12 ms·
Five hundred days using Ubuntu Phone
- bpires 11y agoA little hard to take seriously considering the author works for Canonical. Even so the author didn't seem very excited about it, it felt more like an acceptable phone and not that it's better than Android or iOS.
- stephenr 11y agoI'd go further than "little hard to take seriously". Nowhere in the article does he state that his employer is Canonical. His blog doesn't mention it at all, just says he's "Involved with Gnome". Even clicking through to his "Complete Profile" takes me to a G+ page. From there another "About" link click finally tells me that he's an employee of Canonical. Sure, he didn't claim its the 2nd coming of the FSM but stating any potential conflict of interest is pretty standard. A 1 sentence comment on HN from a related employee/founder/ceo usually has a disclaimer about it.
- logicrook 11y agoIt's a blogpost, made to express an opinion, so he doesn't have to say this. If this was supposed to be a serious article, or was involved in a serious debate, then it would be a different issue. Second, I have a Firefox phone and no other phone. It's terrible right? Yet I'm happy with it, as it is less buggy than my previous phone, and it actually does what I want. The only thing that I'd like from it would be flac support, but it's something I can get around with a simple script. So, I can see how somebody could be able to live with a Ubuntu phone, and don't need to be paid to say good things about it. Also, not throwing money at Apple/Google/Microsoft is a a big motivation, and a great pleasure.
- lake99 11y agoNot only is it a personal blog, he did not post the article here. I don't know if he's even aware that it's now on HN. Expectations of disclosures seem absurd.
- fuzzywalrus 11y agoAnd at least it seems like Canonical is dogfooding. These wasn't an in-depth review that struck me as masquerading as an objective write up from a non-bias source.
- ska 11y agoThere is no requirement legally or from an accreditation board, sure. However you should always do this in any context where it may come up. It's not just that this is the ethical path (it is) but failing to do so and getting caught out really undermines your credibility and thereby whatever message you were trying to get across (serious or no). There is literally no downside to doing this unless you are trying to obfuscate your connection.
- vacri 11y agoNonsense. "View my complete profile" takes you to the G+ page, and directly underneath his name it says he works for canonical. So what if his personal blog doesn't disclaimer everything in it - the information was one click away. You're just looking for excuses, really. This new HN where everyone is complaining of 'clickbait' titles and demanding disclaimers everywhere for things like personal blog posts... it's starting to get pretty tiresome.
- stephenr 11y ago> Nonsense. "View my complete profile" takes you to the G+ page, and directly underneath his name it says he works for canonical. So what if his personal blog doesn't disclaimer everything in it - the information was one click away. View my complete profile links to https://plus.google.com/106527694663794732344 https://plus.google.com/106527694663794732344 which shows his name and the number of followers he has. A further click on "About" in the header, shows that he is an employee of Canonical. > You're just looking for excuses, really. Actually I was looking for confirmation or denial of his previously unstated employment by Canonical, the company whose OS runs on the device he reviewed without making mention of his conflict of interest. > This new HN where everyone is complaining of 'clickbait' titles and demanding disclaimers everywhere for things like personal blog posts... it's starting to get pretty tiresome. This is nothing to do with HN. He posted a review of a product that his employer is directly related to, and made no mention of who he works for. Most people I know would consider it fishy to not make any mention at all of your involvement with a product you're reviewing.
- pilif 11y agojust to clear up a misunderstanding between you and vacri you're responding to: Google seems to be in the process of yet another redesign of G+. If you haven't yet enabled the new experience then the employer is stated quite prominently directly on that link. This is what vacri was referring to. If you enable the new experience, then yes, you are right, you have to click one more time. Yes. I'm splitting hairs here - this should probably have been on the blog-post front and center, but still. You two are not seeing the same content.
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- gnufied 11y agoLeaving aside that he works for Canonical, it is unfair to judge phone solely on "Author didn't seem very excited about it". Different people have different ways of expressing themselves. You can't expect everyone to write like Kathy Sierra's piece on iPhone (http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2007/01/iphone_and_the_.html http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2007/0...)
