Ubuntu tablets finally open for pre-orders, with shipments going out next month

Times have been tough for the forces behind some of the alternative mobile platforms out there, and projects like Firefox OS and Sailfish have failed to find big commercial success. While those two may be on particularly rough ground, not every new platform is struggling to stay afloat, and over the past few months we’ve heard a surprising amount from Canonical about the new hardware coming out running Ubuntu. That’s included ...

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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 smartphone finally approaches retail debut

The path to a Ubuntu smartphone has been a long one, beset by many disappointments along the way. The scope of the project feels a bit less grand than it once did, dropping elements like Ubuntu for Android. And efforts by Canonical to deliver its own Ubuntu-running phone fell apart after its crowdfunding effort failed to secure the necessary support. But despite all that, Ubuntu on phones is still happening, and last year we heard ...

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Ubuntu-running Meizu smartphone gets an ETA

Canonical has not had the easiest time breaking into the smartphone market, maybe most publicly failing as it attempted to crowdfund the Ubuntu Edge handset. But even with the dreams of Canonical’s own Ubuntu phone on ice, we had hope that other manufacturers might arrive to bring the platform to market, and earlier this year heard about plans to do just that with the help of OEMs like Meizu. Thing is, we haven’t seen ...

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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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Emerging mobile platforms: Will 2014 be the year?

2013 was an interesting year – in theory. What I mean by that is 2013 saw a lot of activity in the theoretical mobile market. Theoretical because not many of the newcomers who stood up to be recognized actually had any kind of hardware that people could, you know, hold and use. But now that 2014 has rolled around, many of these emerging mobile platforms have actually started coming up with some promising looking stuff and we thought, with the dawn of the new year, we’d give them a look and see what we might expect. Many of the new kids on the block can be categorized into one of two ...

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