Just a few moments ago, Canonical's Łukasz Zemczak sent a quick email to the Ubuntu Phone mailing list to inform the community that the OTA-11 update for Ubuntu-powered devices was approved for landing.
Ubuntu Touch OTA-11 has been in development for the past two months, and it includes some exciting new features and improvements, such as the long-anticipated Wireless display technology, which Canonical calls Aethercast or Display Cast, but also known popularly as Miracast. We reported on the new features the other day, so please check that story to see what's new.
Unfortunately, the Wireless display implementation currently works with the Meizu PRO 5 Ubuntu Edition smartphone. According to Michael Hall from Canonical, with whom we had a quick chat earlier, in order to work on older Ubuntu Phone devices, such as Meizu MX4, BQ Aquaris E4.5, or the BQ Aquaris E5 HD smartphones, it will require a lot of effort put into backporting the Android APIs.
"That would require either (A) we backport the Android 5.x APIs to Android 4.x for use in older devices or (B) we upgrade those older devices to an Android 5.x container," said Michael Hall, Community Manager at Canonical. "It requires StageFright APIs that only exist in Android 5+, and most of the existing devices still use 4.x in their Android container."
Ubuntu Touch OTA-11 launches later today as a phased update
Therefore, later today, June 1, you should expect to see a notification about the OTA-11 update on your Ubuntu Phone device. The update will also be available for Canonical's new Ubuntu Tablet, the BQ Aquaris M10 Ubuntu Edition, but please try to keep in mind that, as usual, the update will be phased, which means that not everyone will get it today.
A phased update will take about 24 hours to arrive for everyone. So if you don't see the update on your device when we announce the launch of Ubuntu Touch OTA-11 later today, please don't panic, as most probably you'll have to wait for a few more hours, or in the worst case scenario another day. By June 2, every Ubuntu Phone and Ubuntu Tablet owner will get the OTA-11 update.
