Sailfish OS update from Jolla
The Jolla Love Day 2 was a fantastic get-together, just like the very first Love Day back in 2013. We had a good time reconnecting with so many of you, both in person in Helsinki and through the active discussions on the livestream.
Your enthusiasm for Jolla and Sailfish OS is inspiring, and we’re grateful for your support. It was a joy to share our latest ideas, including the Jolla C2 & Mind2, with you, and how much we’ve been able to put together within 6 months after being totally re-established as a reborn startup.
But Love Day 2 was more than just product launches – it was a celebration of our community, a look back at our journey, and a glimpse into the future we’re building together. The conversations, both online and offline, were filled with great ideas, insights, and that unmistakable Jolla spirit.
If you haven’t had a chance yet, be sure to check out the replay of the livestream to catch up on all the news. Thank you for making Jolla Love Day 2 a great experience.
Questions and answers
As noted earlier we worked on Q&A and this fortnight turned out to be a good place for it. Anything related to the Jolla Mind 2 please join to the established Jolla Mind 2 discord server.
Let us clarify few core questions that have been repeatedly asked in the forum since the Monday launch event:
Q: Are you considering keeping one-time-fee (perpetual) Sailfish license available?
A: Yes, we are and also based on the feedback it looks that we keep the option for a Sailfish OS (perpetual) license with fixed fee available for all supported device models. This will be offered next to the subscription model.
Q: I get the point you want to charge a subscription but would rather pay it yearly, will that be possible?
A: Yes, it will be.
Q: Will Sailfish OS and AppSupport continue working if I end my subscription?
A: Yes, we won’t be blocking the use. However, you would not receive releases, upgrades and new features.
Q: Will the Free Trial version continue? Also for newer device models?
A: Yes, we’re committed to continue offering the Free Trial license. Next additions to the Free Trial versions will be for Sony Xperia 10 IV and 10 V.
Q: What’s the plan with Sony Xperia XA2, 10, 10 II and 10 III?
A: They continue working as long as it’s technically feasible to support them. Hopefully we support them still years, like we’re used to, but eventually also those will deserve a retirement plan.
Q: Does this affect someone who already has a phone and a license? Do I need to pay subscription in the new Jolla Community Phone/C2?
A: The subscription model does not affect to one-time-fee (perpetual) licenses. The Jolla Community Phone comes with 12 months subscription included, after (and during) which you can freely choose whether to continue with the subscription model or pay a one-time-fee (perpetual) license.
Q: Accessories, screen protectors, cases?
A: Yes, we also like and need these indeed! Thanks to our partnership with Reeder this is now very feasible and relevant accessories will be added to the shop in due course - stay tuned!
Energy from the Community
The Sailfish world is abuzz right now with Jolla Love Day 2 alongside so many exciting announcements! To add to the excitement, Patrick Hervieux (pherjung) is organising a fresh hackathon this Summer. Here’s Patrick with the details.
Last year I promised a new hackathon, here we go!
Since many members live in Eastern Europe and that Switzerland is a no-go for an event due to expense, the idea was to stay in this area.
If you’d like to join us, mark your calendar: the next hackathon will take place from 27th to 30th September in Prague. The next steps are some organisational ones, but I’d like to take this opportunity to thank karry in advance! We still need to find out a place where to hack, but there’s no hurry.
If you’re planning to travel by night train, please be aware that tickets sell out very quickly! If you’re a student and can’t come because of financial reason, don’t hesitate to contact me on PM. There are always solutions.
Along with an office space, we need to figure out what we’re going to hack! This newsletter is a great place to get some ideas. Feel free to post your ideas in the comments below. Note that the topic will be chosen by the participants.
Stay tuned for more info 
Repository roundup
Communication bits
-
voicecall, the open source part of the calling application, dcaliste proposed to add afilter()function so plug-ins can implement silencing an incoming call, or hang it up automatically. This API change is still under discussion. -
messagingframework, the email Qt framework, dcaliste updated from upstream, bringing an API for email decryption. -
nemo-qml-plugin-email, QML bindings for emails, dcaliste added support to read encrypted emails. -
libsocialcache, a library and a QML plugin that is used to manage cache from social networks, pvuorela proposed to add support for PNG files (previously, only jpeg files were downloaded). He also improved logging errors. -
connman, the connection manager, LaakkonenJussi optimized the calculation of the Wifi weak RSSI list, to happen only once. The repository has also been updated to upstream version 1.33. -
libconnman-qt, QML bindings for the connection manager, pvuorela created a singletonConnManobject to expose paths and avoid the creation of full technology objects. -
buteo-syncfw, the framework handling synchronisation, sunweaver contributed conditional compilation in the synchroniser, to allow to use Buteo Synchronisation framework in OS without Nemo keepalive, like Ubuntu touch. pvuorela cleaned up the packaging not to include private headers.
