Ubuntu Edge dual-boots Android, seeks $32M

From CNET News.com: If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much room. Say hello to the Ubuntu Edge, the first smartphone to use open source Ubuntu Touch software as well as Android -- and the people behind it want your help with a multi-million-dollar crowdfunding campaign.

Ubuntu creator British company Canonical wants to bring the dual-booting Edge to fruition by raising a whopping 21.5 million pounds ($32 million) in a month on Indiegogo. It claims this is the biggest target ever for a crowdfunded campaign. The campaign intends to produce 40,000 units; if you want to own an Edge of your very own, you'll get a handset if you pledge 394 pounds ($600) today, or 532 pounds ($830) thereafter.

You will have to wait until May 2014 to actually get your hands on the Edge, however.

If the Edge raises the money, Canonical will be "delighted" and could repeat the experiment as "a regular thing." But if it doesn't raise the ambitious full amount before August 21, the Edge won't happen at all, and Canonical will merrily continue to develop Ubuntu mobile software for carriers and manufacturers to add to their own phones.

Canonical says it's adopted crowdfunding to see which technologies early adopters are interested in paying for, without a manufacturer having to spend millions on developing a product that then proves to be a flop. The company highlights the Edge's battery and scratch-proof screen as technologies that would be adopted more widely if they could be proved by this project to be the sort of things people want from their phones. But Canonical insists this is not a full move into the phone hardware market.

The Edge promises "the latest, fastest processor," with at least 4GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. It has a 4.5-inch, 720p screen covered in pure sapphire crystal, which Canonical claims to be "the hardest natural substance after diamond."

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