Hello friends! I have another update on the core apps and I wanted to thank all the contributors that are making Ubuntu Touch awesome!

• Calculator App
  • Released version 2.4.0
    • Theme support
• Calendar App
  • New release coming soon
    • Improved colors for calendars
• Camera App
  • Moved to GitLab
• Clock App
  • Moved to GitLab
  • Working on fixing alarm timing issues
• File Manager App
  • Moved to GitLab
  • Released version 0.6.1
    • ContentHub import fixed
• Gallery App
  • Released version 2.10.1
    • New options to configure the grid size
    • Fixed missing albums when upgrading from Vivid
    • Bug fixes and UX improvements
• Messaging App
  • Can be built using Clickable (coming soon)
  • Visual imporvements (coming in next OTA)
• OpenStore
  • Released version 2.50
    • Minor fixes
• TELEports
  • Moved to UBports organization on GitLab
  • Had their second hackathon and are making great progress

Multiple apps have also had translation updates, thank you translators!

Hello everyone! I wanted to give a quick update on what's been going on in some of our core apps and developer docs recently.

• Calculator
  • Updated the math.js library to fix issues with decimals
  • Moved the code to GitLab for automated deploys to the OpenStore
• Music
  • The swipe animation between tracks in the now play view has been updated
  • The music app is now available on the OpenStore!
  • Moved code to GitLab for automated deploys to the OpenStore
• Weather
  • Currently working on getting an api key from OpenWeatherMap so we don't need to rely on the current key
• Gallery
  • New "Info" panel for media file details
  • Other minor improvements and translation updates

In general news we are slowly moving the core apps over to GitLab. We are going to setup each core app that is a click to be automatically compiled with Clickable and deployed to the OpenStore. If you're interested in setting up your own app with automated deploys to the OpenStore check out the Clickable docs.

The docs have seen some improvements thanks to some new guides by @CiberSheep. There are now guides on Content Hub export and Content Hub import & Url Dispatcher. If you are willing and able to contribute a guide or an example app you can find a full list of things we want to create over at the Development Resources GitLab project.

Thanks to all the hard work of our Core App developers/contributors, all the great translators, and our documentation writers!

Hello friends! It's been a while since I posted a core apps updated, but that just means there are more good things to talk about. Plenty of new releases over the last few months thanks to all the hard working contributors!

• Calendar
  • Released v0.8.1
    • Improved colors in color picker
    • Improved navigation between different views
• Clock
  • Released v3.12
    • Added user defined default alarm sound
    • Created work around for alarms sounding on the wrong time
• File Manager
  • Released v0.7.0
    • Removed bottom bars
    • Added theme support
    • New option to move the rename function to the swipe right actions
• Gallery
  • Released v2.10.2
    • Various fixes
• Notes
  • Released v0.7.0
    • New splash screen
  • Released v0.8.0
    • Initial dark mode support (better support coming in the future)
• OpenStore
  • Released v2.60
    • Added "Update All" button
    • Added banner loading indicator
    • Various fixes
  • Released v2.62
    • Various fixes
• Weather
  • Released v4.5.0
    • Added theme support
    • Fixed sunset/sunrise times
    • Improved moon phase display
  • Released v4.5.1
    • Various fixes

Multiple apps have also had translation updates, thank you translators!

Hello everyone! I just wanted to apologize for the mishap with the weather app this week. We got an api key for OpenWeatherMap for UBports and I published an update to the Weather app without realizing there should also be a Weather Channel api key. I recently pushed an update that removes the Weather Channel option and also removes the issues users were facing by moving them to the OpenWeatherMap provider. Unfortunately we won't be reactivating the Weather Channel/Weather Underground data provider since it seems they are shutting down their api in favor of a business focused IBM provider and they are no longer offering free api access and their data seems to have restrictions for some countries. For now we will keep with just OpenWeatherMap but we will look into other options like DarkSky, etc.

I've been working on this for a bit, but I wanted to release an early version of a possible Dash replacement. You can find it for download on the OpenStore. It's a bit more of a traditional home screen, but that's where the your feedback comes in. What do you think of this possibly being the default on your phone? Nothing official has been decided, this is just an experiment that I've been working on.

When taking a look keep in mind that's is pretty early stage. Although it already has support for the same icon packs that Falcon uses (props to @CiberSheep for those!). I hope you enjoy it and please leave any feedback/discussion here!

Hello again friends! I have another quick update on the core apps & developer documentation.

• Weather
  • Removed "The Weather Channel" data provider
  • Moved to GitLab
• Welcome App
  • Moved to GitLab
  • Fixed broken links
  • Cool visual refresh coming soon
• Gallery
  • Moved to GitLab
• Calendar
  • Fixed setting of the default calendar
  • Fixed custom reminders
  • Improved working hours
  • Fixed long pressing to add events
  • Recurring events have their intervals shown in the event details
• Document Viewer
  • Moved to GitLab
• Developer Documentation
  • Tutorial on writable directories
  • Tutorial on Push Notifications
  • Tutorial on User Metrics

Thanks to all the hard work of our Core App developers/contributors, all the great translators, and our documentation writers!

