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#1
Jolla Ltd, the mobile company from Finland today announced that its latest financing round which aimed to end in November, has been postponed and the company needs to adjust its operations accordingly. At the same time the company has filed for a debt restructuring program in Finland, to ensure the continuity of its business. Jolla will also temporarily lay off a big part of its personnel.
To anyone capable of basic pattern recognition, this does not come as a surprise. I doubt I'm getting my tablet, even though I backed it in the first hour of availability, but to be honest, I'm much more concerned about the people being "temporarily" laid off. These are all people who took an incredible risk to follow a dream, and I hope - despite the dire signs - Jolla pulls through and they can keep their jobs, or that they can easily and quickly find new jobs.

Almost two years ago, I wrote in my Jolla review:
Few devices have a history as complicated as the Jolla and Sailfish. The ten-year journey from the Nokia N770 to the Jolla was long, arduous, filled with focus shifts, mergers, and other complications. Like the nameless protagonist in The Last Resort, in order to step out of the shadows of the old world, Jolla had to leave Providence behind, traverse the Great Divide, cross the Rockies to reach the Malibu, and set sail across the Pacific to end up on the pearly white beaches of Lahaina.

However, also just like the nameless protagonist, they found that the natural beauty of Lahaina had already been framed and plasticised by hotel chains and fast food restaurants. It is in that environment that Jolla must make a stand and survive - because there's no more new frontier.
It seems like Jolla was unable to survive amidst the hotel chains and fast food restaurants of the mobile technology industry.

Only a few days ago, my brother had a gift for me. Something special, something I know he cares about a lot. A square black box, embossed with the outline of a phone with a slide-out keyboard, and, in silver lettering, the timeless "NOKIA Nseries" and "Nokia N900". None of you know my brother - obviously - but I know just how huge of a moment this was. Up until only a few months ago, he still used his Nokia N900 as his one and only smartphone. Not as a curiosity for parlour tricks - no, as his primary, day-to-day smartphone.

His attachment and love for his N900 is something you don't see very often in technology. It's not the kind of deluded fandom you see in some other circles, but more of a "I know this device is outdated and slow and that the software isn't very modern, but it works for me". Talk to any current N900 user, and you'll get the same vibe. In fact, the N900 my brother gave to me wasn't his only one, he still has another one as back-up.

As a back-up to what? Well, after a short stint with a Nokia N9 - which I bought from him a few years ago - he went back to his N900, until a few months ago, when he finally settled on a new device, a Sony Z3 Compact. After the last few months, he finally felt comfortable enough to donate one of his N900s (but not both!). Unsurprisingly, he was always interested in Jolla and kept an eye on them, and while he certainly played with mine on occasion, it never clicked.

When, as Jolla, spiritual successor to the infamous and beloved Nokia Maemo/Harmattan family, you can't even entice someone like my brother, you know you're lost in a world where you're never going to compete with Android or iOS.

My limited edition Jolla The First One will always have a special place in my heart, and the tablet, if it ever ships to me, will certainly be one of the more prized curiosities in my collection, but I'm afraid the ship has sailed on Jolla.

It's probably in Fiji by now.

http://www.osnews.com/story/28966/Jo..._restructuring
 

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#2
Originally Posted by ka9yhd View Post
His attachment and love for his N900 is something you don't see very often in technology. It's not the kind of deluded fandom you see in some other circles, but more of a "I know this device is outdated and slow and that the software isn't very modern, but it works for me". Talk to any current N900 user, and you'll get the same vibe.
There is more to the N900 than just familiarity.

From a user perspective I have moved from finding the N900 slow , incomplete (step 4 out of 5 by Nokia PR) to accepting that the N900 is one of the most complete and performant (in terms of productivity) systems I will ever own.

I used to overclock my N900 in 2010 and now in 2015 I can accept its slowness. Why? Because I relalise this device is providing me with user convenience features that I will never be granted by any other mobile phone.
I used to embarrassed to have a black "brick sized" phone in 2010 , now I find it cute and very comfortable to hold.

