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]

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 10th 2008 4:16PM]

I have this up and running on my HTC Touch. It works pretty good and is very stable however with out everything fully functioning it doesn't make a full alternative just yet. But is pretty cool to tinker with.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 10th 2008 4:13PM]

Not running on my HTC Touch (GSM)

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 10th 2008 4:00PM]

please publish that keyboard to the market

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 10th 2008 4:27PM]

It's also working on the Mogul.

http://magister.ipsys.net/projects/android-for-titan/

and the xda thread

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=341903&page=27

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 10th 2008 8:26PM]

Thanks for that comment Chuck, I had no idea the Mogul Android team was so far in. I've just been paying attention to WM ROMs - now I have a whole new thing to play with (this one year old phone sure is getting plenty of miles on it thanks to xda).

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 10th 2008 4:30PM]

Got it working on my HTC Touch (Sprint) too. Works pretty well except the myhtcphone.com cab build seems to have working SMS while the one here doesn't say it works...although my calendar isn't working...
getting apps is tricky without the app market but some work pretty well...
I've tried using it for a couple days and the only killer feature from the windows side that I miss is the GPS...and given the developmental nature, it's not as stable as it should be...but otherwise, really great and I hope it continues to be developed as it may prevent me from pitching this phone...

[d3mon187 Posted Dec 10th 2008 5:00PM]

SMS should work fine on all current builds.
Too get the calendar to work you have to sign in with your google username/pass. I believe you have to go to devtools- google login service - then require google - and it should ask you for your username/pass and usually asks for your pass twice for some reason. After you do this it should be working after a few seconds.
For apps try slide2me from www.slideme.org

[0megapartcle Posted Dec 10th 2008 5:17PM]

That works pretty damn well! The icon's are definitely too big for that screen, and there appears to be some instability (along with some general lukewarm performance on that browser), but overall, a pretty good first effort! Hopefully HTC with Google to get a nice, optimized version out there pronto!

[snowglyder Posted Dec 10th 2008 6:19PM]

I have a Sprint Touch and have been playing with Android for months now. The progress is great, but it's still not good enough for me to use throughout the day... yet. Hopefully it'll be nearly 100% before Sprint gets an official Android phone. Otherwise, I may have to renew my contract.

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 10th 2008 9:04PM]

I have been running this for about 2 weeks straight after a friend at sprint tipped me off.

It's very stable! I have never had a crash. However, like the author of this post says, some things just plain, "don't work." However, the Browser is the killer app of this whole thing. It's 20x faster than windows mobile, multi-tabbed, and is actually w3c complaint so you can render pages like you would on your computer.

the downside is the keyboard, while the Instinct-Like haptic feedback is nice, the buttons are smaller and it's been taking to get used to.

All in all, this DOES NOT touch your ROM, so give it a try! (It destroys the windows mobile process then boots linux, it's cool!)

[DaveBach Posted Dec 11th 2008 4:47AM]

I have both the HTC Touch and the HTC Touch Diamond. Earlier today I tried to load it on both. I had no problem and love running it on the Touch. On the Diamond however I had no success getting it to load.