Convergence in action!
In my last blog post, I went through the process of flashing Ubuntu for Devices (Ubuntu Touch) onto a Nexus 4, after I noticed they were developing a Continuum style UI called Convergence.
I didnt hold out much hope that this would be present in the stable release channel, and to no surprise this proved to be true - connecting the Nexus 4 to the TV via a Slimport connector just displayed the screen on the left part of the TV, with no interaction possible.
This evening I thought I would re-flash the latest version from the rc-proposed channel, which hold the daily builds (the version I flashed is Ubuntu 15.04 (r377), released 27/2/2016). The command to install this latest update is pretty much the same as that for the Stable channel:
ubuntu-device-flash touch --channel=ubuntu-touch/rc-proposed/ubuntu --bootstrap
I didnt really hold out too much hope for this either, but it seems by doubts were unfounded! Connecting the phone to the TV brought up a much more usable, full screen UI. Connecting a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse made things reasonably usable, considering the platform limitations.
All in all, I am quite impressed with this UI. It is still early days for the feature, and software availability is pretty limited in the store, but it is interesting and works suprisingly well! Good job so far Canonical!
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