Gadgetory

Ubuntu touch is now available as a Developer Preview I'm Taylor Martin this is PocketNow and this is Ubuntu versus jellybean I know what you may be thinking you can't compare Android with Ubuntu it's just not fair Ubuntu touch isn't a commercial build and you can't compare the two and we're not here to do that we're not here to say one is better than the other obviously Android has a huge advantage over a brand new operating system that doesn't have the functionality what we're doing is seeing how these operating systems differ in how they operate how they look how you navigate and how tasks are accomplished so without further ado let's get started the first major difference that jumped out at me is the lockscreen Ubuntu technically doesn't have a lock screen it's a welcome screen and it feels just like that a welcome screen it's warm fuzzy and it makes you want to open the device Android is a little different it has a lock symbol right dead center in the bottom of the screen and it makes the device feel a little more closed and off-putting not that that's a bad thing you're not going to feel put off by your own device but it's just the way it looks once you get past the wall command lock screens you will notice that the home screens are totally different they're built on totally different principles Android is much more complicated and convoluted in that everything is in a different place your applications are hidden in the app drawer all of your content is hidden in individual applications and so on and so forth no content is right there ready to be consumed other than anything that you put on the home screen manually such as widgets or icons etc Ubuntu is a total 180 from that everything is front and center on your home screen by default content people everything is right there front and center ready to be consumed right away sure there are things hidden in applications but there's a lot of stuff crammed on the home screen that's good and bad the next major difference is how you navigate the operating systems on Android you have dedicated buttons to this they're either on screen or capacitive or possibly physical buttons all you have to do is press them to navigate by default there is a task switcher button there is a home button back button and on some devices there's still a menu button for devices without a menu button there's an action overflow for all of your settings to return home simply press the home button to go back one page press the back button it's very simple straight for and there's no confusion about how to navigate on Ubuntu everything is totally different from that everything is done by using gestures a swipe from the right side of the screen takes you back to your previous application a swipe from the left takes you back home a small drag from the left shows your favorite applications and a drag up from the bottom within certain applications shows a menu so it's a very big difference in how things are done task switching for instance is much faster on Ubuntu all you do is swipe from right to left from the edge of the display and you jump back to the previous application on Android you hit the task switcher button wait for the task switcher application to come up then tap and then the application you want will launch the big difference however is with Android you have a little more options when it comes to switching applications if you want to switch back to the 3rd 5th or 8th application back it's much faster on Ubuntu you would have to go back to the home screen and then choose from the running applications however not everything is totally different between these two operating systems there's more alike than you might think first for instance is the notification shade simply drag down from the top of the display on either platform and you have your notifications your missed calls and everything and you also have access to quick settings with Ubuntu simply drag down over different icons to access different settings from Android simply drag down with two fingers and you have toggles for all of your important settings you can get the same effect with Ubuntu by simply tapping the time a page with all of the settings will drop down tap and then it will take you to the respective notification shade page the other very similar application within your bun 2 and Android is the dialer they look totally different the Ubuntu dialer looks very webOS like while Android is the holo theme it's dark with neon highlights but the way that the two work is very similar you have a dialers page swipe to the right you have your recent activity communication and such and swipe one more time and you have your contacts the way these two are designed is very similar almost so similar that you would think that maybe canonical got their idea from someone even the camera application on Ubuntu though it lacks some features looks very similar to the new jellybean camera there are some notable differences but the way that the camera application acts when you take a picture and the animations and everything it's very very similar to the jellybean experience when you dig into applica Asians like the browser however it's clear that Ubuntu is very primitive there are hardly any functionalities in the browser you can enter URL hit forwarded back and that's pretty much it from within the Android browser you have tabs you can share things and all sorts of features Ubuntu is lacking that right now it's a Developer Preview so it's to be expected but it also shows how much work canonical has ahead of them to make a very refined and well rounded product that can take from the likes of a popular platform all in all I have very few negative things to say about Ubuntu especially considering how early it is in the development phase sure it's no comparison for Android right now but it is a contender so long as canonical can bring it into the mainstream and get some true hardware partners on board so many times it has been proven that awesome software is nothing without complimentary hardware for now Android will remain on top but there's one thing for certain there's blood in the water and many software makers are gunning for a much larger piece of the pie at this point is just too soon to tell whether Ubuntu will be one to make a difference this has been a comparison between Ubuntu for phones and Android jellybean thanks for watching I'm Taylor Martin and I will see you next time