User interface
-
yamui, a minimal UI tool for displaying simple graphical indicators, spiiroin added support for a centred text in addition to an image in the minimal visual interface used during OS update for instance. -
lipstick, the home screen code (open source parts), pvuorela fixed issues due to cached launcher items, for instance MIME type changes didn’t take effect until Lipstick was restarted. -
pvuorela adjusted margins in some applications to take into account devices with large screen radius in the corners or cut-out areas:
- in
sailfish-office, - in
sailfish-browserfor rounded corners and cut-outs, - in
fingerterm.
- in
-
sailfish-components-filemanager, QML components to create a file manager, pvuorela added error reporting in console during disk usage calculation.
Low level libraries
-
firejail, the isolation mechanism for process from the host system, dcaliste fixed an issue with the time zone for jailed applications. Prior to the fix, any change of the device time zone was not propagated inside the isolated applications. -
qtsensors, Qt bindings for the sensor framework, spiiroin fixed an issue, making the UI not to react to orientation changes. -
sensorfw, sensor framework, spiiroin ensured proper retry and clean exit when loading the Hybris sensor module. -
sensors-glib, sensors API for glib based C applications, spiiroin created a new interface to sensors, using a C API based on GLib objects.
Developer’s corner
-
busybox, a single binary which includes versions of a large number of system commands, mal increased the maximum line length when editing. -
libcommhistory, the library to access SMS/phone history, pvuorela avoided packaging the private headers. -
transfer-engine, the backend to allow sharing data between apps, pvuorela added a new API to declare available methods for a plugin.
App roundup
Once again there’s been an influx of apps — both new and updated — to the Jolla Store since the last newsletter. OpenRepos has been busy and Chum continues to churn out new builds. With all the exciting developments in the Sailfish world alongside these it’s all been a bit hard to keep track of. But worry not. When it comes to apps, we have you covered, with four of the latest updates to have hit the store shelves.
Today we have two new apps and two updates of apps that we’ve covered in the newsletter before.
First up is gPodder from KeeperoftheKeys, the venerable podcast app we last looked at back in November of last year. The app allows you to subscribe to podcasts either by selecting them from one of the many supported podcast directories (gpodder.net, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Podverse) or by entering a URL directly. Once subscribed the app will pull down details of all available episodes, which in this day and age can run to hundreds if not thousands, depending on the series in question. We live in glorious times! Each episode comes with a description, cover art and additional information. Episodes can be downloaded, streamed and favourited to listen to later. It’s all very slick and effective.
There are plenty of other ways to get access to podcasts, via the Web or via individual platforms’ sites and apps. But gPodder is a superb app for keeping them all in one place, keeping track of your listening progress and finding new material. On top of that it will also handle videos. My only complaint is that the discovery channels don’t always come back with results, either due to API changes, rate limiting or poor connectivity. But without any error messages it can be hard to tell what the underlying reason is.
This latest version 4.15.0 of gPodder has the code name “Gevura” which, contrary to my original thought isn’t a type of cheese but rather has the much more dignified meaning of “heroism”. So what can we find that’s heroic in this new release? A nicer user interface, improved import/export and the addition of Podverse as a search option. It’s worth the upgrade and worth the install if you haven’t already got it. It’s available from the Jolla Store and OpenRepos.
If you’re more of a live music listener then not only will have you have appreciated Sailkick in the last newsletter, but you’ll also appreciate our next app as well. Having bought yourself those tickets to the gig of your dreams, Pass Viewer from Christof Bürgi (p2501) will allow you to store and make use of them.,
The app imports Apple’s PassBook®/Wallet files (files with the pkpass extension), which are in practice zip archives containing a manifest and various other files, signed for integrity. The app hides all of these details — as it should — by simply showing all of your active passes in a list. In practice this might not just be gigs. Travel tickets, store cards, access passes, discount cards, all can be potential offered in PassBook format. And while most providers will also offer alternatives (such as PDF versions of the same tickets), if a PassBook file is available, it’s great that us Sailfish users have the option to make use of it.
The app has some nice touches. For example it’ll highlight passes that are either due to expire, or highlight tickets relating to a particular place if you’re nearby, determined using your GPS location. Tickets are nicely presented with the service’s logo and style, but you can also display the information in a “plain” view using standard Sailfish OS fonts and widgets, which can be great for getting a more readable version of the terms and conditions.
