It’s not hard agreeing with the fact that how much ever you love your smartphone, some day you are going to feel it’s limited and you are expecting something better from it. Ubuntu does the same job, and we got a chance to check how great the still-an-alpha-version Ubuntu interface for smartphones work, and this is not something like the Ubuntu for Android, but a totally different Operating system and Interface, which could become one of the big competitors in the Mobile OS market pretty soon, if everything goes on well and is
replicated of what we saw in the alpha version that was installed in the Samsung Galaxy Nexus device.
Ubuntu for Smartphones doesn’t end itself with the smartphone experience, and that is what Canonical, Ubuntu’s parent company is boasting about – plug in a monitor and you get a complete Ubuntu experience on the large screen too. That would be excellent when the same mobile OS expands itself to give a full desktop experience where the users can run full applications and even use an external mouse and keyboard etc. Let us go through what all we found out to be called an Awesome experience with the Ubuntu for Smartphones. By the way, it is the Samsung Galaxy Nexus phone being used in the video and pictures, with the Ubuntu OS.There’s a direct welcome screen that has got most of the unread notifications and all this, in a different way than what all we see in the Android smartphones. There’s a circle with a lot of dots on the
perimeter, each having a notification or something for you to read and catch up with. The demonstrators of the Ubuntu called the Lock screen a physical barrier, but we would largely disagree as that is what protects your privacy many a times, and if you have an Ubuntu device in your hands, doesn’t mean you are totally secure without a lock screen.What we loved about Ubuntu for smartphones is that there is something interesting on every corner of the interface, and everything can be personalized based on your needs. Swipe the finger from the left side to the center, a vertical list of the favorite and most frequently used apps comes up. The same list has a Quick Access button in the bottom, which actually takes us to the Home, where a lot of aggregated content based on the user’s needs shows up. It isn’t a standard integration of the same apps and interface as we see on the Android, iOS, Blackberry OS for mobiles but something totally different that we are impressed with, where you can change everything from the welcome screen to the home screen.
The Home screen has the list of frequently used apps, missed calls and message alerts, any other latest stuff like the film and music releases all of which depends on what you choose to have in there. Although yes, film releases are not that important and we can replace that with anything we prefer, one thing we still would like in the home screen of the Android phones over Ubuntu is the live widgets. The App lists have got the installed apps, the frequently used apps and the ones which are available for download. One beautiful feature about Ubuntu here is that the recommended apps are based on the relevancy and your already installed apps which you are using, though the same is inspired by the recommendation engine in the Windows Phone OS.
As of now, the Alpha version that we have seen has got quite a few apps and Ubuntu is working on bringing out an full-fledged App store with paid apps from various developers, but nothing was there as of now, so we got no idea on how easy the app installing would be. A few features seem to be copied (or there is nothing much you can change to make it different) from the other Mobile OS, as the People app is similar to the People hub in the Windows Phone devices where the Social network integration is seen. Twitter, Facebook etc. apps can be linked to, and once we go to a particular contact, their recent updates appear in the same page. It all looks pretty good, but not really new as the Windows Phone, Android OS has been into the market since a long time now. But one thing about the integration is that we could directly go to that social network and particular status update of the contact, to respond to it.
The Notification Panel for Android is not taken any inspiration of, and this was one of the parts where we could say “wow” as the panel dragged downwards would keep changing the sections of settings, and you don’t have to waste time going to the Settings area separately and searching for that particular setting, as most of it appears while you are dragging the top panel downwards. And once the entire panel is dragged down, there are messages from several apps, including the social network messages, SMSes and MMS etc. all at a single place.
We liked the way one can reply to a particular messages right away from the panel, saving time as we don’t need to go to the particular app and reply to the messages there. Ubuntu has brought more content for the users in the front, rather than keeping things hidden deep under the dates and categories, and swyping is what they have concentrated on. The Events section looked excellent, with the pictures categorized based on the dates.
replicated of what we saw in the alpha version that was installed in the Samsung Galaxy Nexus device.
Ubuntu for Smartphones doesn’t end itself with the smartphone experience, and that is what Canonical, Ubuntu’s parent company is boasting about – plug in a monitor and you get a complete Ubuntu experience on the large screen too. That would be excellent when the same mobile OS expands itself to give a full desktop experience where the users can run full applications and even use an external mouse and keyboard etc. Let us go through what all we found out to be called an Awesome experience with the Ubuntu for Smartphones. By the way, it is the Samsung Galaxy Nexus phone being used in the video and pictures, with the Ubuntu OS.There’s a direct welcome screen that has got most of the unread notifications and all this, in a different way than what all we see in the Android smartphones. There’s a circle with a lot of dots on the
The Home screen has the list of frequently used apps, missed calls and message alerts, any other latest stuff like the film and music releases all of which depends on what you choose to have in there. Although yes, film releases are not that important and we can replace that with anything we prefer, one thing we still would like in the home screen of the Android phones over Ubuntu is the live widgets. The App lists have got the installed apps, the frequently used apps and the ones which are available for download. One beautiful feature about Ubuntu here is that the recommended apps are based on the relevancy and your already installed apps which you are using, though the same is inspired by the recommendation engine in the Windows Phone OS.
As of now, the Alpha version that we have seen has got quite a few apps and Ubuntu is working on bringing out an full-fledged App store with paid apps from various developers, but nothing was there as of now, so we got no idea on how easy the app installing would be. A few features seem to be copied (or there is nothing much you can change to make it different) from the other Mobile OS, as the People app is similar to the People hub in the Windows Phone devices where the Social network integration is seen. Twitter, Facebook etc. apps can be linked to, and once we go to a particular contact, their recent updates appear in the same page. It all looks pretty good, but not really new as the Windows Phone, Android OS has been into the market since a long time now. But one thing about the integration is that we could directly go to that social network and particular status update of the contact, to respond to it.
The Notification Panel for Android is not taken any inspiration of, and this was one of the parts where we could say “wow” as the panel dragged downwards would keep changing the sections of settings, and you don’t have to waste time going to the Settings area separately and searching for that particular setting, as most of it appears while you are dragging the top panel downwards. And once the entire panel is dragged down, there are messages from several apps, including the social network messages, SMSes and MMS etc. all at a single place.
We liked the way one can reply to a particular messages right away from the panel, saving time as we don’t need to go to the particular app and reply to the messages there. Ubuntu has brought more content for the users in the front, rather than keeping things hidden deep under the dates and categories, and swyping is what they have concentrated on. The Events section looked excellent, with the pictures categorized based on the dates.
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