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Jolla Phone Pre-Order

commerce.jolla.com

31–40 of 275 posts

Re: Jolla Phone Pre-Order

#31

I went down a 1-minute rabbithole. I hate Whatsapp, but it's not optional. So I was curious if it's compatible. There's a Sailfish help page [0] showing how to get the APK from Aptoide, or downloading directly from Whatsapp.com . But with Google killing off 'sideloading', is it credible that independent APK sources are going to dry up in future? [0] https://docs.sailfishos.org/Support/Help_Articles/Whatsapp_S...

That shouldn't be a problem as long as you can still download apps from the Play Store itself (not the official app). Basically, take a look at how proxy stores like Aurora work, they connect to the Play Store servers and allow you to download apps directly from Google, without needing the Play Store app.

Of course, this doesn't mean that the downloaded app will work on such a device (if it doesn't have Google Play Services), but at least it lets you download the app, which isn't much different from downloading it from say, APK Mirror. And as long as you can extract the apps from either the Play Store or Android devices itself (via adb/root etc), I'm assuming sites like APK Mirror will continue to exist.

Re: Jolla Phone Pre-Order

#32
Hard no on giving Jolla a cent. Jolla rug-pulled [1] people who crowd-funded [2] their tablet in 2014.

Jolla used the crowd-funding campaign to butter up VCs for their next funding round [3] and then decided the Asian LLC handling the crowdfunding would go bankrupt, leaving backers with no tablets and most with no refund. [4]

The real kicker was that the tablets were ALREADY manufactured by their ODM, Jolla just never paid them. Took backers money and stiffed their manufacturing partner too. For a while after the campaign folded you could buy Jolla branded tablets (running Android, it was just an ODM model they flashed Sailfish on) on eBay or Taobao [5]. I just checked and there's a Jolla Tablet listed on eBay right now. [6]

10 years later, it looks like they're trying the same thing. Maybe they think the internet has forgotten, but I have zero interest in supporting their next hardware rug-pull endeavour.

[1] https://together.jolla.com/question/97695/information-regard...

[2] https://www.indiegogo.com/en/projects/jolla/jolla-tablet-wor...

[3] https://jolla.com/content/uploads/2017/02/46_JOLLATABLET_STR...

[4] https://blog.jolla.com/second_phase_refund/

[5] https://old.reddit.com/r/Jolla/comments/3x2s7e/jolla_tablets...

[6] https://archive.ph/Ncf17

Re: Jolla Phone Pre-Order

#33
post #3

Awesome, this has a user replaceable battery! Sadly I do see no headphone jack, so not an option for me. Did I miss it on the pictures?

Some time ago I also thought that no 3.5mm jack is a deal-breaker, but I bought super cheap jack-usbc adapter that is 5cm long and it works pretty well.

Correct me if I'm wrong but those cables must include a DAC to function properly and so usually have a tiny kinda crappy one in them, right?

In this post headphone jack world I use a fiio Bluetooth/USB DAC that's really good quality. But it's about the size of two ipod nanos stacked on top of each other.

Re: Jolla Phone Pre-Order

#35
post #26

Don't confuse Jolla https://jolla.com/ with Volla https://volla.online/en/index.php Both are European companys with a great privacy drive.

Nobody has confused Jolla with Volla, mostly because nobody has ever heard of Volla.

Re: Jolla Phone Pre-Order

#36

Seems they still havent figured out a business model for their OS. Hardware at low volumes wont move ala kickstarter. Would have thought after their ups and downs they would have landedon a sustainable businesss model. The market oppurtunity is there and the timing is favourable. All thats needed to stick the landing and have a viable alt to the ios/android duoploly. Personally would recommend they work with an estab…

They have been selling Sailfish X for selected Sony Xperia devices for years.

Re: Jolla Phone Pre-Order

#37

I love the idea of the privacy switch, but I want more: I want a hard, electromechanical switch for each of: Mic, camera, GPS, wifi, cell, bluetooth. These can be tiny and aesthetically pleasing, as long as I can easily flip on/off the one I want. The problem with having a single button, even configurable, is that it's all-or-nothing, and I might want different things at different times. But thanks so much for taking…

The PinePhone has 6 dip switches for this 1. modem, 2 Wifi/BT, 3. Mic 4, rear cam, 5. front cam, 6. headphone / serial port. They say it will stay in production for 2 more years, but a lot of the accessories (LoRa cover, keyboard, etc) are already gone.

If nothing else it is a fun platform to hack on. I'm currently hacking a toy OS for it, and the documentation for the SoC is fairly complete. I'd love an updated phone like this Jolly orange Jolla to hack on, but not at that price, and seems like it might be locked down.

Re: Jolla Phone Pre-Order

#38
post #5

What is Jolla now? I remember it as startup created by previous Nokia employees that tried to build a Nokia-type of phone based on Maemo? Or do I remember it wrong?

In 2013 they released the Jolla 1, a phone with custom hardware and Linux software. In 2015 they tried again with a tablet, but it failed on the side of hardware production and the company became insolvent.

In 2017 there came investors, among others ROS Telecom, a Russion telecom provider. They pivoted to only providing software, mainly on Sony phones. That is still ongoing.

Since the Russia - Ukraine war the Russion investors went MIA. The Finnish people from Jolla started a new company and had all assets moved to that company. They are now trying to rebuild the company and apparently extend into hardware again, even though the PCB design is off the shelf.

I have been a user since 2014 and am quite happy with their offering. It offers ssh root access if you want. Optionally manually installing software. Very much a GNU/Linux experience. Privacy focused and user oriented. And now slowly but surely there are parts of the software being opensourced.

Re: Jolla Phone Pre-Order

#39
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some time ago I also thought that no 3.5mm jack is a deal-breaker, but I bought super cheap jack-usbc adapter that is 5cm long and it works pretty well.

Correct me if I'm wrong but those cables must include a DAC to function properly and so usually have a tiny kinda crappy one in them, right? In this post headphone jack world I use a fiio Bluetooth/USB DAC that's really good quality. But it's about the size of two ipod nanos stacked on top of each other.

> Correct me if I'm wrong but those cables must include a DAC to function properly and so usually have a tiny kinda crappy one in them, right?

Not necessarily. If the device is using audio over alt-mode, it can use its own DAC.

Re: Jolla Phone Pre-Order

#40
post #5

What is Jolla now? I remember it as startup created by previous Nokia employees that tried to build a Nokia-type of phone based on Maemo? Or do I remember it wrong?

No, you're right. SailfishOS inherits the core of the OS from the old Maemo of Nokia N900 fame (though the UI was built from scratch I believe). I tried it back in the day on my Nexus 4 and it was buttery smooth, even with all its fancy animations and gesture-based navigation, which was way ahead of Android at the time.

I always thought SailfishOS would really take off by now, given how advanced and polished it already was at the time, but Jolla's mismanagement nearly jeopardised the whole thing (they filed for bankruptcy last year).

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