WebOS may be all but dead from an official standpoint -- abandoned by HP, its Enyo development team poached by Google -- but the operating system lives on as an open source project. Now, Phoenix International Communications is living up to its name, picking up the pieces of WebOS and carefully coaxing the operating system to work in an entirely new fashion: as a stand-alone Android app.
Other WebOS developers are trying to port the operating system to dedicated pieces of hardware. That's Phoenix's long-term goal as well, but for now, it's focusing at least part of its efforts on a software-based solution to get WebOS working on Android devices that are already out there and in millions of people's hands.
Phoenix's WebOS app basically functions in the same way that a virtual machine works on a standard PC, with the phone running both operating systems simultaneously when the app is opened. Phoenix plans to implement hardware acceleration to smooth out the app further down the line to smooth out the horrendous lag and stuttering you see in the proof-of-concept video below.
Currently, Phoenix's WebOS app is still firmly in the pre-alpha stages. but the video shows that porting WebOS over as an Android app can theoretically be done. If you want to help Phoenix raise WebOS from the ashes, they're always looking for code-savvy volunteers.
