MY THOUGHTS ON THE BQ UBUNTU PHONE

Ubuntu Insider's Event in London

Ubuntu Insider's Event London

After so much waiting the bq Ubuntu Phone has finally been released, I have been so lucky to be an Ubuntu Insider and I was wondering what to write about it as so many have already written reviews on it describing how it works and it's hardware specs.

I have passed several days thinking about what and how to write, but today, after reading one of the many reviews and it's comments I have decided to write what I think about it as a Linux enthusiast and part of the Ubuntu Community, oh, and as an "Ubuntu Insider" :-D.

Ubuntu Insider's Event in London

There is so much talking around the bq Ubuntu Phone release and there are so many different points of view and mostly there are a lot of merely hardware reviews, but what I think a lot of people are missing, is that this is the first smartphone with a Linux distribution on it, with Ubuntu on it! (the most famous and world wide spread Linux distribution).

Riccardo Padovani, Carla Sella and Dario Cavedon (all part of the Italian Ubuntu Community)

This is the first release of a Linux smartphone, of a Ubuntu Touch smartphone, and it has been released on a hardware most persons can afford. Yes, it would have been great to have a smartphone like the Ubuntu Edge, but that hardware is not affordable by everyone. With bq's smartphone just released a lot of people can have a chance to take a look at what Ubuntu Touch is like.

How many smartphones are there out there with Linux on them ? How many smartphones have an OS you can hack on, write apps for in a easy way ? 

What I think is that we are lucky to have an occasion like this. We have finally someone who has been able to release an open source smartphone, a Linux smartphone,  a smartphone we can contribute to and make as we would like it to be. To me this is like a dream come true :-D. No porting problems, no hardware that has compatibility problems, we have a smartphone working out of the box and that does not cost too much so that you are unable to buy it.

How many times have we been complaining about notebooks and desktops that are not sold with Linux on them ? How many times have we installed Linux on a notebook or desktop we bought with another OS on it and we have had hardware issues ? compatibility problems?

Now we have this peace of hardware that comes with Ubuntu on it and we are still not happy about this ? I think this is weird!!!!

The only thing left to say is that I am really happy Canonical/Ubuntu - bq have finally released this smartphone, it is affordable by anyone and mainly it comes with Ubuntu Touch on it.

Now it's up to us to take the chance, we need to show we appreciate this, we need to tell our point of view, we need to contribute to make this smartphone as we would like it!

So come on! don't lose this occasion! jump in and help us make the best smartphone ever!

Dario Cavedon, Carla Sella and David Planella 

Me and Rick Spencer

Me and Oliver Grawert

Dario Cavedon and Me

Carla Sella and Jane Silber

Ubuntu Phone Insider's Event - London UK

Friday 6th February  at 13:00 at Ham Yard Hotel in London the Ubuntu Phone Insider's Event finally took place.

I was so lucky to be invited as an Insider, so let me tell you about this wonderful experience.

I left Italy on Thursday morning with  +Dario Cavedon as he lives near me so we decided to go to the event together.

While we were driving towards Marco Polo airport in Venice it started snowing a lot and so our plane left late and we arrived in London two hours later than expected, fortunately in London the weather was fine.

This is me at Venice airport, it was snowing a lot when we arrived there

 +Dario Cavedon  and +Carla Sella on the plane to London

Friday morning we went to see Canonical-Ubuntu headquarters in London, +Alan Pope showed us around, that was really a cool experience for us and I wanted to thank Alain for being so kind showing us around.

me and Alain

Canonical/Ubuntu headquarters

In the afternoon at 13:00 all the insiders moved to the Ham Yard Hotel where the event started, I was so exited that after so long waiting the event finally was going to begin!

We first had lunch together, all the insiders with some of Canonical and Community fellows that have been working on the Ubuntu phone in all these years, it was really nice to see the persons I have been working with on IRC and hangouts in person.

After lunch we all moved to another room for the presentation of the launch of the first Ubuntu Phone and we were the very first persons to have the Ubuntu Phone world wide, what an honor !!! I was really proud to have been chosen among the others.

Cristian Parrino  - Vice President, Mobile and Online Services at Canonical

Rodrigo del Prado from bq

Jane Silber - Chief Executive Officer at Canonical

Well, finally after having received my phone, I could open the box and here is what I found in it:

The Ubuntu Phone "box, beautiful, indeed!

