Check the DPR

The DPR value is stored in a dconf key. To read the value open the terminal and type, as regular user: dconf read /desktop/sailfish/silica/theme_pixel_ratio On a Jolla C, this will return a value of 1.25.

Custom value

Empirically, a lower number would give more space to be filled by content, at the expense of a smaller font (although this can be tuned from the Settings). To edit the value type, as regular user: dconf write /desktop/sailfish/silica/theme_pixel_ratio VALUE then refresh the homescreen.

DPR 1.10

Type, as regular user: dconf write /desktop/sailfish/silica/theme_pixel_ratio 1.10 then refresh the homescreen.

DPR 0.90

Type, as regular user: dconf write /desktop/sailfish/silica/theme_pixel_ratio 0.90 then refresh the homescreen.

Reset the DPR to the default value

Type, as regular user: dconf reset /desktop/sailfish/silica/theme_pixel_ratio then refresh the homescreen.

Tablet UI

With smaller DPR values, it may make sense to enable the quick settings sidebar like seen on the Jolla Tablet. Open, as root, the file: /usr/share/lipstick-jolla-home-qt5/main/Desktop.qml locate the line: property bool showEventsViewSidebar: Screen.sizeCategory >= Screen.Large and change it as following: property bool showEventsViewSidebar: Screen.sizeCategory >= Screen.Small then refresh the homescreen.

Alien Dalvik

Android apps will follow a standard DPI setting. To tune it open, as root, the file: /opt/alien/system/build.prop then edit the following line: ro.sf.lcd_density=VALUE Even here, a lower number would give more space to the content. Common values are 240, 280, 300, 320. Restart the Android environment to apply the changes.

Wrap-up

I may work on some simple UI to edit the DPR value, but my programming skiils are really limited, so feel free to use the infos from this post to create your app/patch, considering a link to this page if it was useful.

Update

A preliminary package has been uploaded here.

Sailfish OS 2.2

In this post I will focus mainly on the Events view and notifications - which in my humble opinion need the more love - but I will also suggest a way to make the multitasking view more useful than it is today. Surprise surprise, I even included some superb first grade-level sketches to show what my idea is.

The Home view

A simple addition would dramatically improve the usefulness of the multitasking view: adding pinned apps. Since in Sailfish OS 2.x there’s no longer the 9 covers view limit of the 1.x iteration, having apps pinned at startup would both help to interact with the most used ones (even because of muscle memory) and partially solve the current lack of an autostart option (at least in Store-approved apps).

The Events view

It would not be heretic to say that nowadays the Events view is largely underused; the Twitter feed shows only the last 10 tweets and changes in the Facebook APIs prevent a future implementation of a feed (as it was in MeeGo Harmattan). So why not taking the whole feed away (albeit it could be implemented in a different way, more on this later) and focusing on notifications?

A notification hub

The main Events view screen would show, from top to bottom:

• The weather widget.
• A larger-than-today calendar widget.
• A What’s on your mind? form to post across different social networks.
• Music player controls for the running MPRIS-enabled player (if any).
• Notifications.

The main difference with the current behaviour would be than, once selected, the notification would not go away, but change status as read and stay to form a notification history à la Blackberry 10. Also, if the Events view is accessed from an app with the left swipe, swiping away from the events would bring the user back to the previous active app. To interact with the new system, a pulley menu would offer (from top to bottom):

• Clear all notifications
• Mark all as read
• Categories
• Show unread only/all

Note: ‘Clear’ is used to actually delete the notification(s) from the list.

Notification item

Interaction with the notification item would occur in three ways:

• Tap: to open the app.
• Long-tap: to show a contextual menu with Mark as read/unread and Clear notification options.
• Swipe up/down with two fingers: to expand/collapse the notification. It’s an action already in use in Android, so it would not feel totally new to an user. Furthermore, the expanded view would provide a max. 2 quick actions, ideally including inline replies in case of a messaging app. These are also present in Android, so an update to the Alien Dalvik would expose this feature even for Android apps (Option B: to improve one-hand usability, quick actions can be placed in the long-tap menu).