- JohnTHaller 11y agoA few points: 1. It's the author's personal blog. 2. The author didn't submit it here, they just put it up on their personal blog. They didn't pretend to be unbiased and then publish a story on a tech news site. They have no responsibility to you just because you found it via a news aggregation site. 3. The author could have easily done this on their own time without any employer involvement at all. 4. Just because the author works for Canonical does not necessarily mean they have any connection to the phone project. 5. The author's employer may have a policy against identifying as a part of the company on personal websites (but no similar policy for social media).
- slededit 11y agoFunny we're often warned we must identify ourselves when publicly praising/reviewing our own products, lest we run foul of the FTC. They are UK based though so perhaps its different there.
- radicsge 11y agoSounds quite ok, but the question is when Meizu 5Pro comes out... March is already over, I hope it is not cancelled..
- joeseeder 11y agoSo it does look like a viable phone platform, I'm glad to read that someone is happy with it!
- odinduty 11y agoAll phone platforms are viable, it depends on what you expect from them...
- trtmrt 11y agoHow much money did you get to make this wonderland story?
- gtk40 11y agoHis Canonical salary?
- trtmrt 11y agoI appreciate all the negative points :) but I am also owner of the same phone, and list of terrible things goes like this: - charging is unpredictable, I would like to attache some of the screen shots ... - You can not charge it while it is on ?! yes I know. If you do it will show it is full charged and then it will discharge in 30 minutes .. - Main apps do not exist (Skype, WhatsUp, Viber, etc... list is long ...), - although it is showing it has 4g most of the it does not work ... and it is not network issue, I have another phone ... - Camera will sometime save images that cannot be read after ... especially if battery is near to the end. To say anything nice about phone or platform you must be high or someone has to pay you to post that...
- maxerickson 11y agoThe negative points worked though. This is a useful comment to make: I am also owner of the same phone, and list of terrible things goes like this: - charging is unpredictable, I would like to attache some of the screen shots ... - You can not charge it while it is on ?! yes I know. If you do it will show it is full charged and then it will discharge in 30 minutes .. - Main apps do not exist (Skype, WhatsUp, Viber, etc... list is long ...), - although it is showing it has 4g most of the it does not work ... and it is not network issue, I have another phone ... - Camera will sometime save images that cannot be read after ... especially if battery is near to the end. Whereas making insinuations about the author doesn't really provide anybody here anything of value.
- stephenr 11y ago> making insinuations The author is an employee of the company that makes the OS for the phone, and didn't mention it in the specific article or on the header/sidebar of the blog. It's several clicks away on a Google+ profile. > doesn't really provide anybody here anything of value I disagree.
- staticelf 11y agoProblem I have: I need my banking app, my bank id app and instant-bank-money-transfer app that doesn't exist for Ubuntu Phone. Without those apps, paying invoices takes too much time. I can't transfer money to my CC when I need it and I can't transfer money to my friends. But worst of all, I can't login to 90% of all the governmental services that require bank id. They all exist for my Windows Phone though, which is an underdog enough for me.
- Freak_NL 11y agoDoesn't the bank have a web-application with feature parity with their Android and IOS apps? I would expect to be able to do the same things with on-line banking, regardless of the operating system I run or device I use (provided I have a modern web browser).
- filleokus 11y agoI would guess staticelf lives in Sweden just based on the apps they mentioned. If that is the case, yes, you can access most of the major banks online, but to do anything like paying bills or transferring money to accounts which are not yours, you basically need to use a 2FA. Either some kind of hardware fob or the Bank ID app staticelf mentioned. Personally I could never move away from a plattform without support for the Bank ID application, I use it multiple times a day to authenticate / sign stuff, and keeping the hardware fob with me is too cumbersome. And as staticelf noted, all of the non-bank sites (e.g government services) don't even support the hardware fobs.
- staticelf 11y agoYes the issue is that the Swedish governtment refuses to implement it's own identification platform so now "bank id" has become the facto standard. Bank id is a closed solution and thus will render using any other device than android, ios or windows phone a pain in the butt.
