The OTA-9 Focal firmware (over-the-air) has been released, developed by the UBports project, which has taken over the development of the Ubuntu Touch mobile platform after Canonical stepped away from it. This is the eighth release of Ubuntu Touch, based on the package base of Ubuntu 20.04. The project is also developing an experimental port of the Unity 8 desktop, renamed as Lomiri.
The Ubuntu Touch OTA-9 Focal update will soon be rolled out for devices including Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1, F(x)tec Pro1 X, Fairphone 3/3+/4, Google Pixel 3a/3a XL, JingPad A1, Oneplus 5/5T/6/6T, OnePlus Nord N10 5G/N100, Sony Xperia X, Vollaphone X/22/X23, and Xiaomi Poco X3 NFC/X3, Xiaomi Poco M2 Pro, Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 Pro/Pro Max/9S, Volla Phone Quintus, and Volla Tablet. Compared to the previous release, builds for the Lenovo Tab M10 HD 2nd Gen and Xiaomi Redmi 9/9 Prime have been added.
In developing the new release, the main focus was on preparing for the transition to a newer LTS branch of Ubuntu. Changes in Ubuntu Touch OTA-9 Focal include:
- Support for VoLTE (Voice over LTE) has been updated, expanding the number of supported VoLTE operators.
- Waydroid, a package for running Android applications, has been updated to version 1.5.1 with initial support for Android 13 images.
- The font for displaying emojis has been changed from Emoji One to Noto Color Emoji, which improves support for new icons.
- Bug fixes and vulnerabilities from Ubuntu have been carried over.
Source: opennet.ru
