by 
The UBports Foundation released today the Ubuntu Touch OTA-17 software update for all supported Ubuntu Phones, bringing various improvements and new features.
As reported last week, the biggest new feature of the Ubuntu Touch OTA-17 software update is support for NFC hardware, which is available for all devices running with Android 9 compatibility, such as the Google Pixel 3a and Volla Phone.
According to UBports, NFC support can allow app developers to implement the ability to read and write NFC tags in their apps, as well as to communicate with another device that supports the NFC protocol. A demo app is already available for testing here.
In addition to NFC support, the Ubuntu Touch OTA-17 software update adds many improvements to camera flash, focus, rotation, and zoom on several supported Ubuntu Phone devices, such as the OnePlus One, a new keyboard layout for the Macedonian language, as well as improved word prediction for the Swiss-French and English-Dvorak keyboard layouts.
For the OnePlus 3 phone there’s a fix for Libertine containers to be correctly set up, for the Google Pixel 3a phone there’s working thumbnail generation, better battery life, and improved vibration, for the Nexus 4 and Nexus 7 devices there’s better trust-store and online-accounts support, and for the Volla Phone there’s a fix for automatic screen brightness.
Under the hood, Ubuntu Touch OTA-17 ships with the Mir 1.8.1 display server and it’s based on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus). The UBports developers are still working hard to rebase their Ubuntu Touch mobile OS on the Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa) operating system series, which should happen very soon.
“Since most of our time is spent on Ubuntu 20.04, there’s less time to review and merge fixes and new features for the regular OTA releases,” said UBports.
The Ubuntu Touch OTA-17 software update will now roll out to all supported Ubuntu Phone devices, including LG Nexus 5, OnePlus One, OnePlus 2, OnePlus 3, OnePlus 3T, FairPhone 2, LG Nexus 4, BQ E5 HD Ubuntu Edition, BQ E4.5 Ubuntu Edition, Meizu MX4 Ubuntu Edition, Meizu Pro 5 Ubuntu Edition, BQ M10 (F)HD Ubuntu Edition, Nexus 7 2013 (Wi-Fi and LTE models), Sony Xperia X, Sony Xperia X Compact, Sony Xperia X Performance, Sony Xperia XZ, Sony Xperia Z4, Huawei Nexus 6P, Xiaomi Redmi 4X, Google Pixel 3a, F(x)tec Pro1, Xiaomi Redmi 3s/3x/3sp, Xiaomi Redmi Note 7, Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Pro, Xiaomi Mi A2, Volla Phone, Samsung Galaxy S3 Neo+, Samsung Galaxy Note 4, PinePhone, and PineTab.
Last updated 3 years ago