Overall, this is a great little app. If you find yourself routinely making use of PassBook files, you should definitely get this installed. Pass Viewer has now reached version 1.6 with Spanish translations and some bug fixes. It’s available from both the Jolla Store and OpenRepos.
Next up we have Discourser, a new addition to the Jolla Store from szopin. You may recognise this nick as the author of the very popular SFOS Forum Viewer app and that’s no coincidence. Under the hood the Sailfish Forum is making use of the Discourse forum software. And while the SFOS Forum Viewer allows you to access the Sailfish Forum via the Discourse API, the Discourser app takes this one step further by allowing you access to any Discourse-based forum in a similar way.
Actually, let’s be honest, in a very similar way.
The app clearly makes use of the same engine and with very similar features. The obvious difference is of course the ability to access other forums. This is no bad thing: it means you’re getting the same slick interface, the same robust backend, the same bugfixes across the two. But you might well ask: “why use SFOS Forum Viewer rather than Discourser?”. Well, there are some important differences.
The main one is that Discourser is read only. That means you can’t log in to the forum to post, reply or favourite other posts. One other more minor difference is that the Forum Viewer allows topic links to be copied to the clipboard.
If you’re using SFOS Forum Viewer without providing your credentials then installing Discourser instead probably makes sense: it gives the same read-only functionality but with the added benefit of access to other forums. On the flip-side, if you want the functionality that logging in provides, SFOS Forum Viewer is the better choice right now.
It’s great to see szopin inviting users to contribute their own entries to the list of forums pre-configured in the app There are already over fifty in the list, although perhaps not surprisingly it’s rather tech and Linux heavy. But for any others you just need to enter the URL of the forum to gain access, so you’re not restricted to those that are pre-configured.
This is the first time we’ve seen Discourse in the Jolla Store — or in the newsletter — but it’s not the first release of the app. It’s now reached version 0.9.0 with the latest release having a bunch of new features pulled over from SFOS Forum Viewer, including avatars, improved topic indicators and ensuring internal links stay within the app, rather than being bounced out to the browser. During testing I found it to provide a very solid experience, even over a flaky connection. It’s available from both the Jolla Store and OpenRepos.
Finally for this newsletter we have a rather unusual app in the form of iCalendar filter from hsjpekka. The app does very much what its name suggests, allowing you to import iCal files from an online source to your local calendar, while filter entries in the process.
Why might you want to do this? The obvious use-case seems to be filtering based on tags. For example, importing only entries that are tagged with “travel”, “personal” or “private”, say. But the app will filter on much more than this if you ask it to, including filtering based on time (all entries after a certain date, say) or entries that contain certain words (“birthday”, “Zoom”). Entries can be filtered in or out and you can set up multiple rules that match either conjunctively (“all filters have to match”) or disjunctively (“a single matching properly is enough”).
The app will download iCal files directly from a URL; after filtering they can be exported out to be imported into the calendar on your phone (or indeed anywhere else).
A particularly nice feature of the app is that it will remember multiple calendars and filters, allowing you to repeat previous steps again in the future. It also gives very clear on-screen info about the items being filtered in and out from the calendar, minimising the chance that things will go wrong.
But I also experienced some glitches: it struggled to handle all-day entries, which are quite common especially for public calendars online. The filter-creation process can be a bit fiddly, although having set it up you’ll typically just leave the configuration as it is on future imports.
Finally, there’s currently only a 32-bit version of the app available on the Jolla Store. This is just the initial release, so there’s still plenty of opportunity for that to change, but that does restrict use of the app to older devices right now.
Short of manually editing iCal files (which I admit is something I’ve had to resort to myself in the past) there aren’t many options for filtering iCal files on Sailfish OS right now, so the app is offering nice additional functionality. I’m looking forward to seeing it develop in future. If you’d like to get yourself a copy, it’s currently available exclusively from the Jolla Store.
So we’ve seen a nice mixture of apps this newsletter. It’s notable that they all make good use of online services and APIs, which is a great sign. The more native apps we have for accessing online services, the less we have to rely on Android alternatives, and the more we can enjoy the great Sailfish OS user interface.
Great work, as always, from the Sailfish OS developer community.
Please feed us your news
As always, please do not hesitate to share your ideas, thoughts, or suggestion for future newsletter topics.
Hope you enjoyed reading and enjoyed Jolla Love Day 2! Thank you all reading this and all who participated to the Jolla Love Day 2 in person in Helsinki and online! You all rock!
Please do also join us at our community meetings on IRC, Matrix and Telegram. Next community meeting will be on the 30th May. Thank you for the topics that you have already asked. Hope this covers some of them. Let’s keep on working together!
