Gemini PDA running Sailfish OS
I recently reviewed the Gemini from Plant Computers and I was on the whole quite impressed with the way it worked. Apart from a few issues with the build (primarily down to the pre-production status of my review device), I was left happy and enthused about the product.
One of the things that I did not delve into too much was the fact that the device can be used with other OS platforms. As things currently stand, the device can be used with Android 7 and Ubuntu (there is another Linux environment that can be used but I forget the name). Well coming very soon Gemini owners will have the option of using Sailfish 3.0 on the device too.
A lot of you may be wondering why this is news. The truth of the matter is that, whilst it is not an earth-shattering story, it shows how flexible (pun intended) this device can really be. I’ve already had the chance to have a very early play with Sailfish on the Gemini when I saw the device back at MWC earlier in the year. Things were looking pretty sweet even back then. Roll on 4 months and things look even better.
The adoption of the OS on the Gemini will bring all the benefits of Sailfish to the table including:
- Over-the-air (OTA) updates
- Jolla Store access
- End-user support
- Full support for landscape user-interface (UI)
- Encrypted user data and communications
- Android app support
- Refreshed user interface, with improvements like redesigned email
The one thing I really liked about Sailfish was that the UI had no need for home buttons or multitasking buttons. This makes navigating the UI a very gesture oriented experience. The last device I used with such a fluid gesture-based UI was actually the forefather of Sailfish – the Nokia N8. This ran the Meego OS. Later it developed into what we now call Sailfish 3. I really like what I saw and I am very keen to find out what Sailfish can bring to the Gemini Party.
If you are fortunate enough to own a Gemini, you can download and setup this community-supported version based on Sailfish OS 2.0. It’s free and available to download now – http://support.planetcom.co.uk/partitionTool.html.
As you can see this also has a partition and this means that you can actually set up a dual boot option. Very cool indeed.