By now you've probably heard about Ubuntu having announced a mobile phone edition of their operating system / user interface. Here's a link to the industry proposition video on Youtube that gives a first glimpse of the user interface and their broader idea behind a similar user interface of phone, PC and TV.
Unlike the PC variant, Ubuntu phone seems to be based on an Android Linux kernel and driver environment. In addition others report that native apps written in C/C++/Qt/QML and Web Apps written in HTML5 and Java Script can be fully integrated into the desktop environment. This is different from Android where apps are written in Java and run in Dalvik, a virtual machine, and little interaction between the desktop environment and web applications is possible at the moment. Furthermore, the video mentions the same API for desktop integration of web apps on the phone and PC desktop.
The intriguing part for me is that Ubuntu promisses to create an open source alternative to the current Apple/Google smartphone duopoly. Sure, Google's Android is also open source but something with fewer ties into Google's cloud services is something that is quite appealing to me as I like to keep closer control over my own data. What remains to be seen, however, is how much Ubuntu wants to get my data into their cloud and if alternatives are offered.
Technical details are sparse at this point but I'll surely take a look once they become available.