News - Ubuntu for smartphones launched, watch the video trailer

[HEXUS]

“A single Ubuntu OS is now compatible across phone, PC and connected TV devices”

Read more.

[scaryjim]

Some of the UI highlights of the new system include “Edge magic” where thumb gestures on all four sides of the screen find content and switch apps “faster than other phones”. (That sounds a little like the new BlackBerry 10 OS peeking and app switching behaviour...)

... which is derived from Playbook OS (which has the same behaviour), which is QNX-based. The same behaviour is also available on Win 8 tablets. None of which is really surprising, as once you actually try it, swiping in from the edge of the screen to pull up menus and switch applications is utterly intuitive...

[wombat]

The video on their website is pretty good and the docking to enable a desktop usage scenario is pretty neat. Unity seems to bring a nice cohesive experience across all formats and if the original vision was this, then colour me slightly impressed.

Emacs or VI on the phone, that could get ugly lol

[slypie]

I just can't see it make any dent in the mobile OS market.

[hesham1516]

I wonder what happened to the OS they did a demo of almost a year ago that let you connect a phone to an external display and let you use the full desktop version of the OS. If this is the one then I am very interested.

Edit:
Off the main site

"Unique PC experience on superphones when docked with a monitor, keyboard and mouse"


Finally have a reason to get a Nexus 4 but 16GBs are still out of stock

Edit 2:
A video review
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsVmDOZoVEo

And a look at the docking mode thingy I spoke of before
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66S8is1E9MI

[kingpotnoodle]

Finally have a reason to get a Nexus 4 but 16GBs are still out of stock

Handset they are using seems to be the previous Nexus - the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. Nice handset (the Mrs has one) but now superseded, over a year old and comparatively bad value unless you crave LTE. £342.18 on Amazon currently (was under £300 a few weeks ago before the Nexus 4 shortage).

[scaryjim]

If they can get a decent hardware manufacturer to pick it up, make a bluetooth desktop dock which uses NFC for automatic pairing and wireless battery charging, and ensure it comes with a decent set of business apps and good support, it could push very strongly into enterprise settings. Imagine giving all your employees a smartphone, that when they come into the office they can just drop it onto a pad on their desk and it immediately becomes their office PC. Using bluetooth means that if they get a call they can happily pick the phone up off the dock, because it'll remain connected up to 10m away. Then they can drop it back on the dock to keep charging.

Also, ultimate in hot-desking because everyone carries their office PC with them all the time and can drop it on any dock to get their desktop experience.

Dammit, now *I* want one

[wasabi]

Looks OK on phones but not on desktop. A bit like Metro looks OK on phones but not on desktop.

Will be interesting to see battery life on these. Without wanting to sound like a troll, battery life on portable linux devices can be a bit sub-par compared to windows in my experience (laptops).

Nice to see Java out of the equation (personal hatred of Java due to being lumbered with several items of Java crashtastic laggyware at work...)

Nice to see a way out from the walled garden.

[pp05]

Presentation was impressive.

Android compatible but Ubuntu. It will be stable and the fact it runs okay on Nexus (they want to launch 2014) will potentially mean cheaper handset. Tweak it (slim it down on OS)between now and then to improve battery life.

Here is the thing, this will run on any handset that can run Android. Imagine if they allow anyone to install it to their old handsets from flash drive.

[samuraiweasel]

Ooh @scaryjim, stop stealing my thoughts, but seriously what would be the chances of that being the future of mobile computing - merging with the desktop.

Edit:

This would effectively replace my netbook which struggles when i try play 720p (stupid samsung nc10) while my galaxy note (for which i can get a dock with hdmi out) plays smoothly.
GAH! Intel Atoms (N270) should be sent to hell, its where they belong!

Edit 2:

Now im confused, is this the same thing as Ubuntu for Android or not? Because i dont see how i would plug in a mouse and keyboard unless theyre bluetooth, but can a phone deal with both simultaneously or would you end up using the phone screen as a touchpad or what?