Ubuntu Touch Follow-up After my article last month on Ubuntu Touch, I received a relative flurry of responses from readers (more so than for any other article I've ever written). Due to the response, I thought it might be nice to share readers’ responses in a follow-up article. The first weekend of April also saw a big change in the TF101 Ubuntu Touch packages, and I was finally able to get the developer preview running on my tablet. However, as hardly any functionality exists at this time, I will save a full-on review for a later date (an official Beta release, for example).

Suite de l'article Ubuntu Touch

Après mon article du mois dernier sur Ubuntu Touch, j'ai reçu une véritable avalanche de réponses des lecteurs (plus que pour tout autre article que j'ai jamais écrit). En raison de la réponse, j'ai pensé qu'il pourrait être intéressant de partager les réponses des lecteurs dans un deuxième article. Le premier week-end d'avril a également vu un grand changement dans les paquets TF101 Ubuntu Touch, et j'ai été finalement en mesure de faire tourner la version développeur sur ma tablette. Cependant, comme pratiquement aucune fonctionnalité n'existe en ce moment, je vais mettre de côté l'examen complet ​​pour une date ultérieure (une version bêta officielle, par exemple).

The first response I received was from a reader who shared his opinion that Ubuntu Touch absolutely must have integrated support for Google accounts (Google Mail, Google Contacts, Google Calendar (with emphasis on the reminders), Google Maps and Navigation). Upon reading the article, I realised I had neglected to mention anything of the sort. That being said, I imagine Ubuntu will ship with some form of mail client (Evolution/Thunderbird). Google Mail support was very effective in either of those applications, the last time I used them. Thunderbird also offers the Lightning plug-in for calendars, which works well with Google Calendar. There are also numerous plug-ins for Thunderbird that allow the syncing of contacts. As such, I think it highly unlikely that Ubuntu Touch releases will be lacking a tool with similar features. That leaves Google Maps and Navigation. My fear is that Canonical will decide to include some new map/navigation tool, instead of trying to include Google's tried-and-tested applications. There is always the argument “Google Maps can easily be accessed through a browser”, but it defeats the purpose of a quick and handy maps tool. At this point, all we can do is wait and see.

This same reader also stated that he wished to see a highly functional/usable keyboard in Ubuntu. While I haven't had issues with the default Android keyboards, there seems to be a large number of Android users who prefer keyboards such as Swype. In the reader's case, he mentioned TouchPal's Keyboard, Dialer and Contacts app. This does more than just replace the keyboard, but also offers a custom dialer and contacts app. His reasoning for why this app is worthwhile was because he found typing on the typical Android keyboard to be “slow, boring and error-prone”. He found the “swipe to type” method of TouchPal's keyboard much more intuitive, and, due to the learning algorithm, less error-prone. The reader also notes that while TouchPal's keyboard app offers predictive features, they are turned off by default, and it's not necessarily clear how to enable them. According to a Sprint user guide, sliding right on the space bar enables predictive typing, and sliding to the left disables it again.

The Dialer and Contacts apps included in the TouchPal package are useful for the reader, because the default Contacts app tends to lose data included in the Notes sections of contacts when they contain a lot of text. As the reader creates these Contacts on the PC, it's impractical to deal with, and TouchPal's Contacts and Dialer app (one shortcut for both tools) apparently does not suffer from this limitation, and the reader once again finds it more flexible and easier to use. The second email I received was short and to the point. The reader felt the possible lack of Aldiko (an e-reader application), and Kindle apps on Ubuntu Touch would be something to consider. Now, I'm not sure Aldiko will be ported/available for Ubuntu Touch, but I think Canonical would be remiss if they didn't include some form of Kindle app. Once again, Amazon does allow reading of Kindle books online (“Amazon Cloud Reader”), but it's hardly an ideal solution. That being said, the list of dummy applications in the Developer Preview does include an Amazon store shortcut, which makes me believe Ubuntu will do its best to integrate Amazon services. I would supply further information about the apps included, but, as the keyboard isn't working properly, I can't connect to the wireless, making nearly every app throw “not connected” errors, or disabling those features I'd be interested in testing.

Lastly, I had a reader explain to me that he wanted to install Ubuntu Touch on a Samsung Galaxy S III, but cited the Ubuntu Wiki page where it was listed as a “work in progress”. So, for anyone else who was wondering something similar, I say this: if you're willing to give up a perfectly functional device in order to install a pretty much non-functional Developer Preview just to see what it looks like, you can generally expect any of the Wiki pages for your device to include decent instructions. That being said, Ubuntu Touch is not in an alpha, beta, or release candidate stage. It is quite literally a snapshot of their demo device, including multiple accounts you can't access, a guest account you need to use, and examples of applications they want to include. If, however, you have a second or third Android device just sitting around (such as my TF101), then feel free to flash it and play around a little, just don't expect to be breathing new life into an old device (just yet). Lastly, the Wiki page is split up in this way: • Working with phablet-flash (official Ubuntu method, contains just the Galaxy Nexus, and the Nexus 4, 7 and 10); • Working, but not available from cdimage.u.c (unofficial ports, maintained by the community, but fairly functional); and • Work-In-Progress (basically the waiting point for any port that hasn't yet gotten unlocking/installing instructions, working code or an image).

Unless you want to help debug and develop, Work-In-Progress devices are probably not worth flashing. On a completely unrelated note. After my article on the Rocksmith Real Tone Cable for recording electric guitar, I had a reader request an article or two on using Audacity to record acoustic guitar. These articles will happen as soon as I have a working audio interface available to me, and I will be covering recording acoustic guitar with a microphone, with pickups, electric guitar (direct-in), and with a microphone in front of the amp. If all goes well, this will happen within the next two issues of FCM. If any musicians out there have suggestions on audio interfaces they have had working with Ubuntu, or if anyone has specific questions they'd like me to cover in the articles, feel free to email me at lswest34@gmail.com. Please include the words “FCM Guitar Article” in the subject line, so I can separate them from usual C&C emails. I hope at least a few people have found the reader responses useful and/or interesting! I had definitely never heard of the TouchPal Keyboard, Dialer and Contacts app. Got any questions? Suggestions? Then feel free to email me at lswest34@gmail.com. Please include either “FCM” or “C&C” in the subject line, so it doesn't get lost in my inbox!