Firefox Mobile OS on your desktop Firefox

Everyone is quite eager to test and use Firefox mobile OS. May be we still have to wait for some more time for the mobiles to be available in market. However using a Firefox add-on you can simulate the Firefox mobile OS. This add-on is not stable and you might find lots of bugs and issues.  First of all download the Firefox mobile OS, you will find three version, based upon your operating system, download the respective version. Once the installation is complete, you will be redirected to a dashboard.


Firefox mobile Add-on Window
Firefox mobile Add-on Window

 

Suppose If you have missed the page somehow, you can get the dashboard by navigating to  Web Developer and click Firefox OS Simulator. For Mac, Linux it appears under Tools.

 

Accessing the Addon - Firefox mobile OS
Accessing the Addon – Firefox mobile OS

 

Click the Stopped button. It changes into the Running button and Firefox OS boots up in its own window. The default size for this window is 320×480. To stop the Simulator, click the Running button in the dashboard, or just close the Simulator window.


phone

 

Note: Because of the size of the add-on, Firefox may freeze for several seconds while installing it, and its unresponsive script dialog may appear, due to bug 814505. If it does, just click the Continue button, and Firefox will continue installing the add-on.

 

Well explained Animated Ad for ‘Ubuntu for Android’

Ubuntu for Android is an upcoming free and open source variant of Ubuntu designed to run on Android phones. Recent animated ad on Ubuntu for Android explains its features, functionality and benefits.

Features

  • Both Ubuntu and Android run at the same time on the device, without emulation and without the need to reboot. This is possible because both Ubuntu and Android share the same kernel (Linux).
  • When the device is connected to a desktop monitor, it features a standard Ubuntu Desktop interface.
  • When the device is connected to a TV, the interface featured is the Ubuntu TV experience.
  • Ability to run standard Ubuntu Desktop applications, like Firefox, Thunderbird, VLC, etc.
  • Ability to run Android applications on the Ubuntu Desktop.
  • Make and receive calls and SMSs directly from the Desktop.

System requirements

  • According to Canonical a phone needs the following requirements:
  • Dual-core 1 GHz CPU
  • Video acceleration: shared kernel driver with associated X driver; OpenGL, ES/EGL
  • Storage: 2 GB for OS disk image
  • HDMI: video-out with secondary framebuffer device
  • USB host mode
  • 512 MB RAM

Courtesy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_for_Android
                   http://www.ubuntu.com/devices/android

 

How To Install Android 4.0 (ICS) On Your Netbook

Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) is the latest version of the Android platform for phones, tablets, and more. Android-x86 gives everyone a way to install Android on Intel netbooks. Well I will also explain how to enable dual boot with Ubuntu.

1. Head towards Androidx86 project page and download the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. You might find couple of version, select the best one which suit your netbook. Well I prefer ‘android-x86-4.0-RC1-eeepc.iso’. Click on the file to download the iso file

2. Make your Live USB Drive bookable using UNetbootin. Well you can use other boot loaders as well. I prefer UNetbootin, as it supports all platform. Select the .iso file and make the Usb Drive bootable

3. Now Insert the Usb Drive into your Netbook and start using Android 4.0. To get the feel of Android 4.o, you can try out the Live Android-x86. To install, follow the simple steps as prompted. Its recommended to create virtual SD Card.

However you wont be able to make your system dual bootable. Well, you can achieve it. Install Androidx86 to any of your logical drive.

1. Now boot into Ubuntu and open the Terminal and type ‘gksu gedit /etc/grub.d/40_custom’

2. Which will open a text window. At the bottom, add the following line.


menuentry "Android-x86"
{
   set root='(hd0,0)'
   linux /android-4.0-RC1/kernel quiet
   root=/dev/ram0
   androidboot.hardware=eeepc
   acpi_sleep=s3_bios,
   s3_mode SRC=/android-4.0-RC1 SDCARD=/data/sdcard.img
   initrd /android-4.0-RC1/initrd.img
}

Note: * If you didn’t create virtual sdcard, remove the “SDCARD=/data/sdcard.img” part from the 3rd line (make sure you don’t remove anything else!) * The above menu entry uses “eeepc” for androidboot.hardware, but you can replace it with your hardware, depending on the ISO you have downloaded.

