Alternate smartphone platforms: where are they now?

They say variety is the spice of life. It’s also one of the driving factors behind innovation. As long as there are a set of standards that are reasonably agreed upon, devices on various carrier networks, built by different OEMs, and even running different operating systems can co-exist in a technological ecosystem that promotes innovation without hurting interoperability.Unfortunately, with only two or three players of any significance in the game, we’re left with a false sense of innovation, and technological progress is stifled. Just look at a few recent examples:The Apple ...

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Meizu MX4 gets a software overhaul, becomes the next Ubuntu smartphone

Canonical is on a roll this month. We started June off learning about the second commercial Ubuntu-running smartphone, another effort with Spain’s BQ, which also made the first Ubuntu phone earlier this year. But long before this BQ hardware ever arrived, we were talking about Meizu. Canonical confirmed the manufacturer would ...

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Ubuntu for Android runs out of steam in absence of OEM interest

Canonical’s work on Ubuntu Touch continues ahead, and earlier this year we got confirmation of the first hardware partners that will build handsets specifically designed to run the upstart platform. But while this smartphone OS has been the major component of Canonical’s mobile interest, it hasn’t been the only project it was working on, and before we had Ubuntu Touch system images we ...

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Canonical CEO talks Ubuntu smartphone pricing, hardware level

Later this year, some of the first smartphones sold with the express purposed of running Ubuntu will hit the market. Canonical confirmed as much early in January, and last month shared news of the first two companies that will deliver such hardware, Meizu in China and bq in Spain. That gave us a starting point, but there was still much more we didn’t know about these phones than what we did. It may still be some time before we start getting specific ...

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Pocketnow Throwback: HTC HD2 (Video)

Even at launch, there was nothing humble about the HTC HD2. With the largest screen ever grafted onto a smartphone, the first-of-its-kind Qualcomm Scorpion SoC, and the heaviest skin ever crafted for a Windows Mobile device (here called “HTC Sense” for the first time), the HD2 was a behemoth – the biggest spec beast ever devised. It married the touch-and-go simplicity of the iPhone with the power of WinMo 6 to produce the best Microsoft-powered smartphone anyone ...

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Canonical reveals companies behind first Ubuntu smartphones

Last year’s failed campaign to crowdfund a Canonical-made Ubuntu smartphone left a vacuum of sorts in the company’s plans to present Ubuntu for phones as a viable mobile platform. Sure, we’ve seen the release of installation packages for certain Nexus-series devices, but if this project was ever to get off the ground, it needed some phones of its own. Late last year, Canonical confirmed that one OEM had signed-on to produce Ubuntu handsets, and last month we heard that

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Ubuntu Touch dropping support for majority of Nexus models

We’ve been cautiously optimistic about Canonical’s chances for really seeing Ubuntu Touch take off this year, especially with the promise of relationships with OEMs bringing us the first commercial hardware intentionally designed for use with Ubuntu. But thus far, if you’ve wanted to experiment with the platform, that’s meant flashing a Ubuntu ROM to one of several Nexus devices. Unfortunately, your options going forward are going to be a lot more limited, as Canonical announces that support for the ...

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Will Meizu deliver the first Ubuntu phone? OS spotted on MX3

If 2013 was the year we saw the arrival of Ubuntu software for smartphones, 2014 will be the year we get some proper Ubuntu hardware. After first getting confirmation that at least one high-end Ubuntu phone was in the works, we recently heard from the company that it’s talking to a number of additional OEMs, potentially setting the stage for the release of multiple Ubuntu-running handsets in the months to come. But just who would be creating this ...

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Multiple Ubuntu smartphone models enter the running for 2014

Last year saw plenty of progress for Canonical and Ubuntu Touch, including the release of early test ROMs, the Ubuntu Edge crowdfunding project, and the eventual release of the first official system images. Still, that was tempered by its fair share of disappointments; while the Edge was incredibly ambitious, it ultimately failed to achieve its goals, and the software we ultimately got still had a very “unfinished” feel to it. Maybe most telling about the progress Canonical had (or hadn’t) made, we still don’t ...

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Ubuntu learns how to dual-boot with Android

For about the past year now, we’ve been following Canonical’s work towards delivering Ubuntu Touch for smartphones and tablets. While we’re still not quite to the point where anyone’s ready to release a commercial Ubuntu-running phone, progress has been ongoing, and we saw official Ubuntu Touch images released with this fall’s distribution of Ubunutu 13.10. So far, the platform has ...

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The smartphone market sorely needs better competition

We’re less than two short weeks away from the end of 2013 and it’s hard to deny that this year has been a pretty great one for smartphones. Sure, some players struggled more than others, but the industry’s in a stronger, more mature, and just more interesting place than it was a year ago. For all the progress that’s come our way, though, I wonder if we’re not missing out on even bigger and better things. Because as much as the landscape has grown, we’re still dealing with a small group of ...

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Ubuntu Touch smartphones still happening: Canonical secures mystery hardware partner

This past summer, Canonical tried something pretty darn ambitious when it attempted to crowdsource the funding for the Ubuntu Edge, a smartphone that besides dual-booting into Android, would natively run the new Ubuntu Touch OS. Ultimately, the project didn’t reach its goal, so the Edge is never going to happen. Even without any hardware, the OS has lived on, and a couple months back we saw the first formal release of the platform for installation on existing Android ...

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What happened to Ubuntu Touch for Phones?

Ubuntu is a popular distribution of the Linux operating system, primarily for desktop and laptop computers. It is named after the South African philosophy of ubuntu, which literally means “human-ness”, though it is often translated as “humanity towards others”. Ubuntu, the philosophy, is very deep-rooted, and a concept that is beyond the grasp of much of society today. We seem to be caught up in our busy, everyday lives, and although we live in one of the most “connected” times in history, we’re connected to networks and devices — and ...

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Ubuntu 13.10 arrives, delivering Ubuntu Touch images for phones

Back in September, we heard from Canonical that the countdown had started towards the release of Ubuntu 13.10 “Saucy Salamander,” with the target date set as October 17. Sure, this is a full-featured release that brings numerous improvements to desktop Ubuntu users, but our concern is on what this means for the mobile side: after months and months of development, Ubuntu Touch is finally read for inclusion in the greater Ubuntu project, and 13.10 brings with it images for installation of phones and tablets. ...

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Ubuntu Touch 1.0 release date confirmed

We only just got finished hearing about new details concerning Jolla’s launch of the first smartphone running Sailfish OS, and now we have some other big news from another one of these platform upstarts, getting confirmation for when to expect the first main Ubuntu Touch 1.0 release. Now sure, there’s been that developer preview that’s been available since MWC back in February, but Canonical’s been hard at work since then, and ...

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