Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Jolla's First Phone Goes On Sale

Posted by Soulskill on from the jolla-jolla-bill-y'all dept.

jones_supa writes "Jolla, the mobile phone company formed by ex-Nokia employees, has officially launched its first phone. It will be initially available in Finland, paired with the local telecom operator DNA. After that, it will be made available in 135 other countries. The Jolla handset runs the Sailfish OS, which is itself based on the former MeeGo platform developed by Nokia and Intel several years ago to produce Linux-based smartphone software. Sailfish can run Android apps and it also integrates Nokia's Here mapping and positioning technology. Looking at the hardware, the device sports a 1.4GHz dual-core Qualcomm processor, 1GB memory and 16GB of flash storage, plus a 4.5in 960x540 IPS touchscreen with Gorilla 2 Glass. It has the usual mobile network support, including GSM/3G/4G, 802.11b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth, 8MP autofocus rear camera and 2MP front camera. SIM-free pricing is expected to be €399."

60 of 307 comments (clear)

  1. Paired with.... by Apotekaren · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Paired with here means that the phones are sold by the telecom operator in their stores(first the pre-orders are fullfilled), but there are no requirements for contracts and no sim-locking.

    The online shop is Jollas own. I just paid for my pre-order phone through their website.

    --
    She: Hey, are you a traitor? Me: No, I'm atheist.
    1. Re:Paired with.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      By charging a price that covers their cost; what's so mysterious?

    2. Re:Paired with.... by Jmc23 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Ah you silly USians.

      --
      Don't complain about syntax, grammar, or spelling. There is no.hell like input on android.
    3. Re:Paired with.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      So how do they make money if they don't sim lock?

      This is how you know the providers have won, when consumers wonder why they're NOT being treated like dirt.

    4. Re:Paired with.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      By charging a price that covers their cost; what's so mysterious?

      Mysterious? You can't think of anything mysterious? Try this: The average person can't work out that

      24 * 100 > 1000

      Add that to the fact that the average person pays for roaming rather than just redirecting their phone and buying a local SIM card where they go (that phone you pay an extra 1400 for over two years doesn't work abroad!!). Once you start realising this is mysterious you will be able to find no end of mystery in the world.

      In the end, the real mystery is: what will be your next phone bill.

    5. Re:Paired with.... by r1348 · · Score: 3, Informative

      You're describing the American mobile market, things in Europe work very differently: most people buy a SIM-free phone and then use the operator they wish. Phone contracts cover only a very limited part of the market (iPhones, mostly).

    6. Re:Paired with.... by realityimpaired · · Score: 2

      But even then $100 seems high, is that the average in America?

      For a heavy plan in the states or Canada, yes. That's about accurate. You *can* get plans for less, but the incumbents usually throw around arguments about the geography involved in rolling out a network when challenged on their pricing and how it compares to Europe or Japan. We'll ignore the fact that 90% of Canada's population lives within 100mi of the US border, and that 81% of our population is urban, clearly we need to roll out a cellular network that can provide service to the caribou up on Baffin Island, and so we need to charge the folks living in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, etc., to subsidize the coverage for the caribou... but I'm not bitter.....

      More realistically, I don't think it's that people can't work out that $2400 is more than the cost of buying the phone outright. It's a combination of factors. First, the poor tax. If you don't happen to have $500 kicking around to buy a phone, then you will probably not be able to get that phone unless you sign up for a subsidized contract. The smart answer would be to buy a cheaper phone that you *can* afford, but there's a lot of money being poured into the advertising and marketing for the latest and greatest devices, and a lot of pressure on people to upgrade to a phone they shouldn't really be able to afford.

      The second reason is that the incumbent cellular carriers, in Canada at least, don't really give you a significant discount for bringing your own phone rather than subsidizing it. Most of them will give you 10% off the price of the monthly contract... wowee... you save $10/mo on a $100 contract, which adds up to $240 over a 2-year contract. And you have to ask for it at the point of sale... if you don't ask for the discount, then the price of a subsidized contract is the same as the price for an unsubsidized contract, so there's no real savings for not letting them subsidize your phone, as long as you plan to stay with the same carrier and phone for the duration of the contract. The problem comes when somebody comes along with a better deal... which happens fairly regularly. Because you've signed on to a contract, it'll often cost you more to switch than you stand to save over the life of the contract... but people don't tend to think of cellular service in those terms, at least in this country.

