Sure, Google Android 2.3 Gingerbread isn’t officially available for most phones designed to run Android yet. But that doesn’t mean you can’t unofficially install it on a number of handsets — including the iPhone 3G. That’s exactly what Nick Pack has done, and he’s posted the video to prove it.

Using the same OpeniBoot method folks have been using for a while to load Android onto iPhones, Nick Pack now has a dual boot phone that can load either iOS or Android.

The OS seems kind of sluggish, which isn’t surprising since the iPhone 3G has a much slower processor than most recent Android (or iOS) devices — and since the operating system wasn’t really designed for the hardware. I wouldn’t be surprised to see hackers make some optimizations in the coming months, or figure out how to run Gingerbread on newer devices such as the iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4.

You can check out the video after the break.

via Redmond Pie

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Apple is officially unveiling iOS 4.1 for the iPhone and iPod touch today. The new version fixes a number of bugs, including a proximity sensor bug and Bluetooth problems. Apple CEO Steve Jobs also says that the new version improves performance on the iPhone 3G (and hopefully the iPod touch as well). The iPhone 3G was notoriously sluggish after upgrading to iOS 4.0, and hopefully the new operating system should improve the performance.

Other changes in iOS 4.1 include support for uploading HD videos over WiFi and support for High Dynamic Range photographs.

Apple is also officially launching GameCenter, which provides video game APIs for developers and social features for users. You can play multi-player games against your friends, or use the auto-matching feature to find people to play against.

Jobs also announced that users will be able to rent TV shows from iTunes for $0.99 each.

Apple says iOS 4.1 will be available for download from iTunes next week.

When Apple launched iOS 4, the company took a sort of tiered approach. If you had an iPhone 4, it shipped with the new operating system and all its new features. If you had an iPhone 3GS or third generation iPod touch, you could install an update to get all the nifty new features. If you had a first generation iPhone or iPod touch, you were out of luck. No update for you.

Then there was the middle ground: iPhone 3G and second generation iPod touch users. We got to install iOS, but we didn’t get all the features. This crippled version doesn’t let you multitask or install custom wallpapers, among other things. Apple officials said that’s because these earlier devices simply don’t have the processor power to handle those features. That seems fair.

What doesn’t seem fair is the fact that these devices also don’t seem to have the processor power to handle other elements of iOS 4. Users have been reporting since day one that installing iOS 4 on an iPhone 3G or second generation iPod touch causes the device to slow down considerably. It takes longer to launch apps, switch between apps, or adjust settings.

Apparently Apple is aware of the issue, and according to an email Apple CEO Steve Jobs sent to a customer, a software update is on the way that could address the problem. Smart money is that he’s referring to iOS 4.1. Unfortunately there’s still no word on when it will be available or how much it will help. Jobs was also specifically referring to performance on the iPhone 3G. He didn’t mention the iPod touch at all, but I’m holding out hope that the update will improve performance on that model as well.

Of course, since iOS 4 doesn’t actually offer a whole lot of new features to iPhone 3 and iPod touch 2g users, you can also simply downgrade from ioS 4 to iPhone OS 3.1.

Apple released a software update this week that closes a PDF exploit that allowed hackers to run code on your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad by tricking it into loading a corrupted PDF file. That might sound like a good thing — and for the most part it is. Apple iOS 4.0.2 is more secure than earlier builds. But it also makes it a lot tougher to jailbreak your iDevice, because that PDF exploit was exactly what the folks behind web-based jailbreak tool Jailbreakme were using.

Fortunately, it looks like anyone running iOS 4.0.2 on an older device can still jailbreak their iPhone 3G or second generation iPod touch using the good old redsn0w utility.

The process isn’t quite as easy as visiting a web site and swiping your finger across the screen. But it’s really not that much harder. You simply download the latest version of iOS, download the Redsn0w 0.95b5-5 file and follow the directions. You can find step by step instructions at Redmond Pie.

Keep in mind, jailbreaking your device will likely void your warranty and if you break something you’re pretty much on your own. On the other hand, jailbreaking an older iPhone or iPod touch is the only way to enable support for features like multitasking and custom wallpapers.You can also install apps that haven’t officially been added to the iTunes App Store.

Oh yeah, and as Engadget points out — if you want to protect yourself from the PDF exploit and you’re on an older device that’s not running iOS 4, then the only way to beef up your security is ironically to jailbreak your device and install an unofficial patch from the Cydia store.

One of the coolest new apps in the iTunes App Store is iMovie. You can use this $5 app to edit movies you shoot with your iPhone camera, add music, transitions, and other effects, and export complete videos which you can upload to YouTube and other sites. The only catch is that it’s only available for the iPhone 4… officially.

