Jolla names Tomi Pienimäki as new CEO, Marc Dillon to become Head of Software Development

Jolla names Tomi Pienimki as new CEO, Marc Dillon to become Head of Software Development

As Jolla gears up for the imminent unveiling of its first smartphone packing the MeeGo-inspired Sailfish OS, there's been another shake-up at the highest level of the company. Marc Dillion will no longer be CEO as of May 6th, with a man by the name of Tomi Pienimäki taking over leadership of the company. He's no stranger to Jolla -- he's an investor and his brother Sami is one of the company's founders. Using nearly the same wording as when previous CEO Jussi Hurmola changed roles, Dillon will now be able to "fully concentrate on the development of Sailfish operating system" under his new title of Head of Software Development. Pienimäki's record shows he's all business, with experience in management, logistics, supply chains and driving growth -- you know, all the fun stuff that keeps a company ticking. Following the handset reveal in May, Jolla expects to start a "pre-sales campaign" in the same month and have devices available for purchase during the second half of this year.

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Jolla’s reportedly launching a handset with ‘Scandinavian design’ next month

Jolla's reportedly launching a handset with 'Scandinavian design' next month

This year's Mobile World Congress was a rather meaningful one for Jolla, what with the launch of its Sailfish OS SDK. But what's an operating system without a proper fixture, right? To wit, DigiToday is reporting that the team of ex-MeeGo engineers is getting ready to debut its first hardware early next month -- a handset emblematic of a "modern Scandinavian design," according to Jolla Chairman Antti Saarnio. Further, the Finnish news site says Jolla's taking a cue from the recent crowd-funded craze: it's prepping limited edition versions of the device for early adopters. Naturally, we'll have to wait for something more concrete, but with May just around the corner, it shouldn't be too long before we can finally see what Jolla has in store for us.

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Via: My Nokia Blog

Source: DigiToday

Hands-on with Jolla’s Sailfish OS (video)

Handson with Jolla's Sailfish OS video

We recently had the chance to spend time with David Greaves and Vesa-Matti Hartikainen of Jolla and take Sailfish OS for a spin. As you might recall, this open source mobile OS builds upon Mer (a fork of MeeGo that includes Qt) and uses the Nemo framework with a custom UI. Like any decent Linux-based OS, it supports both ARM and x86 devices. The company is also behind the Sailfish SDK which is in the process of being finalized but is still open to developer feedback (the source code is available). After seeing Jolla's various demo videos and noting some UI similarities with MeeGo (swipes) and, strangely, with BB10 (peek gestures), we were eager to experience Sailfish OS for ourselves.

If you're wondering why the mobile OS is usually shown running on Nokia's N950 developer handset, that's because Jolla employs many ex-MeeGo engineers, so the OMAP-based phone was a natural fit. We were first given a walkthrough of Sailfish OS, then allowed to play with it. Many apps are still being worked on and some are still off-limits (we got in trouble for launching the camera), but what we saw was pretty solid. Take a look at the gallery below, then hit the break for our hands-on video and first impressions.

Continue reading Hands-on with Jolla's Sailfish OS (video)

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Jolla expects Sailfish SDK to reach developers in early Q1 2013

Jolla Sailfish OS demo

Developers looking to carry on part of the MeeGo legacy have been wondering when Jolla would publish a usable SDK for Sailfish OS. It hasn't taken long to find out: the company has updated its wiki to tell us that the programming kit arrives early into the first quarter of 2013. Although that's not immediate satisfaction, it's close enough that development will start relatively soon after we receive hardware details. After that, it's just a question of whether or not the mobile app community is willing to dive in.

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Via: Tonis Tech Blog

Source: SailfishOS.org

Jolla won’t officially support Sailfish on the Nokia N9, suggests the community tries it anyway

Jolla won't officially support Sailfish on the Nokia N9, suggests the community does

Nokia N9 champions may be looking hopefully at Sailfish to revive their beloved MeeGo, but Jolla has reigned in those expectations by saying it won't be officially supporting the device. Although the company won't be responsible for updates or providing technical help, it claims there's nothing but a voided warranty stopping the community from porting Sailfish to the abandoned handset. So, N9 owners, it's up to you -- if you want the MeeGo-based OS on your phone, you'll need to do a bit of work for it.

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Source: Jolla (Twitter)

Jolla’s Sailfish OS promises multitasking, personalization and ‘effortless interaction’ (updated)

Jolla's Sailfish OS promises multitasking, personalization and 'effortless interaction' (updated)

The date we were promised an introduction to Sailfish is here, and it turns out Jolla's not just targeting smartphones with its MeeGo-based OS, but tablets, smart TVs and other devices, too. Jolla has kept its OS under wraps until now, but it wants Sailfish to be an open-source affair which "will be built through community involvement and participation." The SDK will be available soon, and we should get a look at the UI during a presentation occurring shortly. We're assured superb multitasking capabilities, as well as deep personalization and "fast and effortless interaction." Jolla has said Sailfish will be available for use with "multiple chipset technologies," and is already supported on ST-Ericsson's NovaThor platforms. It's also reported that it's partnering with Finnish carrier DNA to promote and sell Sailfish smartphones on home turf. The full reveal is coming shortly, so we'll let you know more as soon as we do.