    7. Re:Paired with.... by mirix · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It isn't android, that's the whole point.

      --
      Sent from my PDP-11
    8. Re:Paired with.... by dbIII · · Score: 2

      Yes but will you still be using your HTC as long as I've been using my N900? This proposes to fill that niche of an updatable phone so that you don't want a new phone every two years. In the long run it may be cheaper.

    9. Re:Paired with.... by gl4ss · · Score: 3

      if you buy from the finnish operators they'll flat out tell you on the material how much you're going to be paying for the phone.

      basically you just sign up for a partial payment plan unless you just outright buy it.

      anyhow, you can get all you can eat dataplans(suitable for running torrents 24/7) at varying speeds starting from around 7-8 euros / month.

      there's no "you have to buy a phone for ridiculous price or pay for it anyways" system there. in the gsm era it was illegal to simlock phones... so it all stems from there. biggest mistake ever usa did with their mobile networks was to allow locked phones and techs. you could have had much wider and faster adoption otherwise(and well, paying for incoming calls shit too, what a joke! we never had that).

      anyways, good luck for jolla and better late than never!(about a year ago I was at one of their developer workshops).

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    10. Re:Paired with.... by gbjbaanb · · Score: 3, Informative

      In europe, phone contracts are still the most popular way to get a phone but the phones are nearly always unlocked (especially nowadays) and can be reused after the contract ends by putting a payg sim in, or migrating to a sim-only contract (which seem to be increasingly popular)

      The thing the US carriers don't get is that people will always go with a contract as it spreads the cost of their new phone out, like buying one with a finance deal. They don't need to be locked at all. Even if you sell a sim-only contract, you make money off the punter, you only need to subsidise handsets if you have an exclusive deal for a must-have new model,and even then.. people will come to you to buy them anyway.

      The US carrier lockdown is simply stupid, something in place by executives who can only think they exist to abuse their customers rather than provide a competitive service. America, ha.

    11. Re:Paired with.... by dbIII · · Score: 2
      Look - you wanted to know why people have such an opinion and I told you why. Anecdotes about some new Samsung phone that isn't locked down as much as their old ones may be interesting but some people such as myself, rightly or wrongly, have the perception that something that actually strives to be open as a selling point may be better in the long run.

      then why are you evangelizing N900

      Try reading what is above again. There is a major difference between an example and "evangelizing". Also there have been updates this year from third parties due to the thing being open - which is kind of my point and I'm a little surprised that you haven't picked up on it despite so many posts on the subject. The thing is heavy, slower than newer phone which matters for some apps, and battery life with wifi on is short, but it's a example of something that people have kept for as long as the hardware is good enough because the software can be kept up to date no matter what Nokia think of it. I'm "evangelizing" that practice and not the specific phone. I'll cheer for whoever sets up a system so that their phone is relevant for five years or more independent of who they are. Jolla looks like they are doing that especially with their ability to run non-native apps so that even if the platform tanks immediately the adopters are not left out in the cold. Please don't point out that Jolla did not develop that android compatibility layer themselves - the relevant thing is it comes with the system not who they are licencing it from.

  2. Yes, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... can it run Linu ... Yes? Oh, right. Nevermind.

    1. Re:Yes, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      There's more GNU/Linux in this thing than most if not all Android computers.

    2. Re:Yes, but... by oodaloop · · Score: 4, Funny

      It's never too late to imagine beowullf clusters!

      --
      Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
  3. Hmm I might get one by ickleberry · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I am sick of the Android+iPhone duopoly and never liked either of those OS to begin with. Now if they could only make a phone with a hardware keyboard

    1. Re:Hmm I might get one by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      It's called BlackBerry Q10 (or Q5 if you're on a budget)

    2. Re:Hmm I might get one by Apotekaren · · Score: 4, Interesting

      One of the most important features is the "Other Half" or whatever they're calling it, which is basically a back cover with a digital interface. There are already projects in motion to produce back covers with slide-out keyboards, extra batteries, among other things.

