Three Things to Expect from the First Ubuntu Phones

The first smartphones to be sold with Canonical’s Ubuntu OS are due before the year’s end — but what should we realistically expect from them if we buy them?

Without actual retail handsets available to play with, and development builds only available for select Nexus devices, most of us will have to wait until the Bq and Meizu devices launch before we get out first hands on experience of the upstart mobile OS.

In this post, the first of an ongoing series as we approach the launch of the first two devices, we highlight three key benefits Ubuntu brings to the table.

Long Battery Life
phone-tile-4

Ubuntu for Phones enforces a strict, iOS-like App Cycle policy. Applications cannot run in the background like they can on Android unless they have been whitelisted to do so (e.g., as the default Music app).

Instead app developers are encouraged to use native system services, like Push Messaging and the Content/Media Hubs, to handle their traditional background functionality.

“Applications are not allowed to run in background. Our application lifecycle is strict in this respect and we only guarantee focused applications to be running.” ~ Thomas Voss, Canonical.

Will this affect multitasking? Ish. Background apps are able to continue running for a short period when unfocused, but their access to the CPU, GPU or network features is not guaranteed. They will still be listed in the (slick new) App Switcher, and will instantly be brought back to life as soon as you call them up again.

Being firm about what applications can and cannot do is needed to offer a predictable and dependable battery life. 

Lots of Apps
apps-wall-1

“Web app” is something of a dirty word. It sets lowly expectations; thoughts of limited, sluggish and network-dependent second-class apps.

Web technologies have come a long, long way over the past few years. In fact, web apps are almost as powerful as native ones (as Chromebook owners can attest), able to leverage system hardware and sport fancy OS integration.

Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth pledged to have the ‘top Android’ apps available on Ubuntu Touch for launch. There’s no indication right now as to whether this goal will be met —if an Instagram client is being brokered in the background, I’ll be very happy— but web-apps make it a moot point.

A wealth of well-known apps are already available on the platform thanks to robust HTML5 support in
the Ubuntu SDK — and plenty more should arrive soon.

This has provided a huge boon to Ubuntu’s app store offerings. With no “official” Qt/Qml Ubuntu App for the likes of Facebook, Twitter or Gmail likely to be forthcoming, there are mobile versions readily wrapped, instead.

In fact, so integrated are these that you’ll be hard-pressed to tell they’re not native. They can deliver notifications, integrate with the content hub for sharing media, and so on.

A Challenging New Direction
scopes customization

The biggest challenge for those of us buying an Ubuntu phone will be adapting to its “unique” interface.

Take the home screen, for example. Unlike Android, Windows Phone and iOS, which tend to roll with an app launcher + custom wallpaper approach.

Ubuntu on the other hand removes this layer to create a default landing page that no longer requires you to dive into an app, add a widgets, or perform a system search to find what you’re looking for.

It uses ‘Scopes’ — little interactive portals built around a specific content type, like videos, weather or news, or from a specific content source, like eBay, The Weather Channel and Grooveshark.

Scopes put contextually rich information literally at your fingertips, when you need them. They can be added, removed, favourited and rearranged to create an experience tailored to you.

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Stir Kinetic Review: The 'Smart' Desk

You may want to sit down for this. Then get up. Then sit down again. That's because there's a desk out there that tells you to do exactly that. The Stir Kinetic is probably the world's first "smart" desk. It has a built-in touch screen, so you can see this either as a desk with a smartphone in it or a smartphone with a desk attached. Why does a desk need to be smart? One answer is that it has motors and needs smarts to control them. The motors raise and lower the desk surface. You program it with the height you need for sitting and the height you need for standing. It moves, quietly, between them.

 

The other reason the desk needs smarts is that you don't have them. Well, not you, in particular, but people like you. Apparently we know that sitting all day is not good for us, but when we get motorized desks, we don't use them very much. "Users were, in general, positive to the worktables, but showed poor compliance in using them," as some Swedish researchers put it in 2005.

