Ordered one
 

So, while playing a few weeks with my rediscovered old N9 I can't resist and ordered a Jolla - just to see what the guys made out of meego :-) - what the hell ...

... so I'll have to face even more nights with nearly no sleep and less time for other things - but I'm so excited ;-) - bloody geek I am ...

So soon 4 devices will be on my desktop (N9, Lumia 620, BB Z10, Jolla - ah and don't forget about the old camera monster - N8 in the drawer - or actually in the pocket of my girlfriend ;-) - and a friend offered me his old N900 which I sold him years ago ... ) let's see which two (one for business one for privat use) will survive - at least one must run android apps, because my companies time-clock-app is android based ...

Re: Ordered one
 

Nokia N9 and Nokia N900: apkenv.
BB, Jolla: built-in by company.
Others: unlikely.

Best wishes.

Re: Ordered one
 

With apkenv on the N9 it doesn't work ... Never tried it on the n900
Works on the BB - will see if it does on the Jolla

Re: Ordered one
 

So after a week some thoughts ...

What I like:
- Very clean UI - even better than WP
- thinking things different - not another clone
- great community
- not so bad hardware (for 249,- ...)
- pull down menues - already miss them on other OS
- freedom of choice - it comes with nothing but the OS and I choos what to install - even basic apps - that's really cool
- ambiances
- open linux basis - easy dev mode - terminal - ...
- geeky ;-)

What I like a bit less ...
- bug in calendar app - add one day to every whole-day- appointment for EAS calendars :-( - need the one from my employer and need to know when it ends - because the appointment are sometimes applied by a secretary or by my boss ... please Jolla fix that ...
- no consistence in the UI - sometimes you have to swipe left, sometimes pulldown, sometimes just a tip ... you can learn how to do it in every app or submenu but it shoul be more consistent to attract new users (not the geeks, the normal ones ;-) )
- no state of the art apps (Facebook, Skype, Evernote, ... ) I know there are some alternatives and I also know that this is not the fault of Jolla ... but if Sailfish should be a success, the are needed - or an implementation in the OS like in Meego or BB10 - don't know how much BB or Nokia paid for that ..
- the lock-screen :-( - what is this for? To show my wallpaper? For any usefull Information I have to pull another site - so it's mostly useless - I really want to see notifications like on my N9 - that's usefull ;-)
- the events-screen - it's not so useless as the lock-screen, but the information provided is still negligible - want my next calendar-events, weather forecast, rss feeds, ... - all like on the N9

What I really want is a message hub like on BB10 (or the r.i.p. WebOS) all in one view - shouldn't be that hard ti implement as there is already a site when swipe to the right (and then a step to the left.left.leeeeft ;-) ) the ambience swither would be enough on one side so ....

Conclusion:
For an 1.x OS this is really a great one. (Anyone remembers the first Android, the first iOS with no app implementation, the first Symbian or things like Bada ;-) ) ...

Hey Jolla, thank you for establishing a whole new, community based and flexible and (mostly) open OS for mobile devices - I'm willing to support you and buy your products (if I can efford them) - please keep on providing linux based software for an open-minded Community

Re: Ordered one
 

Thanks for the great summary. That pretty much sums up my sentiments almost spot-on.

(With only one exception. I absolutely detest merging all my messages in one "hub". An SMS is an SMS, an IM is an IM and an email is an email. That's why I don't like tbe Jolla's email clinet, it puts all my eggs (new, unread emails) in one basket. The whole point of having 7 different email accounts is separation, I do not want my TMO notifications, emails from relatives and business emails grouped together.)

But be careful! Although I and many others agree with you about the lock screen, you will soon find a very strong and loud opposition claiming that it is the best thing ever invented in the history of mobile computing ;)

Re: Ordered one
 

i agree - that's why you can choose what you want to see in the hub on BB10 - that is the freedom to configure the hub on your needs ...

I dislike many things about BB10 but the hub and it's workflow is amazing and definitely worth to have a second look at ;-) o

Re: Ordered one
 

I don't really get this one, could you elaborate on it? To me the UI is very consistent:
- swipe from the side in an app returns to the home screen
- swipe from the bottom anywhere shows the events screen
- swipe from the top closes the app (why is there still no option to make this just immediately lock the screen instead of having to first go to to the home screen)
- if there is a pulley menu, pulling down opens it (or pulling up, depending on where the indicator(s) are)

Re: Ordered one
 

Oh no! That's the best thing! Of course e-mails should not be in the same place as SMS and IM as they're usually much, much longer than the average SMS or IM message, but SMS and IM in the same place is wonderful. They're still the same people you're talking to, and it's ridiculous to need 10 apps opened at the same time if you have contacts on 10 different services. (Imagine having to do that with the current auto-closing behaviour!)