Update: The Jolla team took to the stage with touchscreen hardware in hand (we also spotted a Raspberry Pi), keen to express how they've been working all hours to boot Sailfish on anything they can find. The company called its creation the first truly "open ecosystem," and said that development will be fully transparent from the outset. While there will be Jolla-branded phones launching, Sailfish is also being offered to handset manufacturers to use on their own hardware. The UI tour wasn't as in depth as we'd have liked, but "true multitasking" was the main focus. Active programs can be pinned to the homescreen as tiles (in a layout that looks something like BlackBerry 10), which offer some control of the app without it hogging the screen. They also showed off a feature called "Ambiance," which uses colors from a picture you select to tint the UI. We wish we had more info to share, but right now, we're all just left wanting more.

Continue reading Jolla's Sailfish OS promises multitasking, personalization and 'effortless interaction' (updated)

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Source: DNA

Jolla’s Marc Dillon takes over as CEO, Jussi Hurmola to focus on Sailfish

Jolla's Marc Dillon takes over as CEO, Jussi Hurmola to focus on Sailfish

Following big news from Jolla almost two weeks ago, it's reluctant to go quiet, instead taking to Twitter to announce that Jussi Hurmola is no longer its CEO. This isn't a story of scandal or corporate dissent, but merely a restructuring to allow Hurmola to focus on Sailfish, the MeeGo-based OS currently in development. It's no great surprise that Marc Dillon is stepping up to be the new big cheese -- he's another of the company's founders and was acting COO prior to the shuffle. Sailfish is due to be demoed for the first time in a little over a month, where we imagine Hurmola will be eager to flaunt its progress now that he's managed to palm off all that paperwork.

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Jolla's Marc Dillon takes over as CEO, Jussi Hurmola to focus on Sailfish originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 15 Oct 2012 16:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Behind the scenes history of MeeGo reveals Nokia’s abandoned tablet and Verizon N9

Behindthescenes history of Meego reveals

Finnish site Taskumuro has produced an incredibly detailed behind-the-scenes history of Nokia's wonderful, yet doomed, MeeGo OS. Talking to current and ex-employees of the phone maker, it learned that a tablet (codenamed Senna) and CDMA Nokia N9 for Verizon were both in development before Stephen Elop killed the project dead around the time of the "burning platform" memo. The report also claims that the company's decision to develop Maemo (later MeeGo) in tandem with Symbian led to a developer turf-war, that the Swipe UI was cooked up at the 80/20 Design Studio in New York and the team had planned an Apple-esque strategy of releasing a single phone every year. If you'd like to learn more (and about how the original article was translated from Finnish into English in under 10 hours), head on down to the source links.

[Thanks, Masa and Justus]

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Behind the scenes history of MeeGo reveals Nokia's abandoned tablet and Verizon N9 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Oct 2012 10:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jolla confirms first Sailfish OS demo on November 21st, device details by Christmas

Jolla logo

Jolla had already mentioned that it would show its MeeGo-derived Sailfish OS in November, but the startup now has exact dates to mark on the calendar. Come November 21st and 22nd, we'll get a peek at Jolla's take on the open platform's interface, apps and SDK at the Slush conference in Helsinki. There won't be much hardware to see, however. Jolla plans to provide the first phone details and launch window before Christmas, which doesn't give much if any time for initial partners like D.Phone to get moving. We'd expect a more formal launch in the new year.

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Jolla confirms first Sailfish OS demo on November 21st, device details by Christmas originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Oct 2012 14:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Jolla resuscitates MeeGo with ‘Sailfish’ OS, plans to show off new device this November

Jolla resuscitates MeeGo with 'Sailfish' OS, plans to show off new device this November

If competition breeds innovation, then there's plenty promise in this latest mobile development from Jolla. The Finnish company, comprised of former Nokia employees, is poised to enter yet another combatant to the wireless arena with a MeeGo-based OS, codenamed "Sailfish," as early as this November. According to The Wall Street Journal, an initial round of funding has raised €200 million to push the effort forward and the small start-up is investing €10 million of its own to bolster the platform's prospects. Having been recently abandoned by Elop and co. after the arrival of the N9, this iteration of the operating system will continue to be open source and should pave the way for OEM adoption, although certain aspects of the UI will be licensed. According to CEO Jussi Hurmola, the new hardware's expected to hit next month -- just in time for a glut of other smartphone bows. Until then, we'll reserve our judgment and hope for the best.

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Jolla resuscitates MeeGo with 'Sailfish' OS, plans to show off new device this November originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 02 Oct 2012 11:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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