In case anybody here's interested, this whole design concept of the OH (Other Half), is an amazingly targeted chinese design.

In china, it's the "done" thing for couples to wear matching clothes, it's a huge industry, it's hard for me to explain how huge this is there.

What does that potentially mean for the intent behind the OH?

Well, it would mean it's been designed not for awesome mods, but for simple yet unmistakable, personalisation. Now that upsets me just as much as the rest of you (if not more, goodbye arduino-jolla halfbreed), but I can see the brilliance of this for the chinese market. The better the jolla phone nets them a sizeable chunk of the chinese market, the better-prepared they'll be to create a device for our tastes later on..

If all this waiting doesn't kill us first :/

Hi,

I think it would be very cool to have the other half have legs to walk, and that the phone recognizes its owner and follows him or her around (goes in line with the face recognition unlock feature).

Furthermore, since the device will be more or less bulletproof (j/k but hey look at the N900 that can be used as the hard place in "a rock and..."), a picatinny adaptor and maybe also a rail while we're at it?

From a girl's point of view: with a compartement to hold stuff like (ok now you were already waiting for it, sipping your beer) makeup, hair ties and pins, a credit card, a mirror inside maybe since the front cameras usually are a little bit too coarse for the job.

Airbag! That's it. Make an airbag into it. If the device detects it's going balistic, inflate the airbag and save the phone from drowning or crashing.

Kind regards,

Sarah

From http://electronicdesign.com/mobile/f...-usb-30-ip-soc
--
Early adoption of USB 3.0 began in 2010, and more than 70 million USB 3.0 host chips shipped in 2011. Now, key USB software and systems providers are shipping high volumes of products with USB 3.0. The USB 3.0 ecosystem is in place. USB 3.0 is no longer just for cutting-edge applications. The time has come for all system-on-a-chip (SoC) designers to implement USB 3.0. Are you ready?

This article will help you prepare for the technical challenges associated with integrating a compliant USB 3.0 solution. You’ll understand implementation considerations in using USB 3.0 IP, including selecting configurable controller intellectual property (IP) and robust physical-layer (PHY) IP. Finally, we’ll get into the challenges and solutions for IP testability, verification, hardware validation, driver implementation, and interoperability testing.

Table Of Contents

Key Features Of The USB 3.0 Protocol
Second Physical Datapath
Power Efficiency With Interrupt-Driven Protocol
USB 3.0 IP Selection Challenges
Seven Requirements For Reusable USB 3.0 IP
Flexible USB 3.0 Controller IP
Robust USB 3.0 PHY IP
USB 3.0 IP Test And Testability Implementation
Thorough, Reusable Verification Flow
FPGA Prototyping And Hardware Validation
Complete Device Drivers And Programming Models
USB-IF Certification
USB 3.0 IP Selection
Summary
References
--


I think this is one.
http://www.heise.de/ct/meldung/Tripl...r-1095559.html

SoC's and devices I found using google
http://investor.marvell.com/phoenix....cle&id=1474123
http://www.arndaleboard.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
http://www.frescologic.com/products_show.php?ms=2
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...d=aeFwyOyQZsZY
http://am.renesas.com/press/news/2013/news20130306.jsp
http://www.asmedia.com.tw/eng/e_products.php
http://www.via.com.tw/en/resources/p...elease_no=5887
http://www.ti.com/lsds/ti/interface/...ramCriteria=no


I just had a thought, what if the other half is planned to be a rasberry pi type of thing?
If it was a usb 3.0 device it would be quite pricey like this one
http://www.mitxpc.com/proddetail.asp?prod=MBJNF99FL-525

Jerryfreak and 5 Users are... weirdos

Back to the USB 3.0 vs SoCs thingie - who says that it has to be within the SoC? You can buy a cheapo SoC and slam next to it a USB 3.0 hub (provided, of course, that the SoC exposes the internal bus and can talk via GPIO with other components, and most of them do) - I've already mentioned SMSC as a provider of quite cheap yet reliable ICs for all kinds of things, and of course they have a USB3.0 hub as well. So, slam it on instead of waiting for a cheap enough SoC that comes with it, and your problem is solved. Hardkernel for example uses their controllers instead of relying on the anorexic USB facilities of the Exynos 4.

That being said, I really see no reason why a phone would have USB 3.0 facilities as even the fastest eMMCs are slower than USB 2.0 in optimal conditions. If you want to push graphics through it, HDMI is by far a better solution, and then there is Thunderbolt... Either way, unless you want to have the OH as a docking station to which you connect other peripherals, USB2.0 in a proper dual host/OTG mode is more than enough for pretty much anything you'd want to interface with.

Of course, if you're thinking of extending the core specs via the OH, then none of these interfaces are good enough - you'd have to expose the GPIO and VBUS at the very least, and even then you won't be able to affect the internally packed SoC's limitations all that much.

I see nobody mentioned 3D printing yet.

