Jolla: Ex-Nokia Employees Launch Smartphone (MeeGo Resurrected) 141
mrspoonsi writes "A team of ex-Nokia employees has released the first handset running on a new smartphone platform. The Jolla phone — pronounced Yol-la — is powered by open-source operating system Sailfish, but can run most apps designed for Google's Android platform. The platform — originally called MeeGo — was developed by Nokia, but dumped in 2011 in favour of the company adopting the Windows Phone system. Nokia released just one handset running the software, the N9-00. Antti Saarnio, chairman and co-founder of Jolla, told the BBC in May that MeeGo — now called Sailfish — had not been given enough chance to succeed."
doop (Score:1)
Duper
Re:doop (Score:4, Funny)
Think of it as less of a dupe and more of a commandment to buy one.
*sigh* (Score:5, Interesting)
Actually, as an experienced MeeGo developer, this just makes me sad because they won't sell one to North Americans. Nokia did this to us with the N9 too, but at least they sent me a developer device. These guys still haven't released the official GSM/LTE frequencies it supports for some stupid reason, so I don't even know if I should bother trying to import one.
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Re:*sigh* (Score:5, Insightful)
Jolla is a very small company and doesn't have the resources to ship to the entire world from day one. I'm sure they will ship to North American customers as soon as they can.
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Re:*sigh* (Score:5, Interesting)
From Jolla's website:
GSM/3G/4G LTE* (Works on 6 continents).
Which doesn't answer your question, but should mean that it works unless you're living in Antarctica :)
GSM Arena says:
2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Network HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100
4G Network LTE
yeah, probably not trustworthy, but one would hope they have a (semi-)official source for it.
Disclaimer: Mine is in the mail... :)
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From Jolla's website:
GSM/3G/4G LTE* (Works on 6 continents).
Which doesn't answer your question, but should mean that it works unless you're living in Antarctica :)
In my old school days, America was one continent, so 6 includes Antarctica ;-)
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Re:*sigh* Eastasia (Score:3)
Eastasia
"We have always been at war with Eastasia"
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#continents (Score:2)
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That would be when all locks are open, which me thinks is never gonna happen.
#continents (Score:2)
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That means it should work well as a 3G (HSDPA/HSPA+) phone on the AT&T network but only partly on T-Mobile. T-Mobile still uses their 1700MHz frequencies for HSPA+ in some markets, though it is in the process of transferring HSPA+ to 1900MHz and reusing the 1700MHz spectrum for LTE.
LTE probably won't work with any US carrier. LTE compatibility is more complex than HSPA compatibility; at the current state of the art, separate LTE phone versions are necessary for the US and Europe.
Whether that is sufficie
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Jolla is a very small company and doesn't have the resources to ship to the entire world from day one. I'm sure they will ship to North American customers as soon as they can.
Actually, even when a big fat company like Samsung launches a product, many times it is initially available only in Korea for some while.
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Look, stop whining and use a reshipping service. I did that to get a Lytro to Europe. There were absolutely zero issues sending it to Indiana instead ;)
If you want your device, there are ways to get it.
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I wish these had been out when i got my G4.
maybe by the time i get my next phone they will be here.
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Which CPU? (Score:2)
Come on eds... (Score:5, Insightful)
Dupe much?
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You do realize that they are not doing this on accident don't you? Why create new content when you can just recycle the old?
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You posted this story yesterday.
Except yesterday here is today in Australia and Japan.
Re:Good job editors (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Good job editors (Score:4, Funny)
Sorry I just don't trust a continent where the toilets flow backwards.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bart_vs._Australia#Reaction_in_Australia [wikipedia.org]
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Does the title of 'editor' even actually mean anything anymore on this site?
Did it ever?
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To be fair, yesterday existed, so the editors might not have been paying full attention to the site.
FTFY
Super duper! (Score:2)
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Jo dawg, I herd you liked dupes.
Super duper! (Score:1)
Dupe comments on a dupe post. Dupe-a-licious!
--
This exact comment has already been posted. Try to be more original...
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Yo dawg, I herd u like dupes...
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it runs Android apps
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This exact comment has already been posted elsewhere. Try to be more original!
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Sailfish is more like a traditional GNU/Linux distribution. The Android compatibility is a useful feature, but the idea is not that most apps should need it. It's very much a continuation of Meego.
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more like mer + meego, kinda.
and well if they did that then it would just be a bunch of android apps now wouldn't it? and yes they're using android HAL since it simplifies buying the parts/pre manufactured phones a lot..
if they just did a devkit for android they wouldn't be a phone design company though would they?
Is this one bugged by the NSA? (Score:4, Insightful)
If it's a Finnish company not owned by Microsoft or any other company in cahoots with the NSA, this could be the only smartphone worth buying anymore.
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If it's a Finnish company not owned by Microsoft or any other company in cahoots with the NSA, this could be the only smartphone worth buying anymore.
Yes i agree with you . But i have read somewhere on net that there is some problem in Sailfish OS specially in sending SMS may be i am not sure but i hope that the developers have rectified this error.
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he doesn't have a phone...
