WindowsAndroid Lets You Run Android 4.0 Natively On Your PC 190
An anonymous reader writes "WindowsAndroid is a very cool tool from the Beijing-based startup SocketeQ that lets you run Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) as a native application on Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 8 machines. The creators tell us they have a deep background in virtualization, operating system, and graphics technologies, and have been working on the project for years. Essentially, WindowsAndroid allows you not only to execute Android apps on your Windows computer, but also use the browser, not to mention every other component of the operating system."
Awesome (Score:1)
Will make debugging of mobile HTML5 apps easier
It's already easy... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
...and thoroughly documented [google.com].
This is not the same as the remote debugging for Chrome on Android your cite. This is the ability to actually run ICS 4.0 as a VM on your PC. No android device is actually required. The also appear to have a goal to run Android as the native OS on desktop hardware. Interesting, as Microsoft is trying to make their OS look and feel like an app-centric OS like apple and android, someone is trying to go the other direction.
Re: (Score:2)
That has also been available for a while as part of the SDK [android.com].
Re: (Score:2)
That has also been available for a while as part of the SDK [android.com].
The SDK has an emulator, no? This would be natively compiled for x86, so more along the lines of a VM.
Re: (Score:2)
The SDK does have an emulator. It's unclear what strategy WindowsAndroid is using.
Re: (Score:2)
The data sheet on thier now slash dotted website, mentioned an is abstraction layer, full porting of the dalvik VM and integration with host features such as graphics acceleration and media codecs. Sounds like a port of the OS and apps which use the dalvik VM would run just fine. Maybe apps the need more than that won't work.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm just guessing, but it seems likely that an application using native code wouldn't run in their environment. Of course, they already are less portable even between actual hardware, so it's no surprise there.
Awesome (Score:1)
i know what i'm thinking is heavily biased but! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:i know what i'm thinking is heavily biased but! (Score:5, Insightful)
Sandbox it. It's an Android emulator, if it can't run in a sandbox at full mobile device speeds, it's not worth using. If it can't run in a sandbox because it requires administrator access to your boot sector, delete with extreme prejudice.
Re: (Score:3)
You mean....like a VM?
like everyone else runs android on anything other than a phone/tablet? /facepalm for windowsandroid software to even be created
Re: (Score:3)
You mean....like a VM?
like everyone else runs android on anything other than a phone/tablet? /facepalm for windowsandroid software to even be created
chrome in android in windows in vmware in windows? #Inception
Re: (Score:2)
You mean....like a VM?
like everyone else runs android on anything other than a phone/tablet? /facepalm for windowsandroid software to even be created
chrome in android in windows in vmware in windows? #Inception
On a MAC...
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Why give Microsoft access to your computer, which in turn gives access to the NSA, Chinese, Indians and whom ever else has placed backdoors in there. And no matter what OS you use, every time you open your Browser you give limited data to whatever Website you browse. Your Information isn't safe, anywhere.
Except, of course, the GP's point happens all the time and yours is imaginary whackjobbery.
Re:i know what i'm thinking is heavily biased but! (Score:4, Insightful)
You mean the accusations without proof from the US government? The same government that's been waging a cyber-war against other countries in secret for years now? The same government who can run surveillance on their own citizens without a warrant by handing someone a post-it note?
Re:i know what i'm thinking is heavily biased but! (Score:4)
You mean exactly like CHina, Israel, and other countries are doing? It's naive to assume the US holds a monopoly on cyber espionage.
Re: (Score:3)
That's the point- they're all as bad as each other. Why should I distrust a Chinese product any more than an American one? Neither government has exactly got a rosy reputation for due process in cyberspace. The answer, by the way, is that I don't automatically distrust either; I keep my sensible hat on when installing new software and hardware on my network, and that's it. Any other mindset can only lead to paranoia and madness.
This is just the usual US xenophobia against all things Chinese. If this were an
Re: (Score:2)
Sorry, but I've even heard suspicions about British software.
Nothing wrong with your point that it's bigotted, but China isn't the only country to have people bigotted against them. And I'm not sure they deserve any less skepticism than any of the others. Which is why I prefer GPL software. At least in principle, that can be verified to be honest.
Re: (Score:2)
That's the point- they're all as bad as each other. Why should I distrust a Chinese product any more than an American one? Neither government has exactly got a rosy reputation for due process in cyberspace.
You've short circuited your thinking. The difference is that in China, a company is synonymous with the government, but in America, companies and the government are separate.
Do American companies collaborate with the government? Sure, sometimes. Do they comply with government laws that gag them from talking about what they're doing? Sure, sometimes. But if I hear the US government has been killing people with drones, and then I'm thinking about doing business with Instagram, I don't think to myself, "Wait -
Re: (Score:2)
By your logic every convenience store, street food vendor and laundry in China is run by the government?
If not, why does there have to be an assumption that some tech-based company couldn't simply be a private enterprise like everywhere else?
Yes you are biased but you should be paranoid (Score:3)
er . . . about the same worry as any software from anywhere. Do your self protection rituals and don't install it on anything that contains critical information. Look for oddities (unexpected network connections etc) and check for an online community that may show some pedigree for the software.
Trojan software is a real worry but the fact that it comes from China does not seem to me to alter the worry level. ie: be worried and be careful
A very cursory check of sites that track threats shows China as a
Re:i know what i'm thinking is heavily biased but! (Score:4, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
how many of you would think it twice before willingly installing software from a chinese software company -- given all the news we hear recently about chinese companies being denied access to important western markets due to security reasons and all.
===
Me
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
google has lost in China not because of government blocking, but because it sucks in product quality.
