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July 8, 2008

Late yesterday, some wireless developers have tested Google's Android Mobile operating system on Nokia's N-810 Linux handheld devices. This is of special interest to people who are trying to design wireless apps for Android rather than to general users.

"From the point of view of someone who just wants to use his Nokia N-800 and doesn't necessarily want to experiment, what does running Android provide the average user?" one person asked on the Internet Tablet Talk Web site that is sharing the technique for loading the software on the devices.

"Probably not that much," a respondent wrote back. In the future, however, it means that anyone could decide to run Android on the devices and use applications developed for the operating system, the respondent said.

Nokia's N-810 devices run on Maemo Linux, and Android itself is also based on Linux. So is Google, by the way...

Since most mobile phones come with closed (read: commercial) operating systems, users typically can't simply remove and replace the operating system. Because Android isn't yet complete, no phones actually running the software are available as of today, but they are expected soon.

For wireless and mobile phone application developers this discovery is very exciting. "Testing on a physical device is way different than testing in an emulator," said Mike Rowehl, a mobile developer who has loaded Android on his N-810.

Rowehl also said that this is an important move that indicates the success of the Linux phone model. "By virtue of building on open-source platforms already well-represented in terms of active projects, developers have been able to get Android up and running on physical hardware," he said.

Overall, the Nokia N-810 has a larger form factor than the average mobile phone, but it is still a lot smaller than a typical modern laptop. The initial release of the line of Internet tablets, the Nokia N-770 raised some eyebrows because the devices don't include mobile connectivity as of yet.

However, they all have Wi-Fi already enabled, and users can connect a mobile phone to the N-810 via Bluetooth for mobile access.

Three months ago, wireless developers also posted information about loading Android onto the Nokia tablets, but the whole process was rather complicated. The new onboard installer now makes it a bit easier for people to load the software on the Nokia devices.

Source: Wireless News.

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