other smaller phones on the market, with one of the most popular being the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini.
Quite rightly, Sony is pushing the Xperia Z1 Compact as more than just another 'Mini' handset that will disappear into tiny handset obscurity.
The question remains then, in the quest for a smaller screened device, what are the differences and which one is the right one for you?
Design
With both the Sony Xperia Z1 Compact and the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini handsets coming with bigger brothers, it will be of no surprise that the same design DNA in the Sony Xperia Z1 and the Samsung Galaxy S4 is still there, if not a little more petite.
The Z1 Compact comes with a far sharper and more industrial look than the S4 Mini, a smart handset hewn of glass and metal. Samsung instead followed a far more natural and curvier look with its handsets and has produced a smooth plastic device with the S4 Mini.
That extra heft isn't unwarranted though - the design build of the Z1 Compact is decent, if a little chunky, and feels like it has a slightly higher bill of materials than the Samsung.
With that glass and metal construction it'll be no bombshell that the Z1 Compact comes in much heavier than the Galaxy S4 Mini, weighing in a whole 30g heavier than the Samsung at 137g. The Sony is also larger; vital statistics put it at 127 x 64.9 x 9.5mm.
Samsung's smaller handset is smaller all round at 124.6 x 61.3 x 8.99 and weighs a mere 107g leaving it sitting in the hand a lot more comfortably.
Design differences also spread to the inclusion (or exclusion) of hard buttons and soft keys. Where Sony has left the Xperia Z1 Compact to deal with Android's on screen controls, Samsung has taken its more traditional route with a large central home key and back/menu buttons sat either side.
Screen
With a quick look at the specs sheet it is clear that the Sony is way out in front. The Xperia Z1 Compact comes with a HD 720p (720 x 1280) screen that leaves the 540 x 960 resolution of the Galaxy S4 Mini a little behind.
All those extra pixels in the same 4.3-inch screen mean that the Sony comes out much higher in pixel density too; 342 beats 256ppi every day of the week.
Fortunately for Samsung this only tells half the story. The Galaxy S4 Mini comes packing the same Super AMOLED screen technology, which is both extremely bright and comes with higher levels of contrast than the TFT screen of the Z1 Compact. This goes a long way to easing any pain caused by a smaller resolution.
It would be harsh to call the Galaxy S4 Mini screen poor. It is more than sufficient for sending messages and surfing the web, or for viewing all those images of cats in funny poses and dogs diving for tennis balls.
The added brightness also means that the Galaxy S4 Mini is also easier to use when out and about when sunnier weather hits your window.
Camera
One of the biggest areas that the Sony Xperia Z1 Compact will look to beat the Samsung Galaxy S4 Mini is the camera. This is because it comes rocking a massive 20.7MP sensor where the Samsung comes with only 8MP.
Both the S4 Mini and the Z1 Compact come sporting front facing sensors too, although these are much closer in stature. Sony has made sure it's won the battle, but this time the battle was much narrower; 2MP vs 1.9MP.
Samsung and Sony have both also taken a look at the camera app, meaning they both offer up more than the stock Android that sits beneath.
Sony has thrown a little more in the way of the camera offering up a few more modes. The more professional photographer may decide they want to forgo the Superior auto mode and take on the Manual mode. This offers up a variety of scenes, as well as allowing the toggle of white balance and exposure.
Instagram lovers have also been covered with varying picture effects and filters allowing easy creation of interesting looking pictures without the need for any Photoshop wizardry. An AR mode also adds extra features including elves and dinosaurs... make of that what you will.
Samsung's variation comes in the forms of different modes: Auto, Beauty Face, Best Photo, Continuous Shot, Best Face, Sound & Shot, Rich Tone (HDR), Panorama, Sports and Night. These don't add a lot of creative features, instead being aimed at perfecting the more basic shots.
Colour reproduction on both is very good, although the contrast is much higher on the Galaxy S4 Mini. Much more detail has been captured on the skin of the satsumas though.
With the colours a little washed out on both, contrast levels are still much higher on the Galaxy S4 Mini. More detail on the cushions has been captured on the Z1 Compact.