(and I don't think you can have patent unencumbered 3g stack? so all 3g stacks are shit on the fsf level)
Pro (Score:5, Funny)
Antti's brother, Prro Saarnio, disagreed.
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That's the first comment on Slashdot that I laughed at until I cried!
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Antti's brother, Prro Saarnio, disagreed.
Antti's father Konttra made racist remarks concerning formerly 100% Finnish Nokia and its new ties to American decadent degenerate Microsoft.
N900, not N9-00 (Score:1)
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TFA has it wrong. N9-00 was never released, N900 was. I have/use N900.
n900 was Maemo 5 (aka Fremantle). n9 was Meego/Maemo hybrid. has rights to be called Meego but didn't meet spec 100 percent. for example it uses debs rather than rpms. it was not officially launched in a lot of western countries due to desire to target windows phone.
meego is not now called sailfish as article implies. most meego development is now done in the mer fork. jolla contributes here, and then adds custom ui.
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Re:N900, not N9-00 (Score:5, Informative)
We used the hardware numbers (RX- or RM- something), and the code names (Rover, Lankku,
Now give us a hardware keyboard... (Score:3, Insightful)
...and I am sold.
I tried the iPhone. Didn't like it, too much of a walled garden.
I tried Android. It's UI sucks. Huge incosistences all around.
I will stick with my N900 until a Sailfish phone with a hardware keyboard arrives.
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Spiral zoom in browser - great! Spiral zoom in image gallery - no chance!
Volume zoom in pdf viewer - passable. Volume zoom i
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I was never bothered by those inconsistencies in N900's UI.
Athough they do exist, they are irrelevant for me, unlike the UI inconsistencies of Android 4's UI.
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Had a good run with Nokia (Score:1)
Re:Had a good run with Nokia (Score:5, Informative)
Am sure this new model is an "Android Metoo" phone.
Far fom it! Sailfish has a very distinct feel and it actually goes back a few years, being from the same lineage of Meego and Maemo before it. Check out the main interface features in this short video [youtube.com]. And it's a proper GNU/Linux system (as opposed to Android/Linux), if you're into that sort of thing.
"but can run most apps" (Score:2)
As soon as I read the line "...but can run most apps..." a feeling crept in that they most probably doing something wrong or had to make some hard compromises - just replicate the damn Android API, piece by piece, it is open is it not? "Most" today is a recipe for disaster - nobody likes almost working things. Jolla - talk with Google, certify Jolla as Android API compatible to a degree it is possible to actually "certify" for that kind of thing, and don't make yourself smaller than need be by stating "can
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'just replicate the damn Android API, piece by piece, it is open is it not? '
The open parts of the API work.
The problem is that increasing parts of the android API are closed, being implemented not by open source code, but by closed source binaries with licences that do not permit redistribution by other manufacturers.
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-10/21/googles-iron-grip-on-android [wired.co.uk]
'Play Services is a closed source app owned by Google and licensed as part of the Google Apps package. Any feature yo
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I believe you're referring to hybris.
This is unfortunately not relevant directly to the above.
It does make running an OS on an android system without having to rewrite your own low-level hardware drivers easier, as you can use the existing closed-source ones.
It does not implement the bits referred to above that are not part of the android platform as such - but are now 'Play Services'.
These are not low-level hardware drivers, but middleware.
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Play services does not equate Android, nor does Android need it. My Android-based devices do fine without any Google apps. While I mostly push stuff to them through adb (the Android Debug Bridge) I also have FDroid (an alternative, all-free-software) repository installed 'just in case'. Everything works fine. I build the distribution myself - except for the rather large quantity of binary blobs needed by the hardware, alas - and install it myself, disabling stuff I don't want (ThrottleService in ServiceMana
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I thought moving stuff to Play services was to get around the OEM's refusal to update the OS. They couldn't get their latest OS versions out to the public, causing enought API fragmentation to make trouble for developers - and PR trouble with reviewers (if not customers). So they moved new functionality to a user-upgradeable module releasable via Play. If that module happens to be closed source - because it's part of Play itself, I don't think you can assume that the purpose was to take Android proprieta
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Whatever the 'goal' - it has that function.
The new play services APIs are not in the open-source code.
The only way as an OEM to get those APIs available, and to be able to run the increasing number of apps that require them is to either reimplement them - which may run into patent issues - or to comply with all of the google terms and conditions and get them to bless your device.
Which means doing nothing that google does not like.
This _INCREASES_ fragmentation that vendors that choose not to, or are not leg
That's not quite how it went (Score:2)
not bad (Score:1)
Not just a dupe, but bullshit (Score:3)
The platform â" originally called MeeGo â" was developed by Nokia
Uh what? It's a merge of Moblin, from Intel, and Maemo from Nokia. And the nicest-looking interface is from Moblin. Nice Nokia fellation, though, submitter.
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Submitter probably meant MeeGo Harmattan which ran on the N9. That UI wasn't from Moblin or Intel. MeeGo from Intel was a mostly Gtk+ (and Clutter) based UI. N9 a Qt based swipe UI.
