Android running on Eee PC 1000 netbook

Google may have started out with cellphones for their Android platform, but that doesn’t mean they’re limiting their future options.  The guys over at VentureBeat have loaded the open-source OS onto an Eee PC 1000 netbook, with a display almost five times the size of the T-Mobile G1, and aside from some initial networking and sound issues Android is now running normally on the ASUS machine.

Screen resolution adjusted automatically, and while digging around in the code they came across not only the phone policy but a MID (mobile internet device) policy suggesting that Google are already considering netbooks in these relatively early Android builds.  One of Google’s own developers, Dima Zavin, ported the platform onto another Intel CPU-based netbook, proving that there was no real technical issue preventing it.

Getting Android ready for the Eee PC took around four hours.  That left VentureBeat with a working netbook capable of media playback, internet access, messaging and, presumably, if the 1000 had a 3G modem, wireless broadband.  Since the open-source version of Android doesn’t currently support the Android Market, downloading apps from there wasn’t possible; however, they did find Czech, German, English (Australia, United Kingdom, Singapore, United States), Spanish, Japanese, German and Dutch translation options, suggesting launches of the platform in some those countries may be next.

[via jkkmobile]