3. Find which partion you installed Androidx86. use the following command to find the value ‘sudo fdisk -l’
so if you’ve installed Android x86 on let’s say “sda5”, you’d use “(hd0,5)”. Update the set root value.
4. Now make the file executable and update the GRUB

sudo chmod +x /etc/grub.d/40_custom
sudo update-grub

5. That’s it, there you go. Press shift key before the GRUB loads to select Androidx86
I’m sure its possible to make dual boot with Android and Windows. Do share with me, if you have the answer.

Special Thanks to makeuseof and webupd blogs

How To Upgrade From Ubuntu 11.10 To Ubuntu 12.04

The latest version of Ubuntu 12.04 is out few hours back. If its a fresh installtion, you can download from Ubuntu Site or download from here

To upgrade from ubuntu 11.10 to ubuntu 12.04, follow the procedure

1. To start the upgrading process, Press ALT+F2, type update-manager –d and press Enter
Note: You can also you Terminal for the same.

2. This will open the Update Manager where an upgrade button will be visible with a message that the new Ubuntu release is available for upgrade. Click Upgrade to continue.

 

3. Shortly after continuing, Release Notes window will be visible. Click Upgrade to initiate the upgrade process.

 

4. Just before the upgrade, you will be asked to enter your password, after which the upgrade process will initiate.

5. During the process, it will list out install files, no longer needed files, no longer supported by canonical files, Remove files and upgrade files. Click Start Upgrade to continue. Update will take time depending upon your internet connection speed.


6. Once the the upgrade is complete, you will be prompted to restart your computer for the changes to take effect.That’s it you have successfully completed the process.

Geekphilip tips:
1. Make sure, you take backup of your files
2. You can cancel the download, any time you like. When you try again, it will resume from the same location.
3. Make sure, you don’t halt the upgrade process once the installation process begins.

How Linux Is Built

While Linux is running our phones, friend requests, tweets, financial trades, ATMs and more, most of us don’t know how it’s actually built. This short video takes you inside the process by which the largest collaborative development project in the history of computing is organized. Based on the annual report “Who Writes Linux,” this is a powerful and inspiring story of how Linux has become a community-driven phenomenon.

Introducing the HUD to Ubuntu

Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Canonical Ubuntu Linux’s parent company, has announced that Ubuntu will be adopting a radical new change to the interface that will do away with the “menu” in the Windows, Icons, Menus, Pointer (WIMP) interface, which has defined the desktop for the last thirty years. Shuttleworth states, “The menu has been a central part of the GUI since Xerox PARC invented ‘em in the 70?s. It’s the M in WIMP and has been there, essentially unchanged, for 30 years. We can do much better!” This new interface, which will first appear as a beta in April’s Ubuntu 12.04 release, is called Head-Up Display.

Head-Up Display, or HUD, which will ultimately replace menus in Unity applications. Here’s what you’ll see in 12.04 when you invoke the HUD from any standard Ubuntu app that supports the global menu:

Menus serve two purposes. They act as a standard way to invoke commands which are too infrequently used to warrant a dedicated piece of UI real-estate, like a toolbar button, and they serve as a map of the app’s functionality, almost like a table of contents that one can scan to get a feel for ‘what the app does’. It’s command invocation that we think can be improved upon, and that’s where we are focusing our design exploration. HUD seems to be very promising, lets wait and see.

For more information check out Mark Shuttleworth’s blog

Firefox 8 Officially Released

Firefox 8, released on Nov 8th 2011

So what’s new?

