New Features in Ubuntu 12.04

Finally Launched!!! Ubuntu 12.04
Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. Canonical's latest is now available in its final(ish) form and ready for you to download, burn and install. While LTS (Long Term Support) releases are generally more conservative in their application of new features, Pangolin does include some rather notable tweaks.

Some New Features in Ubuntu 12.04


The HUD

As hinted by Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth in late January, Ubuntu's new “Head-Up Display,” or “HUD,” interface makes its debut in this beta version. Dubbed as “a new way to quickly search and access any desktop application’s and indicator’s menu,” HUD can be accessed by pressing the Alt key and typing in a description of what you want to do. The software will then return a set of corresponding entries, including some fuzzy matching, the project team says. Over time, it also learns from your previous choices to make the search more and more accurate, they note.

PRIVACY

The Zeitgeist engine has been integrated in Ubuntu since 11.04. It’s also known as the activity log — it logs things you do on your computer, including files you open, websites you visit, and people you have conversations with. These logs are stored locally and offered to other desktop applications, which can use them to customize your experience.
Responding to privacy concerns, Ubuntu now includes a Privacy panel for managing this behavior. You’ll find it in Ubuntu’s System Settings window.

The Privacy panel includes quite a few options for managing this behavior. In addition to disabling activity recording entirely, you can disable it for certain types of files, folders, or applications. You can also manually delete the activity history — either all of it, or just the history for a recent time period.


Unity Appearance Settings

Ubuntu's Unity interface has been nothing if not controversial, but in this new release, the "Appearance" panel in the software's system settings lets you more easily configure some properties of Unity. For bookmark users, the Unity launcher now also includes Nautilus quicklist support.

 On the Look tab, the size of the application icons on Unity’s launcher are now configurable — you can make them smaller or larger.

On the Behavior tab, you can customize when Unity automatically hides itself. It no longer automatically hides by default, but you can enable the auto-hide feature and tweak its sensitivity, if you like.

Quick Lists

Many more applications now support Unity’s “quicklists” feature, including the Nautilus file manager and Rhythmbox music player. Right-click an application icon on the Unity launcher and you’ll find shortcuts to frequently used options. For example, the Nautilus file manager displays your bookmarked locations, while the Rythmbox music player offers playback options.

Video Lense
Lenses allow you to perform different types of searches directly from Unity’s dash, and Precise Pangolin introduces a new lens for searching videos. Select the video icon at the bottom of the dash screen and you can search for videos stored locally or in a variety of online locations, including YouTube, Vimeo, and TED Talks. Use the Filter Results option to search for videos from a specific location.

 Software Recommendations

The Ubuntu Software Center now offers personalized software recommendations. Click the Turn On Recommendations button at the bottom of the Ubuntu Software Center to enable them. You’ll have to log in with your Ubuntu Software Center account — this is the same as your Ubuntu One or Launchpad account.
When you enable recommendations, your list of installed software will be periodically sent to Canonical’s servers. Recommendations will appear in the Ubuntu Software Center.

 Ubuntu one Redesign

Ubuntu One, Ubuntu’s cloud storage service, has a redesigned interface in Precise Pangolin. Interestingly enough, the new interface uses the QT toolkit (used in KDE). The QT-based interface replaces the old one, which used the same GTK+ toolkit used in GNOME, Unity, and elsewhere on the Ubuntu desktop.