If you’re among the masses considering an Android phone, you might want to borrow a friend’s Android phone or visit a store and poke around on a Droid a bit like I did. The next best alternative is to virtualize Android on a PC using VirtualBox. VirtualBox runs on Windows, Mac and Linux.
Android-x86 Project is a website dedicated to running Android OS on a PC. There are a number of ways of installing Android OS on a computer but I prefer VirtualBox because you do not have to replace your current OS or partition your drive. If you decided you no longer want Android OS on your computer, you can simply delete the virtual Android machine.
Android-x86 Project’s Wiki contains instructions for installing Android 1.6 in VirtualBox. You also need to download the ISO. Sound and internet connectivity work fine if you follow the instructions. The system even comes pre-installed with a few apps.
Obviously, you don’t get a really good feel for Android on a computer screen but you can form a preliminary opinion. I also found the virtual Android helpful in testing this blog’s mobile version for Android, iPhone, Blackberry Storms and WebOS using the WP-Touch plugin.
Thanks to Bill and TopDNBass on Phandroid’s forums for responding to my post about virtualizing Android.
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Jon Mallin
Founder of Tech Bottle Blog. Attorney & Amateur Blogger. B.A. University of Michigan 1997 and J.D. NYU School of Law 2000.
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