      This feature has been seriously underplayed, it's one of the most exciting things about the whole phone!

      --
      She: Hey, are you a traitor? Me: No, I'm atheist.
    3. Re:Hmm I might get one by marcello_dl · · Score: 4, Interesting

      As a political choice, or long term strategic move, you might want to support the neo 900.

      --
      ---- MISSING MISCELLANEOUS DATA SEGMENT --- [sigdash] trolololol
    4. Re:Hmm I might get one by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      No. There will be no hardware keyboard "other half." The back of the phone has a camera right in the fucking middle of it. There's no way for a hardware keyboard to fit without doing some shitty folding-butterfly effect to go around the camera.

      Jolla intended for this phone to not have hardware keyboards. They want it to be a proprietary, NFC-enabled "flash drive" that they can patent and team up with artists for exclusive albums and movies. It is only intended to be a new type of media storage, but slow because it uses NFC. There *may* be an FM-transmitter "other half" down the line as well as one with a kickstand. Congratulations, it's a phone cover that changes the theme's colors to match.

      There was a Kickstarter campaign a few weeks ago to build a hardware keyboard for the other half, and it was abandoned because of the camera.

    5. Re:Hmm I might get one by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      You open the keyboard from locked, exposing the camera, and incidentally, the actual physical shutter button on the side of the keyboard.
      As one possible design, for example.

    6. Re:Hmm I might get one by Luckyo · · Score: 2

      That's not a seam. That's the back part of the phone, which is replaceable. They're gunning for the setup where various different back panels will be made for the phone, which are paired with the phone though a digital connectors. Some of the ideas I've been hearing so far is things like a sliding keyboard backpanel and so on.
      The "seam" is where this back panel is connected to the phone itself.

    7. Re:Hmm I might get one by phoenix_rizzen · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Portrait keyboards, like on the Q10, suck. You lose half the screen to the keyboard, all of the time, making it worse than an onscreen keyboard.

      Landscape sliders are where it's at. You get a full-screen device, with an onscreen keyboard, and access to a full keyboard in landscape without losing any screen space.

      It's just too bad there aren't any QWERTY sliders anymore. :( Was really hoping Motorola under Google would release a Droid5 with flagship hardware and the Photon Q keyboard. Alas, I'm still waiting ...

    8. Re:Hmm I might get one by exomondo · · Score: 2

      Funny you suggest the Q10/Q5. I checked with my mobile provider. They don't have any Q10s and the Q5s are selling for a much higher price than .... well almost any other phone in their market.

      Probably because hardware keyboards on smartphones are unpopular, you pay more for niche product particularly when it involves additional hardware.

      I could get a Z10 or a new quad-core Samsung Galaxy for less than the Q5.

      But they don't have hardware keyboards, so less hardware along with economies of scale due to their target audience makes them cheaper.

    9. Re:Hmm I might get one by phoenix_rizzen · · Score: 2

      Wife had the LG Eve (came out before the X10 Mini Pro) and loved it. Pretty sure she developed calluses from typing on the slide-out keyboard. Then she dropped it off the balcony, and managed to hit one of the stepping stones on the walkway (2" in any direction and it would have landed on grass). Now she has a Galaxy S2 (the HD/LTE version, so basically an S3), and rarely types anything on it.

      I had an Xperia Pro for about a year. It basically replaced my Linux netbook and almost replaced my Windows laptop. VX Connectbot (has keymappings for the Pro) let me access all my Linux/BSD systems at home and work. And typing long e-mails was a breeze. Now I have an Optimus G and rarely type anything anymore. :(

      Still waiting for a flagship Android device to ship with a slider keyboard. I'd like to use my pocket computer for more than browsing Facebook and Youtube. But onscreen keyboards suck for anything relating to actual computer work.

    10. Re:Hmm I might get one by toddestan · · Score: 2

      Probably because hardware keyboards on smartphones are unpopular, you pay more for niche product particularly when it involves additional hardware.

      Or they figure the only people who want a Blackberry must be business users so they can figure they can charge a healthy premium.

