Turing Robotics Starts to Manufacture Phones Based on the Sailfish OS in Finland | Hacker News Reader

Turing Robotics Starts to Manufacture Phones Based on the Sailfish OS in Finland

techcrunch.com

79 pointsjuhani15 comments

It'd be lovely if all these efforts crystallized into a truly open Linux-based mobile platform available to the masses, even as a niche thing.

Sailfish is far from open yet, but it's a very good OS.

Nokia produced incredibly good hardware, with the added benefit of a physical keyboard in case of the N900. This is a must. They seem to be getting back to business. It'd make a lot of sense for them to buy Jolla and rebuild Maemo, which should have never been discontinued!

Good news for Salo, and privacy efforts. I would like to see it take off. I don't know if a truly open mobile platform has to be Linux-based; it might be time to start fresh.

What is the "must"? Good hardware or a physical keyboard?

Nokia had an assembly plant in Salo, which it closed down in 2012 I think. So there's probably still quite a bit of work force trained specifically for this job available in Salo.

Also good news for Salo (my home town)! Salo hasn't been doing so well financially since Nokia left.

That's great news for Salo. It's been struggling to get back on its feet after the Nokia "incident" and I know many former employees who still live there and have most of the required skills and knowledge to start work again.

I also lived in Salo for most of my childhood and had a summer job in Nokia. These news make me very happy!

I wonder whether the Turing phone will work in the US? The Jolla phone doesn't work very well because the chipset doesn't support US 3G or 4G frequencies.

Funny side note: The logo for Turing phones is almost the same as the logo of Bungie's Destiny (a video game).

https://www.turingphone.com/ https://www.google.com/webhp?q=destiny+logo

I was thinking the same thing.

The article correctly quotes 10-20 jobs per 1k units, but the mayor of Salo has apparently said[0] that there's probably an extra zero there, so reality could be closer to one or two per 1k.

[0] http://m.iltalehti.fi/digi/2016022621178689_du.shtml

I received my Jolla phone just two days ago, after a slight delay. (The company was open about this, so I had no feelings of forboding.) I'm delighted with it!

Sailfish OS is smooth and efficient, and Android blends seamlessly into the system.

Understandably, parts of the OS are closed-source (it is a commercial project, after all), but the open parts make it incredibly easy to hack for; it's far more accessible than any other phone OS. One wants Sailfish to succeed!

I'm very skeptical of the "liquidmorphium" frame.

For phone frame I would wan't high scratch resistance and high toughness. Especially high toughness, so it doesn't shatter on impact. Liquid metals are high strength, low toughness. I don't need the strength, as I usually don't use my phone as structural element. OK it tries to bend a little in my pocket, but that's relatively small stress. ABS plastic seems to be doing fine against that.

Another phone manufacturer making security phones in Finland: http://www.bittium.com/

This might fit in the "obvious" bucket, but Turing Robotics has no relation to Turing Pharmaceuticals.

I'm not sure how secure in the US it will be if a fingerprint is the defacto unlock method. US courts can force a fingerprint unlock.

As well, we are up against the wall of, only those who use this particular phone will actually be secure. Security needs to work with every phone not just this one. Useless imo

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