At the Slush start-up event, Jolla and Sailfish unveiled the Sailfish OS inspired from Nokia’s MeeGo OS, a new user interface and development SDK. The team showcased its effortless and innovative User Interface (UI) for the first time.
The Sailfish OS and UI is made to support smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, automotive and other device classes. The new OS provides great opportunity for developers to participate in and build solutions with existing open source projects such as Qt, Mer Core, and the Linux kernel. The Sailfish SDK consists of Mer Core’s tools, Qt Creator, Jolla UI components, Sailfish UI framework and Sailfish handset application interfaces.
The Sailfish OS user interface, resembles the MeeGo platform and provides effortless multitasking. Users are able to multitask instantly between truly running applications. Even more, users are able to interact with the running applications directly on the home view: ending a call, pausing a song – without needing to enter the application. This multitasking feature brings usability and speed-of-use to a totally new level, unseen in the mobile industry. Another UI features includes the Pulley Menu enabling fast and effortless interaction; at-a-glance peeks at status information; effortless personalization of the device to match the user’s style and mood. The OS is said to be compatible with most Android apps without any extra modifications. Here some of the hand-on videos from the event –
Jolla has partnered ST-Ericsson with its NovaThor chipset platforms and has partnered with Finnish carrier DNA who will be one of the first to launch smartphones running on the new OS. Sailfish Alliance is first and foremost a movement that will unite OEM and ODM manufacturers, chipset providers, operators, application developers and retailers.
How do you like the new user interface of Jolla’s Sailfish OS? Do comment your views.