Re: Ordered one
 

So what lesson should we all collectively as a society learn? Everything should be configurable to the end user as much as possible.

Lower-down components should be built in a flexible manner, that allow varying front-ends, and front-ends should themselves be rather flexible/configurable, and easy to exchange for other front-ends.

Re: Ordered one
 

Depends on your PoV. For me, the size is only one aspect, and not even the most important one:

• SMS, IM - short; phone, email, MMS - long
• SMS, MMS, IM, phone - receive instantly; email - receive as and when
• IM, phone - respond immediately; SMS, MMS email - respond at your leisure (or not at all)
• SMS, MMS, email - content saved for future reference; IM - content kept but out of my control (depends on which IM service of course); phone - content lost unless call recording in place
• Phone - voice only; SMS, IM - text only; MMS, email - multimedia content
• Phone, SMS, MMS - free to receive; IM, email - may cost money to receive depending on your contract and location (3G or WiFi etc)
• Phone - expensive to make; SMS - free to send; MMS - costs money to send; IM, email - cost to send depends on plan and location

No two tick all the boxes in one group and none in the other so for me, the are all different. And that's even before we start talking about the logical separation, such as for different email accounts ;)

Re: Ordered one
 

And that is exactly what the BB10 hub does... the user decides what he/she wants to see in the hub ...

Re: Ordered one
 

Only on the first view...

Swipe to the right could:
1. bring up the ambiance switcher
2. Minimize the app from the main screen of the app
3. bring you one site back in the app (but not in the browser...)

Pulley menu could be either on top or bottom and could or couldn't present any further options - sometimes only the about info...

That's not consistent.... and it's even worse, that every dev does it different - you can learn it of course for every app but first it's always try and error until you found the function you need - I would prefer to have things in the same place in every app - pull for this, swipe for that, tap for...

But I like the UI anyway, so it's just about details ;-) and usability for non techies ;-) - my girlfriend tried it for 5 minutes and gave up - still prefers her N8 as in Symbian there are crosses an arrows and... that show you where to tap ;-)

Re: Ordered one
 

There is now inconsistency, you used to swipe right (swipe from inside to the left) to:
Send email
Install/update app in Store
etc

Now all these actions have been moved to Pulley menu as people were complaining about accidental sent emails I assume. Extra item for the rather limited pulley menu and kinda kills the original 'left go back, right proceed' approach, shame, but hey, they listen to complains, so there's that

Re: Ordered one
 

The front page in the email app is a list of email accounts, click on each one and you only see the emails for that account. That's where you have your separation. They don't put all your eggs in one basket at all.

The unified unread mail inbox below the email accounts list is, at least for me, a nice way to triage all my unread mail although perhaps Jolla might want to let users select which accounts are shown in that list.

I'm sure we'll see changes when they do their tablet UI as tablet real-estate allows an almost traditional desktop layout.

Re: Ordered one
 

How do you bring up the ambience switcher? I've never managed to do that :(

Pulley menus are on the bootom only if the dev felt that four are not enough and added more on the bottom. I know of only one app that has both top and bottom pulles identical - TinyEdit.

Actually TinyEdit highlights the weakness of pulley menus. They are a great hammer but TinyEdit has shown that not everything is a nail. Saving a long file in the middle of editing is impossible without losing your current position. The dev tried to somehow alleviate it by adding the bottom pulley menu but that helps only when you are close to the end of the file.

The rest is just a learning curve. I did not find any inconsistency. Swipe back to previous screen (cancel) etc. I would prefer if you had to confirm changes in settings pages rather than apply them immediately but that seems to be the trend everywhere so... tough life.

That's exactly the one I find objectionable. I would prefer to see only the accounts there, no emails at all.

You like it, I don't. An option would be nice indeed.

Re: Ordered one
 

The first two are about the context you're in. What you're advocating is consistency of behaviour regardless of context and in those cases I kind of agree, mostly because I think the Ambiance switcher should die a horrible death. Left and right edge swipes should always go back to the multi-tasking view no matter where you are or perhaps left should go to multi-tasking, right to Ambiance or whatever it is replaced with (hint: a decent events view).

The third however is not an edge swipe, it's a swipe inside the screen boundaries. I've seen a number of people try my Jolla and before that the N9 and absolutely not get the difference between edge swipes and in-screen in-app swipes.

Dave999 for instance had no idea that you could edge swipe to accept or decline actions in-screen and instead was pressing the top corners while complaining about Sailfish's poor one handed support.

The UI requires a bit of re-learning but it's forgiving: you can half swipe something to see what it will do and then swipe it back if you don't like what it does. You can delete stuff and then tap the remorse timer coutdown if you made a mistake. That's a great idea compared to tapping on cryptic icons and endless Are you sure? dialogs in the other mobile UIs.