Inside: headphones and the bq Aquaris E4.5 box

The headphones, what a wonderful surprise didn't expect them

Inside theAquaris bq box: charger, usb cord and leaflet with Ubuntu Phone instuctions

Power button and Volume button

SD card slot and headphones jack hole

The back of the phone with camera and flash light

The bottom of the phone with USB connector and speakers

The front of the phone 

Two SIM card holders (the phone is dual SIM)

Another nice unexpected surprise in the box was a letter from Mark Shuttleworth:

Letter from Mark Shuttleworth

I won't tell you about the specs of the phone as you can find them here:
http://www.bq.com/gb/products/aquaris-e4-5.html.

The first thing I noticed switching on the phone was it's speed, indeed the phone was crisp and smooth, I was used seeing Ubuntu Phone on a Nexus 4 while I wrote autopilot tests and here I had a nice surprise finding out how it was faster and more performing.

After un-boxing our phones we all stayed at the hotel to celebrate and play booling :-).

I left London with Dario the day after in the afternoon.

Well guys, stay tuned, I will tell  you more about the Phone in the next days, for now this is all about my experience at the Ubuntu Phone Insider's Event in London. 

If you want to see more about the phone check this  Ubuntu Phone walkthrough video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TShKZLeZzWE&feature=youtu.be

Design and Usability

So it's just 3 days to the launch event of Ubuntu Phone, I am super exited, and here are some news fron Canonical on Design and Usability:


Hi Insiders,

We hope you are well! Next up we'd like to share insights on the Design and Usability of the Ubuntu phone. 

At the heart of our campaign is the strap-line 'Life at your fingertips.' It represents the very aim of the Ubuntu phone which brings integrated content and services directly to you as you swipe and discover.

The Ubuntu phone experience was built around the following design principles:

- Intuitive user experience
- Ease of use
- Simplicity
- Freedom from barriers
- Accessibility
- Security

With usability we thought we'd go bold. There is no home screen nor home button, but fear not! As we've made it quicker and easier to find all that you want with everything just a short swipe away. All four edges of the screen can be used to easily navigate around that enables a crisp transition between open apps.

Personalisation is key. When the screen is turned on, the user is recognized by the 'Greeter' welcome screen with a personalised infographic that's displayed on the user's phone usage. The 'Greeter' evolves as the phone is used and learns more about you and your usage.

Once the phone is unlocked using a gentle swipe, the user can gain access to the phone's core features via the launcher. A short swipe from the left edge of the screen reveals the launcher and it's components:

- Scopes
- Phone dialer
- Camera
- Gallery
- Web browser
- Messaging
- Address book
- System settings

We look forward to welcoming and giving you a full demo on the usability of the phone at the Insiders event this Friday! Hopefully this information has been insightful and how you wish to use and share this information lies at your discretion.

Best,

The Ubuntu Phone Team

#ubuntuphone

Ubuntu Phone Glimpse: Developers

Today as an Ubuntu Phone insider I got some more news on Ubuntu Phone, it's about Developer entry points, here it is:

Hi Insiders,

Within this Phone Glimpse we'll be looking at Developer entry points with the Ubuntu phone.

Developers can use scopes as a way to build an app-like experience at a fraction of the cost, but unlike apps, scopes become an integral part of the device's experience.

The platform barrier for developer entry has been lowered, minimising the investment to have to deliver first class experiences on the Ubuntu phone from day one. Scopes allow developers lightweight integration opportunities directly into the core OS.

There's also fully integrated support of mainstream HTML5 and mobile web sites that allow reuse of existing assets as the fastest and cheapest path to deliver an experience on the Ubuntu phone. Native apps remain an option for experiences that are unlikely to ever be suited for scopes, one example being games.

All this as we continue our goal of making Ubuntu development as streamlined and powerful as ever with the community.

Best,

The Ubuntu Phone Team

#ubuntuphone

Specs of new bq Ubuntu Phone revealed by Canonical

Today, form Canonical, we got the specs of the new bq Ubuntu Phone that will be launched in February, just in eleven days:

Hi Insiders,

Hope all is well.

Next up in this Phone Glimpse, we'll be shining the spotlight on our hardware device for the Ubuntu phone.

We are confident and excited to be partnering with Spanish mobile device manufacturers bq for the Ubuntu phone. bq is dedicated to designing and manufacturing multimedia devices. It's six directors only formed seven years ago where they met as telecommunications students who would repair computers in their spare time. Today it's one of the top-selling tablet, e-reader and smartphone brands within Spain that is continually spearheading innovation notably with their entry into 3D printing and robotic kits. The company developed the DIY: My First Robotics Kit in an attempt to demystify technology by stimulating kids to start building their own robotic models. And their entry into 3D printing with bq Witbox has been commercially impressive where they've recruited leading professionals from Spain's printing and robotic sectors.

