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@stanwood Well, it seems that smartphones and computers are finally exempt from the surcharges applied to products from China bound for the United States. I assume that further updates will be published shortly by R. Braxmann.
Everything changes so quickly...
Just a quick update on the Brax3 devices production & shipment details.
Although this subject does not specifically concern Ubuntu Touch, new information was published yesterday in a live stream by Rob Braxmann, himself - or at least his company - in partnership with the UBports foundation concerning a future Brax3 version equipped with Ubuntu Touch.
Due to the new 145% customs duty on products from China to the US, the company has decided to move production to the European Union. Batches already produced in China will have to be dismantled, shipped in parts to a country within the EU (probably Bulgaria, but this information has yet to be confirmed), and then reassembled with certain parts from the EU.
Purchasers living in the United States will be able to keep their order, for a modest surcharge of $30, which is perfectly acceptable. An over delay is however expected.
For international buyers outside the US, in principle nothing changes. The devices are likely to be shipped directly from China to the destination countries.
However, it has not yet been decided whether future batches will be assembled entirely in Europe, or partly in China.
One thing does however seem certain, once the batches offered on Indiegogo are sold out, the price of the device is likely to rise significantly (we're talking about approx. $399 excluding tax).
You can watch Rob Braxmann's full talk here:
Given the current volatility of the global political and economic situation, further updates may be issued from time to time.
@naizena If you wish.... There's a "Shazam like" app in the OpenStore: Music Recognition:
https://open-store.io/app/soundrecog.luksus
Just create a free account and enter the signing keys in Music Recognition. It works pretty well. All my tags were found within seconds. It's basic but reliable. The history of all your searches is automatically saved 
@jojumaxx Dumb question: Are you connected to a WiFi network when you launch the search? (I think you have to...)
Indeed you should have OTA-8 now.
You can also try to change the channel to "RC" and then change it back to "Stable", reboot the device, and refresh the updater.
Finally, if none of those tips work, you can re-install UT using UBports Installer. You will get for sure the latest OTA-8 version (do NOT wipe data).
@Josele13 Don't forget to tick "Wipe Data" and "Bootstrap partition" in UBports Installer.
Dear all,
Well, I have 2 questions this time:
Given the exciting developments over the past few weeks, and especially with the addition of VoLTE on some devices on dev channel, are you planning to release a further stable OTA on the Focal branch?
Canonical has officially announced that it has integrated the API of the open-source location provider BeaconDB into its repositories with the next release of version Ubuntu 25.04:
https://beacondb.net/
https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/plucky-puffin-release-notes/48687
Could this addition open up a future perspective for A-GPS functionality on Ubuntu Touch?
Thank you very much! Can't wait to watch the Q&A 162! Cheers!
@Vlad-Nirky Oh... Sad to learn. Indeed, Blutetooth works pretty well in Focal (Seat Alhambra 2014 + Ford Fiesta 2017, both run pretty well with no issue). It also runs nicely with all BT audio devices I did connect.
But indeed, Noble is not yet ready for stable release. If you need those services as you daily driver, you may stay on Focal for now.
@Vlad-Nirky I think it's because Contacts sync are currently broken, but it would maybe be fixed in Noble as I heard (let's see)...
If you have money and want UT preinstalled, Volla and Fiarphone are the way to go.
Correct, all Volla devices do have a "UBports" version. However, I'm not sure one can find the Fairphone 4 with preinstalled UT. Have you got a link or a retailer?
If you are in North America and require VoLTE, the Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 pro is going well on that.
Indeed! And also Redmi Note 9S and Pro India + Poco X3 NFC are now VoLTE capable on the Dev channel! I guess more devices to come on the next upcoming weeks...
@carl So you might consider changing your device if you still wish to continue with UT beyond July 31 / 2025, as Pixel 3a has nearly 0 chance to handle VoLTE. Or move to another carrier to gain some time.
As @wally said above, there's no official VoLTE time table right now at UBports, but things are moving well and some crucial steps have been done those last weeks.
This is what I've been able to understand from the various community channels - and with all due caution - as I can be wrong:
Volla 22 and Volla X23 have already jumped in since OTA-8. Some users would probably need to upgrade their Halium port from 9 to 12. (No idea how to do this though...)
Fairphone 4 / Fairphone 5: Already running on FP5 (dev mode). Should land with Noble on the FP4. Both did provide pretty decent results. 5G/NR bands should also come at the same time. .
Redmi Note 9S / Pro / India: It happens right now. Our gorgeous team has just merged VoLTE into devel (both Focal and Noble) for further tests. Seems to run pretty well, including SMS over LTE and Bluetooth car audio calls. High chances to land within the next Stable release. (Big big Kudos to Adam, Beyolf, Vlad, Marius and all others...)
Pocco X3 NFC: Also running tests. Some users report that the recipient person has no sound. To be followed, but should eventually be fixed soon.
