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iPhone, now with Android

Summary: iPhone Hacker and Dev Team member planetbeing has successfully installed Google’s Android operating system on an iPhone

Jason D. O'Grady

By for The Apple Core |

If you can make OS X run on a Windows netbook, it was just a matter of time before someone found a way to install Android on an iPhone. That day has come.

iPhone Hacker and Dev Team member planetbeing has successfully installed Google’s Android operating system on the iPhone. He even set it up to dual boot Android and the iPhone OS.

In the video planetbeing demonstrates that Android (which appears to be 1.6 or earlier based on the triangular Launcher icon) can boot, make phone calls, receive messages, WiFi, and it appears that several other features are also working. If you're bored and feel like tinkering this weekend, you can download the system image and documentation.

Presumably, when Adobe gets around to releasing Flash 10.1 for Android, we will see Flash running on an iPhone after all - just not in a way that Apple approves of.

Tip: Glen Dasilva

Topics: Hardware, Apple, iPhone, Mobility, Operating Systems, Smartphones, Software

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55 comments
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  • But why?

    Interesting exercise from a technical standpoint but other than that why bother. The hardware behind an iPhone is no better than other phones on the market - so the only reason to buy an iPhone is because you want the iPhone OS.

    If you wanted Android what would be the point other than buyer's remorse (i.e. "Oh crap, I foolishly locked myself into this turd for the next two years but now I really wish I could do flash").
    cornpie
    Reply Vote

    • news flash

      android doesn't do flash either.
      banned from zdnet again and again
      Reply Vote

      • News Flash...

        it does.
        storm14k
        Reply Vote

        • News Flash

          NOT until June it doesn't.

          http://www.brighthand.com/default.asp?newsID=16432&news=Google+Android+OS+Adobe+Flash+RIMM+BlackBerry+Palm+webOS
          athynz
          Reply Vote

          • Yes it Does!

            There were several phones running Android 1.6 that have flash already... It is Android 2.x that has yet to receive flash support!
            slickjim
            Reply Vote

          • Flash or Flash Lite?

            Flash lite - as noted below is pretty useless except as a "bragging" point although why anyone would brag about flash lite is beyond me...
            athynz
            Reply Vote

          • Umm

            Every page I went to loaded and that is more than I can say for my Droid or the IPhone...
            slickjim
            Reply Vote

          • News Flash...

            The Droid Incredible and Desire do it right now.
            Maybe you mean they don't have Flash 10.1. But
            they do play Flash right this instant. It just
            doesn't use hardware acceleration.
            storm14k
            Reply Vote

          • flash light

            they have flash light, which doesn't play most of the flash content, it is
            pretty much useless.
            banned from zdnet again and again
            Reply Vote

          • Go to Verizon

            Verizon has real demos of the Droid Eris... Try a few pages, I didn't find one that wouldn't work but I wasn't looking to hard...

            If you want videos or cartoons it will work very well... If you want games, I'm not sure but you could test it.
            slickjim
            Reply Vote

    • because

      This is a 2nd Gen IPhone and I don't believe the 4th Gen software fully supports the phone so you get the features you want without Apple's BS.

      Also, the 1.6 Version at least has Flash Lite available for it so that's another plus (at least the HTC Droid Eris features this software).
      slickjim
      Reply Vote

      • Ah, so it IS Flash Lite...

        so really no it's not running flash...
        athynz
        Reply Vote

        • Call it what you will

          Call it what you will but I haven't seen anything that won't run on it... I went to several Flash websites and they were a little slow loading on the Eris (that phone is slow anyway) but they still loaded and played just fine.
          slickjim
          Reply Vote

    • Because....

      you can, or simply to pi$$ off Jobs. ;-)
      Economister
      Reply Vote

      • Those would be two of the reasons

        I jailbroke my iPhone... :-)
        athynz
        Reply Vote

    • You are correct

      If I want a Android, I will buy one because it is available on most of
      the major carriers, at least here in USA. If I want iPhone OS, I go and
      buy one from Apple or AT&T, or unlock it use it on T-Mo. If I want
      Windows Mobile, Symbian, WebOS, or BlackBerry I could go and buy
      one instead of having all these OSes running on my phone. What is the
      necessity of having dual boot in a Phone? Can you share files between
      these just you do with dual boot computers.

      Having a Virtual Machine loaded into a phone and run another mobile
      OS has some uses like running an application that is exclusively
      written for that mobile OS, but I don't see any value to dual boot on
      mobile phone at least for now. Ok, I know there are no Virtual
      Machines available publicly for mobile OSes. May be in future
      someone can come with one. I read somewhere that either VMWare or
      Citrix working on it.

      Ok, technically it proves that iPhone H/W is capable of
      loading another OS or can be dual booted, but other than that I don't
      see any practical use for it as of now.
      --Ram--
      Ram U
      Reply Vote

    • I can think of three reasons to do it

      One and Two were already covered by economister.

      Three would be because it would be the ultimate comparison between the two OSs... running both on the same exact hardware one could compare them and see which one works the best for them or which one they like better without having to purchase two different devices because let's face it - playing with one in a store is just not the same as using one with all of your personal info, apps, etc on it. This way you have both OSs using the same exact hardware and you've paid for one device - and I for one do not want to have to purchase another device to try Android at my own pace... having an iPhone and a Blackberry is more than enough to carry around.

      I'm wondering if this will spur someone to find a way to run the iPhone OS on an Android-based device... it would be an interesting technical challenge at least.
      athynz
      Reply Vote

      • A Fourth Reason

        Apple is discontinuing software support for the original iPhone. Depending on how development of this goes (specifically, if the ability to run and update things continues to be maintained for the original iPhone well beyond the release of iPhone OS 4.0), this could be used as a way to maintain a current OS on an older iPhone that is no longer supported by Apple, sort of like how Linux is sometimes used to extend the life of older PC hardware.

        I know, not a reason likely to be relevant to most, but a possible reason nonetheless.
        Whyaylooh
        Reply Vote

  • Wow

    Installing a free OS on a relatively expensive iPhone rather than just buying one of the dozens of cheaper competing smartphones. How wonderfully pointless ;)
    oncall
    Reply Vote

    • cheap

      please name a cheap android phone.
      banned from zdnet again and again
      Reply Vote
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