- logicrook 11y agoProblem I have: I am dependent on MEGAcorp. MEGAcorp does not like freedom. So free solutions are not good. Do you see the problem?
- chris-at 11y agoWhat does "33 minutes talk time" on http://www.ubuntu.com/phone/devices http://www.ubuntu.com/phone/devices mean? Why does it show that on the lock screen?
- tablewatcher 11y agoI suppose you tell it how many minutes you plan contains and it subtracts used time accordingly.
- Raphmedia 11y agoThe phone self-destructs after 33 minutes to safeguard against the FBI. ;)
- Mchl 11y agoActually it is a safeguard against the TSA
- cmdrfred 11y agoI've always seen 'talk time' as how many minutes you can actively be in a phone call before the battery dies. If that is the case this phone is pretty unimpressive.
- passivepinetree 11y agoI understood it as the phone is currently on a call that has been in progress for 33 minutes, but it seems as though I might have been the only one to draw that conclusion.
- popey 11y agoVarious personalised stats show. Each dot around the circle is a day of the month with the current day highlighted. In the centre it will show things like number of minutes, sms sent/received, photos taken, tracks played, miles walked etc. The balloons around the edge are larger on days when you do more. So you get a personal visual representation of how you use your phone. Disclaimer (because it seems to upset people here), I work for Canonical ;)
- fsiefken 11y agoI use ubuntu on my phone the other way around, using Linux Deploy I chroot an ubuntu or debian root image and connect to it with ssh or vnc on android. It came in quite handy when streaming mp3 through icecast through the wifi accesspoint on my phone for a dancewalk through town.
- skykooler 11y agoOk, but when will apps be able to run when the screen is off? It seems sort of rediculous that the only way to listen to, say, Spotify is to leave the screen on and the Spotify app in the foreground.
- teps 11y agoHardware wise, I can't really find what I want with an ubuntu phone: I like the spec and the price of the Aquaris E5, but the bezel is really huge. The Meizu mx4 lack of a SD slot and the Meizu 5Pro is too costly :( I would miss whatsapp too... Not that I like the app, but it's commonly used within my group of friends. Fix the two points above and you've go a buyer :)
- alfiedotwtf 11y agoI tried to like mine (BQ E5). But for an almost-flagship Ubuntu phone, reception was terrible. Went back to the Nexus (now 5x), and I've had zero issues in the same places I used my E5. Maybe once they've polished a bit, it may be worth going back. Corollary: I'll throw anyone money who can make a good (usable) Debian phone. Still waiting :(
- dmlorenzetti 11y agoIt always astounds me how many reviews of "phones" fail to mention phone-like qualities such as reception and ability of the mic to filter out background noise. These are all I care about when choosing a phone. Yet you can find 10-page reviews of phones in which nothing discussed would lead you to understand it's a phone.
- distances 11y agoThey just cater to the audience, I suppose. The call features are a rather minor feature for many people nowadays -- I checked my call log, and it was 11 incoming+outgoing calls within the last 30 days.
- maaku 11y agoIt'll change if/when you have kids. You'll probably have a half-dozen calls a day coordinating things. And having a high quality connection for those calls is really important.
- dingaling 11y ago> It'll change if/when you have kids. You'll probably have a half-dozen calls a day coordinating things. So much organising is done over WhatsApp nowadays that we have an old Samsung phone just to run that app, with only appropriate contacts loaded. I'm not a fan of proprietary messaging but I can see that it is a lot more efficient for organisers than making a call to every parent. I don't recall having made a voice call on it in months.
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- hackuser 11y agoCan anyone name adequate phones with FOSS operating systems that aren't Android forks? I think that's what many of us are looking for.