Re: Ordered one
 

Oh yes! I absolutely LOVE the remorse timer and I hope it to make its way to the desktop world one day. Although it also has its weekness: you can't speed it up. Delete-are you sure-yes can be done under a second, remorse has to run out (and you can't just close the application as that counts as stop).

Re: Ordered one
 

It only appears when you've favourited more than one Ambience.

Go to the Gallery app, create multiple ambiences from your photos in the pulley menu on each photo.

Back out to the Gallery front page and in Ambiences, click on the ambiences you've created and make them favourites by clicking on the star under each photo.

Now on the multi-tasking view, edge swipe in from the left or right and you have the horror that is the Ambience switcher.

Now that you've seen that, go back into the Gallery and un-favourite all your ambiences and you'll not see the Ambience switcher by accident ever again.

Not always. Tweetian for instance has a pulley menu of just two items and they're both the same on the top and bottom. The reason for the bottom pulley menu is that with twitter you might have scrolled all the way down the list of tweets and the pulley is now off the top of the list. Tweetian has a permanent toolbar with icons so a bottom pulley menu is always available no matter where in the list you are. This is the main problem with pulley menus - they're attached to the content usually, not the chrome if indeed there is any chrome at all.

Re: Ordered one
 

Honestly, that doesn't really have anything to do with consistency in the UI, and everything to do with consistency between developers (and not following guidelines). Of course this is different in any app. Do you have an example of an OS where every application has the same menu options in the same place every time?

Re: Ordered one
 

Mac OS?

Since the beginning of time, it's always been Apple menu, App menu, File, Edit, View, app specific menus, Help.

The order is mandatory.

And dialogs have the buttons in a specific order too.

And shortcuts are almost always the same - no guessing what Command-W will do in this app but not another.

App developers have to go some way to circumvent the OS.

Just saying. Apple got it pretty much right back in the 80s. Oddly IBM did too in OS/2 before the horror of Windows and Linux UIs. I have decades of muscle memory on Macs now that is very hard to overcome. I've tried various flavours of Linux UI and always get so pissed off with the inconsistencies.

Re: Ordered one
 

I see. Well, I wouldn't like if the OS made that kind of stuff mandatory. The best applications aren't necessarily the ones that adhere most to the guidelines. Of course, usually if an application doesn't follow guidelines it looks/functions awful(ly).

Re: Ordered one
 

Not a mobile one but that doesn't make it any better ;-) the chance of a new OS is to do such things better (or at least less worse) than the competitors ... - people are only willing to learn new things if there is a profit or if it makes things easier or less annoying ...
I had no problem because I'm a try-and-error-user anyway but I thing that Jolla want to sell devices not only to the few people who always want something different ;-)

Re: Ordered one
 

Well, how would you suggest to solve that, then?

Re: Ordered one
 

The way eagis suggested? By enforcing it at the OS level.

I don't know how Apple does it but one way Sail could enforce at least menu consistency is by having a fixed structure where the app developer would only tick a box "yes, I want this one" and "no, I don't want that one". That way, the order would be always consistent.

Re: Ordered one
 

Yeah, I gotta agree, Apple has always managed to do the best at maintaining a logical and consistent UI among their computing devices. (Even if I do disagree with their choices from time to time...)

A small nitpick here: if you go back to the _very_ beginning of time (as far back as 1984 in this case), it was Apple menu, File, Edit, View, app specific menus:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...sh_Desktop.png

Still, a remarkably consistent GUI for over 30 years now... :)

Re: Ordered one
 

I am aware that it's in the ballpark of what I'm talking about, at least on the surface. But, for example, when I press the Text Messages app icon on my BB Z10, it takes me to the Hub - is there any way that I as a user can have my SMS/MMS messages accessed through another dedicated app on the device? Can I at the same time make them /not/ appear in the Hub at all?

What I meant is an even deeper freedom, as well as good software compartmentalization/decoupling, than what the BB10 Hub seems to have - but I do certainly recognize that the Hub's configurability takes it more in the right direction.

Re: Ordered one
 

nope. If you e.g. delete a picture and close the gallery while the remorse timer is running, the picture is gone... and it's the same for mails, notifications, etc. Just go on with the next thing you want to do and ignore the remorse timer. But ignoring is the hard part here. Countdowns make you stare at it till the end :-)

Re: Ordered one
 

People also used to believe that heavy objects fell faster than the light ones. It just made sense. Until someone dared to challenge that with an experiment.

I have just tried File Browser, Email and Gallery. Gallery was the only one that deleted the picture when I closed the application while the timer was running.

Consistency? What's that? ;)