[Warning: this is just a hands-on account of the experience with the alpha version of iDroid. JAiB is not suggesting you run out and risk bricking your device by hacking a foreign OS onto Apple hardware.]
A little while ago I linked to the Linux on iPhone blog and PlanetBeing ‘s port of Android to the 2G. I was so intrigued by the prospect that I dug my “old” iPhone 2G out, read up on the instructions, and (three hours later) booted Android 1.6 up. Seeing the Android splash screen made me positively euphoric, and it took only a few moments to get used to the new button layout. The home button brings up menus, volume down sends me Home (holding it brought up a quick switch dialogue), volume up brings up the phone (which doesn ‘t work), and the sleep button functions as a ‘back ‘ key. However, disappointment sunk in when I realized the touchscreen calibration was still way off (this is still an alpha version, after all, and PlanetBeing has made no promises about its usability).
It took me about three minutes to type an e-mail (via browser, since even the mail app is absent here) to the JAiB team that ‘I ‘m writing this from Android! ‘. The keyboard is still very, very difficult to use. However, once I got a few bookmkarks placed, browsing was surprisingly fast and usable. I love how Android reformats text to fit the screen.
Aside from browsing, there really wasn ‘t all that much to do on the alpha implementation, since most of the other apps are missing. I set a lock screen gesture (it worked), logged onto wi-fi, and tried to use my iDroid as a phone (I failed, no SIM card detection). The phone can charge over USB, though.
The open question I have about this install is how the heck to turn the OS off. There isn ‘t any obvious way to do so, and resorting to soft resets (hold Home + Sleep) has messed up my iPhone OS install, so I ‘ll need to hard reset the device to get iPhone OS 3.x working again. If you have more information on how to turn Android off safely, please share it in the comments.
All in all, I was quite happy to play with this test version of iDroid. The instructions weren ‘t actually all that complex, although they did require a bit of digging around to find a site that had proper links to all of the iDroid files (Android A Lot worked best for me). I ‘m not sure how much more that hackers can do with Android on the iPhone considering the limited hardware button selection (and the lack of licensing from Google), but I ‘ll be watching the Linux on iPhone Blog keenly for further updates. When they develop a more stable, usable version of iDroid, you can bet my iPhone 2G will have it installed…once I get the thing working again.
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