  4. Re:How about porting it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    First things first. Let them get themselves established, away from the history of Nokia's self-dealing CEO, and show that the direction the company was going before he sabotaged it is a viable business model. Then maybe they can consider whether they can afford to attempt to rescue Nokia's current customers.

  5. Introducing the new SlashPhone! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Get hourly updates featuring
    -Vague laws misinterpreted by engineers to be threats to privacy/civil liberties
    -The latest release of every obscure Linux distro and its shortcomings compared to 10 other distros
    -Factually spurious articles about the death of the IT industry
    -Philosophical flame wars about the validity of alternative energy/electric cars
    -Mental masturbation regarding drones/macs/climate change
    -Hypothetical discussions of Rasberry Pi created by Arduino driven 3-D printers purchased with BitCoins
    -Windows 8 trolling

    Available Apps Include
    -Car Analogy Generator
    -Library of Congress Unit Conversion
    -XKCD Reference Linker
    -Shill Detector
    -Basement Leak Sensor
    -Voice Wreck Ignition Citation Search Engine

    Fully compatible with
    ¦Android
    ¦BlackBerry 10
    ¦iOS
    ¦Nokia Asha
    ¦Sailfish OS
    ¦Windows Phone
    ¦Windows RT
    ¦Bada
    ¦BlackBerry OS
    ¦Grid OS
    ¦Linux
    ¦Mer
    ¦S40
    ¦Brew
    ¦SHR
    ¦Symbian
    ¦webOS
    ¦Tizen

    *Unicode support included in a future update

  6. Why such low specs by h4rr4r · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Why are the specs so low?
    This is like a phone from 3 years ago.

    1. Re:Why such low specs by CRCulver · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Why are the specs so low? This is like a phone from 3 years ago.

      Is that really a problem for a phone that is here announced on a News for Nerds site? It's a phone open to tinkering and running Linux software, which should interest us all. I know that I've breathed new life into my old Nokia N900 by discovering how to work with Emacs on it, which as the old saw goes, is a great operating system. Of course it has always had support for most audio formats (including libre ones), so it continues to satisfying me as a music player. Watching videos, video conferencing, extremely complicated web stuff, well, I can do that on a desktop.

      Sure, one can make the point that the phone does not have features state-of-the-art enough to appeal to a mass demographic that could keep the company afloat, but I'm a bit surprised to see Slashdot denizens complaining that it isn't whizbang enough.

    2. Re:Why such low specs by Thomas+Miconi · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The crazy thing is, even though you are right that these are low specs by modern standards, these are still basically laptop-level specs. Hell, it would beat a 2006 MacBook *Pro*:

      http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/macbook_pro/specs/macbook_pro_1.67.html

      The convergence between phones and computers is nigh. The Ubuntu Edge concept was ahead of its time, but soon enough smartphones will have enough computing power to fill 95% of people's needs. When that happens, who would want to buy a huge, noisy desktop box rather than just plug a screen+keyboard into the phone that you carry with you all the time anyway?

      Same thing for laptops. How long will it take before the majority of "laptops" are actually empty shells into which you can just plug your phone?

    3. Re:Why such low specs by h4rr4r · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It would not come close to a 2006 macbook pro.
      ARM cpus are not that performant. Ghz is not something you can compare that way.

    4. Re:Why such low specs by h4rr4r · · Score: 2

      My phone is open to tinkering.
      Heck, Ubuntu for it exists.

      I want both. I might be convinced if all the drivers are in mainline, but we both know that is not the case.

    5. Re:Why such low specs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The specs are "low" because it's what you can get to manufacture and sell for $400 when your order is not in the millions of units. It's already amazing they managed to sell it at less than a $1000 each for such a small order.

    6. Re:Why such low specs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The specs are actually quite close to the iPhone 5C (at half the price), and are low only if you compare them to Android phones specs, which are so huge because of two things: 1. Android is a resource hog, 2. due to Google's tight grip over Android, the only way OEMS can differentiate is through specs.

      The Jolla folk are actively trying to fight the second point, and the first point is not applicable to them since they use a "standard" Gnu/Linux stack (Systemd, Wayland, dbus, Qt, zypper).

