Yesterday the UBports project, which took over the development of the Ubuntu Touch mobile platform after Canonical parted ways with it, released the new Ubuntu Touch OTA-10 firmware update.
The release is based on Ubuntu 16.04 (the OTA-3 build was based on Ubuntu 15.04, and starting with OTA-4, the transition to Ubuntu 16.04 was made). As in the previous version, OTA-10 preparation focused on bug fixes and stability.In addition to the fact that in the same way as the previous OTA, Mir and Unity 8 releases have been postponed once again.
Testing with Mir 1.1, qtcontacts-sqlite (from Sailfish) and the new Unity 8 is done on a separate experimental branch »edge«.
Transition to New Unity 8 Will End Support for Smart Areass (Scope) and the integration of the new launcher interface of the application launcher. In the future, full-featured support for the environment to run Android applications is also expected, based on the achievements of the Anbox project.
What's new in Ubuntu Touch OTA-10
In this new version of Ubuntu Touch OTA-10 added support for preparing draft messages to the app to send SMS and MMSNow, in the process of writing text, you can leave the chat and, after returning, add or modify the text and send a message to the phone numbers that have been inserted in the recipient field.
Fixed issue with random change of display of username and phone number in header. An option has been added to the settings to choose a dark or light theme.
The application manager Libertine has the function of searching for packages in the repo.ubports.com file (previously the search was limited to PPA stable-phone-overlay) and proceed to install packages selected from the list with search results.
On the other hand also PulseAudio modules were implemented, which provide basic sound support for Android 7.1-based devices, as well as a simplified implementation of the SurfaceFlinger composite manager for using the camera on some Android 7.1 devices.
New screen protectors have been added for Fairphone 2 and Nexus 5 devices.
While for the backends "espoo" and "wolfpack" they are removed from the delivery and used to approximate the location based on the addresses of the Wi-Fi access points of the Geoclue2 services. The backends were unstable, which resulted in bad location information.
After removing the backends, the location was limited by GPS and mobile network information, but the service started to work accurately and predictably. As a replacement for Wolfpack, Mozilla's future location service is being considered.
Added "Label" field in address book, which simplifies the classification of contacts by the first letter of the name.
The display of 4G and 5G icons has been implemented for networks that support these technologies;
The "Back to safety" button is added to the built-in morph browser, which is displayed when there are errors with certificates;
Finally Ubuntu Touch compatibility was improved with Nexus 5, Fairphone 2 and Oneplus One smartphones.
For Fairphone 2, the correct camera orientation is implemented and the allocation of sound channels (problems with reversed selfies and changing the left and right sound channels in the past are in the past).
The update was generated for OnePlus One, Fairphone 2, Nexus 4, Nexus 5, Nexus 7 2013, Meizu MX4 / PRO 5, Bq Aquaris E5 / E4.5 / M10 smartphones. The project also develops an experimental Unity 8 desktop port, available in Ubuntu versions 16.04 and 18.04.
For existing Ubuntu Touch users on the stable channel they will receive the OTA-10 update through the System Configuration Updates screen.
If you want to know more about it, you can visit the following link.