Ubuntu File Manager App Announcementstag:launchpad.net,2013-01-21:/ubuntu-filemanager-app/+announcementshttps://launchpadlibrarian.net/129728238/full-folder-icon-64px-warmgrey.pnghttps://launchpadlibrarian.net/129728237/full-folder-icon-14px-warmgrey.png2013-02-05T15:34:28.870023+00:00Community Driven Ubuntu Phone Core Apps2013-02-05T15:34:28.870023+00:002013-02-05T15:34:28.805055+00:00tag:launchpad.net,2013-02-05:/+announcement/11150David Planellahttps://launchpad.net/~dpm<p>When we announced [Ubuntu for<br/>
phones](<a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/devices/phone" rel="nofollow">http://<wbr/>www.ubuntu.<wbr/>com/devices/<wbr/>phone</a>) on the 2nd January, we also<br/>
had a call for volunteers to help create the core applications that<br/>
would be part of the platform. Like any phone OS we need to provide a<br/>
calendar, calculator, email, social media apps and more. Ubuntu has long<br/>
been an open community project and we wanted to work with our community<br/>
from the outset to work on a set of apps that we can all be proud of.</p>
<p>To do this we included a form on<br/>
[developer.<wbr/>ubuntu.<wbr/>com](<a href="http://developer.ubuntu.com/get-started/gomobile/" rel="nofollow">http://<wbr/>developer.<wbr/>ubuntu.<wbr/>com/get-<wbr/>started/<wbr/>gomobile/</a>)<br/>
and asked interested Qt/QML developers to fill it in if they were<br/>
interested in participating. In just a few days we had over **1500**<br/>
people fill in the form, expressing tremendous interest in being part of<br/>
these projects and making an awesome Ubuntu phone platform.</p>
<p>We then finalized our list of apps that we think we need and then<br/>
reached out to the most experienced of these volunteers and broke them<br/>
into teams, with one team per application (these teams are fairly small,<br/>
we couldnt use everyone who volunteered, but we will be having an Ubuntu<br/>
Phone App Showdown in future, so stay tuned!)).</p>
<p>For each of the applications we then worked on some user stories and<br/>
functional requirements to deliver the core functionality in each of<br/>
these apps and documented them on the Ubuntu wiki. These applications<br/>
are all available [here](<a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuPhone/CoreApps/" rel="nofollow">https:/<wbr/>/wiki.ubuntu.<wbr/>com/UbuntuPhone<wbr/>/CoreApps/</a>).</p>
<p>Call For Design<br/>
---------------</p>
<p>![](<a href="http://www.ubuntu.com/static/u/img/devices/phone-naturally-neat.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://<wbr/>www.ubuntu.<wbr/>com/static/<wbr/>u/img/devices/<wbr/>phone-naturally<wbr/>-neat.jpg</a>)</p>
<p>So, we have a good set of developers assigned for each app, but we would<br/>
like to invite our community to contribute design ideas for each of<br/>
these apps. We have already defined a set of user stories and functional<br/>
requirements, and for each app we have also defined a set of the core<br/>
screens and functionality that we will need design for. We would like to<br/>
invite you wonderful designers out there to contribute your design<br/>
ideas, and these ideas can provide food for thought for the developers.</p>
<p>To do this we are using the popular [Balsamiq](<a href="http://www.balsamiq.com/" rel="nofollow">http://<wbr/>www.balsamiq.<wbr/>com/</a>)<br/>
online mock-ups tool, and the Balsamiq folks have very generously<br/>
provided an [Ubuntu<br/>
MyBalsamiq](<a href="https://ubuntu.mybalsamiq.com/projects/ubuntuphonecoreapps" rel="nofollow">https:/<wbr/>/ubuntu.<wbr/>mybalsamiq.<wbr/>com/projects/<wbr/>ubuntuphonecore<wbr/>apps</a>)<br/>
site where all of these designs can be storied, commented on, and<br/>
refined. As such, you can contribute your designs there and then link<br/>
them to the wiki page for the application the design is for.</p>
<p>A while back I asked Ivo Weevers, head of the design team at Canonical,<br/>
for a set of design guidelines for these contributed designs to follow,<br/>
but unfortunately his team has not had the time to deliver this yet, but<br/>
we do have a simple set of [overall design<br/>
suggestions](<a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuPhone/CoreApps/Design" rel="nofollow">https:/<wbr/>/wiki.ubuntu.<wbr/>com/UbuntuPhone<wbr/>/CoreApps/<wbr/>Design</a>) we<br/>
would like to ask you to follow as well as some example designs that you<br/>
can use to match your work to.</p>
