Canonical announced on Tuesday that the popular open-source Ubuntu operating system will soon be coming to multi-core Android devices. Users will be able use Android on their smartphones and Ubuntu as a desktop once the device is docked with a keyboard and monitor. Both operating systems will run simultaneously on the same device and have the ability to share contacts, messages and other common services. “The phone experience is pure Android – it’s a normal Android phone,” Canonical stated. “When the device is connected to a computer screen, however, it launches a full Ubuntu desktop on the computer display. It’s exactly the same desktop used by millions of enterprise and home users on their Ubuntu PCs, and includes hundreds of certified applications, from office productivity to photography, video and music.” The company plans to give live demonstrations of Ubuntu running on Android devices later this month at the Mobile World Congress trade show. Read on for Canonical’s press release.

Ubuntu for Android at MWC – world’s first full-featured desktop on a docked smartphone

Carry less, do a lot more. All the productivity and apps of the full Ubuntu desktop, built into your Android phone.

London, 22nd February, 2012: Canonical today unveiled Ubuntu for Android, bringing the world’s favourite free desktop experience to multi-core Android smartphones docked with a keyboard and monitor. Use Android on the phone and Ubuntu as your desktop, both running simultaneously on the same device, with seamless sharing of contacts, messages and other common services.

The phone experience is pure Android – it’s a normal Android phone. When the device is connected to a computer screen, however, it launches a full Ubuntu desktop on the computer display. It’s exactly the same desktop used by millions of enterprise and home users on their Ubuntu PCs, and includes hundreds of certified applications, from office productivity to photography, video and music.

All data and services are shared between the Ubuntu and Android environments, which run simultaneously on the device. So Android applications such as contacts, telephony and SMS/MMS messaging are accessible from the Ubuntu interface. Indeed, all data on the smartphone can be accessed at any time, docked or not.

Ubuntu for Android gives mobile workers a company phone that is also their enterprise desktop. Government and private institutions have embraced Ubuntu on the desktop because of its ease of use, security, manageability, superb range of native applications and excellent support for web browsers like Chrome and Firefox. The desktop can also include Windows applications, using thin client and desktop virtualisation tools. Today’s IT departments commonly support a PC and at least one desktop phone for every employee. Many also provide and manage mobile phones. Ubuntu for Android presents a compelling solution to IT complexity by reducing that burden to a single device.

The first PC for the next billion knowledge workers could be a phone – but they won’t just want to use it as a handset. They will want all the flexibility and productivity of a full desktop, as well as the convenience of a smartphone on the move. Ubuntu for Android represents the first opportunity for handset makers and network operators to address this growth opportunity in emerging markets.

“The desktop is the killer-app for quad-core phones in 2012″ says Mark Shuttleworth. “Ubuntu for Android transforms your high-end phone into your productive desktop, whenever you need it”

Manufacturers targeting the corporate phone, as well as the next-generation enterprise desktop and thin clients can easily add Ubuntu for Android to their smartphones. The customized version of Ubuntu drops in cleanly alongside the rest of Android, and the necessary Android modifications are designed for easy integration. Hardware requirements include support for HDMI and USB, standard features in high-end handsets planned for late 2012.

Ubuntu for Android justifies the cost to enterprise customers of upgrading to higher bandwidth 4G connections and contracts. Cloud apps like Google Docs work best with a full desktop, and shine with the lower latency of LTE. Network operators can deliver their own branded applications and services as part of the Ubuntu desktop, in partnership with Canonical.

Canonical leads the traditional Linux ecosystem in support for the ARM architecture, having co-founded Linaro (linaro.org), the consortium dedicated to the unification of Linux on ARM and the simplification of Android integration and delivery. That industrial experience, combined with Canonical’s long-standing leadership in desktop Linux and deep relationships with global PC brands enables Canonical to deliver an ARM-optimised desktop tightly integrated with Android, on silicon from a range of ARM vendors.

If you really love Linux, and are a Nexus One owner, nexusonehacks.net has a tutorial for you. The site’s founder has managed to get Ubuntu linux running on top of Android 2.2 on his rooted Nexus One handset. The site provides a video walkthrough of what Ubuntu will look like on the Sexy Nexy as well as a step-by-step guide on how to accomplish this feat. If you are looking to spend some quality time with your N1 whittling away your Thursday, hit up the read link and have at it.

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A major security flaw has been uncovered in the Apple iPhone 3GS this week after two security experts discovered it was possible to bypass the device’s security and gain nearly full read access using Ubuntu Lucid Lynx. Perhaps even more frightening is the fact that the two believe they’re nearing the ability to write data as well. Said Bernd Marienfeldt, one of the two gentleman responsible for uncovering the flaw:

I uncovered a data protection vulnerability, which I could reproduce on 3 other non jail broken 3GS iPhones (MC 131B, MC132B) with different iPhone OS versions installed (3.1.3-7E18 modem firmware 05.12.01 and version 3.1.2 -7D11, modem 05.11.07), all PIN code protected which means the vulnerability bypasses authentication for various data where people most likely rely on data protection through encryption and do not expect that authentication is not in place. [...] This data protection flaw exposes music, photos, videos, podcasts, voice recordings, Google safe browsing database, game contents… by [sic] in my opinion the quickest compromising read/write access discovered so far, without leaving any track record by the attacker. It’s about to imagine how many enterprises (e.g. Fortune 100) actually do rely on the expectation that their iPhone 3GS’s whole content is protected by encryption with an PIN code based authentication in place to unlock it.