Note: even the weather and the calendar widgets may profit from the two fingers-to expand gesture.

Category item

Interaction with the category item would occur in two ways:

• Tap: to open the category page.
• Long-tap: to show a contextual menu with Mark category as read/unread , Change priority and Clear category notifications options.

To avoid clutter, only the first 4-5 notifications per category could be displayed, with a more button right below - as it happens with the current implementation.

Category view

Selecting this option from the pulley menu would open an attached page with a simple list of all the notification categories (well, the apps those notifications are from) alongside an individual indicator with a unread/total count.

Category page

This would list all the notifications from the given app. Interaction with the notification items would be the same as in the main Events view. The pulley menu would offer (from top to bottom):

• Clear category notifications
• Change priority
• Mark category as read/unread

Below the notifications, an optional feed could be displayed (as with Twitter).

Priority

To better sort all the apps the notifications are from, I would introduce a priority system:

• High: notifications from this category trigger a sound/vibration and are displayed above all the other notifications in the Events view. They have a notification icon in the lockscreen.
• Normal: notifications from this category trigger a sound/vibration and are displayed below all the important notifications in the Events view. They don’t have a notification icon in the lockscreen.
• Low: notifications from this category don’t trigger a sound/vibration and are displayed below all the normal notifications in the Events view. They don’t have a notification icon in the lockscreen.

Notification banner

A bigger notification banner would fit the entire screen width and offer the following interactions:

• Tap: to open the app.
• Swipe left/right: to dismiss the notification.
• Swipe up/down with two fingers: to expand/collapse notification. Furthermore, the expanded view would provide a max. 2 quick actions, ideally including inline replies in case of a messaging app Option B: to improve one-hand usability, a one-finger swipe can be used).

What about the controls?

With the pulley menu taking the upper-part of the Events view, toggles and quick actions would be moved to the Ambience drop-down menu. This would make them more accessible throughout the whole system. The new drop-down would show (from top to bottom):

• A narrower lock button.
• Toggles and quick actions.
• Favourite ambiences.

Wrap-up

I tried to be as comprehensive as possible. I’m not an UI designer myself and of course I don’t want to criticize the amazing work designers have been doing on the platform, but I wanted to show my thoughts on the areas which may be improved. Comments and suggestions are welcome. Cover image

The cloud

In a nutshell, the cloud computing lets you archive your contacts, calendars, files, pictures and so on on a company server to reach them no matter what device you are using. Easy, isn’t it? But here it comes the first caveat. Yes, because all your data are literally on someone else computer and under the law of the countries where those servers are located in and this is a matter – as the NSA affair showed – to not be understated. People may say “ Oh if you have nothing to hide you should not be afraid ”. Bullshit. Since you have nothing to hide, would it be okay for you if policemen came from time to time at your place to rummage into your things? It would bother me. So why should I be okay to let a foreign (but neither my home one would be fine) government rummage into my data? Even if data were not at the mercy of foreign governments still, accepting the End User License Agreement (EULA), we grant to those companies the right to do whatever they like with our information. Have you noticed that if you book a flight and you receive the ticket into your Gmail, the relative event is added to Google Calendar within minutes? This is because Google analyzes the content of your emails (but also your files, photos, etc.) to give you a - yes - convenient service, but also to enrich the profile of you they have and yield it to their trading partners. Sure, it’s handy and straightforward, but am I the only one to find it a little bit creepy?

Is an alternative solution possible?

Short answer: Yes it is. All we need is a low-powered board (as it’s going to be on all the time). Check. A way to manage and route data from the server to our devices. Check. We are going to use that mighty little board called Raspberry Pi and an open source application called Nextcloud , which lets you set up your own cloud at home and access to it remotely as it was one of the solutions offered by Google, Microsoft or Apple. Oh, also some time, patience and basic Linux knowledge would not hurt.