 

Stir was founded by a former Apple engineer, making it sort of like the Nest thermostat of desks. Both are everyday objects imbued with top-notch software. The Nest figures out when you're home and varies the temperature accordingly; the Stir desk knows if you're in front of it.

The Stir knows if it's at the standing or sitting level and keeps track of how long you've been in that position. After 20 minutes or whatever interval you select, it will tell you to switch positions. It does so by "breathing" - it gently moves up an inch, then settles down. Nothing further happens unless you tap the touch screen twice to confirm you want to change positions.

You can buy a "dumb" motorized standing desk for $1,500. There are also some nifty designs with mechanical counterbalances for the same price. There was even a Kickstarter crowd funding campaign offering a bare-bones motorized table for $369. The Stir Kinetic costs $3,890, plus tax and $299 for shipping. So if you disregard the other qualities of the desk (and the white-glove delivery service), you're paying more than $2,000 for its smarts, which do the same thing as any number of free timer apps.

 

A standing desk isn't going to do you any good on its own, says Alan Hedge, a professor of ergonomics at Cornell University. What helps is moving around a lot and switching positions. "If you're sitting in a static posture or standing in a static posture, that's not particularly helpful, because muscles fatigue very quickly and the circulatory system is not being helped," Hedge says. "When you're moving around ... it activates what's called the muscle pump that helps to return blood back to the heart". So the $2,000 question here is whether you have the willpower and presence of mind to do that without a smart desk reminding you and helping you track your behavior.

 

I used the Stir for a week, and the benefits of the sit-stand regime were pretty obvious. I felt more alert at work and less tired at the end of each day. I'm less sure about the benefit of the reminders. They tended to come at the wrong times. Bloated with lunch, I didn't want to stand up. When on a roll, I didn't want to sit down.

The Stir is supposed to learn your habits, much like the Nest. But it takes four weeks for it to get your measure and start to use that knowledge to time its prompts. As I had it for only a week, I couldn't test this feature. I was, of course, popular in the office that week. Everyone came by to look at the fancy new desk with its shiny, Apple-like white acrylic top. I was happy to demonstrate its features, which include USB and traditional AC power outlets hidden under lids. There's plenty of space to hide your laptop power brick under these lids, too. Through the touch screen, you can connect the desk to Wi-Fi so it can download software updates. If you use a Fitbit exercise band, you can also have it send your standing times to Fitbit.com, which computes how many calories you've used that way.

 

All in all, it was a very pleasant experience. The worst I can say is that the touch screen is fairly sensitive and reacts not just to finger touches, but also to random objects landing on it. If a book, phone or pen edges on to the screen, it can start the desk surface moving. The company says it shouldn't be happening.

My remedy was to lock the screen by swiping down. This adds the extra step of unlocking it when you want to change positions. But the question remains in my mind: Would I feel just as good with a $1,500 sit-stand desk that doesn't remind me to move?

If money is no object, by all means get the Stir. But there's quite a bit happening in the world of sit-stand desks, as evidenced by the recent Kickstarter campaign. It wouldn't surprise me if desks that are cheaper, but just as capable, are just around the corner.

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The First Sale of a Computer to Steve Jobs at Auction

The newspaper "The Telegraph" One of the first computers that have been assembled in the company "Apple", headed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak will be sold at auction, "Bonhams" in New York. 

The rate ranged between 300 and 500 thousand dollars. She drew a spokeswoman for auction house "Bonhams" Cassandra two to boost bearing the name "Apple 1" is composed of 200 computer is a really rare. The computer that poses for sale at auction Vicef in very good condition. 

Nor is this the first computer device poses for sale at auctions. It's already "Bonhams" that sold in May 2013 one of the computers working so far compared to 671 thousand dollars. Then sold the auction house "Christie" in July 2013, a computer batch of "Apple 1" compared to 388 thousand dollars. 

