| Hello community!Welcome to the UBports Foundation email newsletter, February 18th, 2022 |
From your editorDo you also have one of those days where everything is going just perfectly? People reply instantly when you ask something and all news is positive? And everybody around you has a smile on their face, the sun is shining but not to warm, and there is just the right volume of pleasant music in the background. And you get the feeling that everything is as it should be? Yeah, me neither. :-). But, to be honest, not all is bad. There are good things happening everywhere. You only have to see them.
The first example is the results of the recent poll I put to you nice people(results are here: https://strawpoll.com/orveyoges/r). Sure, of all (currently) 2672 subscribers only some 68 responded, but is was enough to give us a good impression of the direction we should take with the next marketing campaign. So a bit thanks to all those who responded!
As another example, take the Openstreetmap project. Their GIS data is very, very good and a very large community is working world wide to make it even better. And one of the things they recently releases is an Android app (I know, but hear me out first)that allows people to enrich the Openstreetmap data with local observations. It's called "StreetComplete" (sources on github).It allows the user to enter information like: does this street have streetlights? Is there a sidewalk on either side of the road, etc. Pretty user friendly, graphically pleasing and made by a small but very active community. Of course I could not resits myself so opened an issue there to request a port to UT ( https://github.com/streetcomplete/StreetComplete/issues/3776). You never know, right?
Anyway, sit back, grab hold of your favorite beverage and enjoy another episode of the UBports Newsletter (while I write this edition this time with music from Yanni on. No longer using Spotify (#roganstuff) but Deezer and, although I am no flatpack fanboy per se, using the excellent and stable MellowPlayer flatpack on my Ubuntu desktop ).
Greets, Jeroen Baten
Wet T-shirt contest? Wait, what?!No, sorry, no such luck. But there happens to be a t-shirt contest going on in our UBports community! And at the moment there are a number of candidates that we need to decide on. So, yes, I made another poll! So have a look at the following candidates for texts on UT tees and let us know your preferences. To be honest, this is now not a 100% democracy, but there is a peoples vote and the results do matter! The texts are: I am Ubuntu Touch Ubuntu Touch for Yu and Mi Get In Ubuntu Touch UBports Phone Technology Supporting Humanity Ubuntu Touch The Phone You own Free Yourself With A Touch #We Don't Follow You Ubuntu Touch Freedom For Yu And Mi UBports We Are Community Touch Choice, Touch Privacy, Touch Freedom
So, have a look at them decide which ones you like and let us know with this new poll! Please? Pretty please? This time you can even select more than one option!
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Election dateI know some people are very active in getting the election process for the Board of Directors started. I can't mention a date (yet), but as soon as I can, I will! Please note that only members of the Board of Trustees will be eligible to vote and it is an in-house process. So if you want in on that action and you qualify, please apply for membership of the BOT! All is explained in this blog post.
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News, hot from the pressThe nice folks at 9to5linux did a video on our upcoming OTA-022 release.
This was also an exiting week in a small country called the Netherlands. So, there was this one guy who is a relatively well known public IT guy and he started an initiative against the fact that there are only 2 big suppliers of mobile device software (link to Dutch national news agency about this). Me, as your humble operational marketing manager, saw an opportunity to add some fuel to this fire with an additional press release, this time about the merits of UT of course. This story got picked up very nicely (although currently only in the Netherlands. Let me give you a few links to publications:
Now, I know a lot of you people are not familiar with the Dutch language, but hear me out for a second. What we are currently doing is experimenting and learning how to best get our message out there. Very soon we have a report of our last year's efforts to get the message out and we will know what works best and then copy what works to other countries. You wait and see, we will be more visible in your country pretty soon!
Apps in the spotlightHere are some new Ubuntu Touch apps to try out: You can find these apps on the OpenStore (https://open-store.io/).
Please remember that OpenStore has a built-in option to donate to app creators. We urge you to use that button, so that we'll get more great apps on Ubuntu Touch.
| Help needed!If you have some spare time or money, we could use some help in the following domains: A message for all new subscribers: with other mobile phone operating systems you may get stuff for free in money terms but then you are the product in that transaction. With Ubuntu Touch you are not the product, but we can’t live just on fresh air. Please consider the value you get from Ubuntu Touch, including the money you save by not spending money on paid apps, and donate on https://ubports.com/donate And if you have been an active community member and want to pitch in on a more managerial level, consider becoming part of the Board of Trustees. You can read more about this in the following blog post: https://ubports.com/blog/ubports-blogs-nieuws-1/post/become-a-member-of-the-ubports-foundation-3766
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Ubuntu Touch Q&A 116
Dalton, Florian and Alfred were the hosts of the Ubuntu Touch Q&A 116 session. They talked about some improvements in the next OTA release and about Dalton's resignation as an employee of the UBports Foundation.
There's a lot of development going on that will appear in the next OTA release. Capsia has implemented a rotating lock screen. Depending on the device port, the app drawer will have a translucency layer: if you expand the app drawer from the left side, the wallpaper behind it will be visible in blurred form. The dialer gets a predictive feature which will offer a suggestion based on your first few numbers punched in. Morph will get WebGL support. And if you have a Pixel 3a, you'll be delighted with Alfred's continuing refinements of his port: the landscape keyboard now works, battery life improved and you can fix the in-call voice volume.
Dalton repeated that he has resigned his employment with the UBports Foundation. You can read about his reasons in his forum post, but he did want to add that he will retain his role as chair of the Membership Committee. Dalton has put in an incredible effort over the past years, but now he needs a proper rest and some time to reflect.
You can watch the whole session and read our notes here: https://ubports.com/blog/ubports-news-1/post/ubuntu-touch-q-a-116-3802
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