Why the Pi?

Why is the Raspberry Pi a perfect choice for this project? Because it’s a fairly cheap piece of hardware with endless community support, guides and posts written about it. It’s not the most powerful hardware out there (although it’s improved with latter generations), but this small-sized server we are going to make is intended for personal use, so I suppose we can live with no top-notch performance.

Why Nextcloud?

Albeit the name may sound new to you, it’s a software which has solid roots into ownCloud, an open source and mature cloud solution aimed to both private and enterprise users. Recently one of its co-founders, Frank Karlitschek, left ownCloud and forked it into this new project, stating some mistakes where quite hard to solve without a reboot. I’m not going to discuss his claims here, I chose to use Nextcloud because:

1. It more likely will be the project which inherits and carries on the ownCloud legacy, as almost all the core developers switched to Nextcloud.
2. Few guides are available on the net and they usually treat it as an ownCloud update to be done, whereas in my guide I’m going to describe an installation from the scratch.

So, without further ado, let’s dive into it.

Index

1. What we need
2. Install the OS and first configuration
3. Configure the DNS
4. Create and install the cert
5. Configure the router
6. Configure Nextcloud

What we need

• A Raspberry Pi.
• An SD card (or microSD, depending on your Raspberry model), minimum 16 GB and class 10 recommended.
• A router with port mapping capabilities (check on your router user manual).
• Of course, a monitor and a keyboard for the first configuration.

Install the OS and first configuration

We are going to use a bare-bone Raspbian-derived distribution called DietPi. Its strengths are the ease of use and configuration and the sleekness; it’s particularly suitable as a server distro as it offers no graphical interface nor any blob at all by default.

1. Download the image from here and unzip it.
2. Insert the SD card into your PC.
3. (On Windows) Use Win32DiskImager to burn the image onto the SD or (on Linux) open a terminal and type: # dd if=FILEPATH/FILE.img of=/dev/sdX Where X is the letter associated with the SD. Note: you should use sdX, not sdX1, sdX2, etc.

(Optional) Configure the Wifi

• Open the file dietpi.txt on the SD.
• Set Wifi_Enabled=1
• Set your network’s SSID in Wifi_SSID=SSIDWifi and password in Wifi_KEY=PasswordWifi

1. Insert the SD into the Pi, connect the display and the keyboard and power it on; the DietPi wizard will lead you step-by-step throughout the installation process.
2. In Software Optimized select Nextcloud and CertBot.
3. Go back and select Apache2 under Webserver Preference.
4. Select DietPi-Config > Network Options: Adapters, then Ethernet or WiFi (depending from your connection).
5. In Change Mode select STATIC and in IP address type the IP address of your choice for your Pi, e.g. 192.168.1.99. Remember to check and edit the Gateway accordingly with your configuration (usually 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1).
6. Go back and select Go to start installation. When completed, the Pi will reboot.

Once done, you may want to change your password. Type: # passwd

(Optional) Autologin

Since your Pi is going to work as an headless server, it may be useful if it could automatically login whether a spontaneous reboot occurs (as a sudden change in voltage, for instance).

• Type: # nano /etc/systemd/system/getty.target.wants/getty@tty1.service
• Edit the line "ExecStart=" as follows: ExecStart=-/sbin/agetty -a root %I $TERM
• Save with CTRL+X and quit.

Note: use this settingONLY if you are sure you are the only one who can physically access to your Pi.

Now you can turn off the Pi, move it wherever you like and use it via SSH from your main PC, using Putty (on Windows) or ssh root@192.168.1.99 from your Linux terminal.

Configure the DNS

Connecting to your server via your modem IP address is awkward, as it changes every now and then - that’s why we are going to set up a dynamic DNS service, which gives you an human-readable address and takes care of linking it with your modem IP.

