Ok, ordered. Crappy ordering process though, you have to pick a password without any particular reason to (don't ask your customers to make an account if you don't actually need one...), the certificate they use is invalid and they drop you on a page in Spanish after an English language ordering process that does not even bother to confirm you just made a purchase.
Haven't tried the one you mention, but this is a huge problem with many sites these days. Some don't even bother to have a logical sequence of page transitions (like the examples you give) - and many other issues, which are easily avoidable. I think it's partly due to the mad rush for startups to be first to market and cash out soon as possible.
I hate to be that guy, but I believe I need to share this. I was amongst the "lucky" ones who managed to get one of the phones of the first batch they sold (my Serial Number is lower than 1500). After using the phone for 20 minutes, I realized that the OS is _very_ far from being usable. I was able to spot more than 10 bugs that would prevent any regular smartphone user to use Ubuntu Phone as a replacement of a rudimentary smart phone.
I guess we will have to wait/help/contribute a lot to get it closer to an acceptable quality level.
In the meantime, I wonder if there is any way to install Android on the Ubuntu Edition E4.5.
> I was able to spot more than 10 bugs that would prevent any regular smartphone user to use Ubuntu Phone as a replacement of a rudimentary smart phone.
Please can you share the bugs so that others can actually judge usability for themselves? Have you filed the bugs?
No, you really don't. Because if that was the case, instead commenting here, why won't you go to Ubuntu phone bug tracking or whatever and give your feedback there where would be actually useful? Just a though.
I have this phone since around 20th of March and like it really very much. The Terminal app is hilarious. I was pleased to find much more stuff in the Ubuntu store than expected. Telephony is perfect.
The one thing I do not like is the runtime of the battery. 44 hours was the absolute maximum I had this phone running before it went black (just turning it on, entering the SIM-PIN, having Bluetooth, GPS and WiFi turned off and doing nothing else). In my typical usage pattern, a runtime of 24 hours is the more realistic value. Have to load it every day :-(
I literally don't know anyone who doesn't charge daily (wake up, take it off charger, put it on the charger around 11:30 PM same day), except my dad and me as we use our phones on stand-by and just for calls, and a little bit of messaging. I work from home so I do all my smartphone stuff on my computer, and when I go out I'm with friends, not on my phone. And even then, we tend to charge every 2-3 days.
I think it's typical for a good smartphone to have to load it every day. I recharge my S4 at night and then still have to boost it up at work. Mobile data is a power hog.
I use blackberry q5 which gives 16 hours battery. My android counter part gives 20. Battery life is overated and it all depends on the usage. This one only just started.
I got burned once with a windows phone Omnia 7 as an early adopter and it was beyond useless (lack of apps/configurability) so I will definitely not rush again on unproven phones despite my interest in Ubuntu. Also the price/specs on this phone is horrible compared to Xiaomi Note 4G (190euro) which I own and can recommend to anyone. I hope Ubuntu phone catches on though. Competition is good.
The specs on that Xiaomi are really nice value. I'd been looking at the 2nd gen Moto E or G for my parents, but the Xiaomi beats it, although at a higher cost.
It just amazes me how cheap tech has become. The other day I was looking through the Microsoft Store, saw a $90 ish tablet that had various discounts at times bringing it down to an absolutely ridiculous $60-70 range. I checked out some reviews and they were glowing (in terms of value), it actually runs windows 8 and comes with a year of Office 365 and an hour of Skype minutes every month. I can hardly imagine anyone buying Office 365 for a year at $70, instead of just buying this tablet instead haha. Of course it's no Mac Pro, but it surprised me.
HP stream 7 was the name. I just sat there grinning while watching the reviews on this device, computing is truly becoming completely and totally ubiquitous this decade, even consumer computing is becoming a cheap commodity.
I had the Omnia 7 and had the same frustration. Nothing wrong with the phone itself, but the OS was clunky and the Windows Phone app store was basically empty...
Interesting price strategy. They're obviously not aiming what you'd think of as the professional developer / early adopter market, otherwise they would have reduced the bezel, switched to a higher resolution screen, increased the specifications, and at least doubled the price. Are they hoping for this to be stocked in retail stores, and directly compete with Android at the Moto G sort of level?
