Yotaphone 3 & Sailfish OS?

answered 2017-04-06 18:05:27 +0300

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768 ●9 ●18 ●20

updated 2017-04-06 20:23:16 +0300

Yotaphone with Sailfish OS was a news about 2 years ago, and that was in fact the first Russian company interested in SFOS device - according to my limited knowledge based on internet observations. Yotaphone are unique due to 2nd screen which is e-ink touchable reader. It can play role of main screen, but e-ink use about 5 times less energy, so smarphone can work much longer, and excluding playing video or shooting photos 2nd (e-ink) screen can be even better as it is much more healthy and less tiring for eyes, as this is first of all a comfortable e-book reader. That would be fantastic if they would sell that 2nd screen as TOHalf for current Jollas - I would buy it, really.

If they haven't launch YP3 with Sailfish so far, then I suppose that was rather about waiting for "green light" from their RU gvt. On the other hand, it is much wiser to use OS that is certified and hence allowed then to fight against RU administration. I am quite sure that if they were "kindly asked by sad men in suits from RU gvt" - you need to wait until we let you - they just obeyed and have been waited IMHO. Who knows. The question is what changes were enforced by RU gvt in Yotaphone with Sailfish, as I think it will be a RU version.

Anyway: I recognise Sailfish YotaPhone as valuable sailfish device for a replacement and for everyday use. And I would have much comfortable for eyes e-ink screen for daily operations and use. (Do you remember N9 off screen-saver displaying time using only some pixels?) Of course with possibility to switch to classic screen and vice versa in the fly. YotaPhone use 5"Amoled screen with GorillaGlass and 4,7" EPD E-ink display with refresh rate of 0.12 sec 16 greyscales. As they say "Android screens can be almost impossible to read in bright sunlight. YOTAPHONE’s EPD screen is perfectly readable even in the brightest sunshine: fiction, Facebook, Twitter, news, RSS-feeds, blogs, mail, messaging and absolutely everything else. Reading on EPD 100 h, Using maps on EPD Up to 18 hours." See their video in English here: https://yotaphone.com/us-en/ They have with Yota about 150 patents and patent applications, so I think their technical solutions are and will be quite unique for a time. I think that would also be very interesting company for possibly Jolla partnership, IMHO. Smaller then INOI or OMP, having origins like a start-up, so finally it could realise they are quite easy for Jolla "to finds a common language" and cooperative. Also I suppose that if they were accepted in a RU landscape there so far they would be accepted still also when would join to Sailfish. So, Jolla please: cooperate with them - we would have first serious Sailfish OS e-book reader with e-ink screen, and really good mobile for replacement. I would buy it as next device. Additionally, as I know,they have own distribution in many countries also via their site. For me YotaPhone "mobile of 2 fronts" is second the most innovative device, just after Sailfish OS device as first the most innovative one.

YotaPhone 3 is to be much cheaper, as manufactured by ZTE in China - price was a problem with Y2, unrealistic for me. It is expected to be in sell in summer 2017, we will see. I will buy it.

Additionally for YotaPhone company: there will be a demand, seems to me quite significant, at Russian market due to Jolla cooperation and Sailfish RU propagation in institutions and hence among common people, and that will be an opportunity for YotaPhone. Would be irrational not to use that opportunity and not to launch the Sailfish YotaPhone 3, IMHO. But to let it happen the support and cooperation with Jolla is necessary IMHO. I put it here as I haven't seen YotaPhone anywhere in the context of recent cooperation between Jolla and Russian side. Perhaps I am wrong or unaware, I don't have any precise info. I just think in best Jolla, Sailfish, sailors, users, RusFed, free coders etc.etc. is Jolla to pay some attention towards cooperation with YotaPhone company, to verify if it is included (if is interested in) and not omitted (despite is interested in) or needed additional support can be provided. It also can happen they ought to be considered as company partly operating in China, considering their cooperation with ZTE so Chinese manufacturer.

off topic BTW: This could be an opportunity for eventual further cooperation with ZTE. Note so far confirmed are Sailfish ports on following devices from "ZTE Open C and following variants of this mobile phone by ZTE: ZTE Kis III (Kis 3), ZTE V811, ZTE V811W, ZTE Blade M, Beeline Smart2, Moche Smart A16 (MEO), Optus Hop Smart, Skinny V811." I assume I don't need to say about oncoming potential demand in China.

answered 2017-04-08 13:54:16 +0300

velox
613 ●9 ●19 ●23

updated 2017-04-08 13:55:44 +0300

As both an e-ink and a SailfishOS user, I actually have some thoughts on this, which I might as well share:

While the Idea might seem like a good one at first glance, IMO the SailfishOS UI isn't really feasible on e-ink, since all swipe interactions rely on large portions of the screen animating, which is not what e-ink is made for: In the best case it'll end up looking a bit ugly and make portions of the screen unreadable, in the worst case it leads to heavily reduced life time of the screen compared to just having "static full screen updates" once in a while. I'd be not surprised if those ideas weren't followed for this reason alone.

Also, one of the unique things about SFOS is having ambiances, which are made for looking pretty on full-colour-displays but almost always lack the required contrast to really shine on e-ink – if you only have a few steps between white and black, it's best if you use all of them.

Source:

I have a modded/rooted Tolino reader and run some light weight android apps on it which are not optimized for this kind of screen. Even animated scrolling in lists can be painful to look at. As a nerd, I adore the added value of the device and can live with sometimes manually starting a "screen flash update" app to reduce artifacts from previously displayed content when it becomes too much, but most consumers would be really appaled.