[dba-Tech] Ubuntu Phone

As much as I wish Ubuntu all the best, I think they are making a huge mistake with the interface. The swiping toolbar and gesture based UI is extremely unnatural (no one but geeks will have the patience to adapt to it) and I don't know why, for the life of me, Canonical thinks the design of the toolbar looks acceptable for both the desktop OS and mobile OS. One thing in its favour is that apps will be built on native code, giving it a performance upper-hand over Android and Windows Phone. Another neat possible feature is the ability to dock it and connect it up to a keyboard and monitor and run a full desktop Ubuntu machine. Brilliant.

Here's an interesting analysis of the Ubuntu Phone:
http://www.jupiterbroadcasting.com/29746/ubuntu-phone-doa-las-s25e02/

They made a good point that a gesture based UI is a lot like keyboard shortcuts on a computer desktop.
You can skip ahead in the video to that part by going to around the 50 minute and 45 seconds mark.

- Hans





On 2013-01-19, at 10:03 AM, "Jim Lawrence" <accessd at shaw.ca> wrote:

> Ubuntu has developed its own phone OS but whether it is just a side project
> is yet to be seen as carriers have said they will support it and as long as
> they are allowed room to place some of their own advertisements.
> 
> Right now the phone is supported on the Galaxy Nexus but that support will
> most likely be extended to some Nokia phones as it appears that Nokia is
> keeping its options open by developing support for Android, Ubuntu and
> Windows. Game companies like EA, Valve Software and Unity Technologies are
> already building and porting their apps to this device.
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=cpWHJDLsqTU#!
> 
> The Ubuntu phone:
> http://www.ubuntu.com/devices/phone
> 
> As well as being able to design apps in HTML5/CSS3?JavaScript (Note: the
> development kit provides a full JavaScript to assembler compiler for greater
> performance), the phone's core development language and IDE are as follows
> Qt Creator IDE for creating cross-platform applications developed in C/C++
> and QML
> http://qt.digia.com/
> 
> The QML language:
> http://developer.ubuntu.com/resources/programming-languages/qml/
> 
> and samples:
> http://doc.qt.digia.com/4.7/qdeclarativeintroduction.html
> 
> or download the whole mobile kit from:
> http://developer.ubuntu.com/get-started/gomobile/
> 
> OS hardware requirements:
> According to Canonical a phone needs the following requirements:[6]
> 1. Dual-core 1 GHz CPU, 1Ghz Cortex A9, Quad-core A9 or Intel Atom.
> 2. Video acceleration: shared kernel driver with associated X driver;
> OpenGL, ES/EGL
> 3. Storage: 2 GB for OS disk image. (the OS can support up to 32GB of RAM
> and can run as a desktop)
> 4. Also supports ports like HDMI: video-out with secondary framebuffer
> device and USB host mode
> 5. Core OS will run in 512 MB RAM
> 
> One comparison with the Windows Phone OS states it requires 2 GB of RAM,
> runs at less than a third of the speed of the Ubuntu phone and has no native
> Game company support, as of yet. You can just bring your Ubuntu phone home
> plug it into your PC/Laptop/Tablet and have access the full Ubuntu
> desktop...within the proper environment, they claim it can be used as a
> server and extend its services with full terminal services across the
> network...a full multi-user phone OS. In addition, according to Canonical it
> is the most secure OS ever built and now can provide banking services. It is
> also fully voice activated.
> 
> Whether this will all be enough for a company with little resources, no
> sales budget to speak off, no signed carriers and opponents like Microsoft,
> Apple and Google, is yet to be seen but they are off to a bold and promising
> start...but check it out
> 
> Jim
> 
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