Mountain View (CA) – It did not take long for the first jailbroken G1 Android phone to surface – in fact, it took hackers less time to crack Android than it took to do jailbreak the iPhone. Of course, the implications are entirely different and the benefits of an open Android phone aren’t obvious – since Android’s pitch to be an open platform anyway and Google does not restrict the third-party software that is offered for Android devices. It may be a more symbolic proof-of-concept thing, but it is a sure sign that there is interest in the platform and we may see unintended applications areas of Android in the future. Google told TG Daily that it will be issuing a patch.

It took enthusiasts less than a month to break through the Android platform of the G1 phone and gain full read and write access to the file system. The technique, commonly referred to as jailbreaking, became common with the introduction of the iPhone. On Apple’s phone, jailbreaking is usually applied to run the phone on different GSM networks and enable users to install unofficial hacks and applications that are banned from the App Store.

Jailbreaking the G1 handset is not as significant as Android is much more open than an iPhone by default. Google does not approve or sanction Android applications. Instead, the search giant promotes openness by allowing developers to post any applications to the Android Market. With that in mind, users will not gain any immediate benefits by jailbreaking G1 smartphone. Also, jailbreaking the G1 does not unlock the phone for use on another carrier's network.

However, the move is significant to a group of enthusiasts and developers who want to take Android to places where the official SDK can't go, possibly unlocking access to phone functions that are currently off limits, like the dialer. Your guess is as good as ours what applications that may bring.

According to the post on the XDA Developers forum, obtaining root privileges on the G1 handset involves a few simple steps. You first need to grab the PTerminal application from the Android Market that allows you to remotely connect to the handset using a Wi-Fi connection and reach the command prompt. At that point you need to start a series of Unix commands to determine your handset's IP address and use this information to reach the device via telnet. Via telnet, you can expose the entire operating system by re-mounting the handset file system as read/write, as described here.

Unlike the iPhone, the described method is safe-proof: It does not require you to tamper with system files or patch the built-in software in any way. If you ask us, it is quite remarkable that an average user can obtain full root access to G1 file system so easily. From a security perspective, it is unclear if this is actually a flaw in the operating system or intentional feature but Google is going to patch it with software update, probably in an effort to prevent reverse engineering and block malware from gaining full access to the file system and sensitive user data.

"We've been notified of this issue and have developed a fix," a Google spokesperson told TG Daily in an email. "We're currently working with our partners to push the fix out and updating the open source code base to reflect these changes."