Ubuntu Touch OS gets an October 17th release date, Nexus first in line

While the Ubuntu Edge smartphone plan and kickstarter didn’t last, their plan to merge our smartphones and desktops onto one OS did, and Ubuntu Touch is set to launch in exactly one month. Canonical has confirmed the launch date for their new Touch OS is in exactly one month, and will be free starting October 17th.

A recent blog post by their community leader has additional details, as well as a full list of supported devices. Which for those who don’t know, are basically a bunch of Nexus devices. While we all enjoy Android 4.3 Jelly Bean, Canonical hopes we’ll toss Ubuntu Touch on our phones and Nexus 10 tablet instead.

A part of the release on the 17th will be an OS image completely ready to be installed for their entire supported device list, and you’ll be able to flash away and start enjoying their touch and gesture-based OS within minutes. So long as you have the know-how to flash said image. A custom recovery is nearly all you need, so we’re excited for the 17th to roll around.

As a reminder, the video above was very early in the alpha stages from January. The BETA has severely changed since being released in February, and earlier this summer they talked about having all the main “daily driver” features ready within 30 days. And now it looks like all those have been completed, and they feel comfortable with an initial Touch OS release next month.

They’re calling it Phone 1.0, but surely updates and improvements will arrive at a very quick pace, so that name won’t last too long. Canonical also state we can expect to see actual devices (not Nexus smartphones and tablets) actually ship with the OS later this year or in early 2014.

VIA: SlashGear

Rumored iPhone 5S Fingerprint Scanner Gets An Unofficial Confirmation

Lately, theres been a lot of rumors surrounding a possible fingerprint scanner in the upcoming iPhone 5S. Any other day Id ignore this repetitive rumor, but today, MacTrast has received an unofficial confirmation regarding the iPhone 5S and its home button’s functionality.

High resolution images of the leaked home button assembly were first published via Sonny Dickson last night, but MacTrast did some additional digging and has learned a little more about this rumored part. According to iFixits CEO Kyle Wiens (via MacTrast), the leaked part shown above, could actually be the biometric fingerprint scanner weve been hearing so much about:

It looks like the home button will still have a physical clicking action to it still like the 4, 4S and 5. The additional square section next the the button is something new and probably suggests a fingerprint sensor given all the rumor wire chatter on how Apple is expected to add that feature. It looks like that part of the cable flips over the button and sits between the clicking action and the plastic button cover.

So Id say yes, these photos, if legitimate, corroborate the fingerprint rumors.

In my opinion, iFixit is one of the most reliable sites in the industry when it comes to parts. Theres no way for Wiens to give a solid confirmation based on photos alone, but Im sure with iFixits teardown history, he probably knows a thing or two about this kind of stuff.

That being said, we wont have to wait too much longer to find out the truth. Apples big iPhone event is scheduled to happen on Sept. 10, 2013 in Cupertino, Calif. For more updates on Apples upcoming devices, be sure to follow AppAdvice on Twitter.

Via App Advice