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Ubuntu Edge

indiegogo.com

261–270 of 390 posts

Re: Ubuntu Edge

#261
post #32

Reached 100+ K in an hour!!!

They have to average $42K an hour for the next month for this to work. That realistically means they need to pull in a few million in the first few days.

At the moment, they're averaging $53K every 15 minutes. I know it's the initial rush, but it does look promising.

Re: Ubuntu Edge

#262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You think 4 gigs of ram, sapphire display and 128gb ssd are going to be the norm in 2014? Not very likely. That would be just about double the Samsung S4 right now. I don't think it is very likely for 2014. 2015, maybe though. And I don't think Canonical is going to build the phone but work with someone to do it. > (3) would be a negative for me... you would get the slowest, least power efficient, and most app-baron…

The S4 has a 1080p screen (better than the edge) a Quad (comparable to the edge) and with SD cards, can be expanded to 128gb of storage on the cheap. Not to mention the app selection for Android is unbeatable. Sure it didn't have many apps in the early days, but because it was one of the first to market, it will retain this lead. Look at HP's touchpad, BB10, and Windows Phone - they've had years to catch up and have…

The Nexua 4 is a no brainer? The lack of MicroSD expansion says otherwise.

Re: Ubuntu Edge

#263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

US Government Treasury bonds have a 3.5% annual interest rate. I'm pretty sure that buying them does not require trying hard.

What bond has that high of an interest rate? I am seeing 0.3% annual rates for US bonds right now. (And that is for 2 year bonds, not very good for 1-3 month lags)

Even if you only need the money for a year, there is no reason you can't buy 30 year bonds and sell them later. Short term treasury bonds get a much lower price because they are dominated by buyers that are obligated to buy them for some reason (they've even had negative interest rates in the past).

Re: Ubuntu Edge

#264

I love crowd funding, and this seems like a great project. But please, before you pledge money, remember one thing: This is not a pre-order: nothing guarantees that you will ever get anything for the money you've put in. By pledging money, you become an underprivileged investor. Sometimes, you'll get your money's worth. Sometimes, you'll loose that money. If that's OK by you, then great. If you want a stronger guaran…

It's worth noting that you don't lose your money if the funding fails - it will get refunded to you.

Re: Ubuntu Edge

#265
post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think video said if this thing succeeds, then there might be similar future projects. If not, there wont be next edge or similar projects. "The Ubuntu Edge is an exclusive production run, available only through Indiegogo" But there is no going mainstream, it is the whole point. This is not the mainstream pc/mobile. Good quote from comment section: "It's a premier, demonstration platform, not a mass market device."…

Except it's a horrible comparison, because an F1 car is orders of magnitude higher in performance than an everyday car. The Edge on the other hand, has a lower resolution screen than the Galaxy S4, a consumer device. They claim the performance will be amazing, yet don't even specify which CPU/SoC they will be using (only claiming it will be a quad, also available in the Galaxy series). 128gb of storage? Big deal. My…

I agree - and this is what dissuades me from buying one. While the industrial design is indeed cool I'm not convinced that faster phones won't be available at the time of launch; this product has a very significant number of engineering challenges ahead of it, not the least of which is software.

If there is a 2nd- or 3rd-gen Edge I will be very interested, but today's state-of-the-art ARM quad is not enough for the tasks I usually run on my laptop. If it can't replace my laptop, then contributing to this project is just throwing $600 (or $830!) sight-unseen into a development black hole that could be months late.

In these sorts of situations contributors are almost never reimbursed for delays. By the time this launches there will be yet another generation of Intel chips, ARM chips, and flagship Android/iPhone devices. It just doesn't make economic sense.

I appreciate what they are trying to do and I don't know if there's a better way. But it's quite a risk to shell out that much for a toy that may not really be that useful in this iteration.

Re: Ubuntu Edge

#266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For the same reason Microsoft made the Surface and Google has the Nexus devices. "This is how it's done" sets a very strong precedence for OEMs to follow. Canonical can set the bar high right off the bat to avoid being like the first few years of Android phones.

> For the same reason Microsoft made the Surface and Google has the Nexus devices. The Nexus handsets are basically third party handsets with some input from Google, but primarily engineered and built by the hardware partner (LG, Samsung, etc). It's not really comparable. Microsoft do engineer and build the Surface themselves, but last time I checked they just took a $900 million loss on it. Hardly great stuff.

You've got to remember that Canonical have openly said that they wish to be the open source version of Apple - and to even exceed them, if possible. So when this philosophy collides with the practical approach of the Nexus series then you have this device.

Re: Ubuntu Edge

#267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it means they'll do Cyanogenmod style distribution instead of partnering with a handset maker/carrier.

I think you need to watch the video. It definitely sounds like they've had talks with manufacturers and been heavily criticized for believing that the industry is ready for this kind of convergent device. As Mark said, manufacturers need proof of this proposition. It sounds to me like Mark has said, "Fine then, we'll go to our fans with the ideal device and see if the market responds. If they do, we're right and you…

Sounds like another way of saying what I did, no?

I hope it works and it's awesome.

Just can't help thinking the pitch is a little half-assed, for an Ubuntu. The crowdfunding model is for little guys who are doing amazing things and can't get investment and distribution. It's a sign of weakness when an established player can't get those things. Ubuntu was featured by Dell but isn't anymore. Meanwhile Chromebook seems to have found a niche. You have to keep the users and OEMs on board and execute the stuff that's in your wheelhouse.

Re: Ubuntu Edge

#268
post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

QML isn't XML-based. Thanks for the correction, I was thinking of xib, XAML, Activities etc. haven't used QML, though I have used Qt, a while ago now. One thing I do think HTML got right is to separate content and code, so putting my UI markup into a js-like format which potentially mixes in code is even less appealing :) Yes, you can jam everything into a HTML document somehow, but that doesn't mean it's always a pl…

Qt just released 5.1, which has prelimiary ios and Android support. By the end of the year, you will be able to write a Qt application, and use a QML ui. You can even use one single UI across all devices, where the UI dynamically adds or substracts elements depending on screen size. IE, responsive design for applications. It is pretty close to write once, run anywhere. The only downside is if your app is the first qt…

> The only downside is if your app is the first qt app installed on an ios / android device, it forces a download of the shared libraries which are quite large.

How does this get around sandboxing on iOS? My fuzzy understanding is that components would need to be downloaded for each app independently. And is there a reason those shared libraries can't be bundled?

Re: Ubuntu Edge

#269
post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow. Does this include PayPal's cut?

PayPal takes 2,9 to 3,9% plus a base transaction fee[0], so their share of the pie would be at least $928000. [0] https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/paypal-fees

Yes, but once you reach a certain tier per month (which indiegogo would have reached by now) this goes down to around 1.1%.

Re: Ubuntu Edge

#270

I love crowd funding, and this seems like a great project. But please, before you pledge money, remember one thing: This is not a pre-order: nothing guarantees that you will ever get anything for the money you've put in. By pledging money, you become an underprivileged investor. Sometimes, you'll get your money's worth. Sometimes, you'll loose that money. If that's OK by you, then great. If you want a stronger guaran…

It's worth noting that you don't lose your money if the funding fails - it will get refunded to you.

I think they're referring to the case where the funding succeeds. As a non-proud Esquiso owner (who doesn't regret the gamble), I can testify that hardware is hard.

That said, my money's on these guys to pull it off. My only concern is quality control and support/maintenance.

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