OpeniBoot for the iPhone 3G, which allows you to launch into Android after a reboot, has been updated with SMS message and Wi-Fi support improved over the last version with some Android-specific extensions. The dualboot screen also has a new Android icon to make switching all the easier (in the old version, you had to do some funky work with the home button launch Android). There’s still a few things that need to be fixed, like sound and voice calls (though the baseband is working hunky-dory), but by and large, you can get around the OS just fine by using the home key as a menu key and the lock key for back. On top of filling in a couple of gaps in this one, the next build will include some better power and backlight management. After some code-side usability improvements are made, the source will be posted for the wanton probing of fellow developers.
In the past, Android had been jammed into the N900, but that must have been a relatively easy port, considering the common Linux ancestry. Though webOS is also Linux-based, it hasn’t enjoyed the same kind of traction. Windows Mobile has also been rigged to use Android too, but once Windows 7 launches, that flexibility might go down the tube. This has been a pretty cool developer experiment, and a hugely successful one if it results in actually using Android full time on your iPhone while still being able to revert to the trusty Apple experience. Without the menu, home and back keys that you’re used to on most Android handsets, this shoehorning might feel a little uncomfortable, but potentially being able to enjoy both the iTunes App Store and Android Market on the same device is really awesome.
To keep tabs on the project, or even get involved, hit up linuxoniphone.blogspot.com.
[via PCWorld]