Video: Android rocking on the HTC Touch

If you're anything like us, you've been waiting for Android to work its way onto basically every device you own, so this video of the plucky open source OS getting busy on an HTC Touch is an encouraging glimpse of the future. Work has actually been going on for a while now, but this is the best we've seen so far --it's all there, including a custom soft keyboard, and it looks like it runs pretty well, although we're told there are some issues with scaling the UI to QVGA and that GPS, Bluetooth and USB aren't operable yet. The hack is actually available, and you don't have to be too daring to try it out -- all it takes is a restart to go back to WinMo. Who's taking the plunge?

[Thanks, Justin]

[Squid7085 @ Dec 10th 2008 2:36PM]

I think Android on the iPhone could very well be the one most people are hoping for. Even I would be interested in it.

[bandigolo @ Dec 10th 2008 3:16PM]

Wonder why they did this on the Touch instead of the Diamond considering the QVGA limitation on the Touch?

[bandigolo @ Dec 10th 2008 3:21PM]

Agghh. The dreaded accidental reply. God damn this comment system.

But whilst I'm here I'd like to ask you what brand of crack you're smokin, Squid? The only redeeming quality of the iPhone is the user-friendly UI (and that is debatable). You strip it of that and you've got... a shittier version of the G1.

[Squid7085 @ Dec 10th 2008 3:24PM]

I never said it would be better, but I am all for trying out different things and having the ability to dual boot would be nice.

[Dave @ Dec 11th 2008 4:38AM]

I have it loaded on the HTC Touch and it is quite impressive. I used the CAB file to load it and it worked like a charm. Also note that I actually installed it to the device and not the storage card. The first time you boot Android it will take a few minutes to get going. Reboots after your initial one will load Android much faster. I also tried to load it on my HTC Touch Diamond but DID NOT have success. I'm looking forward to the GPS working with Android which it currently doesn't. Overall my experience so far today with Android dual booting on my Touch has been positive. The dual booting on this thing kind of reminds me of RockBox running on my iPod. Now on the Touch I have Windows Mobile 6.1, Android, and with my Winterface Skins (Vito Technology) and nice iPhone look alike. If I had to choose just one though I'd go with Windows Mobile without a doubt as that's where I need to go to run all of my cool apps like SlingPlayer. Anyways, give it a whirl if for no other reason than being able to finally run a google maps street view decently without shelling out cash for an expensive 3rd party app.

[Mike @ Dec 10th 2008 2:39PM]

I've been waiting for this for a while. If I was able to actually back up my Touch properly I would love to try this out.

[Justin Maldonado @ Dec 10th 2008 2:46PM]

All you do is put the files on your sd card and run it. It can't mess up your WM files because it runs under a completely different file system. Go ahead and try it!

[kjb434 @ Dec 10th 2008 2:57PM]

And if you anything about WinMo, you can back up everything to your computer if you want to.

[Jon Nelson @ Dec 10th 2008 2:57PM]

or use PPC PIM Backup or SPB Backup and you won't have any problems in case something goes awry.

[Zeke @ Dec 11th 2008 1:37AM]

I just put it on my Sprint Touch and it works quite well. I'm considering making this the primary OS and keeping WinMo as a backup.

[haX0r @ Dec 11th 2008 2:34PM]

Really good job on loading the OS onto the phone. Kudos to you! Works nice.

[acme @ Dec 10th 2008 2:40PM]

Wonder if it will load on the touch pro

[Justin Maldonado @ Dec 10th 2008 5:04PM]

Since everything has to be specifically programmed for each piece of hardware on the phone, it ONLY really runs on the CDMA (vogue) version of the touch. There are other groups developing for all kinds of different phones, but I think they just managed to get it barely running on the Diamond right now. Sucks cause I would love to be able to play with it on a VGA screen.

[nikhil s @ Dec 10th 2008 2:41PM]

haha my friend had this on his touch the day before the g1 was released. the 10 minutes i played with it for was like a vacation

[OneLove @ Dec 10th 2008 2:41PM]

If I kill the dragon will I get ot marry the princess?

[pavlindrom @ Dec 10th 2008 2:56PM]

Isn't the dragon you? Wouldn't that be suicide? Wouldn't that mean that you won't live anymore and won't marry at all? Could that be a stupid question?

