The HTC G1 was released in October, 2008, making it the first phone to ship with Google’s Android operating system. HTC, T-Mobile, Google, and pretty much everyone else involved in the phone have long since moved on… but there’s a community of independent hackers keeping the platform alive and kicking.
We’ve seen every major version of Android ported to the G1 over the past four years. Now you can add Android 4.1 Jelly Bean to the list.
A group of developers called SoCal Devs have ported Android 4.1.1 to run on the world’s oldest Android handset.
It’s not a perfect port. At this point it’s described as a pre-alpha release. Cellular functionality and data don’t work. Screen rotation doesn’t work. And the user interface is slow as molasses.
But the touchscreen works, WiFi, works, and most Android apps work.
Even once the kinks are worked out, the developers don’t expect Android 4.1 to run well enough on the G1 for anyone to use it as their primary operating system. But it’s available to download and try if you just want to be able to say you’re running the newest Android software on the first Android phone.
via Android Central
