Ubuntu Tips n Tricks

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Installing Android on the iPhone - The Complete Guide

Posted: 22 May 2010 01:42 AM PDT

Installing Android on the iPhone - Do you feel jealous of your Android-using friends? Are you sick and tired of your iPhone's locked up OS? Are you fearless enough to install Android on the iPhone? If you answered yes to any of the questions above, perhaps it's about time to install Android on your iPhone.

David Wong (aka Planetbeing), the one who ported the Android Operating System on the iPhone, has written a complete guide on installing Android on the iPhone 2G and 3G models. Although the step-by-step tutorial is very detailed and straightforward, you should take into consideration that the hack may temporarily brick your iPhone if not done properly. So it is not for the faint of heart.

As noted by Planetbeing, the hack is still a work in progress. "Although this port does everything that you expect your smartphone to be able to do, it isn't usable for day-to-day activities just yet", he said. Power-management functions are still not implemented that a fully charged iPhone running Android will only last for about an hour. There are also bugs and performance issues that have yet to be solved.

Some of the prerequisites of installing Android on iPhone:

* Jailbroken iPhone 2G (first-generation) or iPhone 3G with firmware versions between 2.0 and 3.1.2. The hack will not work on iPhone 3GS, iPod Touch, and the iPad.
* A 32-bit Linux system
* Firmware for the Marvell WLAN
* iPhone prebuilt images and binaries

So how do you install Android on the iPhone? Read this carefully.