Sailfish OS system update 12 - First info

System update for Jolla phone, first info of update 12. What to expect?

Jolla has shared information about the next Sailfish OS update 12, including the schedule, name and the main features. The next update is bringing us for example a landscape view in Maps application and split to the keyboard. What to expect and when?

Sailfish OS system update 12 - First info

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According to Marc Dillon, the next update is rolling out soon:

"We’re also working hard on the next Sailfish OS upgrade (called Äijänpäivänjärvi, try to pronounce that!), which is currently in the release candidate phase. If everything goes according to the planned schedule it should be out in a few weeks. This release will include e.g. landscape mode for Maps, Split keyboard in landscape mode with a setting to disable it, IMAP idle/push support for mail accounts, and resolution independent icons."

As Marc mentioned, this name is really the most difficult this time :) Letter "ä" is pronounced right between a (from "after") and e (from techno). "ä" is sometimes written as "ae", like you might have seen for example in Olympic games broadcasts.


For pronouncing, try: [aei-jaen-paei-vaen-jaer-vi]

• "aei" like English pronoun "I", but change the beginning to something  between a (from "after") and e (from "techno")
• "j" like consonantal Y in English
• put the stress to each underlined syllables

For translation, there are three words put together to one:

• äijä = old man, "codger"
• päivä = day
• BUT: Äijänpäivä is actually old Karelian word for Easter
• järvi = lake
• "n" in the end of words stands for owning
• bringing this all to simplicity: "Lake of Easter"

The word "Äijänpäivä" originates to Karelia, Eastern Finland, and the Easter time is traditionally on 13-14 April. Is this when we see the update rolling out? I might guess so!

But hey, what other features do we already know?

Here are some goals for the Sailfish OS UI for this year, which might or might not be part of the next update. Pick from developer mailing list:

• scalable icons
• home screen and application layouts take physical display dimensions into account, for example larger displays are able to show more content
• display-size optimized graphical effects
• ambience wallpapers to different display sizes and aspect ratios
• System update improvements (will be utilized for update 12 onward):
• run btrfs balance operation before installing OS update
• enablers to allow factory reset operation to reset the OS to the latest available public version instead of the age old factory image
• provide an API to check the system update size
• enablers to allow store client to handle downloading the OS update in the background without interfering with the user
• upgrade to using latest upstream versions of libzypp and zypper to get new features (to allow us to later take them into use, namely better pattern support and conflict calculations)

From above, especially btrfs balancing has been found important and can be already done manually. I'm happy if it's automated into the update process, as this is not something for everybody to do by themself.

Additionally, here are some postponed features which might also show up in the next update:

• private browsing
• IMAP idle/push support 
• enable USB tethering in the UI
• lock screen media player controls

Disclaimer: What you read above is PLANNED for the next or following updates. The final release of update 12 might include more or less new features.

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Sources: Jolla Blog, Developer mail
Published: 2015-03-19 16:54 UTC
Updated: 2015-03-19 18:53 UTC