FILES DOWNLOAD

• Universal copy & paste is now bidirectional (until now, this only worked one way: copying something on your Android device and pasting it on the Ubuntu desktop). For this feature to work, you need to enable Universal copy & paste in both Pushbullet Indicator and the Pushbullet app on your mobile device; 
• send SMS from the desktop. Important: using this feature, the SMS is sent via your mobile phone so it doesn't mean that the SMS is free! Unfortunately, to use this feature, you must know the phone number because Pushbullet Indicator doesn't retrieve your contacts list;
• reply to Whatsapp, Telegram and SMS from the desktop (you must enable this from the Pushbullet Indicator settings);
• you can now select the device to send text/links/files/etc. from the PushBullet send dialog.

Install Pushbullet Indicator in Ubuntu 15.04, 14.10 or 14.04 / Linux Mint 17.1 or 17 Cinnamon

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:atareao/atareao
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install pushbullet-indicator

sudo apt-get install nautilus-pushbullet
nautilus -q

sudo apt-get install nemo-pushbullet
nemo -q

At a first look, both the phone frame and the matte back cover (which is removable, despite the battery being non-removable, so the only time you'll have to remove it is when you insert the microSIM card) seem to be made from metal, but in fact only the frame is, while the back is plastic. Even so, the phone doesn't just look but feels premium altogether.

The back features an impressive 20.7 MP camera with dual-LED (dual tone) flash, which uses a Sony premium IMX220 Exmor RS sensor that supports 4x digital zoom and is capable of 4k video - well, at least in theory because Ubuntu Phone allows 1080px at most right now, but hopefully the OS will get 4K recording support soon.

The camera takes great pictures in the sunlight and with a flash however, low light pictures are pretty grainy and unclear - you can see a few pictures I took today using Meizu MX4 Ubuntu Edition below:

The photos above are not in full size. If you want to take a look at the original photos, you can find them HERE.

Meizu MX4 Ubuntu Edition (left) and BQ Aquaris E4.5 Ubuntu Edition (right)

• Screen: 5.36" 1152 x 1920px IPS LCD display (418 ppi) with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection
• Dimensions: 144 x 75.2 x 8.9 mm (5.67 x 2.96 x 0.35 in) / weight: 147 g (5.19 oz)
• CPU: Quad-core 2.2 GHz Cortex-A17 & quad-core 1.7 GHz Cortex-A7 (MediaTek 6595, Meizu customized version)
• GPU: PowerVR G6200 MP4
• Camera: 20.7 megapixels, dual tone LED flash, 4K video recording at 30fps rear camera and 2.0 megapixels, 1080p video recording at 30fps front camera
• Internal storage: only the 16 GB will be available in Europe
• RAM: 2 GB
• Battery: Non-removable 3100 mAh
• TD-LTE / FDD-LTE / TD-SCDMA / WCDMA / GSM
• Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, Wi-Fi Direct
• Bluetooth v4.0, A2DP
• GPS with with A-GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, QZSS
• MicroSIM
• Colors:  silver and gold

Getting Meizu MX4 Ubuntu Edition

• Password fields will now keep history of last 5 passwords;
• Password Strength detection algorithm is improved;
• Search functionality is improved;
• Show number of items in Sidebar;
• Option to change Enpass data Location;
• Search can be restricted to titles only;
• Translations are improved;
• Other bug fixes.

Download Enpass

sudo apt-get install curl
curl -s http://repo.sinew.in/keys/enpass-linux.key | sudo apt-key add -
echo "deb http://repo.sinew.in/ stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/enpass.list
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install enpass

• uses SQLCipher engine with AES-256 bit encryption - you can read more about this on the Enpass Security page;
• besides passwords, the app can be used to store various other secure information, like cred card info, secure notes, etc.;
• built-in password generator with strength indicator and option to use generate pronounceable passwords;
• autolock mechanism: the application can lock itself automatically either when the app is idle or when the system is idle for a iven number of minutes;
• can import passwords from other password managers (supports txt, csv and xml formats);
• built-in search, organizable categories with support for custom folders, customizable fields for each category and more;

Download Enpass

sudo apt-get install libxss1

cd
chmod +x EnpassInstaller
./EnpassInstaller

As for the desktop integration, Sigram can display notifications on new messages and comes with a tray icon which allows you to show the application (which can be closed to the tray) or open its configuration. There's also an option to change the chat background.

Download Sigram

• Nested mode is currently disabled (unity-system-compositor) as it crashes Unity8 (seems to be an issue with latest Mir from lp:mir/devel, as it also happens on ARM);
• Gallery-App doesn't work properly, probably because it's still trying to use libGL.so.