[kloo? @ Dec 10th 2008 3:17PM]

your that desperate eh?

[JerkfacedFed @ Dec 10th 2008 2:43PM]

why is engadget making such a big deal out of this like its some big hack or something. android is free and open source. it was meant to run on any ARM CPU based system regardless of keyboard / touchscreen type. it just so happened that the first device built with the os preinstalled was the htc dream (g1). we will easily see an official universal install kit come out within the next month or so. plunge? dumbass.

[Justin Maldonado @ Dec 10th 2008 2:51PM]

Umm, you do realize there is a lot more to porting an operating system to a phone than copy and paste right? This project involved writing drivers for everything, including chipsets, radios, graphics, audio, terminals, and MUCH more. There is no easy copy and paste OS, and I'm gonna guess Google or HTC isn't gonna make one with every driver for every phone out there EVER. This is your Mom's Dell Jerk.

[Justin Maldonado @ Dec 10th 2008 2:54PM]

grrrr.

*it ISN'T your Mom's Dell

[thedesolate1 @ Dec 10th 2008 3:01PM]

Dude this might not be such a big deal for you but for most of us that have been itching to get rid of winmo and stuff android into our touch devices it means a lot. Considering symbian isnt going all out touch for atleast another year our options are very limited. Its either iphone or Winmo. One is too locked down and the other is based on windows CE underpinnings.

[JerkfacedFed @ Dec 10th 2008 3:24PM]

you totally misinterpreted my comment. i own a winmo phone and want to try out android on it, but i'm waiting until an official build is released by google that will contain the entire kernel, gui and drivers for common phone chipsets (radios, graphics cards, usb controllers etc). the reason for my post was to bash endgadget for making such a big deal out of these pointless "hacks" that are giving people enormous credit for putting an open source os on a phone when it was DESIGNED to do that in the first place. before you jump on the rate down bandwagon, try to understand what side someone is on.

i'm waiting for google on this one, not wasting my time trying to put a driverless os on my phone with no way to connect to my network or use any of the on board devices. you guys should wait too. support for individual chipsets is up to the handset makers of these devices, since they joined the open handset alliance. if they dont provide this support then android is a failure not as a platform, but as a movement away from proprietary expensive oses. thank you.

[NEUR0M4NCER @ Dec 10th 2008 5:30PM]

Google will not be releasing Android 'updates' for any phones other than those officially supported by them - in much the same way as HTC will NOT be releasing any specific versions of Android for phones that it did not originally come with. Can you imagine how pissed MS would be if Google/HTC started OFFICIALLY releasing an OS for WinMo phones???

As far as HTC phones go, we just have to wait on the geniuses at XDA-Devs... other manufacturers may or may not be so lucky.

[broli @ Dec 10th 2008 2:44PM]

Yes.

[Csht @ Dec 10th 2008 2:44PM]

This works, ive done it myself. lots of information at ppcgeeks.com http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=23244
http://www.myhtcphone.com/vogue-cab-installer and some of the original porting http://it029000.massey.ac.nz/vogue/
Very cool and seems more stable than windows mobile.

[Csht @ Dec 10th 2008 2:47PM]

When they port android to a regular computer and build some nice apps google will rule the world.... (this is where all those ip address without operating system or browser info come from.)

[monkfishbandana @ Dec 10th 2008 2:55PM]

It took him too long to find that 2nd 'g' - especially considering he'd already typed it once.

[KRIS_C_123 @ Dec 10th 2008 2:58PM]

looks very smooth, i like it

[TareX @ Dec 10th 2008 6:47PM]

Yeah.. that was one SUPER SNAPPY DEMO.

Really, it looks even smoother than the G1. (except for the super choppy browser scrolling)

ANDROID FTW always.

[Shugg @ Dec 10th 2008 3:03PM]

Wow so is android the iphonekiller???when will people stop wanting the iPhone ???

[Michael Scrip @ Dec 10th 2008 3:16PM]

Android is the OS... it's up to the hardware manufacturers to come up with a great handset.

Given the way the iPhone hardware and software work so well together, and the 10 million iPhone head start... it will take some time to kill the iPhone.

[BratPAQ @ Dec 10th 2008 3:45PM]

AFAIK, iPhone will kill itself, no need to introduce and iPhonekiller

[Shaka @ Dec 10th 2008 3:07PM]

I cant wait for this to be crammed into the HTC touch HD. By then it will hopefully be affordable.

