Over the previous few years, Android and iOS have just about dominated the smartphone area to the extent that even huge names equivalent to Palm (later HP), Microsoft and BlackBerry that have been pioneers of the business have both been pushed out, or are having a tough time surviving towards these two behemoths. So, in such a situation, it has grow to be immensely tough for a brand new entrant to make a lot of an affect. Nonetheless, that hasn’t stored Canonical from venturing into the smartphone market by creating a variant of its widespread Ubuntu Linux distribution geared in the direction of telephones and tablets. Dubbed Ubuntu Contact, the OS acquired important approval for its intuitive UI when its preview was launched earlier, which we took on a check run in our detailed assessment of Ubuntu Contact Developer Preview. With the discharge of Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander for desktop this month, Canonical additionally made out there the primary launch of Ubuntu Contact. Whereas nonetheless not delivery preinstalled on any smartphone and never being 100% prepared for on a regular basis use, the construct is secure sufficient to be usable, and is out there for the 4 newest Nexus units. In what follows, we’ll check out the OS intimately, together with screenshots of every one in all its options.
Upon first boot, you might be launched to the sting gestures of the machine that you just’ll be utilizing to navigate between apps and completely different sections of the OS. This feels immensely intuitive and frees up the complete display to grow to be one single enormous canvas for content material, eliminating the necessity for any onerous or gentle buttons.
Options
After we took a take a look at the preview version earlier, many options of the OS have been non-functional. Whereas not each characteristic is prepared for prime time by now, the OS has come a good distance from the preview, as you might be about to see.
Welcome Display
The Welcome display is the equal of a lock display on different platforms, however in case of Ubuntu Contact, it doesn’t include any safety on smartphones. As an alternative, it exhibits you data about your actions equivalent to calls, texts and social media interactions in an exquisite radial interface. Many of those interplay stats are actually out there, with extra to return in future variations. Swiping from the proper edge dismisses the Welcome display. On tablets, the you’ll be required to register with an account although, however solely a single built-in Visitor account with no password is supported on this launch.
Sprint & App Administration
Upon dismissing the Welcome display, you land on the Unity Sprint, which serves as the house display of the OS. There are 4 screens right here in whole, and you may navigate between them by swiping sideways, as you’d count on. House is the place you’ll get fast entry to your most wanted stuff equivalent to most used apps, most ceaselessly contacted folks, ceaselessly watched movies and many others. however for now, it solely exhibits you a few of your put in apps. Transfer over to the Functions web page, and also you’ll see a whole lot of motion. There’s an Put in part that provides you entry to all apps put in on the OS. In case you are related to the web, the Extra solutions part might help you discover much more apps. Although many of the apps proven on this part are presently mere containers for his or her respective net apps.
When you’ve got any apps working, they are going to present up on high with massive previews, and you may faucet and maintain on any of them to get into edit mode signified by the looks of purple shut buttons on every preview. Tapping the shut button will terminate the app and take away it from the checklist.
From the prompt apps, tapping any of them exhibits you just a few particulars about it, together with the flexibility to put in it. As soon as put in, the app will present up in your put in apps checklist. Tapping and holding on any put in app, after which releasing your faucet may also brings you to the same view, the place you may see the identical app data and likewise uninstall the app. With all this performance, the OS already has the makings of a pleasant software retailer platform, which is predicted since Ubuntu has been recognized for being among the many first notable desktop working programs to return with a unified app distribution system.
You may equally discover a number of Sprint plugins and allow or disable them.
So, what do these Sprint plugins do? Let’s check out the Search performance of the OS for that. Faucet the Search button from the Standing bar whereas anyplace within the OS, and also you’ll be capable to rapidly conduct a seek for your required content material. Now that’s the place the Sprint plugins are available in. They add search handlers for various kinds of content material, so if you need to have the ability to seek for, let’s say, information tales, it will likely be a good suggestion to maintain the Google Information Sprint plugin enabled.
The Search characteristic appears spectacular and exhibits the outcomes categorized underneath completely different sections based mostly on the character of the search question. You too can use the ‘Search in’ part to go looking with particular Sprint plugins. Any such searches present up with the plugin’s title prefix in your Latest searches checklist (proven if you faucet Search from the standing bar).
Dock & Multitasking
Swiping in from the left edge brings up the Unity Dock Launcher, which is accessible all through the OS it doesn’t matter what app or display you’ve presently open. You will see that just a few apps already pinned to the Dock, and any working apps may also present up in it, with the presently lively one having a tiny indicator on its proper. Tapping and holding any app’s icon within the Dock helps you to pin/unpin it from the Launcher
When you’ve got an app already open and proceed swiping rightward from the left edge after the Dock exhibits up, you will notice that the app begins sliding rightward too. You should utilize this gesture from any display to dismiss it and get again to your private home display. The identical gesture from the left edge will convey the final dismissed app again, and any additional swipes from the left edge will allow you to rapidly swap between all of your working apps. This is likely one of the most intuitive methods for switching between apps on a cell machine.