It is noteworthy that Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak They compiled a batch "Apple 1" of the computers in the garage of Steve Jobs possessed in the mid-seventies of the last century. And then sold about 200 of them to save a 43 GTX and 6 devices working. 

The garage where they were assembling the first computers to Steve Jobs location of the birth of the "Apple".

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Apple Pay May Launch Oct 18

The assumption is that the official launch date for Apple Pay will be announced next week during Apple's announcement for the new iPad Air; but, until then, we only have rumors to work with. The rumors have claimed October 20th would be the date that Apple Pay gets moving, but a new leaked memo is saying that it will actually be next Saturday, October 18th.

The leaked has come out of Walgreens, and shows a memo that is prepping workers to be able to handle customer questions when they first attempt to use Apple Pay. The document doesn't really go into much detail, except to say that users will have to tap their iPhone 6 to the "upper portion of the pin pad". The explanation is fairly thin, likely because Walgreens workers have been watching random people pay with Google Wallet for a couple years now. 

But, the more interesting part of the memo may be the idea of marketing that is going into it. It sounds likely that there will be display ads pushing Apple Pay, while claiming that this product will "reinforce [Walgreens'] position as a leader an [sic] innovator in the mobile world." We'd say, don't be surprised if there is a fair marketing push at all of Apple's retail partners (all of which have been accepting Google Wallet for a long time), like Disney, Nike, McDonalds, and Whole Foods.

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New App for Gesture Control of Smartphones is Developed

CSI, Minority Report, and many sci-fi films and TV series all show gesture control of computers. This of course for now available for videogames and computers but smart phones have been left out because the processing power requirements, until now.

Professor Otmar Hilliges and his staff at ETH Zurich have developed an app for smartphones that uses the front camera to capture hand gestures to control various functions of any smartphone. It uses less processing power because it simplifies the process of recognizing the gestures by creating an outline of the various hand positions. 

The program also recognizes the distance of the hand from the camera and warns the user it they are too far or too close. Currently the app recognizes six different hand gestures that execute their corresponding commands, but more can be added later. The requirements for the gestures to work is that they have to be clearly defined to make a good outline to be easily recognized. 

Soon people will be waving their hands at their smartphones while walking down the street as well as talking full volume to no one in front of them! This app is meant to augment the functions of smartphones and not replace the touchscreen.

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Iphone 6 Plus

A 5.5-inch iPhone. It's something which will send a shudder down the spines of a collective of die-hard Apple fans, a handset some thought we'd never see from the Cupertino-based outfit.

Yet here I am, staring down the barrel of the biggest iPhone in history - the iPhone 6 Plus.
It arrived alongside the iPhone 6 - Apple's new flagship smartphone - which measures 4.7 inches, making it more welcoming to a wider array of palms than the supersized iPhone 6 Plus.

Many of you, especially those of an Android persuasion, may be wondering what all the fuss is about. After all the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 turned up with a 5.5-inch display over two years ago.

Take a moment to glance at the history of the iPhone though, and you'll see why the iPhone 6 Plus is such a big deal. Previously Apple has only dealt in two screen sizes - a 3.5-inch display graced the first five generations of iPhone, and just three have had the pleasure of a larger 4-inch display.

5.5 inches then is a huge leap forward for Apple, moving its iPhone range into the uncharted waters of the phablet market currently dominated by Samsung and other Android devices.

Apple is looking to reach a previously untapped audience of smartphone users - those who demand a large screen, with 'productivity' the main buzzword being thrown around. A key market for the iPhone 6 Plus is Asia, where general consensus seems to be bigger = better when it comes to smartphone screens.

In terms of specs and design there isn't a huge amount of difference between the iPhone 6 Plus and the iPhone 6 - apart from the obvious size.

The iPhone 6 Plus does boast a couple of unique features however. It's the first iPhone to pack a full HD display, plus its bigger body means it houses a larger battery than its 4.7-inch brother.