    7. Re:Why such low specs by tlhIngan · · Score: 2

      It would not come close to a 2006 macbook pro.
      ARM cpus are not that performant. Ghz is not something you can compare that way.

      They're not as fast as x86 yet, but they're catching up. Intel's latest Bay Trail Atom CPUs are fast (outclassing the old Atoms, but benchmarks put the Apple A7 at a bit faster.

      Some of it can be explained by CPU speed (the Bay Trail ran at 1.33GHz vs. 1.4 for the A7), but it also means the speed advantage at the low end low cost x86 is being rapidly reached by ARM CPUs.

      In fact, Intel wants to position the Atom (especially Bay Trail) as a very fast embedded SoC for mobiles, but if existing SoCs are starting to catch up to it, there's very little advantage.

      It also means when Android goes fully 64-bit, you can expect some massive performance improvements (most of it comes from the ARMv8 64 bit architecture more so than any specific microarchitecture change).

    8. Re:Why such low specs by queazocotal · · Score: 4, Informative

      It's really not that rosy.
      http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-10/21/googles-iron-grip-on-android for some context.
      'For OEMs, this means they aren't allowed to slowly transition from Google's Android to a fork. The second they ship one device that runs a competing fork, they are given the kiss of death and booted out of the Android family -- it must be a clean break. This, by design, makes switching to forked Android a terrifying prospect to any established Android OEM. You must jump off the Google cliff, and there's no going back.'

      There is _NO_ automated process for getting an android device appoved.
      Do one thing that google does not like, and you cannot legally ship any of the google apps - which as the above article explains - means many, or most apps on the google store break, even if you try to simply copy them over, as the platform services are not open source.

    9. Re:Why such low specs by exomondo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      many, or most apps on the google store break, even if you try to simply copy them over, as the platform services are not open source.

      That's probably the most telling part of the plan, the proprietary Google Play Services gives the opportunity to have 'Google Play Services' applications rather than just 'Android' applications and the more they advance the features of that over the features of Android the more appealing it is to developers and the less appealing non-Google Android devices will be to end users.

    10. Re:Why such low specs by KozmoStevnNaut · · Score: 2

      Fairphone manages to do pretty well on specs for €325 per phone, with an initial production run of 25,000 phones, while using ethically-sourced minerals, recycled plastics, reasonable wages and working conditions and so on:

      http://buy-a-phone-start-a-movement.fairphone.com/en/specs/

      Admittedly there's no 4G, it hasn't actually shipped yet (they should start shipping out in December) and it's running Android, so the software development costs are lower. But building a decent phone at those sorts of prices is definitely possible, even for relatively small production runs. I'm waiting patiently for my Fairphone, but I'll definitely be following Jolla closely. From their press releases and general design ideas, it seems like they've managed to retain some of the brilliance that Nokia used to have.

      --
      Eat the rich.
  7. The N9 successor by Ecuador · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I switched from an N9 to a Galaxy S3 about a year ago (because the N9 lacked some apps I needed - thanks to Nokia abandoning it and alienating developers) and I still think the N9 was a much superior experience to both my Galaxy and my company-issued iPhone.
    I' ll keep an eye for this. Hopefully if it catches on it might get a lower price-tag (given that it doesn't use very expensive hardware). The hardware does not seem very high-end, but the native apps are fast (the single-core N9 seemed faster than dual-core Android phones). Plus you get to run Android apps, if they run without problems this should allow people like me who had to switch to Android for the apps to get the phone.
    One thing I don't like that much is the IPS screen. I don't mind it has a lower resolution than the current flagship phones, but I would prefer the S-AMOLED that the N9 had (with an always-on clock that did not use almost any battery power!).
    Oh, there is also some talk that they will develop replace-able backs, e.g. you will be able to remove the back cover and put in a slide-out qwerty keyboard N900/950 style.
    So, keeping an eye out for this, if it is really better than the N9, it could be the phone to have.

