Ubuntu Mobile

Introducing Ubuntu Mobile - full Internet, no compromise

Ubuntu Mobile is an Ubuntu edition that targets an exciting new class of computers called Mobile Internet Devices.
Ubuntu Mobile, based on the world's most popular Linux distribution, and MID hardware from OEMs and ODMs, are redefining what can be done in mobile computing.

Ubuntu Mobile, a fully open source project, gives full Internet, with no compromise. Custom options may include licensed codecs and popular third-party applications.
Full Web 2.0/AJAX fidelity, with custom options of Adobe Flash®, Java, and more
Outstanding media playback so you can enjoy videos, music and photos with superior quality and easy navigation
A suite of applications that work seamlessly to meet every need of a digital parent, student or anyone who is on-the-go
Facebook®, MySpace®, YouTube®, Dailymotion®, 3D games, GPS, maps, in short, the full Web 2.0 experience delivered into your hands as a compact and powerful device that's easy and fun to use

The product of Canonical collaboration with Intel® and the open source community, Ubuntu Mobile is the software that makes it all possible.

Just the right stuff

Ubuntu Mobile just works, and it works just right.
Just the right applications provide an uncompromised Web 2.0 experience: Web browsing, email, media, camera, VoIP, instant messaging, GPS, blogging, digital TV, games, contacts, dates/calendar, simple software updates... and lots more.
All unnecessary complexity in the user experience is eliminated.

Finger friendly, touch driven

Ubuntu Mobile is finger friendly, with no stylus needed. You drive Ubuntu Mobile with touch. Simply tap the screen or drag a finger to make gestures for intuitive navigation and control.
Tap an application with your finger to launch it, and tap menus and buttons to use them.
Swipe a web page to pan up, down or sideways.
Swipe a video, photo, song or thumbnail page to move to the next or the previous one.

Leveraging the MID

MIDs typically have the following features and attributes:
Small size/form factor
4 to 7 inch touch screen
Physical and/or virtual keyboard
Wi-Fi, 3G, Bluetooth, GPS, WiMAX
2GB to 8GB Flash or disk storage, 256MB+ memory/512MB+ recommended
OpenGL 3D
USB, camera, head phone jack, speakers, microphone

Customizable

Ubuntu Mobile is highly flexible and customizable. It is an ideal platform for the kind of product differentiation that reaches target users and penetrates key markets.

User interface in HTML, Flash, Clutter, Python with GTK, C/C++ with GTK and Java

Different application sets for different products or configurations

Integration with popular Web 2.0 sites

Internationalization and translation support to meet market requirements

Custom sets of licensed media codecs and third-party proprietary software for commercial partners

Custom engineering

OEMs, ODMs, operators and developers can customize Ubuntu Mobile to their desired look and feel and offer just the right capabilities to meet their specific requirements. Canonical can assist through its Custom Engineering program.

For information about Canonical custom engineering services, email mobile@canonical.com.

Community

The Ubuntu Mobile community includes many individuals and organizations and always welcomes new participants and partners.

Places to get started:

For information about Ubuntu Mobile, see http://wiki.ubuntu.com/MobileAndEmbedded

For information about Intel's MID Linux Moblin project, see http://moblin.org

More information

For more information about Ubuntu Mobile, download the datasheet.

Source: Ubuntu

Google to Launch Its Operating System Next Week

By: Bogdan Popa, Security and Search Engines Editor

A while ago, the Internet world talked about a potential GooglePhone, especially created to fight with the Apple iPhone. At that time, the Mountain View company avoided commenting on the speculation; the only thing mentioned was that Google will remain a software firm and not a hardware one. So no GooglePhone; but in the meantime, the search giant released several new mobile flavors of its products. Take the example of Gmail, Google Search, YouTube, Google Calendar. Now, what do you understand from this: Google remains a software company, but it develops mobile versions of its products? That's right, Google wants to conquer the mobile software industry but how else can you do it if not through a mobile operating system?

The most recent rumors sustain that the Mountain View company prepares a mobile operating system that is scheduled to be released very soon, maybe sometimes next week. The folks from Engadget claim that it might be entirely based on a Linux platform, because several Googlers are quite experienced in this domain. "At Google, Andy's team has developed a Linux-based mobile device OS (no surprise) which they're currently shopping around to handset makers and carriers on the premise of providing a flexible, customizable system -- with really great Google integration, of course," Ryan Block from Engadget wrote.

Obviously, the entire operating system would be bundled with Google's technologies such as search, YouTube or Gmail. Actually, I think it would probably contain all sorts of shortcuts to allow the handheld owner to access the Google services in a matter of seconds if an Internet connection is available.