The sum of the parts that make it great is made 50% by hardware features that only few companies would dare to support nowadays.

The software may be outdated in terms of security updates and browser support but only this morning I was watching the photo gallery kinetic scrolling conditioning in the minimized gallery icon on my N900..


That is so beautiful that somebody in 2009 decided that this device needed to have all that aboard to present the future that would sadly never unroll.

Last night I tried to watch a Youtube video on Android tablet about global politics going bad and was greeted with an un-skipable pub for some war-domination-game at the end.
Just the trigger what I needed to uninstall the Youtube application in frustration and pick up my N900 to conveniently watch movies with the CuteTube application.
The N900 takes me serious and has some serenity over it, it does not try to rape my mind. It does not force me to app stores that do turn my stomach with "editor's picks for you" .

Sometimes you need to try the N900 to see what you have been missing.

Now that my days of trying to promote Jolla are coming to a close, I will be moving my primary sim back to the N900.

Will be missing the battery life when online, Here maps (Android), Firefox (Android) , Jockr (native Flickr client), Calculator (native Jolla) and the more convenient virtual keyboard on Jolla.
I'd say Quasar MX (native music) but I never found the sound rendition of the Jolla pleasing enough compared to the same application on the Nokia 808.

I am not using email , social networking applications on my phone, so that makes my review very subjective compared what people do with the mobile phones.
 

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#3
I guess you are right: the Magic word is PRODUCTIVITY.

The N900 so far is the only mobile phone I can use to produce something. Therefore I am still using it - together with the Jolla. The N9 is much more elegant than both, the N900 and the Jolla. But the N9 is so limited ...

It is the Keyboard, of course, and the precise stylus, that help to be productive on such a small screen. And than it is Easy Debian.

Plus, even the email on the N900 is more productive because you can easily manage replies to a number of different addressees including citations from other mails (thanks to copy and paste) and attachments of all kinds (but word documents :-( )

There still is nothing like this available, as far as I can see

Last edited by JoOppen; 2015-11-25 at 13:47.
 

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#4
Originally Posted by JoOppen View Post
I guess you are right: the Magic word is PRODUCTIVITY.
The N900 so far is the only mobile phone I can use to produce something. Therefore I am still using it - together with the Jolla...
Same here: frequently I am using the Jolla as the mobile access point for my N900.

My Jolla is the "4G + wifi hotspot + battery extention + enhanced web surfing - The Other Half" to complement the N900

The Jolla is an excellent Wifi access point and it has proven its use to the whole family during a long car road trip. But when it comes down to selecting text and copy it elsewhere / anywhere without video game skill, it will be the N900 that wins, hands down.

As for Jolla's restructuring - I hope a skeleton crew will get a chance to work on Fairphone project first or at least postiion the OS in a market where customers are actually willing to pay to have an alternative OS as an option in an existing (modular) device.

Ok, 100K low end Intex phones at 10 Euro / phone license fee / device (estimate) is nothing to be ignored but it won't give the OS the high profile attention it deserves.
 

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#5
N900 is something different form the rest. Im using Galaxy S4 as my main phone but i still have my N900 with latest CSSU-Thumb installed. Will never give my N900 to anyone.
 

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#6
 

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#7
i have been watching this Jolla thing with interest but sad about what happened. My N900 still amazes me in what it can do. It was far ahead of its time! now that i have 3 N900s i have been trawliing old talk.maemo.org posts hacking, modding and installing.

i am very sure that the sound quality of my N900 beats other mobiles when using headphones!

the biggest advantage however is i can comfortably hold it in bed and read!!!!
 
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#8
the biggest advantage however is i can comfortably hold it in bed
and read!!!!
yeah its a pleasure using it infact my tablet is rarely used for maybe videos.

n900 can be customised as one needs it thats the biggest advantage.
 
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