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First Jolla handset announced, another mobile OS enters the fray

Looks like a nice gesture

First Jolla handset announced, another mobile OS enters the fray
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Today sees the introduction of another operating system hoping to one day land that all important third place in the Android and iOS dominated world.

Joining Windows Phone, BlackBerry, Firefox, Ubuntu, and - soon - Tizen, is Sailfish OS.

Now, it couldn't compete without an actual device to run on, could it? Well Jolla, a company formed by ex-Nokia engineers, has announced that handset: and it's called Jolla.

Yes, that is confusing.

Introducing the Jolla, from Jolla, running Sailfish OS but also compatible with Android apps - understand all that?

The company's photos show a phone that can be customised with different covers. The covers are embedded with NFC tags which tell the OS to change the look of the UI to match.

With staff having worked on the earlier MeeGo operating system, Sailfish OS also operates on a similar series of gestures to perform tasks, navigate menus, and manage apps - some of which have since been used in a similar fashion on the new BlackBerry 10 OS.

Jolla also has a price and even a release date, but this is where things go a little wrong. The €399 device isn't due to ship until the end of the year.

If this was Twitter, we'd call it a major #prfail. If you want to stand any chance in a race, turning up late as the rest are half way down the track isn't a good start.

Setting sights low

Even with a relatively affordable price, the specs of the device might make it hard to convince a general public that will likely be spoilt for choice with quad- and octo-core devices in the next six months.

A large 4.5-inch display is one thing, as is 4G and 16GB of internal storage, but a dual-core processor may give the impression that it is underpowered. Even if Sailfish can cope with less power, what about its ability to run Android applications?

A changeable battery and 8-megapixel camera are other good features, and Jolla must be hoping to one day have a more comprehensive range of devices, so we'll reserve judgement until we actually get to see the phone in our own hands.

Or should we say, if. As you can see below, Jolla is asking the public to show support by placing a pre-order, which might mean a lack of support could cause even more delays.

Jolla.com

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Jonathan Morris
Jonathan Morris
From starting out as a games tester for Mastertronic, Virgin and Sega in the late 1980s, it may seem odd to then ditch everything to write about mobile phones that, at the time, lasted 20 minutes between charges. He always had a hunch mobiles would become quite popular, but possibly didn't realise how powerful (and, ironically, returning to 20 minutes between charges). Jonathan's job is to continue advising on the best hardware to buy, in order to enjoy games that have advanced considerably since those long days and nights testing Double Dragon on the C64.