This allows for almost limitless niche possibilities. For example, a climber could build a chunky Other Half with a shock absorbent video camera, extra battery and pulley system. The camera could then record their ascent, automatically climing/descending, respond to voice commands ("auto", "up", "down", "emergency" etc) whilst measuring atmospherics, GPS etc.
All easily doable with off-the-shelf components and a 3D printer.

Do people never get it you are expecting to damn much about the specs!

This was originally posted as a comment on The Verge's Jolla reveal article, but it's probably lost in a sea of comments there, so I'm reposting it here (with a few additions)...

Since not much information has been disclosed regarding the communication technology between the phone half and the "other" half -- whether it's using NFC, whether there's a physical contact that carries voltage -- please consider the ideas below as only a geek's wet dream:

• Keyboard flipcover
• Gamepad flipcover
• Sound backcover with stereo speakers that sound as good as the HTC One
• Solar charger backcover
• Induction charger backcover
• Extended battery backcover
• Camera backcover to improve night time photography
• Photo printer backcover
• Card scanner backcover
• Pico projector backcover
• DAC/headphone amp backcover
• Media extender backcover with HDMI out, optical and S/PDIF out, aptX, etc.
• Signal amplifier backcover for those with poor reception (similar to Wilson SignalBoost)
• MIMO backcover to increase Wi-Fi performance
• IR blaster backcover to turn your Jolla into a univeral remote
• E-ink display backcover for RSS feeds, notifications, reading books, etc.
• Magnetic backcover to easily attach your phone to the fridge
• Security backcover with physical encryption PIN (similar to http://worldsbestflashdrive.com/)
• Palmprint reader backcover so you can unlock your phone simply by holding it in your palm
• Celebrity promo backcovers that automatically inject custom wallpaper, RSS feeds, etc.
• 99-in-1 memory card reader backcover (you can never support enough formats! )
• Mirror backcover (you can never look too good )

It will be interesting to see how creative accessory makers get with this, but we also have to brace for the classic chicken-or-the-egg problem: in order for accessory makers to jump right in there has to be a market big enough to jump into, but in order to have a big market the phone needs to attract people with very cool backcovers that provide real added functionality (changing colors and ambience may be cool to show off at first, but it doesn't add any real functionality). To give the accessories ecosystem a little boost, I hope Jolla will come out with a killer accessory such as a keyboard backcover to show people what is possible.

Interesting convo... I'm usually one for throwing a few cents in that weren't thought of before (else, why comment), so in addition to the ones already mentioned that I like:
- DVBH
- solar
- attach to car/bike with specific accessory cradle-like item that changes literal mode and UI of Jolla

I'd like to throw this out there
- the other half allows Jolla an abiltiy to separate the side carriers program from the side users/developers play with. But the addition of carrier-specific covers, functionality can be enhanced or reduced. In something of a switch, a carrier defined cover could program the allowance of other SIMs in the Jolla, but not an outright changing of functonality
- sell the tech for back covers only to regions like Japan and SK where seasonal releases of mobiles also have a color/font theme and meet with fashion. Make these exclusive so that other markets would be inticed to do the same for other makes with covers/cases, but none with the same kind of attention to personalization as Jolla can. Can totally see DoCoMo doing this.
- position this alongside QNX as an automtive play, but only for verticals where the addition of mobile into logistics makes sense. Mobile is owned by driver, plugs into truck for trips, comes out and gets plugged into case to have package signed, plug back into truck. Discern analytics, and company can not only guage travel, but has a data bank they can use to improve efficiencies in other areas.

Another thing
- imagine all of those "offices of the future" concepts where folks are putting their mobiles into a dock and then a larger screen and keyboard (UX) are made available (think: Ubuntu Mobile). With "the other half" here we have an abiltiy for a hardware maker (Ikea, Wallmart, etc) to place the pripietory tech into that faciltiy and then turn the Jolla phone into a Jolla environment.

In a very real sense, and not the faster carriages kind that has made a lot of noise in this discussion, Jolla's other half tech is teh ecosystem. And its ability to play off the fact that accessories are where people personalize their device should be something that not only makes Jolla attractive to carriers where their's a rising middle class, but also be a slap in the face to Android which has had the potential for similar for years, but has left it to being nothing more than skins and homescreens.

When Jolla is ready, they will explain the tech. But, they could also pull an Apple and never explain it, making this tech one of many ways they keep themselves funded and attractive to companies that would like a well-done hardware outfit to replace a non-performing one (Microsoft, HTC, Google all come to mind).

How about something along the lines of Blackberry's Balance feature?
Connecting another half, provides access to a secure/encrypted "other half" of the OS (or at least a sandboxed environment)

or a developer's other half, which sets up preconfigured tools and a sandbox for testing.

This would be a great way for Jolla to sell the product for normal consumers and development too, as it could remove some advanced settings components in the UI that may be inadvertently (or stupidly) activated by users, creating issues.
If you want to develop ON the device, you can opt for the "Developer" half.