Gadgetory

Ubuntu touch Developer Preview was released to the public last week I'm Taylor Martin this is PocketNow and this is the Ubuntu touch Developer Preview versus iOS you might be asking why we're comparing Ubuntu for phones with iOS and that's a legitimate question I've been using iOS and Ubuntu side-by-side not extensively but side-by-side for a couple of days now and it's very clear that these operating systems are complete total opposites it was apparent after just using the two side-by-side for just a couple of minutes virtually everything within these operating systems is completely and totally different the home screens applications and how visually stimulating each one of them is for one canonical is all about open source and keeping everything open and Apple is all about having the walled garden and making sure that everything is safe so there are some core differences that come into play here but even visually on a graphical standpoint these two operating systems are complete total opposites the differences really begin to show when you press the power button I Oh SS lock screen has basically become a utility notifications can be slid to unlock or you can drag upwards to open directly to the camera Ubuntu s lock screen isn't a lock screen it's a welcome screen and it displays notifications but that's about it after you get past these pages that's where the differences really begin to stack up Ubuntu is all about content at your fingertips everything is out in the open your contacts your favorite applications music videos and pretty much everything else is all right there ready to be consumed without having to dig into applications iOS is a complete 180 from that everything is buried with the applications you can rearrange everything on your home screen set wallpapers and you have folders that you can set other than that the customization options are pretty slim however if you want to access any sort of information you have to open the applications there's no way to get information directly on the home screen one major contrast between these two operating systems is how you navigate them on Ubuntu everything is accessed through a swipe either from the left right top or bottom of the display you access your recent applications settings notifications or you go back a page with iOS you have one swipe down from the top of the display to access notifications and everything else has done through either on-screen buttons or the physical button at the bottom of the device gestures in Ubuntu are very very fast you can navigate very quickly however there's a learning curve and there are so many gestures that sometimes it gets a little clunky you try to swipe from one edge to the discipline to the other but you accidentally do something that you didn't want to do with iOS there's really no way to mess up its click the home button and you go home click it twice you can switch applications hold it open Siri or drag down from the top of the display to access your notifications and the on-screen buttons are very straightforward as they tell you what to do that's pretty much it granted one area that Ubuntu excels is switching applications simply swipe from the right side of the display left words and you go back to the previous application on iOS to go back to the previous application you have to double click the home button and then select the application so it's three clicks by the time you do that on Ubuntu you could have switched three four or five applications it's just that fast and on iOS there's no quick way to access your favorite applications without going back to the home screen on Ubuntu slightly pull from the left side of the display and it will reveal a launcher with all your favorite applications swiped the rest the way across and you will go back home although there is a learning curve once you learn it it is very quick one thing I found very surprising is how Ubuntu is camera stores more features than the iOS camera even at a developer preview level they're not working features just yet but they're there and you can see them simply slide up from the bottom of the display in the camera application and you will see features for white balance and all sorts of other settings you can toggle while in the camera application for iOS all you have is the option to turn on and off a grid HDR mode flash and switch to the front camera rear camera or to video mode another major difference is how you search for content on the operating system with in iOS simply slide left from your main home screen and you will go to the spotlight feature where you have a universal search for anything local or you can perform a web search using your default search engine the search button in the top left corner of the ubuntu interface is relative to what page you're on if you're at the home screen the search button does nothing if you're on the people tab it searches people if you're on the video tab in searches videos if you're on the music tab music and so on and so forth there is no universal search you have to navigate to different places to search for different things but not everything is totally different the dialer much like with Android is very similar to the one to dialer you have contacts recent activity and the dialer built into a single application the notification shade on iOS is a little different than the one on Ubuntu the ubuntu notification shade has a lot more features packed in it you can respond to text messages Skype messages and anything from within the shade and you can toggle your battery brightness anything from within the shade but the idea is basically the same pull down from the top of the display to access all of your recent messages from the way that the contacts are displayed and Ubuntu to the home screen everything is visually stimulating and iOS is sort of the opposite of that it used to be visually stimulating but it hasn't been updated in a long time and it's starting to look a little stale the settings page is very ugly and dated and it's just not very pleasing to the eye anymore whereas everything on Ubuntu is kind of modern and has that webOS appeal it's lightweight and very friendly looking neither of these things mean that one is better than the other Ubuntu is very early in its development phase and iOS is a little more weathered but it's surprising how different these two operating systems truly are this has been a comparison of Ubuntu touch and iOS be sure to give the video a thumbs up if you like what you saw subscribe to the channel and follow us on your social networks of choice I'm Taylor Martin and I will see you next time