New Android phone, from Apple

Well, ok, not very new, since it's only working on the initial one at this point. Pretty cool though.

http://linuxoniphone.blogspot.com/

I may try to get this working in my old iPhone to get more hands on time with Android, since playing around with demo units is somewhat limiting. Not quite rich enough to be able to plunk down $500 for an AT&T Nexus One just to try it out.

Neat!

Now, if somebody could get the iPhone OS running on a Nexus One, that would be much more interesting. What word, analogous to "Hackintosh," would you use for such a beast?

HackiPhone > hacky phone

All you have to do is move to a country where Verizon doesn't have service and they'll let you out of your contract for free. Ask me how I know...

Especially nice since I was only like 2 months into my Droid contract.

Though not for cell service, I once had to convince a telco service representative that it would be cheaper for them to let me out of my contract for free, than to put in the infrastructure necessary to continue providing the service specified in our contract, in my new location, which they didn't currently serve.[/quote]

Finally spent some time getting this working last night, and I have to say for a first release, it's pretty impressive. It's good enough to now get more developers interested and help improve things. The dual boot works well, and the Android side of things seems quick enough considering the condition it's running in.

It's not suitable for everyday use though yet. Power management is a big piece missing from the initial release, meaning the screen never dims or turns off. Quite a few drivers are missing like support for the accelerometer. It does make calls, works over WiFi for data and seems pretty functional. Cellular data may work, I just need to find the proper APN settings to try.

Interface is a little weird though, due to only having 2 buttons. Back is mapped to the top button, while the menu button is mapped to home. The home also has a double tap action that sometimes brings up the keyboard.

Interesting. The button interface is what I'm most interested in with this project. It's hard to pare back very far with Android phones. Dell has done so the most with official handsets. For example, I believe on their Mini 3 they've put the back button and the home button on the same key (they're usually separate) and you hold it down to get home. Have they done the same here?

I've been surprised how often I use the search button on my Nexus One (the G1 didn't have one), but I could see living without that if the menu button was there. Seems silly to devote that big button to it, though.

Anyway, that's one cool hack.