Google has yet to officially release Android 2.3 Gingerbread for the Google Nexus One smartphone, but some folks at the xda-developers forum have already managed to get Android 3.0 Honeycomb up and running on Google’s developer phone.

Actually, running might be a strong word for it, because while the basic operating system is working in this early release, phone calls, SMS, and other phone functionality isn’t yet available. 3D performance is also pretty sluggish.

The version of Honeycomb used comes from the emulator image released as part of Google’s software developer kit for Android 3.0. It’s still a bit rough around the edges and because the Honeycomb source code hasn’t been fully released yet, there’s still a lot of room for to grow. But xda-developers forum member bypass23 has pre-rooted the disk image, added busybox, a file manager, QuickBoot reboot options, and a terminal emulator.

You can find a download link and more information at the xda-developers forum.

MeeGo is a light weight Linux environment designed to run on netbooks, smartphones, in-car computers, and other devices. The source code for the smartphone version of the OS was released a few months ago, but you still can’t actually walk into a store and buy a phone running MeeGo yet. A small group of hackers, on the other hand, are working on getting the OS to run on existing handsets including the Google Nexus One.

Android Police reports that a number of hackers have managed to get the OS to boot on the Nexus One, HTC Desire, and Dell Streak. The thing all of these systems have in common is the Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD8250 chipset. Unfortunately while that chip features 3D graphics acceleration capabilities, the drivers are closed-source, which has prevented third party hackers from figuring out how to add 3D graphics support. That means that while you can boot MeeGo on these phones, the OS is excruciatingly slow to actually use.

Eventually we may see handsets ship with MeeGo, and odds are they’ll run much more smoothly. But if the driver issues can get worked out, it’d be awfully cool to be able to dual boot MeeGo and Android on existing phones.

The folks at the xda-developers forum have discovered yet-another updated ROM for the Google Nexus One. While some folks had been hoping that the next build would bring Android 3.0 Gingerbread, this appears to be a minor update to Android 2.2 Froyo with some bug fixes and a new version of the radio. Some folks say the operating system also seems to run faster.

A member of the Modaco forums also posted some benchmark scores showing the device running a little faster after the update.

Paul O’Brien and Modaco has repackaged the ROM so that it can be easily installed on any Android phone. Bear in mind that the stock image will futz with the Android Market, since it won’t allow you to see or download signed apps. So if you’re thinking about updating your phone, you might want to grab one of Paul’s images that says “FRF91 fingerprint,” which tricks the Market into thinking you’re still using an older version of Android.

The new update has the build name of FRG33.

We’ve already seen that it’s possible to install Windows 3.1 on an Android phone by using aDOSBox. But if you’re looking for a slightly more modern alternative to Google’s Android operating system, Nexus One Hacks has a tutorial for installing Ubuntu Linux on a Google Nexus One Android smartphone.

Installing Ubuntu doesn’t require wiping Android off of your device. Instead, Ubuntu runs as a sub-system and you use a VNC client to access the operating system. This way you can still use your phone to make calls… and to run Ubuntu apps.

You’ll need a rooted Android phone to get Ubuntu up and running — and a bit of patience and Linux know-how (or at leas the ability to follow a very long and somewhat complicated set of instructions).

The 13 minute video below shows the entire install process, which really doesn’t take very long at all once you’ve downloaded all the necessary files.

via Android Community

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Image credit: Ars Technica

When Google introduced Android 2.2, the company announced that one of the biggest changes was a new Just In Time (JIT) compiler which dramatically sped up Javascript performance. That means that most third party apps run faster on Android 2.2 than Android 2.1, and many web sites with Javascript elements render more quickly.

But how does Google’s latest mobile operating system stack up against Apple’s? The folks at Ars Technica ran a set of benchmarks on a Google Nexus One running Android 2.2 Froyo and an iPhone 4 running iOS 4. The results? The Nexus One won… by a wide margin.

In fact, the Nexus One performed almost twice as well using the SunSpider benchmark, and more than 3 times better in the V8 test.

It’s worth keeping in mind that the differences aren’t just due to the software. While the Nexus One and iPhone 4 both have ARM-based processors, they each use very different chips, with the Nexus One powered by a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU and the iPhone 4 using an Apple A4 processor. And of course, Javascript isn’t the only performance measure that matters. But it looks like if you visit a lot of Javascript-heavy web sites in your mobile browser, Android 2.2 might be a better bet than iOS 4.

Update: Chippy at CarryPad ran the SunSpider test on an Aava prototype phone running MeeGo Linux. His socre came in at 4,215.2ms, trouncing both the Nexus One and the iPhone 4. Of course, the Aava also has a 1.5GHz dual core Atom processor. While Javascript doesn’t take advantage of multicore processors, it’s tough to say whether it was the fast CPU or the fact that the device was running MeeGo that gave the Aava prototype the edge.

Oh, and just for kicks, I ran SunSpider on my 2nd generation iPod touch running iOS. It scored 30,708 — almost three times slower than the iPhone 4. Clearly the CPU is at least as important as the operating system.

Google has been pushing out test builds of Android 2.2 Froyo to a small group of users with Google Nexus One phones for the past month or so. But as we’ve repeatedly been told, those early builds weren’t the official release that would be made available to the general public — so if you somehow managed to find and download the updates through some link you found on the web, you weren’t necessarily running the final version of Froyo on your Nexus One.

Starting today, that all changes. Google has announced that it has begun rolling out Android 2.2 for Nexus One handsets. Some users have already received notifications that the update is available, and Google promises that most users should get the update by the end of the week. I guess that means the build that leaked last night really was the final build — and if you’re the impatient sort, you can probably download it now by following one of the links from the xda-developers forum.

The Google Nexus One is the first phone to receive the Android 2.2 update because it’s the phone Google has the closest connection to. Up until recently the company had been selling the phone directly to consumers through its web site. But now that Froyo is available for one phone, I suspect it won’t be too long before we start to see other phone makers and wireless carriers start to offer updates for other devices.

Some of the new features in Android 2.2 Froyo include a major speed boost — particularly for third party applications, support for Adobe Flash Player 10.1, USB tethering and WiFi hotspot capabilities, and a new Home Screen design featuring phone and web browser buttons that show up at the bottom of all five home screens.

Yet another build of Google Android 2.2 Froyo for the Nexus One phone has started rolling out. The difference is that some users are reporting that they’ve been getting the latest build as an over the air update — leading some people to concluded that this is the final build of Android 2.2 for the Nexus One. The fact that the Froyo source code was released yesterday lends some credence to that idea.

For those keeping count, this is the third version of Android 2.2 Froyo for the Google Nexus One. The first was FRF50, followed by FRF72. The new version is FRF83.

If you haven’t received an over the air update yet, there are two different installers you can use. One lets you updated from FRF50, while the other updates from FRF72. If you’re not already running a prior version of Android 2.2, you may have to wait a little longer… or download a hacked custom ROM developed around the latest Froyo build.

The instructions for installing the update are pretty much the same as usual. Download the appropriate file, rename it to update.zip and copy it to your SD card and then follow the same steps as last time.

• Download this file to update from FRF50
• Download this file to update from FRF72

If you’re wondering what’s new in the latest build, you’re not alone. While I’m sure there are a number of bug fixes, there’s one major change that I”m aware of: Support for protected apps. That means many paid apps and some free apps like the New York Times reader app which were missing from the Android Market if you were using earlier versions of Android 2.2 are now back.

via xda-developers