Jolla promised another big bugfix update before the year was over, and they delivered. Version 1.0.2.5 brings a whole boatload of bugfixes and stability improvements, but also brings in a few new features – such as one-way Google Calendar synchronization, camera support for Android applications, and a few more. Bigger new features are expected to arrive in January.
The update rollout itself was a bit of a disaster – the servers became overloaded (at least, that’s what it looked like), so many people couldn’t download the update, or would have the download hang halfway through. As far as I know, the update seems to be rolling out fine now, but having this process go wrong when the userbase is as small as it is means they’ve got some work to do on this one.
In the meantime, Christmas was packed with gifts for Sailfish users when it comes to applications. For instance, Sailfish has its own, native WhatsApp client now – and it works perfectly, and looks great. There’s also a video player, and a native Facebook client – Friends – is getting daily updates. Then there’s TinyWebBrowser; started out as a test project, but is already getting more useful than the stock browser, mostly because it supports landscape (a feature the stock browser will supposedly get in January).
All in all, the rate of new applications, new versions to existing applications, and operating system updates is all very promising, especially if you take into the account the very small userbase (I would guess several thousands at this point). Let’s hope they can keep it up. For what it’s worth – thanks to the new applications, I already uninstalled the Android compatibility stuff from my Jolla.
Can^A't wait to know more about it..
I assume they also fixed the battery life bug, increasing idle battery life from around 48 hours to near 500 hours.
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=92130
…if not, it’s an easy fix for any user, thanks to the open nature of the device. (The bug and fix was actually discovered by the Jolla community.)
Edited 2013-12-28 04:09 UTC
I don’t have much to say except…. daaaang! o_o
Impressive! They also have a feedback-system in place now with http://together.jolla.com/
Beside kind of inofficial roadmap it gives some clue whats missing, worked on, etc.
Edited 2013-12-29 04:57 UTC
I’m testing the battery on my Jolla in an an semi-idle test where the device has 3G *and* WLAN connectivity and a once-a-day mail sync (but no other activity).
I’m at 9th day after last recharge and with still a quarter of the battery left (and because of that I haven’t yet applied last update).
It won’t be 500 hours in the end, but I’m already very pleased with the result.
And you have not posted your review, Thom.
Waiting for that as well!
TBH I can’t stand all the translucency in the sceenshots, but it may look better on an actual device (like I thnk WP does). Can’t say I really like the translucency in iOS 7 either.
Edited 2013-12-28 11:43 UTC
I’m sure he wants to spend a little more time with the phone, as well as evaluate a few more patches and point releases given this is uncharted territory. A review at this stage would be premature.
That said, I’m definitely looking forward to it too!
And yes, I’ve started on my Jolla/Sailfish review.
Hey, can you spare us posts about every point release of OS? Something like technical teardown would be much more interesting.
It may not interest you, but I certainly am interested in learning about these kinds of releases. Sailfish, after all, is a totally new OS in the market and how it evolves, what things are fixed or added and how fast could totally mean the difference between life and death for the whole thing. Once it’s matured a bit and established a small, but secure spot in the market then sure, but for now I’d certainly prefer him to keep posting these things.
Also, Thom quite likely is still busy reviewing and writing, he’ll post his findings here when he’s ready.
Well that is is being updated is of some interest, but that should be easily discoverable from the company in question. I would really like it if the threshold for a story were higher than just that an OS had been updated.
There should have been something that put the information in some kind of context, or added something of interest. For example, I found it more than a little surprising the default web browser didn’t support landscape.
I know the OS is new, but that is pretty fundamental. Also, shouldn’t supporting landscape just be a matter of some layout settings? I have exactly no idea, but exploring that question might have been interesting. Instead we got something that is little more than a press release.
Oh on the bit about the rollout difficulty, as opposed to speculating as to what was the cause, perhaps some original reporting could have been done. At the very least find out an official response.
Edited 2013-12-29 06:45 UTC
Or perhaps you need to read a different site.
This is OSAlert after all, and this is a release of an OS which in my book at least counts as news on an OS.
Particularly when this is an OS in it’s infancy, on a brand new mobile and is making such great strides forward already.
Reading that they added one-way sync for Google calendar doesn’t sound very good, unless I’m misunderstanding..?
I just won a Jolla phone on eBay. It ended up costing a little over $600 USD, plus whatever the import tariffs end up being. That’s still much cheaper than what I’ve seen recently on eBay, where they’ve fetched more than $1000 USD.
I guess I’m no better than one of those Apple fans who need to be the first in line to get their new product. Who cares, I’m excited.
Why so expensive? You could find someone in Europe to buy one for you, or to order directly from some store which sells it (they might ship overseas). The problem is, it’s not usable with 3G or LTE networks in US anyway, so while I’m excited, I’m not going to pay so much money for something that I can’t fully use. I’ll wait until they’ll release another revision, or in the worst case until the next model which probably should have a universal modem already.
Edited 2013-12-30 03:42 UTC
The Jolla mobile costs 400 Euros, which is about 550 U.S. dollars. In my opinion, paying an extra $50 to avoid needing to take the time to find someone (trustworthy) to buy it and ship it to me would be worth it.
…if only I had the money to even consider it.
I like the phone and getting some news about it is fine. Let’s just enjoy Thoms experience with his new phone. The update policy often tells a lot about a company.
Yes, but wouldn’t it be nice it there were some kind of substance to the ports, some kind of analysis?
Over the last six month (I think, could be more), OSAlert went from multiple updates per day, to a handful a week. We went from a mix of news links, and “features”; to little more than reposts from other sites… well some have snide comments in them.
Maybe something is going on behind the scenes; maybe Thom is working on the War & Peace of feature stories; maybe it has lost the plot and needs to find a new focus; maybe one of a dozen other somethings.
But I would like more than just to be told when an OS has been updated…
Its interesting to me because this is a new OS in a heavily competitive market.
In terms of the news quality/quantity, OSAlert has always given you the ability to contribute, either with your own work or with the submission of linked news stories.
Send in some stories that are more of your interest and they may also be of interest to others, in my time I’ve had 22 submissions on the site. You cant expect Thom to do ALL the work for the OSAlert community..
Anyone know when they are going to release the SailfishOS to install on like a Nexus 5?