A strong innovative brand who operates in Europe with over 600 staff. With mobile, in 2013 bq shipped almost 1.5 million devices and in less than a year has become Spain's second biggest seller of unlocked smartphones. The Aquarius E4.5 Ubuntu edition will be available in Europe and can be purchased soon via the bq site.

Here are the core specs which you can see for real soon, at the Insider event!

Screen
4.5" qHD (960x540)

Camera
5MP Fixed Focus+13MP Autofocus
Dual Flash

SIM
Dual micro sim

Battery
2150mAh

Connectivity
GSM/GPRS/EDGE/WCDMA/HSPA+

CPU
Quad A7/1.3GHz

RAM
1GB

Sensors
Gyroscope, Proximity, Light

Not long to go!

Best,

The Ubuntu Phone Team

#ubuntuphone

Aggregated scopes

So here we are with some more news on the new bq Ubuntu phone that's going to be launched on the 6th of February, this time it's about aggregated scopes, read the e-mail I received as Ubuntu insider:

Hi Insiders,

In our initial Phone Glimpse mail we'd introduced scopes for the Ubuntu phone - an integrated approach to delivering content and services. We touched on aggregated scopes that are default scopes valuable to end users. In this mailer we'll be showcasing the default scopes available that provide a full spectrum of rich content categories.

The Today scope let's you see your most important interactions on one screen. Personalise it to see what's most important to you, right at your fingertips.

To see local information, events and services from wherever you are located, check out the NearBy scope. Imagine you're in Barcelona yet don't know where to eat, the NearBy scope will provide you with hidden gems from various sources. A few app partners include: TimeOut, Yelp and The Weather Channel.

The all important News scope aggregates news feeds from your chosen providers that includes the BBC, EuroNews and Engadget.

Bringing music to you. The Music scope allows you to see music on your phone and the web within one place, be it your music library, streaming content from Soundcloud or Grooveshark, and maybe tracks purchased from 7Digital.

There's also the Video scope with app partners that include YouTube, TED and Vimeo, as well as the Photo scope that brings your Facebook, Instagram and Flickr feed into one place.

Every source in the aggregated scopes can expand to give you an app-like experience for that source - and by starring it, they can even become another default screen. That's a great way to personalize your Ubuntu phone so it truly revolves around the services you use most.

There's also a scope dedicated to traditional apps where you can see your downloaded apps in one place.

Voila! A content rich experience brought to you which we can't wait to showcase for real at the Insider event. As mentioned in earlier mails this information is yours to use in anyway!

Looking forward to sharing more insights with you.

Best,

The Ubuntu Phone Team

#ubuntuphone

Ubuntu Phone Glimpse: Experience

Today, as an "Ubuntu Insider" I received an e-mail from Canonical providing fresh details on the launch of the Ubuntu phone.

So here's the news and I am sharing it with you:

"Hi Insiders,
We’re very excited to be bringing you our Phone Glimpse mailers that will provide first-hand information on the soon to launch Ubuntu phone. First up we’d like to share details on the Experience.
The user experience for smartphones has revolved around apps and its icon grid since the very first iPhone. Key mobile services on iOS and Android are delivered via apps in a fragmented manner and controlled by platform owners such as Google, Apple and Microsoft, which has put OEMs and Operators into a secondary role.
Users deserve a richer, faster and unfragmented experience built around the things they do most on their devices.
With the Ubuntu phone we are moving away from the app grid towards integrated content and services. And we do this by providing a user experience that is centered on bringing the key mobile digital life services directly to the screen, which at the heart we call ‘scopes.’
Scopes are a way of delivering unified experiences for various service categories, front and centre to the user, without hiding them behind a sea of apps and app icons. They are created via a simple UI toolkit with much lower development and maintenance costs than apps. There are two types of scopes - aggregation and branded.
Aggregation scopes define the device’s default experience and what makes Ubuntu phones valuable to end users. They allow OEMs and Operators to create a user experience that is unique to their devices such as the NearBy scope that aggregates local services centered around what you’re doing. We’ll go into more detail on the other aggregated scopes in an upcoming Phone Glimpse mailer.
Branded scopes are app like experiences delivered directly to the screen, fully branded. Discoverable through the default store, from a feed in an aggregation scope, or as a favourited default screen. A faster way for developers to build a rich and easier to access branded experience on a device.
We hope this information has given you a sense of the experience. This information is all yours and how you wish to use and share is at your discretion.
Looking forward to sending you the next Phone Glimpse.
Best,
The Ubuntu Phone Team"