[ruben1975]

Move over Apple, Android: There's a new OS in town - Technology News - redOrbit

Hm not focusing on apps...... and BlackBerry has had a lot off critics for the lack of apps.....
Looks even a little bit like the Z10

Posted via CB10

[GreenCopperz]

This has been a rumored phone for a while, guess they're ready to release soon. Hope they have something innovative to bring to the table.

Z30STA100-5/10.3.1.1154

[BB Adict]

Move over Apple, Android: There's a new OS in town - Technology News - redOrbit

Hm not focusing on apps...... and BlackBerry has had a lot off critics for the lack of apps.....
Looks even a little bit like the Z10

Posted via CB10

I am not sure Apple or Android would be moving over to accommodate the Ubuntu OS. It will be more like BlackBerry and Windows making room at the back of the pack.

Posted via CB10

[Ment]

The biggest innovation I see aside from it being a different platform is that doesn't rely on traditional apps. Not sure if BB wants to go this way and abandon Cascades for example in favor of just pulling the data from a website and/or APIs and putting it into the native card interface which is what Ubuntu is doing. Seems it does make it easier to get more developers on board but perhaps the cards may lack the differentiation that your regular app might provide.

[Troy Tiscareno]

Steve Job's original concept for the iPhone was that it would simply use websites and web-based HTML5 apps too. But you see how long that lasted - a year later, the App Store was born and apps have dominated ever since.

All of these other OSs are being released and the companies are doing everything they can to downplay the fact that they lack an ecosystem by stating that they are focusing on web apps, or using Android apps. And that might appeal to a relative few enthusiasts who already have an iOS or Android phone and don't mind a lack of apps on their secondary/play phone, but I don't think anyone can seriously suggest that these phones are going to have any kind of mass consumer appeal.

Consumers want apps. They know the difference between an app and a web page, and know that apps are easier to use and often offer features that web apps can't. No one wants to go backwards.

[yohannrjm]

.......

Consumers want apps. They know the difference between an app and a web page, and know that apps are easier to use and often offer features that web apps can't. No one wants to go backwards.

That may change with time. Apps make the App stores money, so there's little reason to change it now. However, as webapps become more mature (and popular) people may see that there are advantages in making an app that doesn't have to be adapted for each platform.

It's not something that will happen soon, but if something like Ubuntu grabs the attention of the Linux fans, you could see more apps being developed for it that would also work on other platforms. Anyone remember the Nokia N9? It was the only phone that ran MeeGo and it was declared DOA by Nokia (they killed the program before releasing the phone). The MeeGo fans kept the platform going (somewhat) for years, and they still release apps for it.

Something like the Ubuntu Phone, which could have a longer viable run, may result in more devoted development.

A lack of notifications can be worked around if people really work at it. Up to now, there's been little reason to work on that, but who knows? It may change.

That said, I'm not holding my breath.

[yohannrjm]

One thing: The phone they're releasing has pretty crap specs, so it's probably not going to win over many converts.

[anon(257429)]

That may change with time. Apps make the App stores money, so there's little reason to change it now. However, as webapps become more mature (and popular) people may see that there are advantages in making an app that doesn't have to be adapted for each platform.

It's not something that will happen soon, but if something like Ubuntu grabs the attention of the Linux fans, you could see more apps being developed for it that would also work on other platforms. Anyone remember the Nokia N9? It was the only phone that ran MeeGo and it was declared DOA by Nokia (they killed the program before releasing the phone). The MeeGo fans kept the platform going (somewhat) for years, and they still release apps for it.

Something like the Ubuntu Phone, which could have a longer viable run, may result in more devoted development.

A lack of notifications can be worked around if people really work at it. Up to now, there's been little reason to work on that, but who knows? It may change.

That said, I'm not holding my breath.

I dont see the advantage... The one advantage is offline vs consistent internet connection.

[yohannrjm]

I dont see the advantage... The one advantage is offline vs consistent internet connection.

One thing that's changing is actually how rarely we're offline these days. I imagine that it's going to get to the point where the concept of 'offline' is alien to the thought of my grand-daughter's generation.

[Troy Tiscareno]

I agree that "offline" is less and less of a concern (still sometimes a concern today, but one that is rapidly dissipating). But by its very nature, a platform-independent language has to be created by committees of people who all have different goals and needs, and so it will always lag far behind the cutting edge. But smartphones and apps are the cutting edge, and new features are added as soon as they can be made to work. It's going to be a decade or more before the market stabilizes to the point where something like HTML5 (or 7, or whatever) can catch up with the current state of smartphones (if ever), and by then, who knows if we aren't on something completely different anyway?