New upcoming devices: Brax3 / Volla Quintus: I assume VoLTE will be part of the port. No official info so far. Stay tuned....
I don't know about the other devices, especially regarding OnePlus - F(X)Tec - Pine64 and Asus supported smartphones. Maybe involved people will communicate in appropriate time.
So here are some clues if you need to choose a new device. But I strongly advise to wait for clear official announcements before to get a new one.
@kugiigi Well, I don't know how exactly this works (I deactivate that stuff). The system scans eyes and face, but no idea how it handles this behind the scene...
@Moem @kuuga Unfortunately no good news regarding VoLTE on Pixel 3a.
Indeed, great new progresses have been done recently and VoLTE should land on more devices, and even quite soon (that's the good news part).
But also Alfred was clear in the latest Q&A that it certainly won't be done on Pixel 3a since it would need a complete new Halium 12 port - which by the way won't guarantee VoLTE to work. Moreover his carrier in Austria doesn't handle this model through VoLTE.
You can watch his explanations at 37:30:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irXEtukxpJQ&ab_channel=UBports
However, if someone else is interested to dive into this, why not...
But let's be honest, the chances are tiny...
@kugiigi Not necessarily. My brand new Xiaomi Redmi Pad Pro (2024), under HyperOS 2.1, does not have any fingerprint sensor, but does have an ocular biometric recognition instead. (Don't know about Volla tablet)
@PhAndersson If the Snap package doesn't work well, you can get the latest UBports Installer AppImage version here: https://devices.ubuntu-touch.io/installer/ which works like a charm on my Xubuntu laptop.
If the device fails to reboot in recovery mode, you may try to force the behavior using: (in the terminal)
adb reboot recovery
Also, ensure you have ticked all the boxes "Wipe data" + "Bootstrap partition", etc...
@domubpkm According to this: https://ubports.com/fr/blog/ubports-blogs-et-nouvelles-1/post/ubuntu-touch-ota-8-focal-release-3953
VollaX23 and Volla22 have now VoLTE capabilities running Halium 12 port.
As I don't have a Volla, I don't know how to upgrade your port from 9 to 12 on Ubuntu Touch. Maybe installing VollaOS using UBports installer, then upgrade through Android to the latest Android 12 version, then reinstall Ubuntu Touch using UBports installer? (I guess you can choose the port version on UBports installer?)
There's also maybe a way using SPflashtool (Windows) and select the ROM image zip to install the latest firmware, this should be done with Android partitions on the device, and don't know where to find Volla images and firmware.
It would be nice to have advice from Volla 22 and X23 users.
@rik Some VoLTE tests have been successfully done on Qualcomm devices (not especially Volla), that is awesome. But I guess larger tests are now needed before to push on any OTA Stable release.
Does it make sense / Or is there a way to merge this discussion with this one?
https://forums.ubports.com/topic/10520/furiphone-flx1-with-furios
Or rather create a new device in the device list on this forum?
Well it might ... or might not....be possible to load another splash screen, but I would not dare to do this on a Fairphone 4 for instance.
I've successfully done this some years ago on my previous Redmi Note 7, and it worked well.
First, create your own splash screen. It must be saved as an .img extension.
Then, put your device in fastboot mode and connect it to your computer. If it's Linux, use the terminal and move inside the Directory where you have the new screen you want to load.
Then enter:
fastboot flash splash newsplash.img
Replace "newsplash" by the exact name of your file.
Again, do this at your own risk as I don't know how Fairphone do manage this. It can lead to a complete softbrick of the device that only an EDL software can recover (must be sent to Fairphone technical service).
Tampering with a smartphone's fastboot partition is certainly the most dangerous possible type of operations.
Take a look at here:
https://xdaforums.com/t/tool-guide-custom-boot-logo-fastboot-splash-images.3885079/
@tuXut Interesting and definitely worth to watch. (Use a live translation subtitle because it's in German)
Though, no mention to Ubuntu Touch nor UBports in the video.
@libremax has gave further information on the french Ubuntu community forum. I translate his comment below in English:
"Note that the port is being developed by the same FuriLabs team that developed the FLX1 and FuriOS.
What's more, dual boot is also supported, making it a competitor to the Volla devices.
For the moment, it works with an SD card. It remains to be seen whether the main storage memory can be used at a later date (as announced for the Volla Quintus and Volla Tablet)."
Source: https://forum.ubuntu-fr.org/viewtopic.php?id=2090409#p22829131
It has already been posted somewhere on this forum a few days ago by @libremax so sorry for the duplication...
Ubuntu Touch seems to be running (well) on the new Furiphone FLX1 and should be officially be part of our supported devices I hope quite soon.
It will/should support double boot feature with FuriOS as well as possibly VoLTE.
Picture available here: https://t.me/furilabs_chat/29378