Hands on (Score:2)
The Verge has posted a hands on with Jolla. It's not good news:
My hands-on experience (Score:2)
I'm one of the guys who got the phone two days ago. You can read my quick review here [blogspot.fi].
To summarize: the user interface based on swiping works quite nicely, even if a bit confusing at first, and the phone works OK as a minimalistic smartphone. On Day 1, there still are quite many bugs and usability issues that need to be worked out.
Compared to Android or iOS, the visual simplicity of the user interface views is extreme, no buttons or decorations almost anywhere. When you open the phone app, you just see a ve
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sure you did.
just install the fucking filebrowser.
Rhythm Software File Manager with SMB support (Score:4, Informative)
Old Android vs. new Android (Score:2)
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1) install zshaolin
2) there is no step 2
3) enjoy your UNIX-like OS
yes, you can now scp -r whole folders across the network; what's more, you can do it using the same commands you would on a desktop machine. (Yeah, there's also rsync and sftp, among other options.)
I'm not saying buying a device with a gimped OS, just so you can install utilities to turn it back into a real computer, is necessarily a smart move, but if you've got an Android device for whatever reason, there are options there.
In fact I'm only
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Yes. It's much easier to secure revenue when you've got a guaranteed monthly income from people whose data you're holding hosta... I mean, from people whose data you're protecting. I mean, it takes money to look after this stuff, and you wouldn't want anything to happen to it would you?
Witness the extremely aggressive push to even remove things like (micro)SD slots from mobile phones and tablets under the guise that it's a "design compromise", desp
Microsoft owns FAT (Score:2)
Witness the extremely aggressive push to even remove things like (micro)SD slots from mobile phones and tablets under the guise that it's a "design compromise"
I thought the point of removing support for microSD cards and USB flash drives was to avoid needing to pay royalties to Microsoft for use of its patented file systems VFAT (long file names in FAT16 and FAT32) and exFAT (default file system for microSDXC cards). But with Windows XP going away within the next half year, I guess phone makers could just use UDF instead.
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Well last I checked, android shipped with FAT support anyway but I'm not sure if the onus would be on Google or the OEM itself to pay the MS tax (although most of them do anyway so suspect it's billed against the people shipping the devices). Even then, I think the patents only covered storing both forms of the filename so IIRC if you store only the long form and don't bother creating an 8.3 filename then I don't think you're technically in violation. Need to check up on that one...
exFAT I'm not very sure a
The inode is tied to the 8.3 (Score:2)
Even then, I think the patents only covered storing both forms of the filename so IIRC if you store only the long form and don't bother creating an 8.3 filename then I don't think you're technically in violation.
One still has to create an 8.3 filename because the information that would be associated with an inode in *n?x file systems is associated with the directory entry containing the 8.3 filename in FAT.
exFAT I'm not very sure about since I inevitably end up formatting them FAT32 anyway
Having to reformat is inconvenient. First, the user would lose all data on the card, which is kind of hard if the user is sharing the card with a camera or something. Second, the formatting tool that ships with Windows caps FAT32 at 32 GB. ("It's called FAT32, isn't it?" I know that's not the real reason, but fir
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If you believe all that you really should actually read the stuff Snowden releassed. The NSA is all over Apple like a rash. With google they at least had to hack into the data centers by re-routing their traffic when it goes between googles data centers. Microsoft on the other hand actually goes through all your stuff , even stuff you have never sent to them and then hands it all over lock stock and barrel to the NSA with an automatic program.
Android , Jolla, Sailfish etc are the future, Apple is the past.
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Otherwise, I'd stick with iOS - also iOS (like Windows and Metro) has a hybrid kernel, unlike Android or Linux.
ZOMG SOME RANDOM BITS OF DARWIN LIVE IN USERLAND AND GET MESSAGES FROM THE KERNEL THAT'S SO KOOL!!!!!!1111ONE!!!!!!!!!
And, whilst NT has a bit more such stuff, neither of them are sufficiently different from an Old Fashioned Monolithic Kernel to be particularly interesting in that regard.
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Otherwise, I'd stick with iOS - also iOS (like Windows and Metro) has a hybrid kernel, unlike Android or Linux.
OSX and Windows are both about equally microkernel operating systems, which is to say, they both have a HAL. That's about all OSX is using the underlying microkernel for. Just like Windows EXEs don't run against the HAL but against the kernel, OSX executables run against the kernel, not the microkernel, which is why it's not really a microkernel-based operating system. Meanwhile, Linux has been moving more and more functionality into userspace, which gives it some properties similar to a microkernel.
Or IOW,
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Yeah, the lack of a microSD slot is a deal killer, but it's your fault for buying a tablet without checking the specs.
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"Oh my god I bought a bicycle and now I realize I am supposed to work the pedals myself! It sucks! Where is my engine?!"
So you bought a product without first checking its specifications, and then it turns out it doesn't fit your needs? Your own fault.
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Wait, you needed a MicroSD slot and you bought a tablet without one? I see why you didn't log in.
Also, you don't need to use a google account at all, unless you want to use google services.
Nice-ish troll, though.