Unity 6.0 landed in Ubuntu 12.10 with improved frame rates, refined HUD text formatting, radio support and fixes

Submitted by razvi on July 12, 2012 - 17:18

Ubuntu 12.10 is a release (currently under heavy development) after an LTS, consequently, users are naturally expecting in Quantal Quetzal new features as first-class citizens, as opposed to the latest/at-the-moment current Ubuntu version, that was build with a clear focus on stability.

Unity 6.0 has just landed in Ubuntu 12.10, as the first Unity release in the 6.x series, the first version moving from Ubuntu 12.04's 5.x series.

What is new in Unity 6.0?

  • improved HUD text formatting, the typed and matched searched word is displayed with a white color and the non-matching text with transparency (as opposed to the old bold text versus regular text behavior), generating a plus for usability (immediate identification, enhanced relevancy)
  • optimized highlight behavior in the Dash (opening the Dash, presents the user categories, such as Recent Apps, Recent Files, etc, in order to be accessed a click on their "surface"/length/space is necessary, action that expands the clicked categories; the new behavior transforms all of the clickable categories' areas into clickable "entities", meaning, expanding Recent Apps can be performed directly from Dash's right-corner by clicking its highlighted bar without "touching" the actual text Recent Apps, enhanced behavior "followed" by filters, too)
  • new typing behavior, while, with the Dash opened, pressing&holding Super, Ctrl or Alt, the search area is unwritable (pressing, for instance, letters are not registered and displayed by Dash's search area)
  • Unity launcher's tooltips gained active blur updating its blur in real-time (meaning, playing a movie near the launcher, and hover the mouse pointer over launcher icons, summons tooltips with see-through background, as opposed to the "old" frozen/static "texture")
  • Unity Music lens gained support to display online radios, clicking on a displayed radio, opens it via Ubuntu's Rhythmbox
  • increased frame rates under Unity
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