You Can Now Install Ubuntu Touch Developer Preview on Android Nexus Devices

You have probably read about Ubuntu for smartphones in our earlier article about it. This is a groundbreaking new operating system that comes to smartphones from Canonical (the maker of Ubuntu). Ubuntu is one of the most popular of Linux distributions out there, among desktop computers. Now the platform is coming to smartphone world with the release of Ubuntu smartphones.

Yesterday, as expected, the developer preview of the OS was made available, with the source code and details of installing it on your phone. The version currently available is known as Ubuntu Touch Developer Preview. And this is important—Ubuntu Touch Developer Preview is only for developers and Ubuntu enthusiasts who want to try it out in real. It is not for an average smartphone user who doesn’t have good working knowledge of mobile operating systems.

Supported Phones & Tablets

Currently, Ubuntu Touch Developer Preview is supported only on Google’s Nexus line of devices, specifically Galaxy Nexus (Samsung), Nexus 4 (LG), Nexus 7 (Asus), and Nexus 10 (Samsung).

In order to install Ubuntu on your Android device, follow the steps and guidelines given at Ubuntu Wiki. Also, if you need to get Android OS back into the phone, you should have the appropriate image handy. Images can be found here.

What Do You Get?

Ubuntu is pretty limited in smartphone interface. It doesn’t have the capabilities like Android, and also it doesn’t have many apps for you to work with. This Developer Preview is intended only for Ubuntu developers and hard-core Ubuntu enthusiasts. If you install the OS, you get the following:

OS shell and basic apps
Phone-specific functions—connection to the operator, SMS, networking, & Wi-Fi
Working camera app for the front-facing and main camera
Accessibility through Android Developer Bridge

Thanks to QBKing77, I was able to get this video:

Conclusion

Ubuntu is highly enthusiastic about their move to the smartphone world. Canonical’s founder Mark Shuttleworth was quite a bit excited to share the news with the world. We have got our hands on the first of Ubuntu developer devices now, and we will soon see where the platform heads and how many apps it will gather. Competition is not easy now with BlackBerry 10 and upcoming Tizen.

Technologies on Smartphones That You Should Look For

Apple has unveiled two underwhelming products with iPhone 5S and 5C . That was the major news for the last week. Although the devices completely lacked any inspiration, they have included two very important things—the touch ID sensor for security and the 64-bit architecture for better computing. Earlier we also mentioned what Apple should have done . In Android devices, we have a huge number of innovations too that we got to see in the past few months. In this article, let me discuss a few innovations that you have to look for in your next smartphone. 1. NFC Near Field Communication has always been regarded as a cutting edge technology. You can’t throw a stone now without hitting an Android device with NFC technology. It is a secure way that devices can connect by simply bringing them together. Right now, NFC has yet to find applications in the current smartphone market. The technology is not new, although it has yet to have any big applications. However, NFC has its importance.

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Five Great Alternatives for iGoogle Home Page Portal

Google’s popular home page service, iGoogle will be retired on November 1st, 2013. That’s a little over a year of managing your home page through this service. It came as a great disappointment to me since I had been using the service for a long time. I have a nice home page set up in iGoogle with news from BBC, CNN, and others; my calendar; a widget for time management; topic-specific news on technology, stock quotes, weather; and some other interesting stuff. It was a page that I woke up to for many days. It seems obvious that the popularity of home page services has been coming down in the recent years; another popular service in this arena, Netvibes has turned into something else entirely. I could have turned my attention to Netvibes after they retire iGoogle, but that won’t happen now. I will miss Google’s home page, and before that I want to find out another portal service that I could love as I do iGoogle. In search for one, I found these great services which can replace iG

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The Best Smartphone in the Market That You Can Buy Right Now

I am not talking about the smartphones that will be released in the coming months or days or the ones that are no longer available, but the ones that are in the market right now. You, as a smartphone customer, are looking for various factors to determine your purchase. Some of us want to get our work done quickly and effectively. Some of us want to read books and watch movies, and are looking for amazing screens. Some of us are interested in amazing build quality. Some others want to have their phones work everywhere, in all networks, in all plans. Well, there is a recipe for each requirement, but not one that satisfies all, I am afraid. Let’s take a look at the best of the lot in this post. Also, one thing to note, these smartphones are the ones with highest configuration out there. We have left out the low performance models completely. 1. The Most Productive The answer is simple. Apple iPhone. With over 750,000 apps available, iPhone has the one app ecosystem that has everythin

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