UBports Foundation news letter
April 30th, 2021.
From your editor
Welcome to the third edition of the UBports newsletter. This time I like to keep my section short and sweet. One reason for this is that someone email me to say that the newsletter was too long. The other reason for that is because, well, there's a lot going on in UBports-country but not everything can already
be published. One of the reasons why I love open source so much is that code is always leading. It works, or it doesn't. There is not something in between. Nobody ever said he found half a bug. Code does not do politics, people do politics, (with varying degrees of success :-) ). There are an awful lot of very cool things happening that I can not mention yet, and I really hate that. I hope I soon can tell you all more. Anyway, enjoy this (shorter) newsletter. See you again in 2 weeks!
News, hot from the press:
*TEASER*ALERT*TEASER*ALERT*TEASER*ALERT*TEASER*ALERT*TEASER*ALERT*
A little birdy told me that the upcoming episode 100 of the Q&A sessions is gonna be special. I can't tell you more than that but I think this is one you would like to attend. So, see you there!
Help needed: create Ubuntu Touch apps
Ubuntu Touch isn't only an operating system, but also a platform for apps. To be able to grow our ecosystem, we need app developers.
Our developers are working on and maintaining Ubuntu Touch's core set of applications, such as the dialer, calendar, camera, and clock. However, the more apps are available for Ubuntu Touch, the more useful your phone is and the more pleasant your experience. We need more developers to grow the amount of available apps on our platform and to improve the Ubuntu Touch experience even more.
It isn't that difficult to develop an Ubuntu Touch app.
We have a lot of documentation about app development:
https://docs.ubports.com/en/latest/appdev/index.html
You don't have to be a C++ guru to be able to create an Ubuntu Touch app. You can define the graphical interface of your app in QML or HTML and code its behaviour in JavaScript, Python, C++, Rust, or Go. You can also code web apps. Moreover, our Clickable build system makes it easy to build your app and publish it as a package on our official app store Open-Store. Do you want to help grow our ecosystem? Then join us (https://ubports.com/join-us) and create a new app!
UT app cookbook
Speaking of app development: We are thinking about making an online UT cookbook. So, if you've got questions you would like to see answered in this book, or you have app recipes you'd like to share please send me an email (jeroen at ubports dot com).
A newer kernel on the PinePhone
The Ubuntu Touch developers have been working on upgrading the Linux kernel on the PinePhone to a newer version with better hardware support. Currently the operating system is using PINE64's 5.6 kernel on the device, but the goal is to move to megi's 5.10 or 5.11 kernel. These have a lot of improvements, including more reliable mobile network connectivity, a hardware-accelerated camera viewfinder and more reliable audio calls.
There are still some bugs, but if you want to try out the newer kernels on your PinePhone, switch your update channel. Browse to Settings -> Updates -> Update Settings -> Channels and switch the channel to "Release candidate" or "Development". This will download the new updates. If you're adventurous and want to test the absolute latest new kernel in development, change to the "kernelupgrade" channel.
Ubuntu Touch Q&A 99
You want to learn, read, see or hear more? We've got you covered.
There is a fresh Q&A session online at https://ubports.com/blog/ubports-news-1/post/ubuntu-touch-q-a-99-3752
Some topics that stood out in the Q&A session:
The Google Pixel 3a was eating up a lot of battery before. This has now been fixed: testing shows two and a half days of battery time with zero activity but Wi-Fi on. On the OnePlus 5, core audio is working now, along with hands-free calling. There's still an outstanding issue: the Wi-Fi indicator doesn't always appear. If you have a Nexus 5, OnePlus 1 or Fairphone 2, you can now upgrade the Halium base from 5.1 to 7.1 by using the Devel channel.
There's a lot of work going on for the move to the Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal Fossa) base. One of the questions in the Q&A was whether the transition would be complicated for apps. This depends on the type of app. Web apps shouldn't need any changes, as they work in a browser. QML apps should work fine too, as long as the compatibility layers do their job. Developers of compiled apps will have to update their apps, because these are linked to older versions of libraries.
So, it's a wrap! Join us in two weeks time on another episode, or join a live Q&A Recording on YouTube.
Jeroen, Koen, Marcus, Dario and Nigel.