    --
    Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. Polar Scope Align for iOS
  8. Re:How about porting it... by jovius · · Score: 5, Informative

    Phones capable of running Android are their major target. Interview of the CEO from today:

    In addition to applications, Jolla exploits Android’s ecosystem also in another way. Jolla’s Sailfish operating system works in almost any Android device. Due to this Jolla can subcontract its devices for a reasonable price from any smart phone manufacturing company in Asia.
    ....
    One more plus for Jolla is that the Android compatibility makes it very easy for other smart phone companies now using Android to change their OS to Jolla’s Sailfish.
    ....
    According to Pienimäki, Jolla is also planning to let individual users to download Sailfish operating system into their Android-devices.

  9. Re:How about porting it... by CRCulver · · Score: 4, Informative

    Lumia phones have an encrypted bootloader. Windows Mobile is the only operating system that can be installed. While there may be a way around this, it has not be discovered by the hacker community yet.

  10. Re:The video... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    i doubt you'd question this, if you had owned N900 or N9

  11. Re:Moto G by Teun · · Score: 3, Interesting
    I see a huge difference between pure Android and a real GNU/Linux flavour like Sailfish, the latter has so much more to offer.

    This sort of development on a respectable OS deserves support.

    --
    "The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
  12. Re:Let the lawsuits begin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Na ga happen. Nokia actually funded this company with contributions towards a federal goodwill program that provides funds for nationalistic (Finnish) startups. Jolla has access to Nokia's full patent portfolio under this program, as well as Nokia HERE maps.

    The Jolla spinoff was a way for Nokia to continue development of Meego without Microsoft oversight. After the Microsoft acquisition is completed, Nokia cannot make phones until January 2016, after which, a merger between Nokia and Jolla is possible. Nokia has retained its brand, image, and importantly, the "Nokia ringtone" sound. It may be able to get by for a few years on patent royalties. Microsoft only gets the Lumia and Asha lines, and production centers, which were outsourced to Asia anyway.

  13. Re:The video... by Microlith · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yes, because the moment we decide "we don't need any more OSes" is the moment we decide that "innovation" is done and nothing new is to be had unless it comes from Google, Microsoft, or Apple. And that's a bad, bad state to be in.

  14. Re:How about porting it... by Microlith · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's also interesting to note that Wayland just shipped on a device. So much for it being "hard to fit into a mobile device." Thanks to libhybris, they just wrap the Android blob for the GPU and continue on like a standard glibc-based Linux system.

  15. Re:Android compatibility by foobar+bazbot · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I don't know if supporting Android apps is a good idea. Won't that kill any chance of having native apps?

    Not necessarily. That issue's widely credited with the failure of OS/2, but that was a time when you drove to a store and bought a boxed application off the shelf, or mail-ordered it. Either way, you wound up with some removable media and installed the software -- there was no other way in practice. (Yes, I know modems did exist.) That means there's no incentive for someone with a Windows app to make an OS/2 port, because it's equal trouble for the consumer to acquire and use my Windows app or my competitor's OS/2 port -- I don't suffer lost sales for my lack of a port, so I I'd be a fool to dedicate the resources to one.

    With smartphones, though, the normal method is to go to some app-store and download the app you want -- and this permits differentiation. If the Jolla app-store only carries Jolla-native apps, so that using an Android app requires downloading the .apk with a web browser, then my competitor with a Jolla-native port will get more market share than I do with my Android app, because there's less effort for users to install his app -- I'll have to do my own Jolla port to get in the Jolla app store and compete on an equal footing.

    (I'm not sure that's exactly how the Jolla app-store situation will be -- maybe you can just install e.g. the Amazon app store APK, and have two app stores, one for android and one for jolla -- but you can see how that sort of thing lets you have the benefit of using existing Android apps while still giving developers a reason to bother with Jolla-native apps.)

  16. Re:How about porting it... by marcello_dl · · Score: 3, Funny

    step one, locate trashcan
    step two, throw celly into trashcan
    step three, get fined for not properly disposing of electronic stuff that contains all sorts of evil substances, other than the OS I mean.
    step four, get the jolla.

    --
    ---- MISSING MISCELLANEOUS DATA SEGMENT --- [sigdash] trolololol
  17. Re:How about porting it... by Microlith · · Score: 4, Informative

    Wayland. On every one of these Jolla devices. X11 was being used early on until recent versions of Qt were released, which added the Qt Compositor API, allowing them to create their own compositor (and do some rather interesting things.)

