Hello Linux Geeksters. Canonical has released yet another three Ubuntu Touch images over the weekend, coming with important fixes for Unity 8, the time zone support has been added to the organizer library, a bunch of boot improvements have been added, an enhanced version of calendar has been implemented, and the latest scopes API changes have been added.
Unfortunately, the new updates were not added yet to the latest images due to the fact that they have failed the automated tests, but most likely, they will be ready until the 17th of April, when the stable version of Ubuntu Touch is scheduled for release.
Canonical has made good progress with it’s Ubuntu Touch and their work is quite visible. New scopes for Unity 8 have been recently created (including a 500 px scope for photography enthusiasts), a new bootsplash running over Mir has been implemented, a new app switcher has been developed, while the support for conference call and dual SIM is already under work.
Also, Canonical has recently announced that they have started the work for their own email client (based on the good old Trojita), while an Ubuntu instant messaging client called “Ubuntu IM” will become available in May, 2014.
The story so far:
Canonical has been working a lot at Ubuntu Touch, the mobile version of Ubuntu. While the initial plan was to make it available for all the Google Nexus smartphones and tablets, the developers have dropped the support for Galaxy Nexus, Google Nexus 7 2012 and Google Nexus 10, Ubuntu Touch being officially available only for the Google Nexus 4 smartphone and the Google Nexus 7 2013 tablet.
Until now, there aren’t a lot of applications for Ubuntu Touch available, Canonical’s Mark Shuttleworth hopes that by the time the first Ubuntu Touch powered phones hit the market, the top 50 Android/iOS apps will be available for Ubuntu Touch.
Also worth mentioning, Mark’s Shuttleworth big dream is to reach full desktop-mobile convergence somewhere between the releases of Ubuntu 14.10 and Ubuntu 15.04 (between October 2014 and April 2015).