FreeDNS

1. Register on http://freedns.afraid.org/
2. Login. From the menu on the left select Dynamic DNS. At the bottom of the page, create a new record - let’s use mypi.homenet.org as a reference.
3. Click on Direct URL
4. The address bar will display an URL of this kind: http://freedns.afraid.org/dynamic/update.php?[alphanumeric code]
5. Take note of the alphanumeric code.

Inadyn

1. On the Pi, install inadyn by typing: # apt-get install inadyn
2. Backup the default configuration: # mv /etc/inadyn.conf /etc/inadyn.conf.bk
3. Create a new one: # touch /etc/inadyn.conf
4. Then edit it: # nano /etc/inadyn.conf
5. Type: --username yourfreednsusername --password yourfreednspassword --update_period 3600 --forced_update_period 14400 --alias mypi.homenet.org,freednsalphanumericcode --background --dyndns_system default@freedns.afraid.org --syslog
6. Save and quit.
7. Set inadyn to start on boot: # crontab -e
8. Type: @reboot /usr/sbin/inadyn
9. Save and quit.

Create and install the cert

1. Create a new SSL certificate by typing: # dietpi-letsencrypt
2. In the newly opened window insert: In Domain: mypi.homenet.org In Email: your email In Redirect: Enabled In Auto Renew: Enabled In Key Size: 2048
3. Then apply your settings.

Note: it may take some time, if you see it stuck on ‘Installing Python packages’ for a while don’t panic and let it finish.

Configure the router

1. Open a browser and login into your router (usually the address is something like 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1, but you may want to check it on the bottom/rear tag on the modem or on its user manual).
2. Look for an option called Port mapping (or similar).
3. Open the ports 80 and 443 to your Pi IP address.

Now you should be able to access to your server from any browser using the URL mypi.homenet.org

Configure Nextcloud

1. On a browser type: https://mypi.homenet.org/nextcloud
2. Login by using: In User: admin In Password: yourdietpi
3. Change your password from Admin in the top-right menu. From there you can also add your profile picture or customize other options.

Once done, you can use your brand new Nextcloud! Tip: you can create an user with the user name of your choice (and use those credentials to manage your cloud and login into apps) by using Users via the top-right menu.

Set up your own language

You can switch to your own language by using Admin via the top-right menu.

Contacts and Calendar

Preface

All in all, for some reason it looks like the status bar is die hard and those OS’ that tried to kill it failed (anybody said Windows Phone?) - it is, along with horizontal-scrolling homescreens (what a coincidence!), one of the few points that mobile OS’ have in common nowadays. Even on the new Sailfish OS 2.0 it shyly pops on both the home and the lock screens - and those 20 pixels of screen estate wasted have brought some rage among the Sailfish OS purists - so, at this point, I may put myself under the storm saying that it could still be useful even inside apps.

Status bar à la Sailfish

Let’s ride my sick fantasy for a moment and imagine to implement it in the current Sailfish OS. Ideally (and with not that much fantasy, actually) it can be placed right under the pulley menu indicator (some apps even use a persistent header which stays on top and doesn’t scroll with the content, so there’s already some space). But we want to take it further, right? So in those apps with no persistent header it would scroll with the content, to not waste precious screen real estate. This tiny bar would enable two interesting scenarios:

Double the gestures

Why should we be forced to use the ambience menu OR the swipe to close? As a reference, let’s take the MeeGo Harmattan (which UI/UX-wise is imho still among the best and it’s proven to work) implementation:

• Tap on the status bar reveals the menu.
• Swipe down closes the app or minimize it (as in MeeGo/Sailfish OS 1.x, depending on the user’s preference). A swipe from the top in the home screen may also quickly lock the phone (as in Sailfish OS 1.x - something that some users seem to miss).