  18. Re:xterm? root? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    As far as I can tell it's more open than Nokia N9 (Meego), and on my N9 I just had to enable developer mode from the options to get a terminal and root access. Now, N9 came with a security system called Aegis which partially crippled the root account, but Jolla will not come which such 'features'.

  19. Egocentric world by StripedCow · · Score: 3, Funny

    After *I*-OS, you can now buy a phone running "Selfish-OS".
    The question is: who needs a phone in a self-centered world?

    --
    If Pandora's box is destined to be opened, *I* want to be the one to open it.
    1. Re:Egocentric world by Luckyo · · Score: 2

      A fisherman. They're known to be a solitary crowd!

  20. Re:The video... by SpectreBlofeld · · Score: 2

    Microsoft makes more money from Android than it does from WindowsPhone due to patent royalties. Perhaps Sailfish will be free of such royalties? If so, I can see hardware manufacturers getting behind it (or Tizen, etc) in a big way, especially considering that Android apps will run on it.

    Maybe HTC, which has been foundering lately, should produce a Sailfish handset. They could set up their own app store and make some cash that way...

  21. Re:Pronounciation by Luckyo · · Score: 5, Informative

    Yo-lla. Finnish for "dinghy". The joke being about getting away from Elop's "burning platform".

  22. Re:xterm? root? by KiloByte · · Score: 2

    Sadly, this Jolla thing has no keyboard and thus is a non-starter for me.

    But add one and I promise to be the first in line to buy it. My N900 is starting to fall apart...

    --
    The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
  23. I think they just like making new project names by tokiko · · Score: 4, Informative

    Maemo / Moblin -> MeeGo -> Harmattan -> Mer -> Tizen | Smeegol | Sailfish

    Or, in other words, lets rename and start a new project every other week!

    I got my N900 because it was based on the same GTK and Debian that I was familiar with on my desktop. But I never touched app development on it because of the promise of the "new" project completely obsoleting anything that I would create on the old. Why bother creating a GTK interface when the new UI gets rewritten in QT next month? Why bother creating Debian packages when the new system uses RPM? Meanwhile, the Osborne effect ensures that no mainstream apps get written for the current code base.

  24. Re:big repo, man by ChunderDownunder · · Score: 3, Informative

    Compatibility with Android should be *much* higher than with wine. They have the source code for a start... They both target Linus' kernel. They're both based around OpenGL (ES) for drawing.

  25. Re:xterm? root? by c.r.o.c.o · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sadly, this Jolla thing has no keyboard and thus is a non-starter for me.

    But add one and I promise to be the first in line to buy it. My N900 is starting to fall apart...

    As the owner of two Nokia N900s, HTC Desire (Nexus One), HTC Sensation, and LG Nexus 4, as well as a former owner of a Nokia N9, I can say the hardware keyboard on the N900 is highly overrated. Yes, when the N900 came out touchscreen keyboards were garbage, and the small screen and low resolution of the HTC Desire made typing on it an adventure. Same went for the Nokia N9 by the way, I loved the swype interface, hated the lack of keyboard. Fast forward to the HTC Sensation and LG Nexus 4, and I can type MUCH faster than I ever could on the N900.

    I can think of a couple of reasons a hardware keyboard may be useful, such as typing in a terminal where sharing half the screen between the keyboard and the command line output IS a pain. And also using the phone in cold weather with gloves is much easier with a hardware keyboard.

    But writing off the ONLY new phone running a real Linux distribution, with real native apps, open ecosystem from a company that is not interested in stealing your private data just because it lacks a keyboard just seems like trolling to me.

    I personally will buy one as soon as it becomes available in Canada without being on pre-order.

  26. Re:xterm? root? by temotodochi · · Score: 4, Informative

    Jollas concept about "the other half" actually includes plans for keyboard add-on. At first the other halfs (back covers if you like) just change the look, feel and settings of the OS for example red cover for work and blue for home. I haven't tested the phone myself, but this concept sounds cool. Later on Jolla is adding more physical gimmicks to those covers, hardware upgrades, keyboards, etc.