That does sound fairly crazy, but it may well be that's more sensible than it sounds in parts of Europe, for instance Spain, where the early adopters won't have the same money as they do in the US, and the iPhone is expensive enough as to be almost nowhere to be seen.
Seems quite different from FirefoxOS, who have a much more pointed strategy of radically undercutting price, and targeting markets in the developing world.
bq is already a very popular brand here in Spain, so I suppose they will be targeting their current market (and if they get devs in the process, better).
They also make an e-reader [1] with open source software. I'm somewhat obsessed with the idea of using it for ssh/mosh as a portable terminal. It would be very cool to hear if someone has tried this, before ordering one. I mailed some random guy at BQ and he said he never tried it, but also found it interesting. If you find it interesting too, maybe you could run down and ask around! :)
Yes. Just install the Terminal app. If you have a screen lock configured you're asked again to get to a shell prompt. You get a regular prompt as the "phablet" user but have unrestricted sudo access. It's easier to use ssh though: http://askubuntu.com/q/348714/7808
What's nice is that it's just a regular Ubuntu shell prompt, not a hacked up one like you get on Android. All the usual stuff you expect to have is there. The Terminal app integrates nicely too - for example if you use less, then swiping up and down scrolls up and down.
Note though that by default the root filesystem is read-only. You can make it read-write, but then the image-based OTA updates aren't expected to work and of course if you break things you get to keep all the pieces. For this reason I've avoided doing this for now, but it's nice to know that I can do it. I expect I'll probably end up rolling my own customized images instead in order to keep my phone more reliable.
The technical specs look very, very similar to the Zopo ZP910 I own and which I bought about two years ago, for about 200€. The CPU unfortunately isn't the same (MTK 6589 versus MTK 6582), otherwise it would be easy to port Ubuntu to it based on bq's builds. I don't really have much dependency on Android apps (just give me a browser, a media player and a way to make phone calls/texting), so Ubuntu Phone fits my bill. I would not buy a new phone just to run it, but I'd happily "upgrade" my current phone to it, because the new versions of Google's apps are quite heavy (material design and all that) and the hardware is starting not to cut it.
Nice touch that the clock on the screen shows "14:10", which is of course similar to the latest released Ubuntu version (14.10, from October last year). Coincidence? :)
I'm holding off until the Meizu MX4 Ubuntu goes on sale -- but perhaps I shouldn't - does anyone know if it is exactly the same as the one being sold now running Android?
If so, I might get that one and install Ubuntu myself.
Being burned by two FirefoxOS phones (mostly burned by not being to upgrade to anything latest and stuck to some version). So I'll be careful this time... But I so much wanted to try it out...
Love it. Only one missing feature prevents me from buying it: Ubuntu Phone doesn't seem to have easy, painless, over-the-air syncing of calendars and contacts with third-party applications/services like Google Apps and Microsoft Exchange, for snappy access to that data whether I'm online or offline.
[+] [-] jacquesm|11 years ago|reply
Let's hope the phone shows up :)
[+] [-] vram22|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nirvanis|11 years ago|reply
I guess we will have to wait/help/contribute a lot to get it closer to an acceptable quality level.
In the meantime, I wonder if there is any way to install Android on the Ubuntu Edition E4.5.
[+] [-] rlpb|11 years ago|reply
Please can you share the bugs so that others can actually judge usability for themselves? Have you filed the bugs?
[+] [-] jbeja|11 years ago|reply
No, you really don't. Because if that was the case, instead commenting here, why won't you go to Ubuntu phone bug tracking or whatever and give your feedback there where would be actually useful? Just a though.