  • Add-ons installed by third-party programs are now disabled by default
  • Added a one-time add-on selection dialog to manage previously installed add-ons
  • Added Twitter to the search bar
  • Added a preference to load tabs on demand, improving start-up time when windows are restored
  • Improved performance and memory handling when using
  • Added Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) support for cross-domain textures in WebGL
  • Added support for HTML5 context menus
  • Added support for insertAdjacentHTML
  • Improved CSS hyphen support for many languages
  • Improved WebSocket support
  • Fixed several stability issues

Download

 

Ubuntu Heading to TVs, Smartphones and Tablets

Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu Linux, announced at the Ubuntu Developer Summit in Orlando, FL, that they will be taking Ubuntu Linux to smartphones, tablets, and smart TVs.

Shuttleworth said, “This is a natural expansion of our idea as Ubuntu as Linux for human beings. As people have moved from desktop to new form factors for computing, it’s important for us to reach out to out community on these platforms. So, we’ll embrace the challenge of how to use Ubuntu on smartphones, tablets and smart-screens.”

For more info. check zdnet

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich: Features

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich, announced on October 19, 2011, brought Honeycomb features to smartphones and added new features including facial recognition unlock, network data usage monitoring and control, unified social networking contacts, photography enhancements, offline email searching, and information sharing using NFC. The company says 4.0 is a complete rethink of Android’s image and is part of a push to make the OS “Enchant me, Simplify My Life, and Make Me Awesome.”

1. Face Unlock: One of the outstanding features of Android is Face Unlock.As the name suggests, unlocks your handset based on facial recognition technology.

2. Android beam: Android is using NFC (near-field communication) so you can share apps, URLs, videos, and songs just by tapping Android phones together.

3. Advanced camera: It allows to conveniently filter, crop, reduce red-eye and many more image editing stuff. Improved auto-focus and integration with other apps.

4. Screen Capture: Its now easy to capture the screenshot of your android device. Just Hold down the power and volume buttons to snap a screenshot.

5. Redesigned UI: The new UI is much sleeker, makes the phone more visual and easier to use. The new system bar provides more control across the entire device and frequently used apps. Roboto typeface made it more attractive and professional.

6. Data Control: An inbuilt feature of Android is the new data control, which allows to manage, monitor, control the data usage. To make it more impressive, it comes with charts and diagrams.

7. Improved Text Input: The new one is faster and more accurate. It got a better dictionaries for correcting misspelled words, also shows wrong spelling with red underline. Copy paste became very simple and easy, as you can move around entire block of text.

8. People App: A new spin on the contact list. The phone’s owner has their own profile, and people’s contact details are sourced from Google+, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Users can define favorite contacts, and individual people can be placed on the homescreen or in folders for quick access.

9. Favorites Tray: Users can stow their favorite apps, links, and folders into a new Favorites tray for quick and easy access.

10. Flexible Widgets: Ice Cream Sandwich’s stock widgets are re-sizable and more robust than previous versions. Also allow us to create folder and categories all apps, contacts etc…

Ubuntu’s 7th Birthday

On Oct 20th, 2004 Mark Shuttleworth and his team announced the initial version of Ubuntu, UBUNTU 4.10. Ubuntu is a fork of the Debian project’s codebase. The original aim of the Ubuntu team was to create an easy-to-use Linux desktop with new releases scheduled on a predictable six-month basis, resulting in a more frequently updated system. Ubuntu’s first release was on 20 October 2004. Since then, Canonical has released new versions of Ubuntu every six months with commitment to support each release for eighteen months by providing security fixes, patches to critical bugs and minor updates to programs. It was decided that every fourth release, issued on a two-year basis, would receive long-term support (LTS). LTS releases are supported for three years on the desktop and five years on the server.


Ubuntu 4.10 Screenshot

Applications:

  • GNOME 2.8 (Yes, GNOME 2.8)
  • Firefox 0.9
  • OpenOffice.org 1.1.2
  • Gaim instant messenger 1.0 (Gaim would later become Pidgin)
  • GIMP 2.0
  • Floppy Formatter
  • Naming Convention:
    ‘Warty Warthog’ was so named because of the short amount of time in which it was put together, resulting in release lacking ‘polish’

    If you like to experiment Ubuntu 4.10, Click here to download