We have a new iron. I preferred the old one, though; it was lighter and a lot less complicated. However, there are similarities. Yes, the new one has a handle too, and a point at the front. But the new iron is mostly blue, in a retro 90s iMac kind of way. The combustable one also had an old iMac look about it, although it was purple. 

I wonder why this particular appliance would retain the semi-transparent 90s look while other devices have long since abandoned it. I may need to research the ironing market to establish whether our new iron is unique or whether an iron specific fashion now persists.

Another noteworthy point about our new iron is that it has a dual purpose. It seems that children may also amuse themselves with it. Yes, although it’s unsuitable for children under the age of eight. I suppose that younger children could face a risk of choking on small parts. 

This is, though, a huge design improvement. Our old iron, which also had a dual function (as a flamethrower), would not have been suitable for infants.

Not only has the Ubuntu phone seen an end to further development, but security updates are also ending. 

There’s a sticker on the side of the phone box at the top of the hill. It seems that it isn’t often used after all and is going to be removed. 

Earlier today, I received some text messages from numbers not known to me. 

My immediate fear was that my phone had somehow been affected by a virus. And then I read this on Twitter. 

Apparently, text messages are also randomly going to the wrong people. A lot of people seem to be affected. 

I parted company with my (second) Ubuntu phone last year, after Canonical announced that that particular phone, or its predecessor, wouldn’t support true convergence. Yes, I could connect it to a keyboard and mouse and it would be transformed from a phone to a linux computer. Well, sort of. The desktop applications, so needed to avhieve a truly converged device, weren’t available. Phone development recently lost momentum and, while a tablet was released, the OS remained a niche product.

And now the nail in the convergence coffin. Yesterday, Canonical announced that it plans to drop its proprietry unity to return to gnome within the next two LTS releases. Since mobile devices are unity based, they clearly now have no future. 

In one respect, I do miss my ubuntu phone. The OS was a joy to use, extremely intuitive, using only thumb gestures. And it was pretty too. But we parted company because a year without even the most basic of applications was too much. Yes, there were some native apps (very few), but many were crude webapps which didn’t work very well. 

One good thing that came out of the experience was my discovery of meizu phones. My second ubuntu phone was a Meizu MX4 and it was great. My second in command has one, although it runs Android. I’m now using a Meizu M3, the mini variant, which isn’t mini at all. 

I’ll continue to run Ubuntu on desktop PCs, I couldn’t imagine using anything else. But it’s a shame that the mobile version no longer has a future. 

Still, there are a couple of other approaches aiming to establish Linux on mobile devices, so I’ll keep an eye on these. And, I guess, Android is Linux-based.

GPD have released some pictures of the Pocket prototype. 

I think it’s looking pretty good. 

It only exists as a prototype right now, but the GPD Pocket is moving towards reality. The crowdfunding target was $200,000, but contributions are around $2.1M right now, with over a month still left. 

They ship around June, so there shouldn’t be a huge wait.