[+] [-] alexnewman|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] AlphaGeekZulu|11 years ago|reply
The one thing I do not like is the runtime of the battery. 44 hours was the absolute maximum I had this phone running before it went black (just turning it on, entering the SIM-PIN, having Bluetooth, GPS and WiFi turned off and doing nothing else). In my typical usage pattern, a runtime of 24 hours is the more realistic value. Have to load it every day :-(
[+] [-] IkmoIkmo|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chipaca|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] TeMPOraL|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ezequiel-garzon|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] minusSeven|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] leaveyou|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] IkmoIkmo|11 years ago|reply
It just amazes me how cheap tech has become. The other day I was looking through the Microsoft Store, saw a $90 ish tablet that had various discounts at times bringing it down to an absolutely ridiculous $60-70 range. I checked out some reviews and they were glowing (in terms of value), it actually runs windows 8 and comes with a year of Office 365 and an hour of Skype minutes every month. I can hardly imagine anyone buying Office 365 for a year at $70, instead of just buying this tablet instead haha. Of course it's no Mac Pro, but it surprised me.
HP stream 7 was the name. I just sat there grinning while watching the reviews on this device, computing is truly becoming completely and totally ubiquitous this decade, even consumer computing is becoming a cheap commodity.
[+] [-] dasboth|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] yourad_io|11 years ago|reply
However, it looks like you should be able to get Kitkat on this easily[1].
[1] http://www.bq.com/gb/products/aquaris-e4-5.html Search for "android"
[+] [-] volent|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] azinman2|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] whyagainyc|11 years ago|reply
1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9225691
2. https://github.com/bq/aquaris-E4.5/commit/34cf494bca625acad0...
[+] [-] Brakenshire|11 years ago|reply
That does sound fairly crazy, but it may well be that's more sensible than it sounds in parts of Europe, for instance Spain, where the early adopters won't have the same money as they do in the US, and the iPhone is expensive enough as to be almost nowhere to be seen.
Seems quite different from FirefoxOS, who have a much more pointed strategy of radically undercutting price, and targeting markets in the developing world.
[+] [-] cosarara97|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fasteo|11 years ago|reply
Pretty useless comment, I know.
[+] [-] mbrock|11 years ago|reply
[1]: http://www.bq.com/gb/products/cervantes-2013.html
[+] [-] Roritharr|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|11 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] unknown|11 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] bnastic|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] M8|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chainsaw10|11 years ago|reply
Is there a Terminal app with a local shell?
I'm in the US, so I can't get this one, but these are what I'm hoping for when it gets here.
[+] [-] rlpb|11 years ago|reply
What's nice is that it's just a regular Ubuntu shell prompt, not a hacked up one like you get on Android. All the usual stuff you expect to have is there. The Terminal app integrates nicely too - for example if you use less, then swiping up and down scrolls up and down.
Note though that by default the root filesystem is read-only. You can make it read-write, but then the image-based OTA updates aren't expected to work and of course if you break things you get to keep all the pieces. For this reason I've avoided doing this for now, but it's nice to know that I can do it. I expect I'll probably end up rolling my own customized images instead in order to keep my phone more reliable.
[+] [-] bitg|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] reddotX|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] swalsh|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Brakenshire|11 years ago|reply
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3PUYoa1c9M
[+] [-] dharma1|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gbl08ma|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unwind|11 years ago|reply
Not sure how the phone version of Ubuntu is versioned (http://www.ubuntu.com/phone didn't help), though.
[+] [-] popey|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] elcct|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] maelito|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pjmlp|11 years ago|reply
EDIT: Just noticed that the sale is only available in the Spanish store. The German one still shows "It will be available shortly".
[+] [-] mayneack|11 years ago|reply
> Compatible formats
> Text format .txt/ .pdf/ .xls/ .doc/ .ppt
No .odt?
[+] [-] aqzman|11 years ago|reply
That said, I'd love to sit down and play with the OS on the phone to see what it does different from other mobile OSes today.
[+] [-] beagle3|11 years ago|reply
If so, I might get that one and install Ubuntu myself.
[+] [-] dharma1|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] popey|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] malkia|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bildung|11 years ago|reply
Which ones? I had the same experience with the ZTE Open C but found great community updates for this and other phones. Open C updates are this way: http://builds.firefoxos.mozfr.org/doc/en/devices/zte-open-c
[+] [-] cs702|11 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chipaca|11 years ago|reply