HUD
Swiping up from the underside edge whereas any app is working exhibits a translucent icon on the display, and persevering with to swipe to it and releasing your finger over it brings up an HUD view. From right here, you might be supposed to have the ability to entry some helpful options related to the app or managing apps, together with voice instructions. Although all these options are non-functional within the present launch.
Standing & Settings Bar
Each cell OS appears to be going within the path of Android’s notification dropdown. Ubuntu Contact takes the identical idea however improves it by straight exhibiting you the related settings for every Standing bar icon if you swipe down from it, in distinction to getting the identical dropdown no matter the place on the standing bar you swiped down from.
You may rapidly hook up with and handle out there Wi-Fi networks, entry your Mobile connection settings, toggle Bluetooth and GPS, and think about Incoming messages by merely swiping down from the related icon within the standing bar.
Equally, you may view your battery stage and alter display brightness, change quantity, and think about the present time, date and day.
System Settings
Within the preview of the OS, you couldn’t change any system settings, which was comprehensible because the sole goal of that construct was to simply present you what the workforce had in thoughts for the OS. On this launch, you may entry and modify a number of system settings from the aptly named System Settings app.
These settings are organized in teams. Beneath Community, you’ll discover Wi-Fi, Mobile and Bluetooth settings. Equally, the Private part provides you with entry to Backbground, Sound, Language & Textual content, and Accounts settings.
You may simply swap to a background of your selection, change your ringtone to one of many a number of choices offered, and swap to your language from the assorted choices out there.
In Accounts, you may add your Ubuntu One, Twitter, Fb and Google accounts to the OS. The accounts added right here will allow you to use these providers and their options throughout the complete OS, versus simply of their related apps. Nonetheless, whereas we may add our accounts superb, we nonetheless wanted to enter them when attempting to entry the respective apps, although that could possibly be as a result of these are presently out there as net apps solely, and never native apps. The accounts configured right here did work for us when it got here to sharing, and the Pals app (that we’ll see shortly).
Transferring, on to the System part, you’ll be capable to view your battery standing and a graph about its discharge and utilization, modify show brightness, and toggle radios equivalent to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to preserve battery. Equally, you may set the proper time zone to your area, and select computerized or handbook time and date specification settings from right here as effectively.
In Safety & Privateness, you may toggle stats to be proven or hidden on the Welcome display, prohibit Sprint search to cellphone solely or each cellphone and web, and tweak error reporting and diagnostics settings.
There’s an Updates part that may make the method of updating your OS straightforward. You may specify whether or not to routinely obtain updates on any information connection, solely on Wi-Fi, or by no means.
Lastly, you may view details about your cellphone equivalent to its serial and IMEI numbers, the present model of Ubuntu put in, and the final replace time. The Storage sub-section right here exhibits you stats in your whole, free and used storage, splitting it by utilization between the OS, media, apps and many others. Beneath that, you may see an inventory of all put in apps you could kind by title or measurement.
That’s just about all there’s to the OS itself, but it surely does include just a few helpful apps put in, so let’s see what Ubuntu Contact has in retailer for us when it comes to its inventory apps.
Apps
Solely a few the inventory apps included within the preview version have been useful, and the remaining acted as mere demos or placeholders. On this launch, all inventory apps are useful, although the feature-sets of some may really feel quite restricted in the intervening time.
Dialer
The dialer is sort of fundamental and doesn’t include options like T9 dialing, but it surely works. The entries in your name log are expandable, letting you rapidly save a quantity as a contact, view an current contact, name the quantity, or compose a textual content. The contacts part equally exhibits expandable entries to your contacts.
Incoming calls use Ubuntu’s common notifications quite than mentioning the dialer app, and present up on high of no matter display is lively. You may settle for or decline a name proper from the notification.
Contacts
The Contacts app can also be useful and the one caveat isn’t any syncing together with your Google account. Apart from that, you may simply add contacts, choose a number of ones from the motion bar (accessible by swiping up from the underside), and edit the small print for any contact.
When including or enhancing a contact, you’ll be capable to enter a whole lot of related particulars, as all of us have come to count on from any smartphone.
Messaging
Messaging works effectively, full with notifications and a threaded view. You too can edit a person dialog to delete particular person messages from it.
Browser
The inventory Browser is probably essentially the most spectacular app that comes with the OS. Webpages are rendered rapidly and precisely, and the deal with bar auto-hides to make finest use of the display. The superior Exercise view accessible from the deal with bar helps you to handle your presently open tabs, open a brand new one, and add one to bookmarks by starring it. The Bookmarks part helps you to equally entry and handle all of your bookmarks.
