Who said that… Me! And I hoped it would be clear enough that it was my guess, and that I would be happy if I were proven wrong, but it seems I wasn’t clear enough.
Shucks, here I had thought this new phone was finally my chance to go back to the Nokia/Jolla lineage (I held onto my N9 for a long long time; got a J1 despite it not even working well on local Canadian frequencies). Instead I guess I’m stuck with my Pixel 5a running LineageOS, a poor substitute for having a truly swipe-based UI and a sane OS underlying things but in practice I’m so constantly plugging the 3.5mm jack on my pocket computer into different things that the joys of SailfishOS wouldn’t outweigh the troubles of having no dedicated audio-out port.
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Isn’t the USB-C port an audio-out port, though? Not dedicated audio out, but I guess they’re rare these days, but so are the 3.5mm port users getting rarer too.
I mean, you know what’s certainly over 100x rarer than 3.5mm ports or diehards who won’t acquiesce to arbitrarily giving them up? Phones running something other than iOS or Android!
And as people have attested to in this thread, SailfishOS doesn’t even seem to well support USB-C to 3.5mm adapters, and when you’re putting that extra strain on a port that’s also your phone’s sole charging port, well.
I dunno man, it seems like if anyone’s gonna support something that a small but vocal contingent of people want, with arguments nobody seems to have any real substantial response to other than to shrug and say “well, that’s not the world we live in anymore”, it would be a niche vendor of a niche OS for weirdo diehards of a parallel timeline of technology that sadly fell out of the mainstream. So, surely if even you can’t imagine using an analogue audio output connector in the year of our lord 2026 yourself, you can understand why I might assume that if any phone would it’d be the newest Jolla phone, yaknow?
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Yeah, kind of a pity 3.5mm analogue ports are quietly dying away from phones, if one wants to use one and not using USB-C for wired audio out. I think there was a community vote in the beginning before J2 was announced on the features the audience wanted from their phones. I remember seeing 3.5mm getting some votes but not enough to make it to the final lineup of features, so it appears the demand is not there to warrant for adding it as a feature. Would be cool if it could be had as an aftermarket upgrade, though, a bit like Framework laptops have all the options for different ports. Then again, I’m led to believe it would be much more difficult to implement customisable ports for mobile phones, let alone for a small company like Jolla.
The Other Half of course could be a platform for an aftermarket 3.5mm option? I’m keeping my thumbs up for you and the others who want it badly to happen!
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The only thing that makes sense to me for anyone that needs a 3.5mm jack is to start already showing interest with a proper thread requesting a TOH for it.
Reality is that J2 doesn’t have one, won’t magically get one, and everyone’s reasons for wanting one are irrelevant at this point because it won’t change anything.
So I would suggest to gather and let your voice be heard now if you want something to happen about it.
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No. The only thing that really really helps is complainig that you are quitting on SFOS after 15 years not even having a device. Getting productive is no way out of a well felt pain.
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For example the Power and Glory TOH with an extra battery, Qi charging and a 3.5 mm jack 
: The Other Half Returns — Community Innovation Program - #505 by jojomen
It could be anything. I believe the less restrictions Jolla has, maybe the more likely to produce something but that’s just me.
I would buy a TOH for example that has a thin QI2 wireless charger and a 3.5mm jack by extending the camera bump.
I would see it as a QoL upgrade because my phone won’t wobble at the table, MagSafe compatibility and also a 3.5mm jack if I ever need it.
But the moment you add battery there and make it heavier and bulkier, I would skip and compromise with what I have.
I am not downplaying your idea or anything, just using myself as an example to make a point. And the point is if 3.5mm jack is the requirement, you should ask for 3.5mm and let Jolla decide if they can do more with that TOH!
TBH it was more of a thought experiment than the spec for an actual TOH. And the battery is optional, so no extra weight unless you add it yourself. But bulkiness, yes.
The triggering questions for my sketch were
- There are several different unfulfilled wishes with a vocal backing, how could you add more than one functionality?
- How could you make sure that TOH doesn’t block e.g. NFC functionality?