Both sport A8 64-bit processors, 1GB of RAM, M8 motion coprocessors and 8MP rear facing cameras - but the snapper on the iPhone 6 Plus benefits from OIS (optical image stabilisation) while the iPhone 6 makes do with EIS (electronic image stabilisation).

As with all Apple products the iPhone 6 Plus doesn't come cheap, and you may want to brace yourself because it's one of the most expensive handsets around. SIM-free the 16GB iPhone 6 Plus carries a lofty price tag of $749, £619, AU$999 - and that's just the start.

Apple has ditched the 32GB variant for both the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, with the next storage level coming in at 64GB, and for the 5.5-inch iPhone that equals $849, £699, AU$1129. The good news for storage fans is that Apple has finally introduced a 128GB model - which may quieten those whining about the lack of a microSD slot - but it will cost you a small fortune. $949, £789, AU$1249 to be exact.

That makes the iPhone 6 Plus comfortably more expensive than rival phablets including the LG G3, OnePlus One, Nokia Lumia 1520 and I suspect the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 when it goes on sale too, if not on a par.

It's big, it's expensive and it's likely to play second fiddle to the iPhone 6 - so is the iPhone 6 Plus worth considering? Read on to find out.

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Advantages and Disadvantages of The iPod Video

The new iPod video became famous due to its huge memory and the capacity of playing video, due to its slim design and longer life battery. Still, there are voices that point out some disadvantages and highlight different negative aspects.

Taking into account that there are few perfect things made by the human hand, these aspects may be used by the iPod video creators for further improvements. Therefore, the customer’s reviews are very important and the suggestions may be really taken into account.

The fact that the screen is bigger is great, but the surface is easy to scratch, aspect that is more in the cons category. Although the image is excellent and the clarity screen may be easily compared with the TV set’s screen quality, there are still some problems with freezing video images. There is a great achievement the fact that the light, sun or other previous obstacles are annihilated, but another important problem is the unresponsiveness in some cases.

The dimensions of the new iPod video are great, but there is no way you may watch it with more than several persons. Anyway, it was designed for personal not collective needs and you may still share your photo album and music or video music preferences with one person. The flat screen is large enough to enjoy your favorite videos.

Although the life battery is longer, the complaints concern the short battery life for video. And this complaint may be balanced by the fact that the video is played with no flaw. The pros of the new iPod video are considered the cool look, the impressive number of features, the great organization of the music menu so that you may even rank your favorite songs. The cons of the new iPod video are considered the absence of FM option, the fact that no cradle is included, the impossibility of connecting the iPod video to the computer and the cost. 

The amazing new features concern the sound quality – it is clearer and stronger with a bass that is stronger articulated, the sound is also louder than that of the previous generations. The other good features are the easy control, the video feature is classified with “great”, but the flaws regard the interruption of the sound between the tracks, being blanked out. There are still other suggestions regarding the battery life, taking into account the amount of music that the new iPod video has. 

The pros may be gathered together pointing out the thin and attractive enclosure with a great display, the best sound, 15-20 hours of music, new clock and the time in other parts of the world. The cons highlight the incompleteness of the video integration that suggests the experimental project aspect, absence of the new games, no changes in the interface, the smaller screen than expected especially for video features edition. Another disadvantage concerns the slow transfer of photos direct from the camera.
Some critics point out the fact that the design and the features of the new iPod video may be seen from different perspectives. Therefore, the complaints and the satisfaction may be contradictory. These aspects may be seen from a movie lover perspective, an audiophile or photographer or even from a simple consumer with no great expectations. That is why you may find musician’s reviews or video addicted reviews that are in contradiction. You may decide in which category you may be situated for deciding if the new iPod video is worth the money or not.
From the same point of view, you may say that as a music player the new iPod video has superior quality of sound. As a screen for the photo album, the clarity of the screen may win the competition with any TV set’s screen. As a movie player, the iPod video is below the expectations, but it may be considered a great step in the video technology.

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