But the main question is: which mobile companies will implement the operating system into their devices? As you might know, Google signed deals with some famous phone producers such as Samsung, but there is no evidence that the Mountain View company might bring the OS on their devices. In fact, the entire operating system might be only pure speculation

Source: Softpedia

Microsoft Windows Mobile 7.0 Preview or Simple Mockup

By: Cosmin Vasile, Communications News Editor

This article is based on a leaked concept, posted by Natahan Weinberg on blognewschannel, although we're not sure if it's a fake or Microsoft's future Windows Mobile 7 will actually include at least some of the features described below. With the iPhone seriously taking the lead on the mobile market, Microsoft intends to 'clone' all Apple's new techs included in their handset, then improve it and add even more of these. That's no news as both companies, Apple and Microsoft, 'borrowed' some of their innovations from one another. How much utility and functionality will bring the new Windows Mobile 7.0, and how fast and stable will it be? These questions will get their answers no later than the next year (2009), when Microsoft intends to launch the 7th sequel of its operating system. Unfortunately, the upcoming version 6.1 that will be officially launched next month is almost an updated version of the 6.0, thus it doesn't come up with any real changes.

Anyway, what's Windows Mobile 7.0 after all? Nothing short to an entirely new reshaped operating system that will blow you mind the moment you start using it. At least, that's what Microsoft intends to do with this new OS that will totally change the way we are using our mobile devices (less iPhone users?:). WM 7 will strongly focus on touch and motion gestures, but to a degree that will not leave too many things to add, keeping it to a certain level of simplicity, just like Apple did with iPhone's interface. How much they will succeed remains to be seen the moment we have something official and not some photoshop-ed screenshots (even if made by Microsoft's designers).
It seems that one of the goals of the "mockup" OS is to support devices that doesn't feature touchscreen and stylus, but also those that feature both or those that are touchscreen dedicated (referred as 'iPhone compete':). The new user interface won't be optional for old applications, but rather the applications will get support for the new interface. There's also a promising "game mode", that will make games 'miss' UI requirements and use similar movements for different actions, thus allowing user to control the game much easier than a standard application.

Microsoft took it to the next level and intends to make a research that has the size of the 'average fingertip' as subject, just to make touchscreen devices without a stylus more easy to control. That way users will be able to scroll up and down with no fear of doing something else. Tap drills down in a list, but some lists will have you tab once to select, once again to drill down the list. Scrollbars, corner elements, icons, title bar and status bar will all be stylized and resized, so it will be easier to tap on them. It seems that, in Windows Mobile 7, scrollbars will rather float as transparent visual elements on top of any application, rather than being part of the screen. They will only be used when necessary.

Furthermore, there will be gestures for scrolling, task and menu access, press and hold controls, list items, press and drag, and launching shortcuts. The device will be able to detect finger velocity, scrolling further if the user’s finger moves faster. Even more motion gestures will be included like those codenamed Pivot and Spinner. In a Spinner, you have a single item with left and right buttons next to it, but instead of hitting the left and right buttons, you can just swipe to change the option. The device will also 'clone' the locking feature of the iPhone with slider control. The same motion gestures will be able to start various applications or simply execute a wide range of commands, depending on the number of "shakes", the track of the movement or simply by the duration of the motion. Some of these commands include: changing a song into the media player or the change of a picture in a slideshow (from left to right or vice versa). You can zoom in or zoom out a picture when in full-screen, by simply moving the device forward or backward.

There are also different motion gestures that are meant to wake up the device. How can that be possible? The new user interface will be able to recognize a specific gesture, which should be kept very simple and very easy to identify, that will wake up your phone from the 'slumber'. The difference stands in the actual transition from the sleep mode to awake mode, which looks like nothing we ever saw before coming from Microsoft.

Other highlights of the supposedly Microsoft Windows Mobile 7 include: a gesture to dismiss an on-screen notification by shaking it off the screen, a gesture to automatically take you to a Smart Search notification panel, turning the phone like turning a key to unlock it, pivoting by gesturing the phone sideways, moving through lists by shaking the phone up or down, switching the camera into black and white or other modes by shaking it down, adjusting the camera aperture and shutter speed by rotating the camera, sending a file by "tossing" it to another device. These seem to be listed as "exploration" by the leaked document, so they may or may not be actually integrated in the final version of the operating system.

For more in-depth coverage of the subject please see Nathan Weinberg's original post on blognewschannel. 

Source: Softpedia

Windows 1 Commercial

Android Demo

Google's new platform for Mobiles

Androidology

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3