ubuntu-phone team mailing list archive

[Omar B. <estelar57@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Good feedback.
A new phase of "dogfooding" core apps has begun for everyone involved (users and devs). You can see the details here and how to report those problems you encountered (in case they're not reported yet):

http://www.jonobacon.org/2013/07/05/dogfoodable-core-apps/
I think there's still enough time to improve on many of the issues.
And glad to know the phone experience is almost close to complete, that way they can get their hands free to move on to those things.
Regards!
Omar

From: coder543@xxxxxxxxx
Date: Sun, 7 Jul 2013 17:32:15 -0500
To: ubuntu-phone@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [Ubuntu-phone] [design] [development] Some thoughts about Ubuntu	touch on the Nexus 10

So, for the first time in months, I decided to wipe my carefully configured version of Android in order to try out Ubuntu touch. A few things struck me immediately.
- The return to home animation still lags. Why?!? This is the most noticeable piece of lag in the whole OS. Come on guys... grab some low hanging fruit!


- The browser still behaves oddly. If you rapidly touch, drag, lift, touch, drag, lift, touch, drag, lift... then you'll notice it starts to take over a second for the browser to respond to touches, if not longer. Yet, if you leave it idle, then the moment your finger touches the screen, the browser begins responding by shifting the page around. Why is there a discrepancy between these usage models?


- There are no tablet optimized apps! Ok. Maybe there are a couple, like the gallery. But, why are most of the included apps running in the sidebar designed for phone apps? Even the terminal is a phone app on the tablet! That makes no sense to me. We should also expect to see a full screen weather experience before launch, in my opinion, but more importantly: the calendar app runs in the sidebar as if it were only a phone application as well! The calendar! This is very odd behavior.

- - - The two-fold promise was that firstly, Qt would allow developers to quickly and easily craft applications that run on all form factors, and secondly, apps would be able to morph between phone-sidebar version and tablet version seamlessly. So, you'd be able to multitask and single task. To view the weather, it opens up whatever other app I last used and then proceeds to show me the weather. That's very distracting.


Let's actually just list it out.
Tablet optimized apps:Browser (but the tab switching is phone style. Not fully optimized)

GalleryCameraVideos
Tablet optimized website app things:GmailMusic (? couldn't get this to open on the tablet)

Ubuntu One (not sure this counts)eBay (not sure this should be included with Ubuntu touch to begin with)Amazonthe launcher


Not tablet optimized apps:File managerTerminalCalendarClockCalculatorFriends (wouldn't even actually open)

WeatherNotesPhone (shouldn't be there anyways)System Settings (!!)
Not tablet optimized website app things:Facebook (should be a link to the real Facebook site on Browser in tablet mode)

Twitter (see Facebook)
I don't think I missed anything here... but still. The tablet feels like it isn't a first class citizen at this point. I'm sure the phone experience is wonderful, but Canonical is the one that chose to surprise us all by announcing the tablet version only days after the phone version. I fully expected them to wait a full year before announcing a tablet version, and I'm sure many others felt the same way I did. Hopefully Canonical did not bite off more than it can chew...


 - There seems to be no way to exit "app closing mode" on the apps page without switching to another page and coming back. Also, closing apps results in the tablet opening up another random app afterwards (unless there's only one remaining).


- The phone app is still visible on the tablet version of Ubuntu touch.
- I should really be able to switch rapidly between full size tablet apps with the right edge swipe, not just sidebar apps.


- Turning the tablet back on after it falls asleep shows a cool animation where the lock screen slides in from the left. Incidentally, this means anyone can see what you were doing before the tablet fell asleep. (hitting the power button avoids this issue, but if it goes to sleep on its own, then the issue is present.)


- Apps hang and have issues starting, quite regularly, besides the Browser app which is surprisingly reliable. System settings usually takes at least one open, force close, open cycle to actually open.


I'm honestly a huge supporter of Ubuntu touch, but this experience was not inspiring. I have lost confidence that the tablet version will be ready at all for the fall release cycle... maybe by next spring. On the other hand, the phone version looks to be quite close to complete.



-- 
Sincerely,
    Josh


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