Have you ever wondered how powerful today's smartphones have become? If you ask Canonical the makers behind popular Ubuntu Linux, powerful enough to run full fledged desktop class OS with ease. This could simply lead to a future where your mobile phone can double up as a portable desktop and a mobile. With Ubuntu for Android, which the company says launches a full desktop OS experience whenever you connect your phone to a computer screen and keyboard. With it, Canonical claims you’ll be able to use Android on the phone and Ubuntu as your desktop, both running simultaneously on the same device, with seamless sharing of contacts, messages and other common services.The company states that the phone experience will be pure Android–it’s a normal Android phone. When the device is connected to a computer screen, however, it launches a full Ubuntu desktop on the computer display. It’s exactly the same Ubuntu Unity desktop many are familiar with, and and it will include all of Ubuntu’s current applications, from office productivity to photography, video and music.
Likewise, SMS messages can be sent and received from within Ubuntu for Android. Ubuntu for Android will support HDMI, USB, Google Docs, and 4G LTE data, among other things, and Canonical says wireless carriers can load up branded applications and services as part of the Ubuntu desktop. Also, judging by Mark Shuttleworth's quote that "the desktop is the killer app for quad-core phones in 2012," it's pretty clear that the company is targeting brand-new handsets coming out this year, rather than any existing dual-core devices, though we should learn more about this in the coming days.
Here are the official hardware requirements for Ubuntu for Android and:
- Dual-core 1GHz CPU
- Video acceleration: shared kernel driver with associated X driver; Open GL, ES/EGL
- Storage: 2GB for OS disk image
- HDMI: video out with secondary frame buffer device
- USB host mode
- 512 MB RAM





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