Database Develop

Android on other devices

So I am trying to learn some about how android works. I am interested in how it works with the hardware. I am not a developer or interested in porting android to another device, but as I look at the hardware specs of say the Touch Pro2 and the hero, they are similar and the chipsets are close (same family). Recently i read that the CEO of HTC said he will not make a Android version of the TP2, so my question is this:
What is special about the hardware of the android device that it runs android, but the TP2 cannot? I know that people have been working on porting Android to other WinMo devices, but with limited success. So what is the stumbling block?
I'm just curious about this topic and was hoping some of the smart folks from XDA would know.

I believe that much like computer hardware, each component requires drivers, and those need to be written for WinMo devices. In the alpine section they've been port WinMo 5, but couldn't due to lack of drivers.
Also all WinMo devices are resistive, Android (up until 1.6) was all capacitive, which I believe is another issue.
Anyway, the Droid is better than the TP2 =P

Symbian on rhodium?

Given that symbian has just gone open source, does anyone have any interest in working to port it over to the rhodium? Given the nature of the hardware, it should be doable, but the question is, is there any interest?
I know android is the new "thing", but symbian is still the most popular smartphone OS, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who moved over the WinMo from symbian for radio reasons -- I can get a T-Mo 3G WM phone, but not a symbian device.

Offcourse, the fact that it has gone opensource will make it easier, but I'm fairly sure it will be very hard to get symbian on any HTC.
Nokia uses very different hardware, so the cpu/chipset drivers won't exist at all. And as far as I know, symbian is not based on linux, so any linux drivers will be useless.
Android on rhodium is doable, because of the fact that it shares most of it's hardware specs with it's native android brothers.
Maemo on the other hand, is basicly linux with a skin/gui on top of it. We already have a booting linux kernel, so maemo will probably be a possible O/S to port in the future.

There's another thread on this at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=628384

Thread closed as existing thread exists as per above post

Windows Mobile 7 on Nexus One

I realize that in an Android-centric forum branch, I risk cries of heresy, but looking at the specs for upcoming Windows Phone 7 phones, I'm wondering if it will be possible to port Windows Mobile 7 to the Nexus One.
Not knowing enough about ROM cooking, I am wondering if any devs have opinions on the feasibility of this.
I am NOT interested in opinions about Windows Mobile 7 by itself, or as compared to any other platform, Android or otherwise, so please don't bother posting "b-b-but WinMo sucks", etc.
Thanks in advance!

maxawesome said:
I realize that in an Android-centric forum branch, I risk cries of heresy, but looking at the specs for upcoming Windows Phone 7 phones, I'm wondering if it will be possible to port Windows Mobile 7 to the Nexus One.
Not knowing enough about ROM cooking, I am wondering if any devs have opinions on the feasibility of this.
I am NOT interested in opinions about Windows Mobile 7 by itself, or as compared to any other platform, Android or otherwise, so please don't bother posting "b-b-but WinMo sucks", etc.
Thanks in advance!
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Almost impossible since WP7 isn't open source.
(And it's not finished yet anyway.)
Also, Windows Mobile 7 =/= Windows Phone 7

My understanding is that Windows Phone 7 is to the WinMo platform what Centrino is to Intel-based notebooks, i.e. a set of required hardware to guarantee a certain experience.
Windows Mobile 7 (as in the OS itself) has been ported to the HTC HD2, right?
I just wondered if the same might not be possible now that the WinMo 7 SDK is out (not in final form, I know, but still...)??

winmo 7 won't run on hd2

timothydonohue said:
winmo 7 won't run on hd2
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Ok, in that case, what about dual-booting an Android phone to run WinMo 6.5?
I've seen articles on some bootloader that will let you dual boot WinMo 6.5 and Android from a WinMo phone. Is it possible to do the same on an Android handset?

maxawesome said:
Ok, in that case, what about dual-booting an Android phone to run WinMo 6.5?
I've seen articles on some bootloader that will let you dual boot WinMo 6.5 and Android from a WinMo phone. Is it possible to do the same on an Android handset?
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It's a hell of a lot easier to port Android to a WinMo phone due to the fact that it's open source (hell, it's even been ported to iphone).
Getting any version of WinMo ported to Android would probably be possible, but incredibly difficult.

Ah, good point I hadn't thought of. I guess I just figured that even though WinMo isn't open source, enough of the hardware is common between devices these days so that drivers baked into WinMo would just work. Showing my novice, obviously.