Pals (Social Media Hub)
Pals is a social media hub for the OS that presently helps Fb and Twitter accounts. It is going to present standing updates and tweets out of your itmelines throughout each networks, and you may faucet any replace to reply on to it, or prefer it. Equally, you may create a brand new replace of your individual and select to share it on both or each of the networks.
Digital camera
The Digital camera isn’t half dangerous, with assist for switching between back and front cams, turning flash on, off or auto, digital zoom, and faucet to focus. The video recording mode doesn’t work, nonetheless.
Gallery
The Gallery app works fairly effectively. You may view your images organized by Occasions or all collectively underneath Pictures. There’s an Albums tab too, which is empty by default however you may simply create customized albums for manually organizing your images.
Tapping a photograph opens it in full display by default. Mentioning its motion bar and selecting Edit helps you to rotate, crop and Auto improve it (which works effectively; see the distinction within the picture’s two variants within the screenshots beneath), undo or redo any of your modifications, or revert it to authentic. You too can simply share the picture over social media from right here.
Music
The Music participant didn’t work for me in my testing, even after including an MP3 file to my Music folder through ADB. It makes an attempt to load music, however then simply tells you to import music and restart the app.
Clock
The Clock app comes with lovely animations and assist for a number of world clocks.
Calculator
The Calculator is as useful because it was within the preview. Although the gesture of dragging on the show to dismiss the previous calculation and begin a brand new one doesn’t appear to work.
Calendar
One other one of many full-featured apps, the Calendar comes with Month, Week, Day and 12 months views. Sadly, there is no such thing as a Google Calendar integration, however you may add a brand new occasion from the motion bar.
When creating a brand new occasion, you may specify particulars equivalent to its begin and finish time (however not date), title, description, location, friends, recurrence and a reminder.
The occasion will then begin exhibiting on the applicable slot in your calendar. Tapping any occasion exhibits its particulars, together with its location (if specified) on a map.
Notes
The Notes app is as minimal because it will get, however you do get to see the created time to your notes. There appears to be no manner of deleting a word as soon as created, however you may all the time edit it later.
File Supervisor
The built-in File Supervisor will doubtless be one of the vital well-received options of the app. It exhibits you your private home listing by default, and you may toggle the app’s superior options from its settings.
You should utilize the motion bar to create new folders, and think about properties of chosen recordsdata and folders.
You too can change how the recordsdata and folders are sorted and ordered, apply a filter to seek out what you’re searching for, and entry vital locations to rapidly soar to them from any part of the app.
Terminal
Since Ubuntu Contact is a Linux distribution, it comes with a useful Terminal app. To make issues straightforward for you, the app additionally comes with emulation keys for these not discovered on the gentle keyboard.
Climate
The climate app can detect your location routinely utilizing GPS, however it’s also possible to select to specify it manually, or add a special one. You’ll then be proven the temperature and present circumstances.
Tapping the circumstances will present extra particulars like humidity, strain, wind velocity and precipitation stage. From the settings, you may change items from imperial to smart. Future climate forecasts appear to be lacking from the combo for now.
Inventory Ticker
You may seek for and add new shares underneath Administration, after which regulate them underneath Watched.
There’s a Charts part for every inventory, however that didn’t present something in our case. Although the Particulars and Information sections labored effectively. You too can configure completely different profiles and swap between them to handle a number of inventory portfolios.
Shorts (Feed Reader)
Ubuntu has determined to incorporate an RSS reader within the app, with some Ubuntu and Canonical-related feeds already added to it.
You may add a brand new subscription from the motion bar, although the choices for including on-line accounts and importing subscriptions aren’t working in the intervening time. Additionally, when including a subscription, you must specify the precise URL of the feed itself, and never simply the positioning’s URL.
Updates
To handle your app updates, there’s an Updates app. It exhibits you any out there app updates, and allows you to set up them with a faucet. You too can manually verify for updates.
Video games
Ubuntu Contact comes with two video games, which might help you waste a whole lot of time having some old-school enjoyable.
Sudoku
That is the basic sport playable solely the basic manner. I kinda obtained addicted once more whereas testing the OS for my assessment.
Dropping Letters
This one’s an attention-grabbing tackle Tetris. The letters drop and you must faucet them to make phrases, after which faucet the finished legitimate phrase proven within the high part to dismiss these tiles. Hours of enjoyable!
Net Apps
Ubuntu Contact additionally contains net apps for some widespread providers rather than native apps.
At the moment, the net apps that come preinstalled with the OS embody Gmail, Fb, Twitter, Ubuntu One, Amazon and eBay.
That’s all there’s to Ubuntu Contact 13.10. The OS nonetheless has an extended strategy to go earlier than it turns into usable as a every day driver. Nonetheless, the way in which issues are headed, that may be as close to as the subsequent launch of the OS in April subsequent 12 months.
