Jolla, a Finnish company which was formed in March of 2011 by Nokia’s old Meego OS team, has made a pretty big announcement today. If you follow the Jolla brand, you would be aware that they have their own phone, along with the Sailfish operating system. Sailfish is a linux based OS which is built on top of the MER OS core. In addition to this, Jolla also allows users to purchase different back covers for their phones, which they have called “The Other Half.” These covers typically retail for approximately €29.00, and currently they have 2 different ones available, Aloe, and Keira Black .
“The Other Half,” allows users to customize their smartphones, by giving them total control to swap out the back covers. The covers also include NFC chips that automatically change the ambiance settings on the phones.
Today, Jolla has announced the release of “The Other Half,” developer kit. The kit is an SDK which includes the 3D files to edited, manipulated however one chooses, and then 3D print it. This really gives users a total customization of their phone’s look and feel. The 3D files also include a slot for the NFC chip, so if you are really talented, you could do a heck of a lot of customization with this developers kit.
“The Other Half,” program has shown promise, yet hasn’t taken off like the company may have hoped for. The release of these files could certainly reignite some excitement around the Jolla brand, which is known for its open sourced framework. It will be interesting to see what kind of covers are created by their talented supporters.