Like the open nature of Google Android, but prefer the sleek build quality of an iPhone to any Android handsets currently on the market? No problem. Now there’s a way to run Android on an iPhone.

A hacker going by the name of planetbeing has ported a debug version of Android to run on the iPhone’s hardware. It can make and receive phone calls, surf the web over WiFi, play music, and do pretty much anything else you’d want a phone to do. As an added bonus, you don’t have to completely wipe the iPhone operating system — you can dual boot.

There are a few catches. First, the version available for download today only works with the iPhone 2G. Second, the iPhone simply doesn’t have as many buttons as most Android phones. So planetbeing sacrificed the volume buttons to the cause and turned them into call and home buttons.

He says overall, Android on the iPhone is still a bit buggy and unstable. But for a first release it looks pretty impressive. Unfortunately the lack of physical buttons is going to be a bit of a hurdle for all future development.

You can check out a demonstration of Android on the iPhone after the break. And if you’re the adventurous sort, you can download the pre-built image yourself.

via Techmeme

Brad Linder

Brad Linder is editor of Liliputing and Mobiputing. He's been tinkering with mobile tech for decades and writing about it since 2006. Brad has also worked with NPR, WHYY, PRI, and AOL.

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