I own a Samsung Galaxy SII T-989 and, because I come from the "Windows" side rather than Linux or Apple, I would like to be able to completely wipe out the Gingerbred ROM that came with the phone and install a "cooked" ROM based on Windows Mobile 7 or, at least Windows Mobile 6.5.
I am hoping that, all those great developers connected to this site and spending so much time on cooking roms and rooting android phones, maybe one day they would look into this project that will become, I am sure, the greatest challenge, the pinnacle of all great things ever accomplished and recorded on this amazing forum.

I'm sure that nobody will bother:
1) It's going to prove VERY complicated, to say the least. Without "inside job" with the drivers, just plain impossible.
2) It's useless. If you're after Windows Phone 7 phones - just go and buy yourself one. Installing Android on it will be much easier than the other way around, and most probably it was already done.
Because of both of the points, it won't happen. There are reasonable challenges, and there are oh-so-stupid ones. And people mostly have lives. So if I were you, I wouldn't hold on to the hope, and would just go out and buy WinPhone 7.
Specifically for point 1: Microsoft certifies all the HW that is licensed to work with their OS, and all the drivers are made ONLY for this HW, and not for anything else. VERY CPU- and board-specific. Seeing that you have a Samsung phone, which doesn't have this HW or anything like it, I'd say that the chances of hell freezing over are higher than your phone getting Win7 port. Well, at least until your specific CPU (which happens, unlike most other SGS2 ones, to be of the "right" brand for Win7 phones) and phone motherboard (which might never become a base for Win7 phone) gets certified and has drivers done for it - happens only if exactly the same base will be used for Win7 phone - and Microsoft outsourcing them. I'd bet my money on hell freezing over

Can I Install WP8 on a WP7 Phone?

is there any way to install wp8 on a wp7 phone?

Really ? Did you do any homework or read any of the blogs about Windows Phone 8 ? I guess not. A key word that you should know is "search" as you would of found your answer.
To answer your question, NO. Window Phone 7 users will get a upgrade to Windows Phone 7.8 and it will give you the new start menu of Windows Phone 8 but, nothing else.

Windows phone 7.8
There will be update to wp7/wp7.5 called wp7.8 and you have same interface than Windows phone 8

kilus said:
is there any way to install wp8 on a wp7 phone?
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I'm pretty sure we'll be able to put some sort of custom ROM WP8 on a WP7 device.
Other than the secure boot, which should hopefully be easily turned off, I haven't seen anything which would prevent the OS from running on a WP7 device.

DavidinCT said:
Really ? Did you do any homework or read any of the blogs about Windows Phone 8 ? I guess not. A key word that you should know is "search" as you would of found your answer.
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really? did you do any homework or read any blogs about how to get laid as a nerd? i guess not. a key word you should know is "balls," as you'd require a pair as a real man and help you stop masterbating at online porn, move out your mom's house, and finally get laid at 43 years of age.
hetwo said:
There will be update to wp7/wp7.5 called wp7.8 and you have same interface than Windows phone 8
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thanks hetwo.
gedmurphy said:
I'm pretty sure we'll be able to put some sort of custom ROM WP8 on a WP7 device.
Other than the secure boot, which should hopefully be easily turned off, I haven't seen anything which would prevent the OS from running on a WP7 device.
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thank you too.. its good knowing there are some decent intelligent people out there willing to answer questions without having to be a disrespectful troll.

Hey guys,
Firstly please don't get this wp8 forum off to a bad start and keep flaming each other? Respect each other and the rules please :cyclops:
Secondly, from my understanding current hardware specs of wp7 phones are not high enough, do not meet, wp8 requirements so the answer is probably no. The official line is a definate no, wp7 devices, even new ones like lumia 900 will not get wp8 update

Hopefully soon wp8 on WP7 by Custom Rom

timmymarsh said:
Secondly, from my understanding current hardware specs of wp7 phones are not high enough, do not meet, wp8 requirements so the answer is probably no. The official line is a definate no, wp7 devices, even new ones like lumia 900 will not get wp8 update
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Definitely not via an update, that's clearly been addressed by Microsoft. However existing WP7 hardware is surely powerful enough to run WP8. The single core processor is definitely not a problem, and low end WP8 devices are looking to be lower in specs than current WP7 devices.
I'm no expert in usermode on WP, but I know the NT kernel extremely well, and it's more than capable of running on our hardware.

