Ubuntu arrives for Smartphones

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The battle to dominate the mobile world now has a new contender: Canonical, the developer of the Linux version that is used worldwide.

The company plans to fight in a segment dominated by Android, Apple’s iOS, the growing Windows Phone and BlackBerry, who has placed all of its hope on the BlackBerry 10. Mozilla’s Firefox OS plan should be added to the list, an operating system meant for emerging markets.

Ubuntu for mobiles is based on Android but, according to its announcement, the applications will not be compatible. The system will have its own store for apps.

By taking Ubuntu to cellphones, Canonical seeks to position itself with a unique operating system for the client, the server and the cloud, and a unified family of interfaces for the cellphone, the PC and television.

“We are defining a new era of technology convergence, with a unified operating system which supports cloud computing, data centers, computers and consumer electronics”, said Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Ubuntu and Vice President of Canonical Products.

The company did not share many details, but it is expected that in 2014 it will present its own smartphone. For the moment, all the images used in the site show the Galaxy Nexus.

The minimum requirements for employing Ubuntu on mobiles are: a Cortex A9 1 GHz processor; a RAM of 512 MB; storage of 4GB; and a multi-touch screen.

Reviving the dock

Motorola presented the Atrix in 2011, a device that allowed the user to “convert” their smartphone to a PC thanks to the included software.

The project, according to the announcement, was terminated in October 2012.

But Canonical seems determined to revive it. According to Shuttleworth, “we are forging a future in personal computing. Ubuntu has consolidated itself in desktops and has the unique position to be at the center of the next wave of consumer electronics products, combining a portable’s beautiful touch interface with a complete PC experience when coupled with this”.

In the video images that Canonical showed, you can see the presence of a dock that you insert to the cellphone and then connect it to the monitor to covert the mobile to a PC.

This function will be available for certain current smartphones. According to Canonical, the requirements are: a quad core Cortex A9 or Intel Atom processor, a RAM of 1 GB, storage of 32 GB and a multi-touch screen.

At the moment of showing Ubuntu for mobiles, Canonical highlighted that “the interface introduces particular experiences for the new user of the mobile market, including:

Edge magic: thumb gestures on the four borders of the screen that allow the users to find content and move in between application faster than other cellphones.

  • Deep content immersion – the controls only appear when the user needs them.
  • An attractive global search for applications, content and products
  • Voice and text commands in any application for a faster access to sophisticated capacities.
  • Original  and web or HTML 5 applications
  • Personalized changing graphics on the welcome screen”.