A far greater amount of detail has been captured on the Z1 Compact, with edges appearing crisper. Although the contrast is higher on the S4 Mini, colours are more natural on the Z1 Compact.
Oddly, more detail has been captured in the background with the brickwork on houses coming out clearer with the Samsung. The Z1 Compact is much clearer in the foreground with text being much crisper.
There is a massive difference in the low light capabilities, with the Z1 Compact's sensor letting in a lot more light. This means that images come out a lot clearer and more visible than on the S4 Mini.
There's been a lot of talk surrounding sapphire screens for smartphones recently, and it's one of the heavily rumoured features for the upcoming iPhone 6.
Apple has even gone and purchased a sapphire product company, fuelling the rumours of an iPhone 6 appearance further and it could be the catalyst the screen tech needs to catapult it into the mobile mainstream.
So why is it so important? We're here to set the story straight about what sapphire screens are and why we should all be excited for the mobile future.
What exactly is sapphire?
We all know what sapphire is, right? It's that beautiful blue gemstone found on the ring given by Prince William to Kate Middleton for their engagement in 2010.
So why is this precious gem being constantly bandied about as the future of smartphone screens?
In fact sapphire is much more than a gemstone, it is a crystallized form of aluminium oxide which sports a natural blue hue thanks to traces of elements such as iron and titanium.
Why is it good for phones?
Manufactured sapphire has been around for a while and it's used on all of Tag Heuer's watches, as well as being the transparent armour that is currently found on military vehicles and there is some pretty sound reasoning behind this.
It is common knowledge that there is little in the universe that is harder than diamond, a substance that measures 10 on the Mohs mineral hardness scale.
The Mohs scale measures how easily different minerals scratch from 1 to 10, 1 being the softest and 10 being the hardest.
Hopefully there will be less of this
Sapphire measures nine on that scale, only one less than diamond and two to three higher than ordinary glass.
Putting this into context, sapphire mobile screens should be far more scratch and crack resistant than a traditional chemically strengthened glass screen.
Whilst we highly doubt your next phone will be bullet proof like the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Launcher's windscreen, we could be looking at mobile screens that won't crack if dropped, nor scratch if left in a handbag or pocket with a set of keys.
Hasn't sapphire been used before?
With all recent the talk of sapphire screens you'd be forgiven for thinking that its use in the mobile world is something that is completely new.
Anybody with an iPhone 5 or 5S will know (possibly) that's not the case.
There's a layer of sapphire in there
Apple in particular has been using sapphire for a while, with it covering the Touch ID fingerprint sensor on the 5S and the camera lenses of both devices.
What about Gorilla Glass?
The use of sapphire in mobile screens places a lot of pressure on the current screen manufacturers, none more so than Corning who produces Gorilla Glass.
Figures from Corning's news centre suggest Gorilla Glass is currently found in over 1.5 billion devices, a number that is certainly not to be baulked at.
Yeah, it's called sapphire
The same site also show that sapphire is actually harder to scratch than Gorilla Glass, something that is reiterated by Matthew Hall, Director of the Center for Advanced Ceramic Technology at Alfred University's Kazuo Inamori School of Engineering.
"Chemically strengthened glass can be excellent, but sapphire is better in terms of hardness, strength, and toughness" Hall explained, adding "the fracture toughness of sapphire should be around four times greater than Gorilla Glass – about 3 MPa-m0.5 versus 0.7 MPa-m0.5, respectively."
This comes with some rather large downsides though. Sapphire is both heavier at 3.98g per cubic cm (compared to the 2.54g of Gorilla Glass) as well as refracting light slightly more.
Specs compared: Samsung Galaxy S5 vs Sony Xperia Z2 (credit: It's a phone face-off)
MWC 2014 has given birth to the Sony Xperia Z2 and Samsung Galaxy S5, both of which will be soon be jostling for your attention as they take over the spotlight as Android's latest, and presumably greatest, offerings.
Unfortunately, before we get both handsets into the office for a thorough TechRadar-style testing, we won't be able to tell which is more worthy of your cash. We can, however, give you an idea of how the two compare from what we know so far.
Check out our head-to-head specs comparison video below, and find out exactly what the Galaxy S5 and Xperia Z2 are bringing to the game.
