The OTA-11 software update will be released very soon

May 31, 2016 02:20 GMT  ·  By

We promised to keep you, guys, informed about the development progress of the Ubuntu Touch OTA-11 software for Ubuntu Phone and Ubuntu Tablet devices, and today we have some great news.

Canonical's Łukasz Zemczak is back from a long weekend away to let us know that everything looks good for the OTA-11 update, and the Ubuntu Touch release team should push it to supported Ubuntu Phone and Tablet devices in the next couple of days as a phased upgrade during a 24-hour period.

The good news is that we've got our hands on the preliminary release notes, which suggest that the OTA-11 software update will finally implement the Aethercast (also known as Miracast) technology to provide Wireless display support to Ubuntu Phone devices, but for now will work only with Meizu PRO 5.

So yes, the moment you've all been waiting for is almost here, as you will no longer need a cable to connect your Ubuntu Phone to your TV or a supported LCD monitor. But that's not all, as OTA-11 also introduces shell rotation support, which is yet another long-anticipated feature, allowing the rotation of the Unity 8 interface in landscape mode.

NetworkManager 1.2 is finally here

Among other exciting new features implemented in the Ubuntu Touch OTA-11 update, we can mention the adoption of the NetworkManager 1.2 network connection manager. This means that Ubuntu Phone/Tablet devices now provide a more secure Internet connection by protecting you from mobile device tracking in Wi-Fi networks, thanks to the new MAC addresses randomization technology.

Moreover, the VPN feature introduced in OTA-10 has been updated with username and password authentication support, the Home Scope is now pre-loaded during the boot process for a faster startup, you can now open multiple application windows, subtitles are now supported in the header, and the Ubuntu keyboard now supports Traditional Chinese.

Last but not least, the positioning in location service has been greatly improved, DGU (Dynamic Grid Unit) support is now available to allow the UI elements to adapt and scale to different DPIs, the Web Browser app has received many new features, and numerous bugs have been squashed. The Ubuntu Touch OTA-11 update will be released very soon, and we'll publish a new story when Canonical uploads the images to the main server for supported devices.