Ubuntu Touch x86 Emulator video

How to install Ubuntu Touch x86 Emulator in Ubuntu

• in Ubuntu 14.04 running on my laptop: I was able to install and run it without any issues;
• in Ubuntu 12.04 running in Virtualbox (so double virtualization...): the emulator was installed successfully and it worked, but there were some vertical stripes rendered on top of the Ubuntu Touch x86 emulator, which made it unusable. This might be because of VirtualBox though.

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:phablet-team/tools
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-emulator

sudo apt-get upgrade

sudo ubuntu-emulator create UbuntuTouch --arch=i386

A while back, Canonical released an experimental Ubuntu Touch emulator running Unity 8 and Mir. Back then, there were a few bugs, including a nasty one on 64bit that could break the system and since they were fixed, I though I'd write an article on how to properly install and use the Ubuntu Touch Emulator in Ubuntu 14.04, 13.10 and 12.04.

Install Ubuntu Touch Emulator in Ubuntu 14.04, 13.10 and 12.04

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:phablet-team/tools
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-emulator

sudo apt-get upgrade

Creating and running instances

sudo ubuntu-emulator create UbuntuTouch --channel=ubuntu-touch/utopic-proposed

sudo ubuntu-emulator create UbuntuTouch --arch=i386 --channel=ubuntu-touch/utopic-proposed

Error while converting ~/.local/share/ubuntu-emulator/UbuntuTouch/system.img: Unknown option 'compat'
qemu-img: Invalid options for file format 'qcow2'.

ubuntu-emulator run UbuntuTouch

The first time you run the emulator, the boot process will take quite a while. When it finishes booting, a shell with Ubuntu Touch will start, asking you to enter the username and password:

Ubuntu Touch Emulator with a 0.7 scale on my 1920x1080 monitor.

ubuntu-emulator run --scale 0.5 UbuntuTouch

• the downloaded images are stored under ~/.cache/ubuntuimages
• the images are stored under ~/.local/share/ubuntu-emulator

Deleting instances

sudo ubuntu-emulator destroy UbuntuTouch

ubuntu-emulator list

Creating / restoring snapshots

ubuntu-emulator snapshot --create=SNAPSHOT1 UbuntuTouch

ubuntu-emulator snapshot --revert=SNAPSHOT1 UbuntuTouch

Hardware

• Screen: 4.5”, 540x960 resolution
• Dimensions: 137 x 67 x 9 mm / 123 g weight
• CPU: Quad Core Cortex A7 up to 1.3 GHz MediaTek
• GPU: Mali 400 up to 500 MHz
• Camera: 8 Mpx rear interpolated (Dual-flash and autofocus), 5 Mpx front
• Internal memory: 8 GB
• RAM: 1 GB
• Battery: LiPo 2150 mAh
• Dual micro-SIM
• MicroSD slot, up to 32 GB
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
• Bluetooth® 4.0
• 2G GSM (850/900/1800/1900)
• 3G HSPA+ (900/2100)
• GPS and A-GPS
• LED notification, Dolby® sound technology, FM radio, microphone, noise canceller

Scopes

Apps

”Magic edges”

Conclusions and how to get your own Ubuntu Phone

"After a successful few flash sales we're excited to announce that the shop is now open! The Ubuntu Phone will be available to purchase via our partner +BQ's store. We look forward to welcoming you to this new generation of mobile experiences that is simpler for developers and more unified for user".

+Ubuntu

• Screen: 5'' (720 x 1280, 294 HDPI)
• Dimensions: 71 x 142 x 8,65 mm
• CPU: Quad Core Cortex A7 up to 1.3 GHz
• GPU: Mali 400-MP2 up to 500 Mhz
• Camera: 13 Mpx with autofocus and Dualflash rear / 5 Mp front
• Internal memory: 16 GB eMMC
• RAM: 1 GB
• Battery: Lipo 2500 mAH
• Dual micro-SIM
• MicroSD slot, up to 32 GB
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
• Bluetooth® 4.0
• 3G: 3G + (HSPA+/UMTS/GSM)
• Dragontrail Protection Glass, Ambient noise cancellation, Brightness sensor, Microphone, Notification LED, Proximity sensor

• support for password history in the password generator;
• a new Password Audit helps change old and weak passwords;
• fixed various sync issues with WebDAV/ownCloud;
• new icons and other UI improvements;
• on Linux, there's now an option (Tools > Settings, on the General tab) to minimize the app to the tray instead of closing it but this feature only worked under Unity in my test (I also tested it under MATE and Cinnamon and there was no tray icon);
• bug fixes.

Download Enpass