First of all, apologize for the confusion. My mental translator played tricks on me and I thought we were facing something that would arrive next week, so I took the news as if it were a Release Candidate. It was thanks to my subscription to DistroWatch, which notifies the launch of any distribution, that I realized my mistake. I could fix the previous article, but the "damage" has already been done and that would cost more than writing a new one with all the information about the arrival of the OTA-3 from Ubuntu Touch.
I think it is clear that this OTA-3 is not the same as the one that arrived years ago, but it is worth remembering that the accounts were reset when the base was raised to 20.04, codenamed Focal Fossa. Among the new features, support for new devices stands out, especially that of the original PineTab from 2020 because it was not guaranteed. Quite the opposite. The News list of Ubuntu Touch OTA-3 is the one you have below.
What's new in Ubuntu Touch OTA-3 (Focal)
- First release of Ubuntu Touch 20.04 system image for PinePhone, PinePhone Pro and PineTab (beta).
- content-hub API change and security fix.
- hfd-service / lomiri-system-settings: Restore the ability to disable vibrations for notifications and other applications.
- Change primary APN database provider to lineageos-apndb (from mobile-broadband-provider-info). This allows more users to have their mobile data and MMS work out of the box.
- location-service: (Re-)Add gpsd provider (forward port from UT 16.04, required for Linux mainline PinePhone devices).
- Location service: Expose the D-Bus ClientApplications property to be queried by the Lomiri shell, so location service clients can be granted some compute time for updating location data.
- lomiri-keyboard: Added/improved keyboard layouts (Avro, Traditional Bengali, Persian).
- system configuration: Modification of the user interface and menu structure of the security/privacy pages.
- System Settings: Reflect channel selection change on update settings page
- Preliminary Snap support.
- messaging application: Implementation of search in conversations.
- Morph Browser: Removing Peekier search engine from the list of available search engines, switching to the browser's default search engine (DuckDuckGo) automatically; added mobile/desktop mode switching; checkbox for autoLoadImages added to settings; QtWebEngine update to 5.15.15.
- QtMir: Added support for DSI as an internal display option (fixes shell rotation on PinePhone devices); re-enabled support for clipboard based on content-hub (resolves copy+paste between apps).
- waydroid/QtMir: Adjust calculation of available screen size for Android apps (do not cut off bottom navigation buttons)
- Prevent Lomiri and lomiri-system-compositor from dying when running out of memory.
- usb-moded: Extend tethering detection to CDC-{NCM,ECM}, adds support for USB tethering to, for example, the Fairphone 4.
- Translation updates (many thanks to all the i18n contributors at hosted.weblate.org, many thanks also to the hosted weblate service providers).
- Halium QSG specific FP4 and P3a ratings.
Supported devices
- Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1.
- Pro1-X.
- Fairphone 3 and 3+.
- Fairphone 4.
- Google Pixel 3a and 3a XL.
- JingPad A1.
- Oneplus 5 and 5T.
- OnePlus 6 and 6T.
- PinePhone (beta).
- PinePhone Pro (beta).
- PineTab (beta).
- PineTab2 (beta).
- Sony Xperia
- Vollaphone.
- Vollaphone
- Vollaphone 22.
- Vollaphone X23.
- Xiaomi Poco M2 Pro.
- Xiaomi Poco X3 NFC / X3.
- Xiaomi Redmi Note 9, 9 Pro, 9 Pro Max and 9S.
Installation via flashing
The list of new features would be completed with bugs fixed and security patches. It is available in the release notes, where they also explain that users of a PINE64 device must download the corresponding image and install it via flashing; Surely some of our readers can think of a better translation for that word, which means recording or "burning" it on an SD or in the internal memory.
Existing users can upgrade from the same operating system.