<p>If you would like to contribute some designs, simply pick one of the<br/>
following apps and follow the instructions on the page:</p>
<p>- [Calendar](<a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuPhone/CoreApps/Calendar" rel="nofollow">https:/<wbr/>/wiki.ubuntu.<wbr/>com/UbuntuPhone<wbr/>/CoreApps/<wbr/>Calendar</a>)<br/>
- [Clock/Alarm](<a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuPhone/CoreApps/Clock" rel="nofollow">https:/<wbr/>/wiki.ubuntu.<wbr/>com/UbuntuPhone<wbr/>/CoreApps/<wbr/>Clock</a>)<br/>
- [Weather](<a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuPhone/CoreApps/Weather" rel="nofollow">https:/<wbr/>/wiki.ubuntu.<wbr/>com/UbuntuPhone<wbr/>/CoreApps/<wbr/>Weather</a>)<br/>
- [Calculator](<a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuPhone/CoreApps/Calculator" rel="nofollow">https:/<wbr/>/wiki.ubuntu.<wbr/>com/UbuntuPhone<wbr/>/CoreApps/<wbr/>Calculator</a>)<br/>
- [Email<br/>
Client](<a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuPhone/CoreApps/EmailClient" rel="nofollow">https:/<wbr/>/wiki.ubuntu.<wbr/>com/UbuntuPhone<wbr/>/CoreApps/<wbr/>EmailClient</a>)<br/>
- [RSS Feed<br/>
Reader](<a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuPhone/CoreApps/RSSReader" rel="nofollow">https:/<wbr/>/wiki.ubuntu.<wbr/>com/UbuntuPhone<wbr/>/CoreApps/<wbr/>RSSReader</a>)<br/>
- [File<br/>
Manager](<a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuPhone/CoreApps/FileManager" rel="nofollow">https:/<wbr/>/wiki.ubuntu.<wbr/>com/UbuntuPhone<wbr/>/CoreApps/<wbr/>FileManager</a>)<br/>
- [Document<br/>
Viewer](<a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuPhone/CoreApps/DocViewer" rel="nofollow">https:/<wbr/>/wiki.ubuntu.<wbr/>com/UbuntuPhone<wbr/>/CoreApps/<wbr/>DocViewer</a>)<br/>
- [YouTube](<a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuPhone/CoreApps/YouTube" rel="nofollow">https:/<wbr/>/wiki.ubuntu.<wbr/>com/UbuntuPhone<wbr/>/CoreApps/<wbr/>YouTube</a>)<br/>
- [Facebook](<a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuPhone/CoreApps/Facebook" rel="nofollow">https:/<wbr/>/wiki.ubuntu.<wbr/>com/UbuntuPhone<wbr/>/CoreApps/<wbr/>Facebook</a>)<br/>
- [Twitter](<a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuPhone/CoreApps/Twitter" rel="nofollow">https:/<wbr/>/wiki.ubuntu.<wbr/>com/UbuntuPhone<wbr/>/CoreApps/<wbr/>Twitter</a>)<br/>
- [Terminal](<a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuPhone/CoreApps/Terminal" rel="nofollow">https:/<wbr/>/wiki.ubuntu.<wbr/>com/UbuntuPhone<wbr/>/CoreApps/<wbr/>Terminal</a>)</p>
<p>If you don’t want to contribute a design but would like to offer input<br/>
on the existing designs, simply click on the designs submitted on the<br/>
wiki page and you use the comments box on the MyBalsamiq site to provide<br/>
your feedback. I would like to also encourage you folks to share your<br/>
designs on your blogs, on the [Ubuntu<br/>
Reddit](<a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/Ubuntu" rel="nofollow">http://<wbr/>www.reddit.<wbr/>com/r/Ubuntu</a>), on social media, and other<br/>
places!</p>
<p>Obviously not all designs will ultimately be implemented, but the goal<br/>
here is to primarily provide a great opportunity for the best designs<br/>
that match the design ethos of the Ubuntu phone to bubble to the<br/>
surface.</p>
<p>Other Contributions<br/>
-------------------</p>
<p>All of the applications we are working on here have Launchpad projects<br/>
set up and the code will be publicly available and Open Source from the<br/>
beginning. We are currently working on a base template project to land<br/>
in each trunk for the development teams to get started from.</p>
<p>There will definitely be other opportunities for contributing in the<br/>
future (e.g. icon design, QA, testing), but for now we are focusing on<br/>
the design and development phase. Stay tuned!</p>
<p>Keeping In Touch<br/>
----------------</p>
<p>To other members of the Ubuntu for phones community, be sure to join the<br/>
\#ubuntu-phone IRC channel on freenode and you can [join the mailing<br/>
list](<a href="https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-phone" rel="nofollow">https:/<wbr/>/launchpad.<wbr/>net/~ubuntu-<wbr/>phone</a>). I will also be providing<br/>
regular updates on this work on my weekly Q+A videocast every Wednesday<br/>
at 7pm UTC on [Ubuntu On Air](<a href="http://ubuntuonair.com/" rel="nofollow">http://<wbr/>ubuntuonair.<wbr/>com/</a>).</p>