I've already asked Nicolás to look in on this thread. I'm sure he'll reply soonish.

Yes, it can be done, as you have seen on the screenshot. That particular version didn't really work (couldn't access the network, long story), but if I tried again on firmware 2.x, in theory it should work.

The question is if it's a good idea... The first problem is heat. I have done two things on the iPod Touch that were CPU intensive:

1. One of the steps in an old and messy jailbreaking method ran almost completely on the device instead of the computer. It downloaded the firmware (via Wi-Fi), decompressed it, decrypted it, patched some stuff, compressed it back, and installed it. Took like 15 minutes.

2. I once tried compiling software on it. Not using a computer to compile software to run on it, but actually running the compiler on the iPod. It took very long, sometimes a whole minute for a single .cpp file, and I aborted it long before it finished.

In both cases I had heat problems. It got hot enough for me to worry and take it off the case I normally have it in. If I had let the compilation run to completion, I'd have put some ice cubes under the iPod or something like that.

The second problem is that the CPU isn't exactly fast; as you can see on the benchmarks shown on the screenshot above, and as I saw while compiling :)

I do want to try compiling BOINC again some day, this time for a 2.x firmware. But once I get it working, and get it to crunch and return a single short workunit on my own test project, I'll probably stop running it; I don't really see the point :) It's just for the heck of it. There's a lot of software people have ported to the iPhone for that (non-)reason.

edited for language...cih

One of the advantages of getting a version to run on popular phone models would be to expose people to boinc who otherwise wouldn't have any interest in DC generally or WCG in particular.

Security on cells/palmtops is still mostly a joke as far as I've heard and people are much more willing to try out software on a phone than a primary computer. Hackers have begun to target mobile devices, but the general attitude still seems much more laissez faire.

Even having it run a screensaver while charging at a coffee bar or restaurant will attract interest.

Maybe there isn't much power to be tapped, but it could make a great recruiting poster.

Don't be discouraged if people don't immediately appreciate your idea. Almost every idea is going to have some merit - although some pretty wild ones do pass by from time to time.

Part of the problem with a organization like WCG is that we all know the project will survive whether we grow by 1% or 10% or not at all. Therefore there isn't the same concern about marketing that you would see at a traditional charity that has to live by its wits to survive.

There are advantages to this approach though. I just think that it wouldn't hurt the cause to be a little more creative and pretend that if we DON'T grow by x% per year that we won't survive.

I know WCG continues to grow, I just happen to believe that ideas like this have their place and deserve some consideration as a means for helping that growth along.

I'm talking out of my butt here but I would guess that most of the people on the technical side of the project don't spend anywhere near as much time thumbing as say the 18-34 demographic. As a result, ideas that appeal to that group won't be immediately appreciated.

It's not the appeal that kills it, so much as the practicalities. There are so many other, more practical things to do, that I really don't like to see energy wasted on a futile endeavour.

I didn't realise the overheating problem was so severe. It seems this kills the idea dead.

But maybe there are other ways of using handheld devices? Ones that don't contribute directly? World Community Grid have really wanted to make use of social networking sites and put the younger demographic into play. Efforts so far have been tepid. Ideas are always welcome, but more than that we need people who can take the ideas and turn them into practical solutions and an expanded membership.