Ubuntu 10.10 Cozies Up to Android, iPhone and the Cloud
by Jason Brooks
‘Unity’ Netbook Interface
Ubuntu 10.10 sports a new interface for its netbook-oriented edition, with a focus on making the most of displays with vertically challenged resolutions.
Netbook Edition of Evolution
Ubuntu’s default e-mail application, Evolution, now comes in a slimmer edition for netbook displays as well.
Firefox Could Use a Trim
It’d be good to see a netbook-friendly version of Firefox in the future—the bookmarks toolbar, for one, strikes me as a waste of space.
Ubuntu One on Android
Canonical’s Ubuntu One service offers a few points of integration with Android—it’s possible to sync contacts to the device, as well as to stream music stored on the service.
Ubuntu One on iOS
The personal cloud service offers similar integration with Apple iOS devices, but as of press time, the client app was still waiting in Apple’s App Store approval queue. I was able to test the iOS contacts sync app, however.
New Font
The Maverick Meerkat release marks the debut of a new Ubuntu font—the addition seems like a rather minor enhancement, but I find myself growing attached to this new font.
Software Center
Ubuntu 10.10 comes with a spruced-up Software Center, which serves as an App Store for the thousands of great, free apps that have long been available for Ubuntu, while also adding a framework for purchasing apps.
More Software Center
Ubuntu and Debian packages have long offered up suggestions for complementary add-on packages, but the Software Center version in 10.10 is the first to expose these suggestions to users.