There’s this one other thing about the Jolla phone that sets it apart from the competition. In marketing terms, it’s called The Other Half, the backside of the phone, which can be replaced and is 3D-printable. While the two The Other Halfs shipping with the first wave of pre-order customers have tiny RFID chips in them for communication (it instructs the phone to download a matching background and sounds), the Jolla phone also has a set of electrical contacts on the back of the exposed device – I2C.
This is one of the wildcard when it comes to Jolla – there’s lots of possibilities here, such as a backplate with an additional battery, or even one with an integrated sliding keyboard. One of Jolla’s engineers already added wireless charging to his backplate using I2C, to illustrate what it possible.
I’m really curious what other people are going to come up with – if at all. Right now there’s probably little commercial interest to create products for The Other Half, but if Jolla manages to pick up enough steam, we might see some really cool stuff coming out of this.
This is the killer feature as far as I’m concerned. Not just a hardware keyboard but potentially a Lumia 1020 style camera or even some custom hardware. I hope they open up the spec so people can design their own.
I2C is too slow for anything that is bandwidth intense, including camera. But it is an interesting feature anyway.
Still, I will not switch from my Lumia 1020
I wonder why they didn’t make the other half interface to be USB2.1 or USB3.0. Maybe for simplicity, but USB would be much more practical in the long run.
Many sensors come with I2C interface, so potentially you can wire them directly to the bus, with a minimal number of external components.
Using USB would require a USB-to-bus conversion (more components on the backcover, where space is at a premium) and the energy to power the converter (more battery consumption).
Reminds me a lot of the BeBox geekport. Although i hope Jolla are more successful with their attempt though. I think hackers and accessory designers alike are going to love this. Especially given the open-source nature of Sailfish, with (arguably) a more “linux-compatible” base than Android.
The other half should have clips to add another half
Agreed!