14 DAY TRIAL // The UBports community released today the Ubuntu Touch OTA-11 mobile operating system for supported Ubuntu Phone devices, a release that brings various enhancements and bug fixes.
Available for testing since earlier this month, the Ubuntu Touch OTA-11 software update introduces a much-improved and smarter on-screen keyboard keyboard that implements a Dvorak keyboard layout option, improves the Japanese and Polish layouts, and adds a new way to edit text.
"Using this feature, you can move around your typed text, undo and redo actions, move around a text selection rectangle, and use the cut/copy/paste commands, all from the same overlay. To get started, press and hold the space bar," explains UBports in the release announcement.
Ubuntu Touch OTA-11 also brings improvements to the built-in Morph web browser, such as the ability to save page zoom level and to set "Always allow" or "Always deny" on location access per site, as well as to blacklist access to certain sites, and support for sites to launch apps via custom URL handlers like tel:// for launch the dialer.
Push notifications for everyone, improved device support
Ubuntu Touch's push notifications system has been updated as well in this release and it is now available for everyone, without requiring an Ubuntu One account. Therefore, after installing Ubuntu Touch OTA-11, users will now be able to receive push notifications from supported apps without logging into an Ubuntu One account.
Other than that, Nexus 5 users get better Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support to no longer eat a lot of RAM and CPU, support for more devices running Android 7.1 has been added, and MMS messaging was greatly improved. Users can now update to Ubuntu Touch OTA-11 through the Updates screen in System Settings if you're using the stable channel.
UBports is already working on the next release, Ubuntu Touch OTA-12, which should arrive later this year with the long anticipated Unity8 user interface and Mir 1.x display server. Ubuntu Touch OTA-12 will be the biggest release for Ubuntu Phone users in 2019 and we can't wait for it to arrive on Purism's Librem 5 Linux phone.