Redmond Pie has figured out how to get the iMovie app to work on a jailbroken iPhone 3GS running iOS 4.

Technically the iPhone 4 has a faster CPU than the iPhone 3GS, which is one of the reasons iMovie isn’t available for download on the 3GS. But as you can see in the video below, while iMovie on the 3GS may not be up to Apple’s standards, it does appear to be reasonably fast and responsive. While the same trick should work on the iPhone 3G and iPod touch, iMovie will likely run slower on older devices.

You can find instructions for altering the app to run on earlier iPhone models (and maybe even earlier iPhone OS models) at Redmond Pie.

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Update: Not happy with iOS 4 and want to know how to downgrade to iPhone OS 3.1.3? There’s an app guide for that.

Update 2: Or if you’d rather just add support for multitasking and fast app switching, there’s a guide for that too.

As you may have heard, Apple iOS 4 is now available for download. You can install the update on the iPhone 3GS, 3G, and second and third generation iPod touch models. But if you want all of the features Apple promised, you’re going to need an iPhone 3G or a 32GB or 64GB iPod touch. Because older iPhones and iPod touches get a stripped down version of iOS 4.

I happen to have a 3rd generation current generation 8GB iPod touch, which is one of the newest models available. So I kind of figured I was good to go until I downloaded the update this morning. But it turns out that the 8GB model actually is basically still a 2nd generation device. And that means that I’ve got the limited edition version of iOS 4.

Now, that means I do get some of the new features, including the ability to sort Home Screen icons into folders. And that’s a big deal. I can also use the new unified inbox feature, which lets you see the latest messages from multiple email accounts in one place. It combines my Gmail and Yahoo inboxes beautifully. Search suggestions also show up in Mobile Safari. But there are a number of new features that aren’t available to folks like me with older hardware.

Here are a few things that I don’t have access to after upgrading my iPod touch to iOS 4.0:

• Multitasking
• iBooks
• Home Screen wallpapers
• Screen orientation locking

I get why there’s no multitasking. Apple has decided that older devices don’t have fast enough processors to handle task-switching for non Apple programs. But I have no idea why I can’t change the wallpaper on my Home Screen.

And since I can’t run apps in the background, double-tapping the Home button doesn’t bring up an app drawer — which means I also don’t get access to the screen orientation lock button that’s tucked away in the app drawer on supported hardware. There’s really no reason Apple should be leaving older iDevice users out in the cold here. It’s not like we don’t use our devices to read in bed too.

Update: It turns out iBooks does work on older iPod touch and iPhone models. It just wasn’t immediately available for download, but it’s in the App Store now.

I also have no idea why I can’t install the iBooks app, which iTunes says is available for the iPad and iPhone… but not the iPod touch. I currently have eBook apps from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Stanza installed on my iPod touch. If these third party developers can come up with apps that run smoothly on my iPod touch, it seems kind of strange that Apple has decided not to make iBooks available.

I’ll probably hold off on upgrading my iPod touch until Apple announces a new model, because I suspect that will happen sometime in the next month or two and it seems silly to buy a 32GB iPod touch today when a new version that will ship with iOS 4 is probably just around the corner. But I’m a bit disappointed to discover that a device I bought just a few months ago has already been made partially obsolete by Apple’s most recent software update.

Update the second: Gizmodo reports that Steve Jobs has addressed the question of why iPhone 3G and older iPod touch users can’t change their home screen backgrounds. Apparently icon animations don’t work very well with non-standard backgrounds. Go figure. Honestly, I’m not really itching for custom home screen backgrounds, since the app icons take up most of the space anyway. But I still wouldn’t mind a screen rotation lock button.

It was just a few weeks ago that we first saw Google’s Android operating system running on an iPhone. But that particular hack was limited to a first generation iPhone 2G. Well now developer David Wang is back, and this time he’s managed to squeeze Google’s mobile operating system onto an iPhone 3G.

Audio isn’t working at the moment, but almost everything else is. Multiotuch works, and the iPhone can run Android apps, surf the web over WiFi or 3G, and do almost everything else you’d expect an Android smartphone to do. It can even make calls, but since audio doesn’t work, nobody will hear what you’re saying. But you can send text messages.

Wang’s Android port lets you dual boot the iPhone OS and Android on the same device. It takes a while to switch operating systems, as you can see in the video below. But once Android is up and running, you can quickly suspend the phone just by tapping the power button.

The installer file should be available for download soon. Bear in mind, this particular version of Android is designed for the iPhone 3G, not the iPhone 3Gs.

You can check out a video after the break.

via Engadget

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