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Old 01-12-2010, 01:56 PM
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Re: iPhone ROM Development $1000

Let me preface this by saying Apple would probably sue the crap out of anyone who actually did this, so I don't think anyone would ever do it...

However...

I actually think this is possible, and would not take as much work as everyone here is saying. Why? Let me explain....

Microsoft is going out of their way to make it easy to port iPhone apps to Windows Mobile. There are all kinds of tutorials on this. See here:
http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/win...ws-mobile.aspx
here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee355030.aspx
and here:
http://www.macworld.com/article/1420...owsmobile.html

Okay, so now that we have established that there are a number of resources out there to port iPhone stuff to Windows Mobile (and there are a ton more, I just listed a few but google has hundreds), the question becomes- how hard would it be to reverse that? If we can port something to Windows Mobile from an iPhone, how hard would it be to port something from Windows Mobile to an iPhone? And once we start porting stuff from Windows Mobile to an iPhone, then how hard would it be to port things like drivers? And even if it is totally impossible- drivers are really small files, and I can't imagine they are all that difficult to write. It might be pretty hard for a "spare time" programmer, but probably not difficult at all for people that earn their living programming.

The question then becomes- how do we get the iPhone OS running at all? Well, if we have Android running, and the iPhone OS has similar roots, then I would imagine it is a similar process. I wouold imagine any number of geeks from the iPhone hacking community could provide a ROM dump, and any number of geeks from the WinMo community could get it loaded to a Touch Pro 2.

I may be over simplifying this, but it is certainly doable.

The thing is, it is probably not feasible for one person to do this. One person could be a projet manager though. And this project manager could get the best talent from the iPhone hacking community to handle the appropriate tasks, and the best talent from the WinMo hacking community to handle the appropriate tasks, and even a real life programmer to code some drivers and other things if need be.

Can all of this happen for $1000? I don't know. But the point is it could be done, for a lot cheaper and a lot easier than everyone in this thread is claiming. We're in a recession righ tnow. You better believe there is some programmer in middle of nowhere India that would love to make some cash right about now. You just need a good project manager to put the right team together.

Thinking about this, I might even take up the task. Chances are pretty slim I will, but I am at least giving it some thought. The real problem here is the Touch Pro 2 has a resistive screen, and a different resolution than the iPhone screen. If it had a capacitive screen and the same resolution, it would pretty much be guaranteed to work with all the iPhone apps. And I would definitely take this offer at that point. because a Touch Pro 2 running a fully functional iPhone OS with all apps working and all features working would be a pretty hot commoditty. It would work on pretty much any network in the world, and it would have a keyboard. You could sell those unlocked for a pretty penny.

It would all have to be under aliases though, with money flowing through some kind of annonymousm intercontinental network. Apple would definitely be looking to sue somebody, so I would want the potential profit without the potential lawsuit. Would need some way to sell these on ebay without getting busted, lol. Could probably make about $300 profit per device, and they would sell like hotcakes.

Of course Apple would probably kill it in an update, so that would have to be another consideration.