Ubuntu SDK Apps are coming
The Ubuntu SDK preview is just over 2 months old, but we’ve already seen a lot of development starting with it. Read below for a high-level look at some of the apps that are currently being written.
Core Apps
Shortly after making Ubuntu Touch and the SDK preview announcements, we kicked off an effort to develop the core applications for Ubuntu devices in the open with full community involvement. We identified a number of desired applications, recruited interested community contributors, and dedicated design and project management resources from Canonical staff.
The actual development phase for these apps has only recently started, but some of them have shown a huge amount of progress already.
Calculator
The Calculator app has made huge progress, and has been working closely with Canonical designers to work out the user interface and user experience.
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Calendar
Likewise,the Calendar app developers have been iterating over their UI/UX with the design team, and are making fast progress on the front-end.
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Clock
The Clock app is also sporting a functional, stylish analog dial that shows your current time, with screens staged for more features to come.
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Weather
Even the weather app has seen some UI work recently
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But wait! There’s more!
The Core Apps developers aren’t the only ones working with the Ubuntu SDK preview, we’ve seen a number of 2nd and 3rd party app developers writing new apps or porting existing ones. Here’s a short list of the ones that I’ve seen in development:
More or Less
A simple number guessing game
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Alternative Weather App
Community developer Joseph Mills independently created another Weather app
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Gwibber/Friends
Gwibber microblogging client developer Ken Vandine has started porting it to a QML front-end using the Ubuntu SDK
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Sudoku Touch
Everybody’s favorite number puzzle, you can now play Sudoku on Ubuntu Touch using the SDK components.
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Akari
Or the lesser known number puzzle: Akari
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SameGame
If number puzzles aren’t your thing, you can always group and pop some bubbles with SameGame
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Chess Engine
Vibhav Pant gives us hope that a mobile chess app will be available soon, by porting his chess engine to the Ubuntu SDK
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Novacut
Speaking of things too come, Novacut developer David Jordan has also been playing with the Ubuntu SDK and gives us this teaser
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OMG!Ubuntu! Reader
But if you just want to kick back and catch up on some Ubuntu news, you can try the OMG!Ubuntu Reader
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Google Reader
And for the rest of your news reading, you can use this Google Reader built with the Ubuntu SDK
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WhosThere
Keep up with your friends using this WhatsApp client for Ubuntu Touch
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Jono Head
And then of course there’s this. I don’t even…
50 Responses to Ubuntu SDK Apps are coming
Is the Jono Head app.. touch enabled?!? Can I actually _touch_ Jono’s head?
Or better yet can I draw a handlebar mustache and a monacle and dare I say it a top hat overlaid on Jono’s head?
Keep pushing the SDK. A coherent SDK story is extremely important for a platform push.
It is, and when you poke him he says things
Wow! So life like!
-jef
Sometimes technology scares me…
Imagine what you could do in the future
well… looking into my crystal ball a bit….
I expect that the Jono head app will develop an AI good enough to fool everyone during the next set of vUDS hangout sessions. This way Jono can deploy a Jono Head app instance in the cloud and cut over his video feed to the floating head when he needs to take a few minutes to eat or go to the bathroom or change a diaper. And looking further, in a year I expect Jono Head to be sentient and will be able to relieve Jono for long periods of time, long enough to take an intensive 6 week summer BBQ culinary class, without anyone, not even his own team will knowing he’s punted his workload to a talking head in the cloud.
Could be great to have Mr Jono potato head !
Need to find him a miss…
Why so much grey on light grey or light grey on white? Isn’t contrast even more important on mobile?
It may look good in movies. But it’s damn near unusable.
Yeah, I second that. Even on my desktop, the first thing I do after installing Ubuntu is changing the default theme to one with a higher contrast. Gray on gray is terrible on the eyes. I think they should go more for a papery feel and give it a more natural, human look.
Pretty please make the apps with a higher contrast!
or you could wait until they release theming for Ubuntu Touch lol
That would be nice too! =)
I saw on G+ that you were playing around with layout changes depending on window size. As part of the convergence strategy, I assume some of these apps are eventually going to make their way to the desktop. I haven’t seen any designs taking that into account yet. Any examples out there that I might have missed?
Join the SDK Days this Thursday and Friday to find out
42.
When will these amazing apps be available in PPA?
The Core Apps have a daily build PPA: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-touch-coreapps-drivers/+archive/daily
The rest you’ll have to check with the author to find out.
There are some common problems with the debian packaging of those apps though. (Missing dependencies and not packaging all required files, like *.js files because they are missing from the app template packaging rules.)
I’ve reported bugs for calendar/clock/calculator on launchpad, and two of them were fixed swiftly, but some apps don’t even have the bug-tracking feature of launchpad enabled. Michael, can you look into enabling that?
(i.e. the “rssreader” app package is missing *.js files, the “weather” app package is missing the “components” sub-dir, but both don’t appear to allow bug reports.)
The always amazing Alan Pope has enabled bug reporting on the rest of the apps, so file away!
Thanks! :-)
The calculator links to the clock app video.
Fixed it, thanks.
Will there be an app store ( ala android etal) where free/paid apps co-mingle ? Ubuntu can get another revenue stream and users get the convenience of one-stop shop. Also, it is a good way to jump start developer interest.
Pardon my ignorance if there is already one.
We already have the Ubuntu Software Center, which I’d imagine will get a port to Ubuntu Touch at some point.
Thank you to talk about my More or Less game! :D Very nice.
CLA?
The Core Apps we’re asking for contributors to sign the CLA, but all of the others are being written independently of Canonical, so it’s up to each author what they require.
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Are the designs respecting the concept drawings on the website that people were asked to contribute to on the announcement of Ubuntu Phone?
I thought the designs were really innovative and functional, yet these apps shown above looks basic/simple.
Sorry found the page;
https://ubuntu.mybalsamiq.com/projects/ubuntuphonecoreapps/grid
Serious scrap the apps demo’ed here and make them more like the concept designs from the mybalsamiq website. They look way better.
Are those shining apps compatible with KDE Plasma? Is too difficult to make them compatible with Plasma?
I don’t know much about Plasma, but these apps are written in Qt and some additional Qt components from Ubuntu, so I would hope they would “just work” on KDE
Where’s the convergence?
ubuntu michael number weather coming
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