Hello fellow developers!

The UBports App Dev Steering committee has recently started efforts to improve the app developer documentation. The improvements are not just geared at onboarding new developers, but they are also for experienced developers. The first step in this long journey was the publishing of a revamped app dev page in the UBports docs. But there are several holes in it still! We've identified several areas where a tutorial would be useful and created a project in GitLab to track them. If you are interested in creating documentation/tutorials check out the project on GitLab and/or join our UBAD Discussion Group on matrix.

We want to make Ubuntu Touch the best development platform out there! We appreciate your help and support!

Thank you all for the great feedback! Some really great discussions coming out of this and hopefully we can continue this and turn out a great operating system!

One thing that Sprint really suffers from right now is that its very rough and very early. It's not very well integrated with the rest of unity. I kinda ignored the launcher when making Sprint. That's probably something that we want to keep since it's uniquely Ubuntu. So rather than the current design in Sprint it might make sense to do away with the bottom "favorites" section and make sure the launcher is better suited for the most frequently used apps. At this point the app draw in the next big unity 8 release is a bit of an unknown. But once that's a reality then we should definitely look at how that will interact with Dash/Sprint.

One thing that came up several times is how this has an Android-like feel too it. And I did borrow some ideas for other OSs. This is similar to how on my computer I'm running a "traditional" desktop environment that you could say has a Windows-like feel. But that doesn't mean that its bad. Being different for the sake of being different isn't always a good thing. I think we should take a look at what we want to focus on for Ubuntu Touch that makes it stand out when compared to other OSs. Things like privacy, security, openness, and convergence come to mind. Yes we should most certainly have our own style, we want people to know when they are running an Ubuntu Touch device. But right now the app scope doesn't really do us any favors as its very rigid and lacks any customization. Another thing to consider is onboarding new users. Borrowing ideas from other OSs can help ease users into using Ubuntu Touch.

Due to the range of responses, I think it makes sense to include more customizations in the final solutions as people want different things out if their Ubuntu Touch. And the other take away (as mentioned above), is that we should come up with a few key features/points that we want to define Ubuntu Touch.

Again thank you all for the feedback!

@mymike what do you think about turning your demo into a template for clickable? It could be really great way to get more people creating/porting SDL apps.

This is awesome, thanks for starting this, I'd like to take this info and put it on docs.ubports.com after a few responses.

Bacon2d

Website: https://github.com/Bacon2D/Bacon2D/
License: MIT
Language: QML, JavaScript
Games made with Bacon2d: None (maybe?)

From the README: Bacon2D is a framework to ease 2D game development, providing ready-to-use QML components useful for creating compeling games.

It hasn't seen any development in about a year so it's likely that this project has been abandoned.

SDL

Website: https://www.libsdl.org/
License: zlib
Language: C, C++
Games made with SDL: Fishy Shooter, Balls 2, Tuxracer

From their website: Simple DirectMedia Layer is a cross-platform development library designed to provide low level access to audio, keyboard, mouse, joystick, and graphics hardware via OpenGL and Direct3D. It is used by video playback software, emulators, and popular games including Valve's award winning catalog and many Humble Bundle games.

SDL is a well established library for use in games. It has been used to make several games for Ubuntu Touch (both original and ports). Although most of the apps seem to only be built for vivid and don't yet have xenial updates.

Phaser

Website: https://phaser.io/
License: MIT
Language: JavaScript
Games made with Phaser: Fish Tank

From the README: Phaser is a fun, free and fast 2D game framework for making HTML5 games for desktop and mobile web browsers, supporting Canvas and WebGL rendering.

Phaser is a popular open source engine for creating games in JavaScript. The one downside is that you'll need to use the canvas rendering method because there are issues with OpenGL on some devices (like the Bq phones).

Other JavaScript game engines

Other than Phaser there a several other options for game engines in JavaScript, they should all pretty much work on Ubuntu Touch since they just rely on a browser.

Well, I didn't do anything, but I'm glad it's working for you again

@domubpkm & @kugiigi can you provide more details? I'm not sure exactly what the issue is here.

@galestrike I too am in the US on AT&T. I don't have any advice for you, but I'm very invested in a solution for this. There is a bounty thread if you do find a solution to this. Good luck!

I should mention that I'm using AT&T and I will happily do testing!

I too want this and will put up $20. Thanks in advance!

@Lakotaubp Thanks for that support address, I've sent an email about it.

@Lakotaubp thank you so much!

Is there a support line for the store yet? I submitted an order a back when it first opened and haven't received any sort of indication that my order was received/process/shipped/etc.

@Flohack What's the problem? It's not available for xenial and if I recall there wasn't anything wrong with it back in the day. I also think it was a beta and not fully completed.

@kugiigi it was only for 15.04, it might just need updated & recompiled for 16.04