Some body will hack it
Sent from my Lumia 900 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App

Only problem maybe drivers. It is Microsoft way to release oem from out of warranty obligation to keep an outdated product updated.
Who wants to sell one shirt and that person never buys another because it last too long. I understand wanted to save money. But how can they keep making money if the people that work for them is trying to make something2 years old work off of the mere 500$ the phone is worth. Hey has to make money or they will disappear like farmer jack and circuit city
Sent from my HD7 T9292 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App

kilus said:
really? did you do any homework or read any blogs about how to get laid as a nerd? i guess not. a key word you should know is "balls," as you'd require a pair as a real man and help you stop masterbating at online porn, move out your mom's house, and finally get laid at 43 years of age.
.
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Hahaha. If you read ANY PLACE on this site, it says to SEARCH before posting.
You must not know how to read. This has been a major topic of discussion over every Windows Phone 7 related site.
It does not take a geek or loser like yourself just to spend 2 min reading before posting a subject that has been posted everywhere.
The new upgrade goes to the NT kernal over the WinCE one. That does take more horsepower than current devices can do. It will have native support for C++ and a lot of other modern tech (NFC and others). The current chipset in current devices will not be able to handle it with reasonable performance. As I understand it.
IF some hacker was to create a rom for a current device, it would not support more than 1/2 of the OS and the performace would not be anything worth using unless they stripped everything out.
It's really questionable if a hacker will be able to get it working on current devices and what type of performance. If you really want to know the changes, it's a little long but, it really shows what it can and will do...
http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Windows-Phone/Summit
It's the full streaming event, and it's almost 2 hours but, it's impressive and I can see why they went this route.

DavidinCT said:
The new upgrade goes to the NT kernal over the WinCE one. That does take more horsepower than current devices can do.
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Absolutely not true. The NT kernel will run on seriously low specs without any issues. It'll happily run on an old pentium 233 and 32MB RAM without any notable issues in performance. In fact,WP7 hardware is sufficient to run full blown Windows 7, not just the NT6 kernel (assuming the processor was x86 and not ARMv7)
I don't se drivers being a huge blocker as the number of drivers for NT6 is huge, and even in the worst case scenario any drivers we may be missing can be written.
It'll be interesting to see how quickly someone gets WP8 running on a WP7 device.

gedmurphy said:
Absolutely not true. The NT kernel will run on seriously low specs without any issues. It'll happily run on an old pentium 233 and 32MB RAM without any notable issues in performance. In fact,WP7 hardware is sufficient to run full blown Windows 7, not just the NT6 kernel (assuming the processor was x86 and not ARMv7)
I don't se drivers being a huge blocker as the number of drivers for NT6 is huge, and even in the worst case scenario any drivers we may be missing can be written.
It'll be interesting to see how quickly someone gets WP8 running on a WP7 device.
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It's a good question. As I got that from a Tweet by someone at MS. As I understand Windows 8 has a updated kernel that they are using on WP8. Not sure on it, as I thought it was the same as you (I'm a 20 year Windows Systems admin, I know the NT kernel COULD run on 286 machines if needed, not sure on the updated one, just going on what I heard).
It might of been the option of forcing users to have not hard reset their phones (like going from 32bit to 64-bit, no upgrade path) and that would cause a big impact on customer reports. As I have understood from watching the whole MS thing on it, it came down to performance problems that ended it before it started. Some chipsets to support the new OS are not on WP7 devices, so it limits the options current users can take advantage of.
It's not just about the devices and the end users , its' about the PR nightmare. Any press is good but, bad press is a whole different story. In a year or 2 no one will even talk about this. Android does this all the time and even Apple did it to their first gen device.
Who knows. Maybe one of the great hackers here or DFT will make it run on a current device. It makes me question it though.
As long as WP7 devices have been out, Not one WM 6.5 devices (not incuding the HD2 as it was used as a test device for MS on WP7 and drivers were leaked) got a WP7 upgrade OR No Android device got WP7 or the other way around. There are plenty of Android devices or even a handful of 6.5 devices that could of run WP7 fine.
The hackers can do only so much but, time will tell, I just wonder IF POSSABLE (with out MS), just how long it would take.
It will be interesting to see tho...
I do know I am about 95% sure I will be buying one on release, just depending on the models on release.

