Sailfish OS tablet is GO: Fans stuff cash into Jolla's cap in hand Upstart gadget maker Jolla announced plans to produce a tablet via a crowdfunding campaign on Wednesday – and within mere hours, its fans had pledged well over the asked-for amount. The Finnish firm launched its campaign on Indiegogo with a goal of raising $380,000, and as we go to push the big, red "publish" button on this …
I really want to like Jolla and kickstarted the phone.
The interface is not handed, so for lefties such as me, that's good. The software is very pretty, but not sure it's as open as advertised (show me the source code and I'll recant)
The other half was an idea in search of a reason, ambience (a colour my mood on my phone feature) is probably best left to those who have "had their colours done".
The real problem is that you didn't get much hardware for your money. It sort of reminds me of the Meriden workers cooperative that tried to keep Triumph motorcycles alive. My heart wanted to buy one but my head said BMW for this reason or Kawasaki for that reason.
Obviously a lot of people disagree with me and I wish Jolla well (my much replaced Nokia 5800 only recently abandoned is still a great phone) but a Nexus 7 however mundane is still a safer bet.
Would you care to repost after you've come down from the high of your choice as I have NO idea what your point is
"ambience (a colour my mood on my phone feature) is probably best left to those who have "had their colours done"
"my much replaced Nokia 5800 only recently abandoned"
The core weakness of the Meriden Triumphs was the bottom end which the co-operative could not afford to re-engineer (I had a long discussion with Harry Weslake about this, I'm not just spouting off.) As far as I know, Jolla isn't stuck with anything that is a fatal weakness to its products.
But yes, it is going to be very difficult for them to get economies of scale. A crap-free convenient tablet for around £200 sounds very attractive but they are up against Tesco and the like. God may not be on the side of the big battalions, but one could easily be misled into thinking that she is.
You can apply to them for the source code, in writing, blah, blah, but you can get it.
Like you, I kickstarted the phone, but I'm not going for the tablet. Their e-mails to me were one thing on the e-mail, but another when I went to the provided link. If they're sending e-mails to people, they need to at least allow them to get home from work and read their private correspondence before pumping the price. This drive seems to have been very badly handled, IMHO.
However, I'm still having problems with the OS. I still believe it is not out of beta. Still supporting them by buying the backs for the phone (including two of the leather flappy things) but no way I'm getting caught up in this tablet mess. Sailfish has a good way to go yet.
That's why the tablet is Intel rather than ARM - I believe that the intent is all of the hardware will be supported by open-source drivers.
They're gradually open-sourcing other parts of the OS too, but I think there are still a few apps that are closed source. What I'd like to see is more options to use alternative apps as default and for them to speed up the process of getting apps into their app store.
I'm sort of coming round to the idea for my usual browsing etc. I like my Jolla phone a lot (though the last time I looked, the method of getting it to allow access to the Google app store* was fiddly, to say the least, and I haven't done it), so I stuck my $189 (somewhere between £120 and £121) in quickly. If the tablet is as sturdy and pleasant to use as the phone, I will be very happy.
* I know it will annoy some people, but I'd rather use the official Android app store than Yandex etc
Because without apps I don't think it stands much long term chance.
Also, it is just a theory, but device makers seem to make better devices when they control the hardware and OS. The most notable example is of course Apple, but then you have to pay the Apple tax. On the Android side, Google seem to bring out features around 12 months after Apple. But that is not really red hot competition for Apple, and I don't imagine Google have loads of incentive to do more than match Apple, as forcing Apple to spend more on R&D would just force them to do the same.
I am rooting for Sailfish and BB OS as I think the future mobile computing world could do without being dominated by only 2 companies.
"Also, it is just a theory, but device makers seem to make better devices when they control the hardware and OS."
Not unheard of. It's called vertical integration. Since Apple specs everything down to the last conduit, they know firsthand how everything fits in. Once you start talking third parties, each one wants their terms and conditions. And since patents make this pretty much a captive market, it's pretty much pay or go without. This is also why we'll never see a completely open mobile OS in the near future. Many of the makers of the under-the-hood chips have patents and/or licenses protecting their stuff, and they refuse to divulge on anything less than an NDA. You can't clone because of the patents, you can't open anything that's bottled under an NDA, and you can't go without due to the demand.
On the Android side, Google seem to bring out features around 12 months after Apple
Ummmm....if you mean several years before Apple, then maybe. They had tap-to-pay long before Apple, their NFC and Bluetooth are unrestricted, the notification tray, continuous input keyboard and so-on in iOS were taken directly from Android. Hell, go back far enough and ask which had multitasking first.
The Atom 3700 series is the Bay Trail platform with the Intel HD 2000-compatible graphics. I'm not sure what's its performance, but it's way more compatible with open source drivers than anything else out there.
Now to find out about the other parts. Is it too much to hope for a Qualcomm Atheros wireless chipset, with freely distributed firmware and open infrastructure/monitor modes?
The N1 is foxconn rebranded kit so if Nokia wanted to go independent that is how they could do it. Of course the owners of Jolla would have to be willing to sell it to them. Given that most if not all of them were laid off from Nokia that's not a forgone conclusion.
http://www.cnet.com/uk/news/nokia-is-making-an-android-tablet-and-it-costs-250/
Having sold off the hardware manufacturing division, Nokia has partnered with Chinese manufacturer Foxconn to build and distribute the N1. After the failure of several previous licensing strategies including Symbian, Series 60 and the MeeGo partnership with Intel -- not to mention the relatively short-lived adoption of Windows Phone -- Fogg warns that the company will have to do better with its licensing, especially if it is to maintain Nokia's reputation for decent hardware.
I think the OS drivers for Atom vs. ARM is the first (and so far only) good argument I've heard for an Intel chip in a tablet.
It is a bloody good argument, though; I'll be eyeing these when they hit the selves. (If the manage to cross the pond this time. I'm still sad that their phone hasn't made it across.)
The Jolla devices have AlienDalvik that can run Android Apps don't ask me how it performs because I have yet to bother using it.
But yeah bought the phone half a year ago, kicktstarted the other half KEYBOARD addon(el-reg report about this as well both are running at the same time even):
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2028347278/tohkbd-the-other-half-keyboard-for-your-jolla
And now indiegogoed the tablet.
For my own uses the phone is perfect and the user experience is something I miss from all other devices so far. I was hoping for the longest time for a tablet from them as well... they seem to have a clue/ideas on how to make user experiences that are great and that are intuitive once you break the chains of the android/ios limitations.
I backed the phone at the start, in part because I liked the OS and preferred how it worked over Android and iOS in it's Nokia incarnations. Sailfish is a wonderful user interface and I much prefer it over everything else I've tried. The only thing I didn't like was that Jolla didn't produce a keyboard other half and have had to wait for the kickstartered TOHKBD in order to get one.
Either way, the preview snippet intrigued me, I was kind of hoping for a new phone with updated hardware. So I watched Marc Dillon's piece at slush and was a bit disappointed with the launch of a tablet. Didn't really fancy it but when I saw the specs for $189 it seemed rude not to. Time will tell whether it'll be a well used device or dust catcher though. In the short term it will nice to see how Sailfish translates to the tablet form factor and screen resolution.
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