- CaptSpify 11y agoI think this is it ATM. I agree, I'd pay a good chunk of money for an actuall-Debian phone, but AFAIK, they don't exist
- ashitlerferad 11y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11439568 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11439568
- CaptSpify 11y agoThanks. I'd rather not run chroot though. Tends to be slow, bulky, and doesn't address a lot of what I actually want out of a linux phone
- ashitlerferad 11y agoA chroot is simply a Debian install, not sure why it would be slower or bulkier than a normal Debian install. What do you want out of a Linux phone?
- CaptSpify 11y agoIt's slower and bulkier because the underlying android OS is still running. Some things I want that android/chroot doesn't offer: A good terminal interface To be able to script things that, to my knowledge, a chroot doesn't let you: texting, change alarms, sounds, etc. A real browser, not a mobile browser A phone that is actually free (as in speech) And these are just off the top of my head in the past 5 minutes. If I actually sat and thought about it, I'm sure I could come up with many more.
- sspiff 11y agoThe comparison of Android updates for non-Nexus devices versus this device is a little unfair. This is pretty much the only Ubuntu phone with significant sales numbers. This is the result of a cooperation between Canonical and bq. This is pretty much the equivalent of a Nexus device for the Ubuntu phone platform.
- MBCook 11y agoWhen 95%+ of Android devices are non-Nexus, that means that's easily the majority experience of Android users. I think that makes it fair.
- sspiff 11y agoIt's an entirely unfair comparison - Canonical only has to support a single phone model, while Google would have to support hundreds.
- qbrass 11y agoIt's the trade-off Google accepted for allowing their trademark on unsupported devices and having 80% of the mobile OS marketshare instead of 4%.
- rtpg 11y agoIt's kind of weird to trust Ubuntu store software more than Android stuff considering it's probably not sandboxed nearly as well
- amelius 11y agoI'm wondering how people are doing with a Raspberry Pi phone. See e.g. https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/piphone-home-made-raspberry-pi-smartphone/ https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/piphone-home-made-raspberry...
- shmerl 11y agoWhat's going on with open sourcing of Sailfish by the way? Jolla promised it several times already, but nothing happened.
- Apocryphon 11y agoAt this point, I'd be fascinated by "alt-mobile" OS's that are simply the best of the bunch. That is, never mind about being comparable to iOS or Android, just simply the most user-friendly and reliable among the runner-ups. So is Ubuntu Mobile better than Firefox OS? Or Sailfish OS? Or even Windows Phone?
- thepain 11y agoI have been using the Aquaris 4.5 for probably ~300 days and I am still impressed how much Canonical has fucked up the Linux-powered smartphone idea. I could go on a long rant here, but there is one thing that pisses me off the most: In order to gain access to the software repository (the "App Store") and receive updates for installed software, you have to have a registered ubuntu one account activated on the phone. Excuse my language, but what the fucking hell?
- hatsix 11y agoI'm curious, what is the issue here? Is there some sort of ethical or technical deep end that they dove into that causes you to not only swear, but to swear twice (and once without apologizing for it!!)? Because, really... if requiring a more-or-less anonymous account is the biggest problem you have with it, I have a hard time understanding how you can say: "I am still impressed how much Canonical has fucked up the Linux-powered smartphone idea"
- thepain 11y agoNo, it is not only the mandatory account, but for a free platform this is a huge red flag for me. See, I come from using the N900 (to some extent I still do). While not everything was/is golden with maemo, Ubuntu Touch in comparison sucks big time: - on UT all packages you want to install have to be "click"-packages (bye bye debianic universe of free software) - good luck with using a microSD to extend storage; as per permissions it is impossible for applications to use a folders on SD (great fun if you want to download podcasts). - webkit based browser with no plugin/addon support. With some sarcasm, I am actually grateful for this: I had no idea how terrible the world is without an ad/js-blocker. And for the account thingy: can you enlighten me with a good reason why one needs an account to download free software? To me, the platform feels terribly "corporate", as if more effort was put into allowing for monetization instead of distributing linux for smartphones.
- reality_czech 11y agoI'm glad that Mozilla has finally given up on Firefox OS for phones. Maybe it's time for Canonical to do the same, and focus on improving Ubuntu.