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The Crazy And Cool-$32M Edge!
"What the hell is a life worth living if it's not on the Edge", seems true. Well, say hello to the Ubuntu Edge, the first smartphone to use open-source Ubuntu Touch software and Android(dual boot) . Yes you read that right this beast dual boots Ubuntu Touch & Android in a single device and gets transformed into a full desktop version of Ubuntu OS when connected to a PC . So what makes this phone's life living on Edge is the fact that apart from its wicked hardware, the people from Canonical want your help with this multimillion-dollar crowd funding campaign.
British Company Canonical wants to bring this dual-booting Edge to fruition by creating the biggest ever crowdfunded campaign, raising a whooping 32,000,000 $ in a month on Indiegogo. The campaign intends to produce 40,000 edges. And with $780 pledged, you can get the handset somewhere in May 2014.
Sad but true! If Edge raises the money, Canonical will be frenzied and we could see more similar experiments form them. But if Edge fails to raise the ambitious amount before August 21, there won't be any Edge and Canonical will merely continue to develop Ubuntu mobile software for carriers and other manufacturers.
Design
A starkly-designed slab of charcoal black with a distinctive sharp-angled edge down one side and along the top, it sure does looks like a beautifully crafted smartphone. The most eye catching design feature is the absence of physical buttons on the front side of the phone. Following the traditional design, revealed through slick rendered images we can find two volume keys on one side linked by twin rows of small dimples running around the edge of the phone and a button on the top that appears to be a power button alongside a wide SIM card cover button.
On the rear side we could find camera and flash in the top corner other than that the rear side is completely smooth, with just an Ubuntu Edge logo subtly shaded in the same dark tone.
Hardware
Backed with an interesting hardware consisting of muti-core CPU with a 4GB ram and 128GB storage, its sure is a beastly device when compared to the other phones present in the market. The new display termed as sapphire crystal display throws out an seemingly 300ppi clarity. The gorgeous display is protected with something vastly tougher than glass- pure sapphire crystal, a material so hard that only diamond could scratch it.
To suffice this beastly phone, it is equipped with a battery that uses silicon-anode technology that squeezes more energy into the same dimensions. With this huge raw power delivered by the hardware this phone can easily be made the main PC through the connecting cable- desktop computing gone truly mobile.
Software
The Ubuntu Edge will dual boot both Ubuntu phone OS and Android, and also gets transformed into a fully integrated Ubuntu desktop PC. The clutter free home screen facilitates various swipe gestures such as swiping over left edge would bring out the favorite apps, switching instantly between open apps from the right, and use of the system and app toolbars at the top and bottom receptively brings the messaging, notifications,settings and preferences makes the interface unique with no need of home button.
The full Ubuntu desktop OS runs directly from the phone thereby removing the syncing or transfers problem. The core OS and applications are fully integrated with their smartphone equivalents, so that making/receiving calls can be done through desktop while working.
Technical Specifications
Specifications are subject to change.
Although canonical raised $3.4 million, or more than 10 percent of its goal in this campaign within its first 24 hours, but since then pace of funding has tapered off significantly. With just 17 days left and as of now while writing only $ 8,227,379 have been pledged. A considerable financial crowdfunding is still needed in order to bring this device to the market. The Ubuntu Edge is clearly not meant to be a consumer device, but rather a high end concept device by Linux makers for hardcore Linux users.
Ubuntu releases 12.04 Precise Pangolin LTS Linux
27th April Marked the release date of latest UBUNTU,12.04.Codenamed as Precise Pangolin,its an another LTS version of ubuntu.It brings Unity and its file searching tool HUD to enterprise users as a part of the long-term support.Canonical will offer security updates till 2017.
Diving into the the new os the screen which we see immediately after installation is a clear indicator that "There's a significant set of aesthetic changes for users, and ultimately beauty is a feature," says Steve George, head of communications at Canonical, told ZDNet. "Users enjoy their environments more when they look beautiful and modern." That said, it's also true that Unity continues to seriously divide loyal followers and this latest release is unlikely to be any different despite some major improvements.
It's an important change as well, since this being the first long-term release (LTS) to feature both the Unity interface now at version 5.10 as well as the heads-up display (HUD), the new context-sensitive searching tool which enables users to control programs by typing commands, as opposed to the more traditional method using a menu.
This release marks the first time Ubuntu has offered a uniform five year policy for all LTS releases.And those wanting a more leeching experience can opt to upgrade to the next release in October, codenamed Quantal Quetzal.
Users can now customize the icon size in the left-hand bar int the Appearance settings. The Workspace and Bin icons now exhibit a new 'Chamelonic Behaviour' which tints themselves to the background color, similar to the aero effect. Also making debut entry is the new video lense for the dash, which enables searching video content online with likes from YouTube as well as local video files also.
Other than the conclusive visual changes, the kernel has been upgraded to version 3.2 which offers better performance stability as well as the new Metal-as-a-Service(MaaS), a provisioning tool which according to Canonical "brings the cloud experience to traditional hardware", this automates the installation of scale-out software like OpenStack onto physical nodes.
For online tour of Ubuntu 12.04 click here.
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