[Fred @ Dec 10th 2008 3:42PM]

This proves that HTC's comments about keeping their WinMo lines separate from their Android lines is ludicrous, and makes no business sense, unless they mean they will just stop supporting WinMo at all, and start using Android for everything, at some point soon. I love their current hardware, especially the Touch Diamond Pro and Touch HD Pro, but based on past-present WinMo experience, I refuse to buy another WinMo phone EVER. How can a phone OS crash so often?!

If HTC doesn't start directly supporting Android in their entire hardware line-up, they may lose me as a customer. It looks like Sony-Ericsson is on the Android list now, so maybe a higher-spec X1 with Android will come out before HTC gets their software department together. Nokia could also benefit from adding Android options to their Symbian phone lines -- dual-boot may even be a viable option there, now that both kernels are open source. It's time for the hardware companies to stop dictating OS and software choices to their customers, and let the customer decide!

[thedesolate1 @ Dec 12th 2008 1:12PM]

You have to consider the costs. 2 OS means that they will have to support both operating systems for each device. That means it will cost them more to service them with the additional training they will need to give. Also consider that carriers are the major bottleneck in the production of these devices as they want to have everything completely locked down.

[Levi @ Dec 10th 2008 3:08PM]

almost looks like it's running snappier than on the G1, judging from vids

[at305 @ Dec 10th 2008 3:09PM]

will it work on the sprint diamond??????????????????

[Johan S @ Dec 10th 2008 3:18PM]

Good, I hope they get this working on the Xperia X1 and the N97 too right after it's available.

[matt @ Dec 10th 2008 3:18PM]

This certainly is nothing new - I've had Android running on my HTC Titan inside of WM6 (which is what is going on here) for months now. Granted, getting the kernel drivers to support the hardware is a good sign, I won't be fully impressed until it runs directly from the phone's ROM without the need for WM on the back end.

[bandigolo @ Dec 10th 2008 3:23PM]

ditto. But still progress.

[NicoloPicolo @ Dec 10th 2008 3:22PM]

Sorry, but on the commercials, the iPhone is at least twice faster !
Epic fail Google !

[DaCheez @ Dec 10th 2008 3:53PM]

You DO realize the commercial is sped up, right?
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2008/11/iphone_benchmarked_against_banned_apple_ad-2.html

[bandigolo @ Dec 10th 2008 3:56PM]

i think he was being sarcastic.

[NicoloPicolo @ Dec 10th 2008 4:12PM]

but not so funny at all :)

@DaCheez
No kidding ! I'm shocked !

[Thomas @ Dec 10th 2008 3:31PM]

Matt: How did you get Android to run on TyTN?
I have such a thing, - and it has been retired. But if it can run Android it might get back from retirement!

[NEUR0M4NCER @ Dec 10th 2008 5:38PM]

It's a long-assed read, but well worth it: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=341903

[cwj @ Dec 10th 2008 3:35PM]

Well done, nerds! Well done!

Let me know when you get it running for ARM. I want to make my rx1955 relevant again...

(and promptly put it on eBay as an Android "internet phone")

{evil mitt rubbing}

[Chris @ Dec 10th 2008 3:44PM]

/me recalls apple getting sued in europe over that "twice as fast" crap lol

anyone know which HTC's this runs on? as i have one but its not the touch

[Dan @ Dec 10th 2008 4:13PM]

But the iPhone is twice as fast. The internet on it isn't twice as fast, but everything else it. I didn't realize how slow other phones were after using my iphone for a couple of months. I could never go back to that! The iPhone has got good hardware, all that is lacking is the camera. Its got a nice and fast CPU, and can run 3d games silky smooth, better than any other mobile I have seen (Cough "Ngage" Cough).
Android really need to get its game together, because soon it will be forgotten. The market is bare of any good apps, the UI is sloppy, and the UI is slow. ATM, android hasn't got anything going for it, all its got is "potential", which it isn't really grabbing any of.

[Donato Orlando @ Dec 10th 2008 4:33PM]

Dan, tell that to all my friend's who load up a page on their iPhone the same time I load it up on my old Sprint Touch or new Touch Diamond. The iPhone is nowhere near twice as fast, and trust me it's actually the slower one. The iPhone has the UI that's it.