Pretty straightforward, isn’t it? But I do think that the second scenario may be even more interesting:

Cycle between running apps

What may this multitasking-focused OS lack? A quick switch between two (or more) apps currently open - something which Ubuntu Touch and even the new iOS (which is, by tradition, quite resistent to changes) have already. This, in some cases, would be faster than looking for the app itself in the “one swipe away” app tray and one action less than swipe to home+tap on cover. So, in Sailfish OS a flicker (defined as a swipe that starts inside the display) on the status bar would let users switch between the currently open apps. Aren’t you convinced yet? Let’s take as a reference, again, MeeGo Harmattan with the Cyclotron mod : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXYu30kT5Rc I may sound silly, but bringing back the “evil” status bar would actually further enhance Sailfish OS multitasking. To me, this is quite cool, isn’t it?

Bottom line

This is the simpliest way I could come with, as I think gestures should be as coherent as possible throughout the interface - this excludes swipes from the left/right, top/bottom, corners, L swipes performing different actions. Thus said, do you think a quick switch between apps is worthy having that hideous bar back? Comments are warmly welcome, just please put aside for a moment the rage against the “damn” status bar and think with an open mind. Love. Appeared on Sailfish OS Reviews

Pastilli Labs was founded by me and Roope when both of us left Nokia. In Nokia we had this project, Nokia Situations, originally meant to be part of some devices but it never happened, so it became an internal alpha and after a public beta on Beta Labs. Then we were transfered to Accenture and we asked the permission to take the idea and carry it on on our own. I’m the developer of the app, while Roope takes care of the business side, marketing, bureaucracy and so on. The first version was built in Qt on the original Symbian app, then it was ported to MeeGo. With the release 2 I tried to run Situations on as many platforms as possible, so the Android and – later – the Sailfish versions came out.

What’s the idea behind Situations?

Originally it was built around context awareness. The idea is that you can program the phone automatically without you having to do stuff manually on it. There are many ways to approach that, but basically you can make the phone learn from what you do or set certain rules that it has to follow. At that time in Nokia there were projects who tried both of the approaches, but we chose the second one because I it’s easier to set up and more intuitive.

How did you run into Jolla and why did you choose to support Sailfish OS? Do you think Jolla will be the next big thing in the mobile world?

Well, as former N9 user, I was keen to know what it was going to happen, because I really liked the MeeGo UI and I still think that Nokia did a mistake in ditching MeeGo for Windows Phone. Furthermore, as a Finn I was naturally curious of this new Finnish company entering in the mobile world. Surely they still have tough times ahead. Going mainstream is not easy at this point, but building a solid niche in the market would hopefully be a profitable way.

What are the main upsides of developing apps for Sailfish OS? What are the opportunities of developing for such a young platform?

I like Qt, I do think that they make the developing process easier. I also like the hackability of the OS and of course the community, which is helpful in those areas where the documentation is weaker. The hugest opportunity for independent developers is visibility at start, which may turn to be in a more convenient position lately.

What do you appreciate of the developing process? Considering also the SDK, how is it compared to other platforms?

Compared to other platforms it’s easier to set up and start working. The SDK is based on Qt Creator and I like the way the emulator works – it’s an interestingly and surprisingly good implementation.

Whom would you advice to develop for Sailfish OS?

Of course a Linux background helps you. I would advice Sailfish to those who are familiar with Qt and QML. The Silica documentation is at a good level, but if you’re looking for some deeper hacking it may be more difficult.

As a developer, which improvements would you make to the platform?

I would like to see support for commercial apps and a freemium model with IAPs, as well as more APIs accepted on the Harbour. For an app as Situations some restrictions are quite tight, for example calendar support, autostart and background daemon are not allowed at the moment. Also, as I said, documentation still lacks behind in some areas.

As a user, what do you expect from Jolla and Sailfish OS in the future?

Of course it would be nice to see more official apps. I would be also interested in seeing other manufacturers adopting Sailfish and how this would affect the development of the platform..

Jolla is about to market the new tablet. What do you think about it? Are you porting Situations for the new UI?

I haven’t had the chance to see the tablet live, but from the videos It looks good. I will update Situations if there is any incompatibility, but most likely it may have the same UI as the phone counterpart. It may be not the best UI for that screen size, but after all the point with Situations is to use the UI as less as possible.

