The future begins: May 20th 2013
It has been about 2 years since the Nokia N9 was released, and it remains the main smartphone for work and otherwise for me.
Despite the fact that I have bought an Android phone for work-specific purposes (screen size, stylus and specific app), it wasn’t long before it became clear that carrying the N9 with me as my main smartphone in addition to the Android was well worth the effort.
After almost a year, I am still trying to figure out how to use the Android phone. With the N9, it took me about 3 days.
Despite making many mental notes that Android is not Meego, I constantly find myself “swiping” away on the Android phone and getting nothing in return.
The UI on the N9 was and still is truly liberating.
The other bug bear on the Android phone was that everything was tied to Google services. You can’t even back-up your own data if you don’t sign up to the Google cloud services.
This was simply not acceptable.
The user paid for the phone and the OS and should retain the right to choose, not otherwise.
Somehow, it just felt like I was using iOS all over again, rather than an open-source OS like Meego. Another well dressed “eco-system” with sky-high concrete garden walls which once you get in, you can’t get out.
There is no doubt this will be the last Android foray for me.
Which is why it gladdens the heart to know that the Jolla Smartphone sets sail tomorrow.
Based on the fact that the core team behind Sailfish is also the same who delivered a near-perfect user-centric Meego Harmattan OS, which after only version 1.3 iteration, it has not crashed on me despite using it as my main work-phone, GPS Navigation unit for cross continental holidays, back-up camera for overseas holidays, daily calendar reminders for work, anniversaries and play, storage of over 100 text messages from my better-half, internet surfing and booking tickets, personal notes and self-reminders, download paid music and games, streaming my whole gigabyte collection of music via bluetooth to my bluetooth speakers, waking me up for work everyday for over 1 and a half years, drag and drop files from desktop to phone and vice versa with USB cable only and more.
Every call gets through. No dropping of connection, even while all the above is going on. And yes, the screen was a little small but I know I can do everything using only one hand.
For sure.
Did I add that it takes less than 5 minutes to do a full back-up on the phone itself, and then, I can just plug the phone with a USB cable to my desktop and transfer the back-up file on to the hard drive. It then becomes part of my DVD/Blue-ray back up disks for my desktop system.
All the data that means something to me, safe, and in my own hands.
This is what open-source truly means to the user. Power to create, freedom to use and rights to one’s own data.
From the polls, 9 out 10 voters are waiting for a smartphone like the N9 to come back into their world. People who bought the N9 knew full well that it was not going to be supported. But we bought it all the same because we knew that it was different, and it represented a different way of doing things, where the need of the user comes first.
The Jolla team is the embodiment of this same spirit, and the fact that Jolla is set to sail tomorrow despite the impossible odds stack up against them, shows how committed the team has been to this ideal.
Jolla, unlike others, is more than just a phone or software. It represents a dream. A dream of a better world, where community is bigger than corporate greed, manifested by lock-ins and endless cycle of upgrades and inconsequential software and OS, designed to fail from the start.
Jolla is Unlike. And we love you for being Unlike!!!
The future begins tomorrow.
We are right behind you, as always.
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Enjoy the videos and the Jolla Love Day icons from Jolla and fans.
Presenting Jolla
I am the other half
Meegoman
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