The reason for almost none of the 6.5 devices running WP7 could be that most of the old devices running 6.5 didn´t have the needed display (capacitive and the WP7 resolution) or processor. Take the Toshiba TG01: resistive display and higher resolution.

btw....moved to Q&A:good:

this will be possible atleast for hd7 and focus 1st gen:good:

hackarchive said:
this will be possible atleast for hd7 and focus 1st gen:good:
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for hd7? i see...

hackarchive said:
this will be possible atleast for hd7 and focus 1st gen:good:
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Just wondering... Where did you get your info on that ? Your HD7 and focus besides the display and case is almost like every other Windows Phone 7 device (standard hardware across all models).
Even though it has been clearly said by Microsoft that NO 1st or 2nd gen devices will get the update you seem to think the HD7 will.
Maybe it's me but, I'm smelling a little BS here....
Unless Microsoft says that they will be updating or DFT decides to dig in, your not getting a upgrade on any first or 2nd gen device and that includes the HD7 and Focus.

The problem with the kernel is not that it by itself would need that much power to run but rather that they would have to develop loads of drivers for it to work, as they would not be able to use those that already exist for Windows CE.
A bigger problem might be the Bootloader process. The NT Kernel at least on ARM requires an UEFI firmware which is likely to be pretty different from the bootloaders we currently have on our phones.
So the steps would be:
- Develop an UEFI firmware for current WP7 hardware (HSPL needed because it would replace the old bootloader) - including UEFI hardware drivers
- Develop drivers for the chipsets from scratch
- Find out on how many hardware characteristics Microsoft chose to rely that are simply not there on old devices
I'm not saying that it is impossible to do or that it won't ever be done but I guess until it's done almost no one will still be using such an old phone.

RE:
DavidinCT said:
Hahaha. If you read ANY PLACE on this site, it says to SEARCH before posting.
You must not know how to read. This has been a major topic of discussion over every Windows Phone 7 related site.
It does not take a geek or loser like yourself just to spend 2 min reading before posting a subject that has been posted everywhere.
The new upgrade goes to the NT kernal over the WinCE one. That does take more horsepower than current devices can do. It will have native support for C++ and a lot of other modern tech (NFC and others). The current chipset in current devices will not be able to handle it with reasonable performance. As I understand it.
IF some hacker was to create a rom for a current device, it would not support more than 1/2 of the OS and the performace would not be anything worth using unless they stripped everything out.
It's really questionable if a hacker will be able to get it working on current devices and what type of performance. If you really want to know the changes, it's a little long but, it really shows what it can and will do...
http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Windows-Phone/Summit
It's the full streaming event, and it's almost 2 hours but, it's impressive and I can see why they went this route.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Helooo???
Low end WP8 devices will have lower HW specs than some current WP7 devices.
WP8 could run very well on a focus s or HD7 or any other.
There will be custom roms for many current devices, there are many smart guys here that I'm sure will try to do this. Let's hope they will manage to do it.

[Q] List of phones ported to WP8

In the search for a new phone, I was wondering what phones already have been ported to WP8. Does anyone know where to find a list of phones that has been ported, in particular, to WP8?

Welcome!
Grand total: 0
No phones have had Windows Phone 8 ported on them AFAIK.
Here is a list of genuine WP8 devices.
Also Windows Phone 8.1 is due for release this month so there will shortly be new handsets announced.

You can argue that the ATIV S is basically a Galaxy S3 with WP8 instead of Android, but they still aren't exactly the same (though very, very close).
Also, you port an OS (or any other kind of software) to a platform (such as a phone), not the other way around...

does windowphone8 ported on HD7?

Its not possible to port WP8 on any device.

Petulinek said:
Its not possible to port WP8 on any device.
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Actually, when WP8 was first released, a group of developers ported Windows Phone 8 to the HTC HD2, but it was never released because of multiple issues (storage was one I think)

Considering that the HD2 doesn't even reach the RAM of the minimum, low-memory WP8 handsets, I'm not surprised. It also wouldn't be very fast, single core at 1GHz.
Still, it's impressive that they managed at all. Not a single one of the platforms that the HD2 (or anything like it) was built to support run NT...

GoodDayToDie said:
Considering that the HD2 doesn't even reach the RAM of the minimum, low-memory WP8 handsets, I'm not surprised. It also wouldn't be very fast, single core at 1GHz.
Still, it's impressive that they managed at all. Not a single one of the platforms that the HD2 (or anything like it) was built to support run NT...
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Hi GDTD, I think you're right, but what about the new MS's choice of decreasing the minimum rewuisites for its machines?
I'm not an expert, but I think it would be applied also for wp8