Today, and for the foreseeable future, native apps have a very real and tangible benefit: they allow a number of features, hardware, and usage that "lowest-common-denominator" systems such as HTML5 simply can't provide. That's why developers demanded native development for the iPhone, why Apple, Facebook, Google, etc. all develop native apps for major platforms, and why app stores generate tens of billions of dollars worth of business every year. If you're waiting for that to change, don't hold your breath. I think that change is inevitable, but it will happen very slowly, and web apps are never going to take over native apps (on mobile, at least), though something better than web apps may come along.

[grover5]

I agree that "offline" is less and less of a concern (still sometimes a concern today, but one that is rapidly dissipating). But by its very nature, a platform-independent language has to be created by committees of people who all have different goals and needs, and so it will always lag far behind the cutting edge. But smartphones and apps are the cutting edge, and new features are added as soon as they can be made to work. It's going to be a decade or more before the market stabilizes to the point where something like HTML5 (or 7, or whatever) can catch up with the current state of smartphones (if ever), and by then, who knows if we aren't on something completely different anyway?

Today, and for the foreseeable future, native apps have a very real and tangible benefit: they allow a number of features, hardware, and usage that "lowest-common-denominator" systems such as HTML5 simply can't provide. That's why developers demanded native development for the iPhone, why Apple, Facebook, Google, etc. all develop native apps for major platforms, and why app stores generate tens of billions of dollars worth of business every year. If you're waiting for that to change, don't hold your breath. I think that change is inevitable, but it will happen very slowly, and web apps are never going to take over native apps (on mobile, at least), though something better than web apps may come along.

I disagree. I think mobile sites are catching up and to be honest apps are given more credit than most are due. I'm saying this from my nexus 6.

Posted via the CrackBerry App for Android

[lovedaazn]

Not really sure how I feel about this phone yet. I guess we'll have to wait and find out.

It seems interesting, however I don't like the UI so far and the navigation of the phone itself.

Posted via CB10

[theisaiahhoward]

All my computers since '06 have been Ubuntu. Love it. When I first heard of them working into the mobile market, I was all over it. Then I found the passport. Game over. If BlackBerry does indeed regress or fold, I'd get down on an Ubuntu device

Passport (unlocked) via AT&T

[kenzo_44]

Ubuntu is an open source mobile OS.

Posted via CB10

[LuvULongTime]

I disagree. I think mobile sites are catching up and to be honest apps are given more credit than most are due. I'm saying this from my nexus 6.

Posted via the CrackBerry App for Android

I agree if we are talking about apps for websites. But some things like office and other apps that are made to be thick clients just work better as apps. So do games. This is where BlackBerry needs to focus their energy.

Posted via CB10

[Raestloz]

The problem with HTML5 is the fact that it relies on an engine that is completely different than the native language, it adds unnecessary obstacle to performance, and Web apps rely entirely on the browser it's running on. Even the mighty BlackBerry 10 Browser suffers from RAM issues, thanks to the fact that on mobile RAM is precious.

Z10 STL100-1/10.2.1.3442

[Korla_Plankton]

I have Ubuntu 14.09 installed on a Nexus 4 (which actually has better specs than the 'official' phone that was just released)

I don't have a SIM card in it, so no comment about the dialer or SMS.

Scopes are an interesting idea. They appear to be anti-apps or app aggregators. For instance the 'Music' scope shows me the latest tracks from 7digital, grooveshark, youtube and others, none of which interests me in the least. Someone who keeps on top of modern pop music might like it.

There is also a video scope which shows popular videos from youtube and vimeo. Opening a video opens up YouTube's mobile site in the browser, which works well enough. Again, not particularly interesting to me but if it can do clever learning tricks to show me stuff I might be interested in, that'd be kinda neat -- I'd guess all you have to to is give it your youtube account info.

It is gesture based, like BB OS 10. Swipe in from the left edge and you get an application dock similar to what you see on desktop Ubuntu's Unity. I haven't figured out how to configure what goes in there. Swipe in from the right edge to get a fairly nice application switcher, again similar to what you see on Ubuntu's desktop interface.

Swipe left or right (not from the edge) to move between different scopes.

Swipe down from the top edge to get the android style notifications/settings, except done better imho.

Swipe up from the bottom while in a scope to bring up the scope management screen, where you can add/remove more scopes.

