According to the BBC, this collaboration will be the home of a brand new Ubuntu-based operating system by the name of Ubuntu Kylin, and it’ll be released as soon as April. This is also the timeframe for the next regular version of Ubuntu, which leads us to believe that Canonical may be considering releasing more than one country-centric version of its operating in the future, should the need arise. This deal is also part of a 5-year plan China is inflicting in order to get more of its citizens to use open-source software (believe it or not).

The creation of this operating system will be done in a single laboratory in Beijing filled with engineers from both Canonical and a series of Chinese R&D agencies. There will be more than one version of Kylin, the second being one worked on by Canonical to work on servers for online shops, hosting firms, and webpages of all kinds can use the software both online and off.

The first wide release of Kylin will be pushed to both desktop and laptop computers, with additional devices in mind for the future. In the future, it’s been noted (similar to the US), that Ubuntu Kylin will be released for tablets, smartphones, and everything in-between. This Kylin version of Ubuntu works with Chinese character sets natively and will, according to the BBC:

“Also do more to support the way Chinese people interact with computers as well as reflect China’s date conventions.” – BBC

In the future, Canonical and the Chinese government will be releasing versions of the operating system with connections to Baidu maps, Taobao shopping service, and new versions of image management tools and office apps created specifically for this market.

Have a peek at the timeline below to see other recent China homegrown news to see how odd we find it that the country will be pushing an open source operating system to its citizens, and let us know what you think!

We knew a Ubuntu tablet version would be coming, but it’s nice to finally see it in its official form, ready to be consumed by various tablets. In fact, the new OS will be available in a developer preview form for the Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 this Thursday. This is the same day that Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 4 users will be able to grab the smartphone preview as well.

Just like the smartphone version, Ubuntu for tablets is optimized completely for touch, and it relies on screen-edge gestures for navigation rather than physical buttons. For the most part, everything looks to be the same, except for the obvious change in screen size when using the tablet version — the interface itself is pretty similar to the phone version.

Canonical moving towards smartphones and tablets is a big and bold move for the company, but it’s nothing too surprising, and frankly it was expected at some point, with more and more users switching over to tablets and smartphones for computing needs. While Ubuntu for mobile devices may not gain a ton of market share, we sure that open-source enthusiasts and computer geeks of all kinds will take advantage of the new OS on their smartphones and tablets soon.

The dozen apps include four social apps: Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, as well as an RSS reader. The remaining eight are your standard smartphone applications, such as calculator, an email client, calendar, alarm clock, file manager,and even a terminal. The 12 final apps will end up shipping with the phone, and will be in addition other core apps are aren’t part of the project.

Developers interested in participating need to request access to the MyBalsamiq website, where the current designs for the app are available, and where developers can add their own designs for viewing and comments. Mock-up designs can be uploaded, but according to OMG Ubuntu, final designs aren’t wanted.

Says Canonical, “As part of the core apps project we want to encourage our community to create and submit designs that can be used as food for thought when our community builds the apps.” Before jumping into the mix, however, developers will need to check out the project’s guidelines for designs, which can be found on the Ubuntu wiki website here. The final set of guidelines aren’t available yet, but a list of suggestions are available.

[via OMG Ubuntu]

The move to the mobile platform by Canonical was long expected, although they’re certainly arriving late to a market, which is already dominated by the iPhone and Android-based devices. Essentially, though, Ubuntu for mobile isn’t a whole new operating system per se, but rather a “smartphone interface” for Ubuntu.

Ubuntu for Android, which was announced in February last year, will be the first step to getting the new Ubuntu mobile platform out on devices, which Canonical chief Mark Shuttleworth says will arrive at some point this year. While no carrier or manufacturer support has been announced yet, the first Ubuntu for Android handset should be provided by a “high-end” Android device manufacturer.

Proper Ubuntu phones, however, are promised to be out in early 2014, but the company already has a number of Galaxy Nexus devices that are running the new platform (as seen in the image above). The Galaxy Nexus is the only officially-supported device at the moment, and Canonical expects developers to work with the device in the meantime while the company continues to flesh out the OS.

This isn’t the first time that Canonical has attempted to adapt Ubuntu to smartphones. It had previously tried to push Ubuntu Mobile, which ended in 2009, as well as Kubuntu Mobile and an ARM version of Ubuntu. Fans of the platform have designed several concepts for a mobile Ubuntu OS, one of which designed by Musl1m is shown above.