Marienfeldt and his partner Jim Herbeck notified Apple of the flaw, and according to then, “Apple could reproduce the described serious issue and believes to understand why this can happen but cannot provide timing or further details on the release of a fix.” Let’s hope the new data protection feature in iPhone OS 4.0 does the trick.

[Via Engadget]

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Whoops. While speaking about the future of its netbook platform, Samsung inadvertently detailed a handful of unannounced ARM mobile chipsets that it plans release over the next three. The chipsets start off with the Taurus (S5PV210), a single core Cortex-A8 CPU that clocks in at 1GHz, and culminate with the heavy hitting Aquila which boasts of a quad-core Cortex-A9 running at 1.2-GHz. According to the roadmap, the rest of the eight chipsets include the following:

• Taurus (S5PV210): Single core Cortex-A8 at 1GHz. Due out in Q3 2010.
• Mercury: Single core Cortex-A5 (Sparrow) at 600MHz. To debut late 2010.
• Orion: Dual Core Cortex-A9 Dual Core at 800MHz which offers software compatibility with the Taurus. Expected to enter into production in Q1 2011.
• Pegasus: Single core Cortex-A9 1GHZ. Set for Q4 2011.
• Hercules: Dual core Cortex-A9 at 1GHZ. Scheduled for Q1 2012.
• Venus: Another Cortex-A5 based endeavor which will double the fun of the Mercury by offering a 600-MHz dual-core processor. Expected to hit production in late 2012 or early 2013.
• Draco: A 1.2-GHz Cortex-A9 dual-core expected to enter mass production in late 2012 or early 2013.
• Aquila: Doubles the Draco with its quad-core, 1.2-GHz, Cortex-A9 processor. The Aquila is also slated to enter mass production in late 2012 or early 2013.

Samsung didn’t not pair these mobile powerhouses with any GPUs or mobile operating systems, but we’re assuming we’ll see them alongside Android, Chrome and Ubuntu devices.

[via Notebook Italia]

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[Via NYTimes]

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If you own a Dell Inspiron Mini with Ubuntu and paid extra to upgrade your hard drive from the stock 4 GB to an 8 GB or 16 GB SSD drive, you better get sudo fdisk-ing and check your partition sizes. A savvy Inspiron Mini owner noticed his 16 GB SSD was only showing up as a 4 GB inside Ubuntu. A quick check of the bios revealed that the physical drive was indeed 16 GB leaving him to wonder what happened to that extra 12 GB. He was not the only one to notice this discrepancy and bring it to the attention of Dell. It did not take Dell very long to admit there was an error in their manufacturing process. Turns out their technicians were using a disk image for a 4 GB install on each and every one of their Ubuntu machines. In other words, all 8 GB and 16 GB machines were partitioned as 4 GB machines. Oops! As of Friday, Dell announced that each and every new Ubuntu system will be installed with the correct partition size. Yay! Dell has kindly offered a solution to the problem if you are one of the unlucky early adopters: use your system restore disk to repartition your disk and re-install Ubuntu. If you are a Linux junkie, then you can attempt to resize your partition with gParted and skip the whole re-installation hassle process. Whichever method you choose be sure to backup your data first, ok? Wouldn’t want anyone to lose the one and only picture of dear Aunt Ethel at her 100th birthday celebration in the backyard of her beautiful Victorian house on the day before it was unexpectedly destroyed by a hurricane. Priceless.

[via Liliputing]

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After launching a mere week ago, Dell Mini’s were arriving on doorsteps everywhere Friday. As expected, it did not take very long for one of you eager, early adopters to put together an unboxing video. This time it is a reader over at Gotta Be Mobile who posted 12 minutes of brand spanking new Mini 9 goodness. What can we say, we’re suckers for shiny new ultra-portables.

[Via Gotta Be Mobile]

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We almost forgot what it was like outside the mobile phone game. You know: Leak -> Wait -> Official announcement -> Wait -> Launch! Sure plenty has been leaked as far as Dell’s latest lappy is concerned, but kudos are still in order. Just yesterday we learned that the Inspiron Mini 9 was set to be announced this week and bam; today they’re ready to order. Let’s take a look at how each of the three variants of this sweet new ultra-portable shape up specs-wise:

$349

• Intel Atom Processor N270 (1.6GHz/533Mhz FSB/512K cache)
• Ubuntu 8.04 OS
• Glossy 8.9 inch LED display (1024X600)
• RAM: 512MB DDR2 at 533MHz
• Hard drive: 4GB Solid State Drive + 2 GB of online Box.net storage

$399

• Intel Atom Processor N270 (1.6GHz/533Mhz FSB/512K cache)
• Windows XP Home Edition OS
• Glossy 8.9 inch LED display (1024X600)
• RAM: 512MB DDR2 at 533MHz
• Hard drive: 8GB Solid State Drive

$449

• Intel Atom Processor N270 (1.6GHz/533Mhz FSB/512K cache)
• Windows XP Home Edition OS
• Glossy 8.9 inch LED display (1024X600)
• RAM: 1GB DDR2 at 533MHz
• Hard drive: 16GB Solid State Drive

There is a downside of course, but isn’t there always? The size is great, the gear is great but the battery is… Not so great. Basically you’re looking at about three hours of juice before the Mini 9 starts coughing and needs another fix. Yikes. The good news is that this little sucker is so small that you should have absolutely no problem fitting a heafty external battery pack in your back with it. Does that defeat the purpose? Hmm, your call.

UPDATE: If you purchase a Studio 15, XPS M1530 or XPS M1330 laptop between 6 am (Central) tomorrow and 6 am (Central) Tuesday September 9th, you can snag a Mini 9 along with it for only $99. Woo!

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