Android on HTC Pro

Now what do you say about that?

I have been following the thread about running Android on HTC Pro aka Raphael for a while here xda developer and there has been pretty much of a movement since both HTC and Google have opened their sourcecode.

The benefit of the current solution is that it's not intrusive: you don't have to flash your phone; instead it uses Haret, a linux boot loader for Windows Mobile and Android on top of it.

My personal summary: it's a breaktrough! Besides using it for testing the software I develop I had Android running the whole days without hickups so I would say it's almost as stable as Windows Mobile.

The installation is pretty simple:

1. Download the files from here
2. unzip the content to the root on your SD card
3. find out the model of your phone by looking at the tag below the battery (mine says RAPH100)
4. copy the corresponding file from /startups to / and rename it STARTUP.TXT
5. run haret.exe and enjoy

What I found working / not working:

• Android does not support unlocking the phone by entering PIN yet so you must disable it in Windows Mobile
• The battery life is still pretty short: 4-8 hours for me
• GSM/3G access works by adding APN data in settings
• The layout of the hardware keyboard does not support the Fn key
• Calling and receiving calls works
• Receiving SMS works
• Resume from suspend (energy save) is a little erratic but my phone wakes up on hardware buttons press or at last when I slide up the keyboard
• Installing apps from the Android Market works fine