Finally, it comes with a terminal emulator, which is awesome. A cute addition is that the terminal emulator even emulates the look of an old CRT terminal, complete with pixel bleed and distortion. Good for a chuckle. Anyway, inclusion of a terminal emulator wins it big bonus points in my book.

While Ubuntu on the desktop isn't my cup of tea (Arch Linux 4EVA! ) they have made some great progress in putting together a desktop system my mother could (and does) love. I think they could do really great things in the phone arena -- their problem is that they often try to do things very differently (scopes for example) and it's a question of whether enough developers will get on board. I admit I haven't actually looked in to scopes development.

Anyway, it's hard for me to give any further impressions about it without actually using it as my primary device for a while, and for that I would need a SIM card (dang Passport and its nano sim!) Suffice it to say, it's here, it runs and it doesn't seem to suck based on what little I've used.

[pfe1223]

The idea of "web apps" is changing and blurring the lines between web and native. Here are a few things that could change how we think about native and web when making apps.

1. React Native - You can write native apps for iOS and Android with JS. Here is a talk that introduces the idea.
2. Shared Code for Google Inbox - Inbox shares 70% of its code across its web, iOS, and Android offerings. See this article for more details.
3. Mozilla WebAPI - Mozilla a set of HTML5 APIs that allows their Firefox OS phones to gain access to phone components that typically are reserved for native apps. Now Firefox OS will probably never gain huge market share, but Mozilla has a good track record of getting the W3C to adopt Mozilla supported APIs into their standard. It is possible that web apps in the future would be able to close the hardware gap between themselves and native apps.

All of the above (plus efforts like PhoneGap) are relatively young. The products may not live up to the hype. However, the standard reasons as to why native is preferable to web may no longer be true.

[Tatwi]

Troy, the html5 spec took eons to finalize and is the product of committees of folks with different goals. I am pretty certain the same could be said for any standard really.

These things take time, but in the end standards are great for everyone, even the environment. How many of those early generation of mobiles use a common power and/or data connection with each other? Not many, even within the same brands. Now just about everyone uses the USB standard, so at least all these power adapters and data cables we're swimming in are still useful when we move to a new device.

Anyhow, I wouldn't say that "native apps" can do more than website based programs, given what is possible server side in terms of both hardware and software. Though I think the real driving forces of user retention are reliability and ease of use, rather than sheer speed or good looks, etc. Personally I returned a Windows Phone 7 device and went back to Curve 8520, a much lesser device, because the WP7 workflow for sharing pictures and texting, etc was so obtuse it ruined the experience. BBOS 5 was just way nicer to use, despite the crummy specs of the device.

Ubuntu Phone will likely fair about as well as Chrome OS laptops - some will use it, but most won't care. Even on the desktop Ubuntu is losing users and mindshare to Linux Mint and the many other good distros, because of Canonical's decisions over the years. I don't think their is a core of interested mobile users much larger than what Palm had and unless Canonical is shooting for the now defunct "feature phone" market, I doubt their mobile os will make more of a splash than BlackBerry 10 or WP10.

[AlaJack]

Hope they're wildly successful. Apple and android need competition.

Posted via CB10

[eyesopen1111]

I paid in early when Canonical was attempting (unsuccessfully) to get its super phone, the Edge, funded thorough Indigogo. This latest attempt, with extremely mediocre specs and strange software approach is even more bizarre and is completely unattractive to me.

What are they thinking? The Edge was such a bold vision of a mobile computer with docking capabilities, but this effort just seems useless. I sincerely hope that I'm missing something here.

[birdman_38]

What are they thinking? The Edge was such a bold vision of a mobile computer with docking capabilities, but this effort just seems useless. I sincerely hope that I'm missing something here.

Their dreams were bigger than their budget.

[eyesopen1111]

Their dreams were bigger than their budget.

Yeah, the Edge missed its funding target, but I blamed the structure of the deal. We were so far ahead of the needed pace until they jacked up the price beyond what the market would bear. They later lowered the price, but by then it was too late. The Edge's huge specs, sapphire screen, compatibility, dock, etc., might have been an iPhone killer/competitor, but this latest low-spec offering has none of this.

[Soulstream]

Hope they're wildly successful. Apple and android need competition.

Posted via CB10

Actually competition is pretty fierce, but it's not as simple as iOS vs Android. It's actually Apple vs Samsung vs LG vs HTC vs Motorola. Android isn't a unified mass as you make it out to be and competition between OEMs is actually happening and is good for the OS.

[thymaster]

This OS gives me a headache. It looks like a schizophrenic child of parents Android and Windows. No thank you, I think I will stick to BB10.