Ubuntu

The Ubuntu device you're about to see goes by the name Aquaris E4.5 Ubuntu edition, and it isn't going to be like your average iPhone or Android. Instead, so it's being presented by Canonical as, this device will make quick work of your day-to-day needs with "Scopes" - also known as cards. The first Ubuntu phone for the public will make use of this first market-ready version of Ubuntu for mobile devices and will pose the following question to the public: Do you really need apps in the first place?

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The smartphone space is about to get more crowded, with the first Ubuntu phone, the Aquaris E4.5 Ubuntu Edition, hoping to muscle in among Android, iOS, and Windows Phone. Targeting the midrange market that so far Android has cavorted significantly in, BQ's new phone has a 4.5-inch screen, dual SIM support, and both an 8-megapixel camera on the back and a 5-megapixel camera up-front. More important than the hardware, though, is the new software, which Ubuntu claims is more content-centric than rival platforms. That's built around what Ubuntu has dubbed Scopes, a new take on the mobile UI.

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Linux is making another play for the Internet of Things, with Ubuntu figuring that as devices from thermostats through home hubs to personal robots and drones get smarter, they'll need a more flexible brain. Snappy Ubuntu Core is the latest platform for smart devices, promising gadgets that run exactly the same software whether locally or relying on the cloud, and thus bypassing questions about whether users are regularly upgrading, if old firmware is still in the wild, and where apps are going to come from. While Ubuntu clearly isn't alone in its IoT ambitions, Ubuntu Core does at least have an advantage some rival schemes don't: it already has users.

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There’s an undercurrent at this year’s CES that’s hard to ignore: Intel. The company is making some subtle inroads to arenas we’re not used to seeing them, their most notable non-PC showing in Dell’s interesting new Venue 8 7000 tablet. Now, the company is taking PC mobile, allowing you to take a full-fledged operating system in the form of an HDMI dongle. The Compute Stick carries an Intel Atom processor, and will be available with either a Windows or Linux OS.

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It seems that Samsung isn't the only one experiencing delays in getting a new player in the mobile market out of the woodwork. Canonical, the commercial company behind the open source Linux-based Ubuntu OS has been quoted to have said that its much-hyped Ubuntu Phone won't be announced until early 2015. And that's just the announcement of the availability and not the availability itself, which can, of course, be delayed repeatedly, as Samsung's dance with its own Tizen OS has proven.

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Native Netflix support on Linux has been a long-running wish among users, and though methods have been around to get the service to work, none were as simple as firing up your browser and getting right into the movies, no hassle necessary. Last month news that a change was afoot surfaced, with Netflix's Paul Adolph asking questions and saying that, if certain wheels could be put in motion, he'd bring up a case for nixing the user agent filtering that foiled users.

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Back in February, Canonical promised that its phone-centric Ubuntu Touch will be making its way to actual retail smartphones later this year. But Canonical promises many things and with the year coming to a close, it seems that that promise might either be delayed or, worse, broken entirely. But behold, a device bearing the likeness of the Meizu MX4 but also bearing within it Ubuntu's mobile OS has just been spotted, fanning the flames of hope of a still possible Ubuntu phone soon.

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Ubuntu could finally be seeing native support for Netflix in the near future, according to some emails that have been flying around this week. The video streaming service's Paul Adolph seems keen on making it happen, and he has been asking some questions to get the ball rolling.

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Those of you that enjoy changing the theme for your smartphone on a daily basis will appreciate what the folks behind Elementary OS are trying to do. They’re not trying to be your "Monday" theme, but your next operating system - and they’re trying to do it with Linux tied to an aesthetic that’s a cross between Chrome OS and Apple’s OS X.

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If you're up for checking out the upcoming version of Ubuntu -- Utopic Unicorn 14.10 -- the first alpha has been released. There are images available for GNOME, Kubuntu, and other popular varieties, and with the images come some software updates and system improvements.

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At the OpenStack Summit, Canonical's Mark Shuttleworth took the wraps of the Ubuntu Orange Box, an aptly named orange cloud-in-a-box that is hailed as portable (to a degree). The Orange Box is a full mobile cluster with a couple of convenient handles on top and a weight that lets you check it with your baggage.

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For users that've tried the Ubuntu Touch experience in smartphones and tablets over the past several weeks or months, you know good and well that it's nearly ready for mainstream users - but not quite. As it were, Canonical community manager Jono Bacon spoke up on the situation this week, suggesting that they'll not be ready to deliver any devices before 2015. As for the Ubuntu Edge we saw last year - that's no longer a device that'll be produced at all.

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