The
Touch HD doesn't benefit from the
HD2's mighty 1GHz
Snapdragon, so you might think that emulating Android 2.0 on top of Windows Mobile on HTC's last-gen superphone would end in tears -- but surprisingly, it seems to hang tolerably well. xda-developers has a project coming along to run Android on the handset through a layer called Haret, meaning you can kind of have your cake and eat it too -- if you consider Windows Mobile a cake, that is -- by switching back and forth between the two environments at your leisure, and by all accounts, Android seems to be just a couple notches slower and more stuttery than your average MSM7200 device. It looks like you still need a cold boot to get between the two platforms, but it's better than flashing your ROM every time, right? Follow the break for video of Haret in action.
[Thanks, Taimur]
Update: Turns out Android isn't running on top of WinMo here -- it's native, which gives us hope they'll be able to speed it up just a wee bit and give those Touch HDs out there a new lease on life. Thanks, everyone!
posted January 13th 2010 5:41PM
Oh Gawd, that's not emulation... Haret boots the Linux kernel after kicking Windows CE out of the RAM. They don't run "on top of each other", nothing is emulated.
Seriously, where did you get that BS from?
@vzsg
vzsg is right. It loads the linux kernel into the RAM and runs it directly, overwriting WM in the RAM. Once the phone is reset, it will boot normally from ROM into WM. Windows Mobile will not be touched, it will not be hard reset.
@vzsg Updated the post -- thanks!
Simply amazing! Didn't look that choppy at all. I want one running on 3G US bands.
(Comment from my iphone)
Crapping on Windows Mobile twice in the same day! Nice!
I guess you're at least not even pretending anymore.
Hey everyone, for decent WinMo coverage, check out PocketNow.com, WMExperts.com, and WMPowerUser.com
@sonicyoof
Wow those are exactly the three sites I check. I too am sick of Engadget's constant WM bashing.
@sonicyoof hay you could add my site to that list :) Mobileosnews.com , I get about 20post a day, so ya. And as you can tell this news is from my site
There are also ports available for the Touch Diamond, Touch Pro, Touch Diamond 2, Touch Pro 2, Kaiser (AT&T Tilt) and maybe some more.
@Peter F yap, actually alot more, and the best port so far is the vogue, http://mobileosnews.com/?p=684 if you read that, the vogue can actually replace Windows Mobile completely with one normal flash.
@Peter F
even htc phones as old as the Wizard can do this.
Hay guys, if you want to see how this compares to the Droid, check out the video here http://mobileosnews.com/?p=1686
@MOSN fallow me on twitter for more news on all major smart phone OS http://twitter.com/mobileosnews
My Tilt has been running 1.6 this way for at least a month. Slow news day, Engadget?
@(Unverified) but remember, your talking about a TILT, this is an HD, with android "2.0" not "1.6"
Yeah seriously, I've been running this build on my Fuze for quite some time. Slow news day indeed.
@dieKatze88 I'm generally bothered by "slow news day" comments, but it's true -- the week after CES is typically one of the slowest news weeks of the year.
Jesus.. really engadget? Did ANY of you go to school? You know, to learn things and such?
@TheSeventhSon We try to bat 1.000, but we get a story wrong from time to time -- it happens. I wish it didn't, and we're always working our asses off to prevent it and correct it when something slips by. That said, I do think you're taking it to the extreme -- when we're posting hundreds of stories a month, many before anyone else and virtually all with complete accuracy, asking "did ANY of you go to school" in such an obnoxious tone isn't going to win you any respect around here... a simple correction will suffice.
@TheSeventhSon
I wonder if you had a site if you would have every story 100% correct. I ran 1.5 on my vogue for quite a while and to the average user this does look it runs on top of windows. Not everyone is a programmer, ergo not everyone will know exactly how it works.
@Chris Ziegler
Fair point Chris, I apologize for being so harsh. I did go to school for an MS in Computer Science so I've internalized some things and tend to assume that everyone knows those things but that's a ludicrous assumption on my part. I completely retract my statement, sorry again!