Jolla also showed Sailfish OS 2.0 at the last MWC15. What do you think about the new tune of the OS? Are you happy of the improvements in the UX?

I think they are going to the right direction. The first UI was maybe too simple, and from an N9 user point of view I’m glad to see the new improvements. Moreover, in Situations we already took some hints fro m the Sailfish UI.

Have you planned to port Situations to any other OS?

Maintaining the app for different platforms is a lot of work. I have no time, but if I can I will port it to Tizen, Ubuntu and any platform that is open enough – this of course rules out iOS and Windows Phone.

What are the features planned for Situations?

I’m taking all user request in account. I will refine and improve the existing features and conditions, and also timed situations may come at some point.

What is the future of Pastilli Labs? Do you have new projects in the pipeline?

Not really, currently we are focusing on Situations. As we are both busy in other things our time is limited, so no plans for other apps anytime soon.

And this is all. I would like to say thank you to Heikki for having kindly given his time for this interview and I wish him the best for his present and future projects. Sail on! Appeared on JollaUsers

• Connection via USB.
• Connection via WLAN.
• Reading messages on the Jolla phone.
• Picking a contact and send them a message.

The configuration is pretty straightforward:

1. If you want to connect your phone to the computer via WiFi, make sure they are connected to the same network.
2. Enable Developer mode on your phone via Settings > Developer mode.
3. On the same page, enable Remote connection and set a password.
4. If you want to connect your phone and the computer via WiFi, take note of the WLAN IP address.
5. If you want to connect your phone and the computer via USB, take note of the USB IP address, then connect your phone to the computer and select Developer mode in the pop up on your Jolla.
6. Download the .deb package from this page and install it on your Ubuntu-based distro.
7. Open the application and insert the IP address, the remote connection password and select your country code.
8. Once you saved your settings, start the connection by clicking the button in the toolbar.

You’ve done! To read and delete your messages use the SMS tab, to write a new one pick a contact from the Contacts tab.

Update

SSH

Here you have two options, a FOSS one and a freemium app. The first one is ConnectBot, available on F-Droid (the build on the Play Store in out of date - and F-Droid is a great FOSS alternative marketplace, by the way), which has pretty basic features and graphics, but it gets the job done and I have no hitches in connecting my Jolla. If you are looking for a more complex and full-featured app, go for JuiceSSH, available on the Play Store.

SFTP

The best way to browse your files on Jolla without the hassle to have an USB cable. All you need to do is download Total Commander and its SFTP plugin (not the most original name, I know) from the Play Store. Then open Total Commander and select SFTP > <New connection...>. Assign a name to your connection and set the IP address, username (nemo by default) and the password of your Jolla. After this, you will be able to browse your Sailfish OS-powered device and copy/move directories and files from the two-paned file manager. Remember to close the connection from the toolbar below when you have done. Do you use other ways/apps to connect your Jolla to your Android, iOS, Windows Phone, Blackberry device? Let me know leaving a comment below.

Complete disabling (prevent Android apps to start)

devel-su <password> systemctl stop aliendalvik.service systemctl mask aliendalvik.service To re-enable it: # systemctl unmask aliendalvik.service # systemctl start aliendalvik.service

Disabling the Alien Dalvik at startup (it will start when you want to)

From the terminal: devel-su <password> nano /etc/systemd/system/nodroidavvio.service In nano paste: ` [Unit] After=aliendalvik.service Description=No Android al riavvio [Service] Type=oneshot RemainAfterExit=no ExecStart=/bin/systemctl stop aliendalvik.service [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target Close and save by pressing CTRL+X and within the terminal prompt: # systemctl enable nodroidavvio.service To re-enable the Alien Dalvik at startup: # systemctl disable nodroidavvio.service`

thanks to@iliveinpublic and @eugenio_g7 for the tips.