Canonical has also backed the Ubuntu for Android project, which brought the desktop experience of Ubuntu to Android handsets. It runs both Android and Ubuntu simultaneously and was first demoed to be fully operational on the Motorola Atrix 4G 2 at Mobile World Congress last month. It’s believed that Ubuntu for Android can be run on any Android smartphone as long as it has video-out, a dual-core processor, and at least 1GB of RAM.

[via PhoneRpt]

Riding high on Android and with its expertise in search, Google should’ve swept the board when it first turned its hand to smart TV. Instead, Google TV was lambasted for its confusing interface, patchy functionality and ever-changing line up of content (made unpredictable by Google’s apparent refusal to pay for licensing deals but instead attempting to harness free online streams). With the second-gen system now ready for prime time, the search giant has managed to coax some big names back onboard, as well as tease gamers with the promise of OnLive for console-quality play without any extra hardware beyond a wireless controller.

Samsung, Sony, LG and Vizio were all expected to bring Google TV powered sets to the show, and all but Samsung delivered. LG spared us the heavy-duty specs, only saying that its two Google TV sets would drop later this year and use a homegrown quadcore ARM chipset. Like Vizio, which announced the R-Series of Google TVs, LG has reskinned the core Google UI to suit its own interface styling. Vizio also had two set-top boxes, one adding a Blu-ray drive, the VAP430 and VBR430, which promise to make Google TV more affordable.

Sony, meanwhile, took another approach, not bothering with fully-integrated Google TV HDTVs but instead looking to two new set-top boxes instead. It’s possible the company learned the hard way from its first-gen Google TV sets, though the new Network Media Player NSZ-GS7 and Blu-ray Disc Player NSZ-GP9 are arguably more useful given there are plenty of people content with their existing TV but still wanting a smart upgrade.

Finally, Marvell brought along its ARMADA 1500 chipset and a reference design Google TV STB to demonstrate it. The company is pushing the design to its hardware partners, along with a useful upscaling addition that promises to make lower-res content and UI look better on a 1080p Full HD display.

As for Samsung, it stuck with its homegrown smart TV platform for CES, though reiterated its support for Google TV and promised that “a forthcoming offering will deliver an entirely distinct experience in the category” later in 2012. That’s not to say its hardware this week has been underwhelming, however. Our playtime with Samsung’s 60-inch smart TV – which packs Kinect-style motion and voice control – suggested the non-traditional navigation may be gimmicky but the core software is very strong, while integrated DIRECTV support and the potential for hardware upgrades along the line shows services aren’t being left behind either.

LG may have had Google TVs to show off, but it also pushed ahead with its own platform, and some models ramped up the extras to stand out of the crowd. The Cinema Screen 3D HDTVs, for instance, can use their 3D screen technology for dual-view gaming, each player getting their own full-screen view simultaneously.

Vizio, too, used its own VIA smart TV software on some of its other models, echoing Philips’ push for true theater-aspect 21:9 screens with the new XVT CinemaWide line-up. You’ll need a big living room to accommodate them – and Vizio will need more luck than Philips, which eventually axed its range – but if you’re a keen movie buff they might be a solid alternative to a projector.

Lenovo isn’t a name generally associated with TV, so the company’s K91 entrant to the home entertainment segment came as something of a surprise. Headed to Lenovo’s home territory China first, but with broader international availability expected after that, the K91 actually runs Android but Ice Cream Sandwich rather than Google TV (v.2 of which is based on 3.x Honeycomb) and has a custom UI to suit sofa-bound users.

Finally, Canonical is hoping the hunger for Linux-based smart TV platforms will see its own embedded Ubuntu system picks up steam. We were impressed by the performance on the Ubuntu TV the team had prepared for CES, though Canonical wouldn’t say much on the “multiple manufactures” apparently in talks about using the system. It’ll go head to head with Google’s renewed Google TV drive, that’s for sure, and the search giant’s known brand and significantly improved second-gen software could prove difficult to beat.

Convinced by Smart TV? Considering buying one of these sets, or holding out for more new hardware later in the year? Let us know in the comments!

The unit at their booth in CES was very fluid when panning from selection to selection. The TV was able to stream video content, music, and even had a few applications were installed such as YouTube for easy access. Canonical has been known for releasing software that is polished upon release, so it’s hard to tell when we’ll actually see Ubuntu TV on the market.

It will also offer the ability to search, watch, record, and play through TV. They are currently working with multiple manufacturers for a release in the near future, and it seems we’ll end up waiting more on the them than Ubuntu developers. Their devs are quick to the punch and you can bet they want to see their platform expanded to this new market as soon as possible.