[ubuntu] The Ubuntu Smartphone

[Arthur]

Looks good.

 

Source: Ubuntu (via Ars Technica)

http://i.imgur.com/nBZ7N.png

Canonical today announced a new version of Ubuntu designed specifically for smartphones to power everything from entry-level handhelds to "high-end superphones" that double as PCs.

 

The move by Canonical was long expected, although it is coming late to a market already dominated by the iPhone and Android-based devices. Ubuntu for phones isn't a whole new operating system. Instead, it is a "smartphone interface" for Ubuntu. This helps Ubuntu differentiate from other phone operating systems by Voltron-ing itself into a full-fledged PC when docked to a monitor, mouse, and keyboard.

 

Ubuntu has previously been in the smartphone game with Android devices that become a modified Ubuntu PC when docked. This didn't make much of an impact, as the most prominent such device—the Motorola Atrix and lapdock—has been discontinued.

 

Ubuntu for Android is a separate product, which Canonical will continue to maintain. The newly announced version of Ubuntu will run on smartphones without any reliance on Android, however. This helps fulfill founder Mark Shuttleworth's promise of having Ubuntu become one operating system from phones to supercomputers.

 

 

http://youtu.be/cpWHJDLsqTU&hd=1

Edited January 2, 2013 by Arthur

[featured_spectre]

Ubuntu smartphone has been underway for a long while. I am waiting under the beta programme to get my hands on a copy of the os to install on ny phone.

 

Phones that they intend to work with are as follows (as per beta programme)

 

Samsung galaxy...

Ace

Note

Note 2

S1

S2

S3

S3 mini

 

Google Nexus

 

Sony and HTC (everything released since August 2011)

 

More to be added but I have 3 of those in my household which will be fun (Ace, Note and S3)

[glennda]

Along with Samba 4 I can see this hopefully starting to make more and more ground on the Business side of things. Unity is a lot easier to navigate then Windows 8

[Arthur]

I am waiting under the beta programme to get my hands on a copy of the OS to install on my phone.

Have you got a Galaxy Nexus?

 

Proper Ubuntu phones are promised to be out in early 2014, but the company has a number of demo phones out here in London and downloadable images of the development platform will be available for the Galaxy Nexus over the next couple of weeks. That's the only officially supported device for now, which Canonical expects developers to be working on as they start fleshing out the ecosystem. (Source)

 

Unity is a lot easier to navigate then Windows 8

Lots of Linux users seem to hate Unity for some reason.

[SYNACK]

When will they have this tested out for tablets, still painful dealing with androindows 3.1 , I mean 4.2 . maybe I can even find a metro skin for the ui

[glennda]

 

Lots of Linux users seem to hate Unity for some reason.

 

Don't get me wrong I prefer Gnome but unity took some getting used to

[jinnantonnixx]

 

Lots of Linux users seem to hate Unity for some reason.

 

It's a personal choice of course, but I really like Unity. I use the word with caution, but it's satisfying to use. Hand on heart, I really think I've tried most desktops, but find Unity the most efficient and best to use.

 

But that's the beauty of choice. Don't like it? Change it.

[Arthur]

maybe I can even find a metro skin for the ui

Urgh!

 

http://i.imgur.com/isp9s.gif

[SYNACK]

Urgh!

 

http://i.imgur.com/isp9s.gif

 

Yay

 

In seriousness I have been looking for a way to dump that on my nexus 7. For tablets and phones that ui is great, desktops not as much but it is just as bearable as unity if not more so. I actually prefer not having to download an app for every little thing.

 

Anyhow Ubuntu getting tested and optimised more for mobile devices will be great, it may lead to less lobotomised devices in future.

Edited January 2, 2013 by SYNACK

[FN-GM]

I am not an Android fan, i am a little bit fedup on the iPhone so been looking at other things. This may just be the ticket!

[jinnantonnixx]

I've been keeping an eye on the Firefox phone and that looks OK. It's not Firefox on Android, it's an OS in its own right. It runs HTLM5 stuff, natively and on-line.

 

I watched the Ubuntu video and it looks very, very impressive.

 

How do you get it on the phones? Are Samsung happy about this?

 

How I wish Nokia would have got together with Ubuntu. Imagine Nokia's build quality with this OS. Elop threw away all Nokia's skunkworks teams and got back into bed with Microsoft. What a disaster that will be.

[Arthur]

Elop threw away all Nokia's skunkworks teams and got back into bed with Microsoft.

Have you seen Sailfish? It's a new OS based on MeeGo created by ex-Nokia developers.

 

http://youtu.be/7n7SY2YcQIg&hd=1

 

There's also Open WebOS too (seen below running on the Nexus 7).

 

 

It's crazy how many smartphone/tablet OSs there are now.

[jinnantonnixx]

As an aside, I regularly follow Tomi Ahonen's blog. He's an ex-Nokia exec. His blogs are very long, but if you have an interest in mobile technology they are well worth a read.