- There are challenges with tolerances and mechanical strength, how could you make a feasible TOH developer kit?
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I guess many of these questions will be answered when we get the full specifications and everything TOH related.
But again, it makes sense to have a TOH with a 3.5mm jack, another for wireless charging, or something to that extent.
It’s not that I wouldn’t want multifunctional and maybe even screwed down TOHs, but these
- Have very low chance of being mass produced
- Would cost much more than what most would probably be willing to spend
- They would take a tremendous amount of time from Jolla
- There’s a very high chance that most of them will be obsolete if there’s a next phone
Long story short, I don’t see Jolla coming up with a slide qwerty that has extra battery, wireless charging, 3.5mm jack, ir blaster and extra ports (even if that would be sick 
)
Biggest mistake that I see so far is that apparently most people expect that Jolla will flood the market with TOHs. With j1 we got a few different color back covers and that was the end of it. If we get 1-2 TOHs from Jolla that add actual functionality its a huge step forward already.
So as I said 5 months ago as well, if anyone wants anything made either start researching and be prepared to make one yourself, or gather up and ask for it.
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So far we are still waiting for technical derails and cad files, aren’t we? I am not pushing for those, priority is certainly on handling orders and getting the phones out right now. I might have a look how feasible creating some alternative backcovers would be for me personally but I am not trying to add additional functionality, other than better protection for the camera lens, without an adfitional protective cover. Anyhow this really makes only sense once I have the device in hands.
I agree, that makes sense.
The issue, as I see it, is the overlap between these user needs - my gut feeling is that there is a considerable number of people wanting wireless charging and a 3.5 mm audio jack. Or wireless charging and LoRa, an extra USB-C and a 3.5 mm jack, or some other combination of two orthogonal functions.
I can see three ways to deal with this:
- You buy the two TOHs you want and swap, depending on the situation. It will be inconvenient, and sometimes impossible, to achieve what you want.
- You buy a TOH that combines functions. But what combination of functions will hit the sweet spot?
- You have a stackable system with the back cover (colour of your choice) plus optimally-thick single-function TOHs.
…and only #3 addresses functioning NFC while having a TOH attached. Of course, swapping will be perfectly fine, if e.g. you want wireless charging for day-to-day convenience and LoRa for occasional experiments.
[I’m aware that we’re just bikeshedding at this point and I assume Jolla will go for option #1, like they did for the J1.]
Jolla won’t make all TOHs. They release the specs and the community is free to create what it wants. I just hope they make it possible to make them stackable.
If you make an 3,5 mm TOH I will order one but please also put an SPDIF on it. And also as it doesn’t need to be the last in the stack make it a middle one. If you make one for wireless charging it probaby needs to be the last one. And while you’re making that maybe put an NFC in that.
I don’t think Jolla has committed to make any TOHs at all, but maybe they will.
In theory, anyone can make a stackable TOH. One side attaches to the phone, the other to the back cover. But unless this is part of the general design/system, it will only stack with other TOHs specifically made to be stackable.
To me, it makes more sense to have the NFC antenna in the back cover and pass signals from the phone’s NFC chip through the stack of TOHs. (Subject to RF design parameters.) Putting an extra NFC chip + antenna in random TOHs seems suboptimal.
[Still bikeshedding and also veering off-topic ]
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Finally there is a phone for all those desperately seeking an alternative. The new Trump Phone features a 3.5mm Jack.
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That made my day 
- OMG, it is golden!
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gold-colored. …
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100% on this. I mean if you truly want to remove the port, the minimum would then be to allow a second USB port so that you can both charge & listen to audio at the same time instead of needing to choose. Some gaming phones saw the advantage of this… especially since you can move your cable to a side most comfortable for a longer gaming session, but too many consumer phones are expecting a do-it-all hole (I believe biologists call it a cloaca) to handle all the work meaning more likely to break. …Like the headphone jack tho, I’m pretty sure this is just part of the planned obsolescence conspiracy where the phone doesn’t charge so might as well ‘upgrade’ to a new phone sooner than needed than deal with repair.
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I am sure your are on to something great here. Keep on researching.
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