Programmer David Wong posted an April 21 video on the "Linux on the iPhone" blog demonstrating how Google Android can be booted onto a first-generation iPhone. Wong suggested that Android could be ported onto all versions of Apple's popular smartphone, a move that was greeted positively by many of the blog's commenters. At some point this summer, Apple will release the iPhone OS 4, which will include features such as multitasking and an "iAd" mobile-application advertising platform. Lack of multitasking has been one of the traditional complaints lodged against the iPhone, and used as a selling point for smartphones running the multitasking-capable Google Android.
One enterprising programmer has accomplished something likely capable of
sending a certain Cupertino, Calif.,-based CEO's
teeth on edge: run Google Android on a first-generation iPhone.
David Wong, who also operates as "planetbeing," even posted an April 21
video on the
"Linux on the iPhone"
blog showing the Android boot. "It should be pretty simple to port forward to
the iPhone 3G," Wong
wrote
in the posting accompanying the video. "The 3GS will take more work.
Hopefully with all this groundwork laid out, we can make Android a real
alternative or supplement for iPhone users."
Wong added a joke: "Maybe we can finally get Flash."
According to Wong, prebuilt images and sources
can be found at this file-hosting
site.
The 230 comments following Wong's posting seemed to indicate that, for at
least a subset of iPhone users, the ability to dual-boot Google Android was a
long-awaited tweak.
"This is huge to me. I'm a Linux users that happens to have an iPhone 3GS
that I'm getting annoyed by," wrote one commenter. "I may keep the [expletive]
thing after all! Good work!"
"Utterly fantastic! I'm a 3G owner that's been wanting to jump ship to
Android (my wife has a G1, and I've been in love with Android from day one) and
T-Mobile (sorry ATT, but it's just not working anymore)," opined a second. "I
really want to get off the Apple ecosystem, but I flinch at the idea of buying
another smartphone when the hardware in the one I have is still perfectly
acceptable to me (but the OS isn't)."
"Apple has left us with no other choice," wrote a third.
The iPhone continues to be one of the main drivers of Apple's substantial
revenue growth,
with
the company noting sales of 8.75 million smartphones for the second quarter of
fiscal year 2010. An alleged prototype of the next-generation iPhone was
discovered at a California bar and dissected by tech blog Gizmodo in an
extensive April 19 posting; if the hardware in that device-notably a
front-facing video chat camera-finds its way into a final iPhone version, then
Apple will likely buttress its future mobile capabilities with services such as
video conferencing.
On April 8, Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled
the iPhone OS 4, due for release this summer, which includes new features such
as multitasking and an "iAd" platform for embedding advertisements in mobile
applications. One of the traditional complaints about the iPhone is its lack of
multitasking, a feature present in Google Android.
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