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Aquaris E4.5 Ubuntu Edition

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Re: Aquaris E4.5 Ubuntu Edition

#181

Post by chipaca »

AlphaGeekZulu wrote: post #116

I have this phone since around 20th of March and like it really very much. The Terminal app is hilarious. I was pleased to find much more stuff in the Ubuntu store than expected. Telephony is perfect. The one thing I do not like is the runtime of the battery. 44 hours was the absolute maximum I had this phone running before it went black (just turning it on, entering the SIM-PIN, having Bluetooth, GPS and WiFi turned…

The next OTA (which should pass QA next week) is going to make battery a significantly better, fwiw.

Re: Aquaris E4.5 Ubuntu Edition

#182

Post by listic »

icebraining wrote: post #177
listic wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MediaTek is not just a lower-end chip; it potentially has its own unique advanages. E.g. AFAIK only phones with MediaTek chips potentially can: - ring an alarm when in 'off' state - change their IMEI I'm not claiming that everyone needs that or that it will be possible on Ubuntu; just reminding that MTK chips have some unique advantages, too.

I wonder why you'd need a specific chipset to have an RTC alarm. Couldn't it be added on the board independently? After having so many Nokias, I'm still amazed how so many phones miss what should be a basic feature.

I believe noone bothers to add additional hardware for this, but MTK has the hardware on-chip. I, too, hold old Nokias as a standard in this regard.

Re: Aquaris E4.5 Ubuntu Edition

#183

Post by chipaca »

cs702 wrote: post #66

Love it. Only one missing feature prevents me from buying it: Ubuntu Phone doesn't seem to have easy, painless, over-the-air syncing of calendars and contacts with third-party applications/services like Google Apps and Microsoft Exchange, for snappy access to that data whether I'm online or offline.

Calendar syncing to google should work (but i haven't checked, and i don't know whether it would meet your other qualifiers).

Re: Aquaris E4.5 Ubuntu Edition

#184

Post by nirvanis »

I hate to be that guy, but I believe I need to share this. I was amongst the "lucky" ones who managed to get one of the phones of the first batch they sold (my Serial Number is lower than 1500). After using the phone for 20 minutes, I realized that the OS is _very_ far from being usable. I was able to spot more than 10 bugs that would prevent any regular smartphone user to use Ubuntu Phone as a replacement of a rudimentary smart phone.

I guess we will have to wait/help/contribute a lot to get it closer to an acceptable quality level.

In the meantime, I wonder if there is any way to install Android on the Ubuntu Edition E4.5.

Re: Aquaris E4.5 Ubuntu Edition

#185

Post by Kurtz79 »

reddotX wrote: post #15
[deleted] wrote: post #13

[deleted]

does WhatsApp support Ubuntu Phone?

No, it says it on the front page:

"Although applications like Whatsapp, Google+ or Candy Crush aren't there yet you get many others such as Telegram, HERE maps and Cut the rope, and web apps like Facebook and Twitter"

Now, trying not comment about Candy Crush being considered a "must have" app for a smartphone, it will be still a tough sell, especially in the EU, where Whatsapp is a necessity for a lot of users.

Re: Aquaris E4.5 Ubuntu Edition

#187

Post by vidarh »

qrmn wrote: post #74
vidarh wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why? They're not the highest end, but then again the price and other specs makes it clear that this is not intended as a high end phone. For a mid range phone MediaTek CPU's are easily powerful enough. Unless you have other objections?

MediaTek have not been historically known for engaging with the open-source community, documenting their chipsets, and complying with the GPL, to put it mildly. Unless anyone knows that's changed in recent years?

That may be so, but there's hardly any CPU around you can even boot without binary blobs of some form these days. E.g. consider the massive pain the Coreboot people are going through to get anything reasonably open out of Intel.

I would prefer more open hardware and will vote with my wallet if there's something open of reasonable price/performance, but I choose to be pragmatic about it. In this space, even getting something I can run a non-locked down Linux on is an improvement.

Re: Aquaris E4.5 Ubuntu Edition

#188

Post by szatkus »

hyperpallium wrote: post #86
mbrock wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They also make an e-reader [1] with open source software. I'm somewhat obsessed with the idea of using it for ssh/mosh as a portable terminal. It would be very cool to hear if someone has tried this, before ordering one. I mailed some random guy at BQ and he said he never tried it, but also found it interesting. If you find it interesting too, maybe you could run down and ask around! :) [1]: http://www.bq.com/gb/prod…

(I don't know but...) I like the idea of an e-ink terminal, however I fear the slow refresh rate would make editing difficult. I guess someone somewhere has tried it though... The specs of that particular one show no bluetooth (and no OTG usb), so can't connect a keyboard. It also has no wireless apart from wifi; and only 512MB (though that's plenty for ssh!)

Well, I used Nook Simple Touch that way. Terminal were in fact sluggish, but AFAIR there was a hack to "overclock" refresh rate[0].

[0] http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/23/hack-enables-fast-refresh...

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