 

Communities Dominate Brands: How Do You Know If Your Strategy Has Failed - The Nokia Form 20-F Submitted to the NY Stock Exchange - Elop, your two-year experiment has failed and so have you

 

Communities Dominate Brands: The Three Pillars of Nokia Strategy - Have All Failed. Why Nokia Must Fire CEO Elop Now

 

Nokia generated 12.5% profit per smartphone sold when Elop was only executing the Symbian/Maemo/MeeGo based strategy he was given. After he foolishily abandoned that, today Nokia's smartphone unit reports 48% loss generated per every smartphone sold. Yes, its clear, the new strategy was not able to create a profitable business model. The new strategy has comprehensively failed. Spectacularly failed. I cannot think of any industry ever, where a global market leader went from 12% profits to 48% losses in a period of less than two years (while the industry itself continues to be highly profitable, so excluding world economic downturns, wars, natural disasters etc)

 

P.S. Sorry Arthur - thread derailed.

Edited January 2, 2013 by jinnantonnixx

[Duke5A]

Ubuntu lost me as a user on the desktop with 11.04. For anything Linux I'm back with Debian on the server side and Mint on the desktop. All I can see coming from this is another OS sending my usage data to online retailers and ad agencies. I'll pass....

[Arthur]

@jinnantonnixx. Nokia shows signs of life after its bet on Lumia devices starts to pay off.

[SYNACK]

@jinnantonnixx. Nokia shows signs of life after its bet on Lumia devices starts to pay off.

 

When the 920 comes down a bit I plan on getting one, they do look like nice phones.

[Arthur]

they do look like nice phones.

Definitely! The HTC 8X is quite nice too, although I think I might wait and see if Microsoft release a Surface Phone (I hope they do).

 

http://s1.postimage.org/y3rvjp0gf/6666666.jpg

[CyberNerd]

@jinnantonnixx. Nokia shows signs of life after its bet on Lumia devices starts to pay off.

 

You must be linking to the wrong article. That one says Nokia sold 4.4M Lumina devices yet an android article from the summer claims there were 1.3M android activations per day.

[SYNACK]

Definitely! The HTC 8X is quite nice too, although I think I might wait and see if Microsoft release a Surface Phone (I hope they do).

 

http://s1.postimage.org/y3rvjp0gf/6666666.jpg

 

Likewise, a surface phone would probably be indestructible.

[localzuk]

I'm a big fan of the Ubuntu phone idea. I have now basically switched to Linux on all my home PCs, using Windows only for gaming when I feel the need.

 

Having a full fledged Ubuntu system in my phone would be great. Use it as a phone when I'm wandering around, then all I do is dock it and voila a full Ubuntu desktop, running whatever desktop I want. When this appears in the wild, I'll definitely be looking at using it!

[tmcd35]

Could this be the device that finally weens me off the old fruit juice? I've transferred all my songs to plan old MP3 and got rid of any DRM so the only thing left tying me to Apple is the Appstore (there's a couple of Apps I've yet to see a suitable Android alternative to). I like the idea of running a Linux desktop, especially if the Steam Console takes off as well. A tightly integrated phone experience - like OSX and the iPhone - could tip the balance. But as with Windows 8 and Android, it's quality app availability at the end of the day. Watching with interest...

[Arthur]

In which Ars is allowed to see—but not touch—an Ubuntu phone « Ars Technica

 

No touching! Canonical shows us an Ubuntu phone, tells us to keep our hands off.

 

http://i.imgur.com/A7kWW.jpg

 

http://i.imgur.com/PlJa8.jpg

 

Canonical was also showing Ubuntu for Android today. Whereas Ubuntu phones will be Ubuntu on both the phone and desktop, Ubuntu for Android turns a standard Android phone into an Ubuntu PC when docked. Using Ubuntu for Android, Collins showed us a telephony application on Ubuntu that can access the Android address book. This is a Samsung Galaxy S3, docked and running Ubuntu on the desktop.

 

Like the Ubuntu phone OS, the source code for Ubuntu for Android is not yet available. "We don't want users to install it on hardware that we're not sure it can support," Collins said, a statement quite similar to the excuse Google has given for delaying release of Android source code. Canonical officials have said Ubuntu phone development will (eventually) involve the community more than Android's does, however, following a model similar to the Ubuntu desktop code.

 

Although Canonical is still working on Ubuntu for Android because of Android's dominant market presence, in the long run it hopes to convince users that Ubuntu is the best choice for both phones and desktops.

 

"Our Ubuntu phone running our Ubuntu desktop is obviously where we want to take our product forward," Collins said.

 

http://i.imgur.com/dUOdU.jpg

[jinnantonnixx]

For a prototype device, this is looking pretty good.

 

[Arthur]

an Android article from the summer claims there were 1.3M Android activations per day.

The majority of Android devices are low-end / cheap-and-nasty phones running Gingerbread which is hardly worth getting excited about. The latest smartphones like Samsung's Galaxy S3 and Google's Nexus 4 only account for between 123,333 to 5,800,000 activations per month.

 

Outdated Android devices are exposing 400 million users to security threats

 

^ Hopefully Canonical learn from Google's mistake and ensure OS updates come directly from them (instead of via network operators).

[localzuk]

The majority of Android devices are low-end / cheap-and-nasty phones running Gingerbread which is hardly worth getting excited about. The latest smartphones like Samsung's Galaxy S3 and Google's Nexus 4 only account for between 123,333 to 5,800,000 activations per month.

 

Outdated Android devices are exposing 400 million users to security threats

 

^ Hopefully Canonical learn from Google's mistake and ensure OS updates come directly from them (instead of via network operators).

 

The outdated OS thing annoys me greatly. There's no need for it - it is pure laziness by the network operators IMO. Or a ploy to get you to update your phone to a new model because they'll claim it has new features which your old one would've had if they'd bothered to keep it up to date.