JavaOne 2006
After years of development, the SavaJe OS is finally out. SavaJe showed us a phone running the OS back at CTIA, but it wasn't an official SavaJe phone, nor was it the final version of the OS, so we didn't feel comfortable talking about it, which was good because we weren't really impressed. But somehow, SavaJe has come a long way in 5 weeks, and are showing off a much more refined OS in their first phone.
The Group Sense Jasper S20 is not exactly an impressive handset based purely on looks and specs. It reminds us of a Nokia 6620 crossed with a W800. It is a tri-band GSM phone with a 176 x 220 screen, Bluetooth 2.0, a 1.3 Megapixel camera and MiniSD card slot. But in this case, it's what's inside that counts.
It's not that the S20 has a superfast processor or runs some fancy hardware, it's that the SavaJe OS has a lot of power in a little space. The entire OS is based on a full implementation of standard Java - not just mobile Java (MIDP) - so it offers full Java power in a mobile device. It does of course still run MIDP 2 applications like many other phones.
The S20 has SavaJe's first UI, one created in partnership with Group Sense. It is easy to use, although not exactly visually engaging. The main menu and standard applications have a simple navigation system and obvious controls and text fields. SavaJe recently hired a team of experienced designers to redesign the interface, and they will move into a new Palo Alto office next week. Version 2 should bring some big improvements.
SavaJe already has designed a few interfaces along with some partners that take advantage fo the OS's power and really show off the phone. The application switcher, photo gallery, and even an add-on music player (it comes with a standard one that is rather plain) all use a carousel layout to spin images, similar to S60's last gallery application or their new web browser. However the speed with which the SavaJe phone can rotate through the carousel and switch tasks or open photos blows away what we've seen on other phones. And we're told that the Jasper S20 is only running a 150 MHz ARM 9 processor.
The S20 will launch in Hong Kong this summer, and SavaJe expects to launch additional handsets later this year. If the new handsets also include a new, more graphically rich interface and menus, they are sure to capture some attention provided the handsets themselves are also updated to a more current design.
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