That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. First of all, it does not hinge on "the government", but certain ministry official that want to be well greased. When those are faced between the decision to accept grease from a Chinese and a foreigner, the foreigner always loses; that's why Google's inland competitors are easily pulling ahead. Second, the party recognises the danger of unrestricted flow and exchange of information as provided through Google's search engine, so they would not let them go forward th
Developers (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Developers (Score:5, Funny)
The current simulator is a bit slow.
I'm curious.
What kind of filter are you using that is able to remove all traces of swearing from your post? It's very effective!
Honestly devices are better ... (Score:2)
Seems like a good thing for android developers. The current simulator is a bit slow.
Honestly devices are better. Getting a $300 Nexus 4 phone or a $200 Nexus 7 tablet for development purposes is the way to go. The simulator is fine for limited use, primarily for different screens to test your user interface, but for day to day work I prefer actual devices. YMMV.
Re: (Score:2)
(offtopic)
The Nexus 7 I agree, but... Where can you buy a frikkin Nexus 4 for $300usd?
Re: (Score:2)
(offtopic) The Nexus 7 I agree, but... Where can you buy a frikkin Nexus 4 for $300usd?
Google Play, 8GB. Currently out of stock. https://play.google.com/store/devices/details?id=nexus_4_8gb&feature=microsite&hl=en [google.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Exactly, you _can't_ buy it.
Re: (Score:2)
Exactly, you _can't_ buy it.
"Out of Stock" is a temporary thing. Note that today above the "Add To Cart" button it says:
"SHIPS SOON
Ships in 1 - 2 weeks. Tax and shipping will be calculated at checkout."
Re: (Score:2)
I stand corrected. I actually ordered today. :)
I truly believed that they would not be offering the phone anymore.
Re: (Score:2)
Who modded this as troll, a Google employee?
It's spot on. I remember (not very fondly) stuffing around with an Android emulator for a while then saying screw this and using an Android phone with ADB to test the software even in the early stages where emulators built into the IDE would be the preference.
From China..? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3)
That's how I feel about all closed source software. I'm not sure why I should trust American code over Russian or Chinese code.
Re: (Score:2)
Humm, lots of software products, ones that are very good don't come from the US. Acronis, Kaspersky and others aren't "made in the USA." I would think however that any "free" software that isn't open source would be something that I'd avoid, regardless of who produces it.
Re: (Score:2)
I am a bit hesitant, but the fact is that BlueStacks is a fuming pile of buggy shit, and left me wanting for a better alternative. So, I might try this anyway.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I am running Russian Fedora18 spin (Via RPMFUSION -USER) and loving it. It is Fedora with all codecs, and dvd player, svn, git and it is available in English.
Russian Programmers are no different than American Programmers, and for every Russian software that is on the distribution, you get source. They actually use the Rpmfusion sources for the codecs.
Only one program that I thought should be essential, That was VLC.
Re: (Score:2)
I am wary of Americans because they are known mass murderes...
If you were inviting me into your house and I had a gun, you would be perfectly reasonable to be wary.
In this case we're inviting Chinese software into our computers. Wariness is still recommended.
Re: (Score:2)
An EXCELLENT point.
OTOH, whoever your ISP is also has all your e-mails. And so does whatever governmental official was curious about them. (No warrant required, all ISPs appear to be compliant.)
But *WHY* did you give them your password? Not that it's difficult for a large organization to crack any normal machine, but why make it THAT trivial?
Re:From China..? (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
However, the same could be said for the US government which actually has a worse record of abuse of US citizens than does the Chinese.
Re: (Score:2)
However, the same could be said for the US government which actually has a worse record of abuse of US citizens than does the Chinese.
I'm can't remember the last time the US rolled tanks against it's own citizens...
Granted, the occasional SWAT team or quarantined "free speech zone", but there's no US "great firewall".
US is definitely NOT perfect, but I think you're exaggerating a bit.
Re: (Score:2)
I think the last time the US rolled out tanks against it's own citizens was during the 1960's. In the south. But i could have missed a few occasions. (Sometime between "Little Rock" and "I have a dream!", but I can't pin it down any closer after this much time.)
N.B.: When they did it, most citizens outside the area approved. (Or at least most people I knew did.) I don't know whether this is also true in China, but it could well be.
Does it handle OpenGL, then? (Score:2)
OK, for testing apps, this would be nice, since the Android SDK's emulator sucks for most anything people do in apps these days. The emulator doesn't handle OpenGL ES, and probably a lot of other details I haven't bothered with.
Re:Does it handle OpenGL, then? (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, hardware accelerated graphics is available in the Android SDK emulator, it's still marked experimental and has a few caveats, but is available (since SDK tools 17).
Re: (Score:2)
No it's not, but read the android SDK docs. Google have provided thorough instructions for enabling it, and details of the caveats.
http://androvm.org (Score:5, Informative)
AndroVM is better, runs on GNU/Linux and already supports hardware accelerated OpenGL rendering of Android games when the game installer is not huge (less than 100 MB in size).
Re:http://androvm.org (Score:4, Interesting)
Any luck running Netflix on it?
That's about the only thing other than games I run Windows for.
Re:http://androvm.org (Score:5, Funny)
Some stuff won't work? (Score:2)
- Anything in an app that's compiled for ARM (e.g. if an app has CPU intensive stuff done in C++) shouldn't work if I understand their approach correctly -- i.e. it's not existing within a virtual machine but rather is a port / recompile of the Android OS to run natively on Windows.
Somebody correct me if I'm wrong...
Re: (Score:3)
You are mostly right, except virtualization needs same instruction set too, it is emulation that allows one to run a different instruction set to the host.
I can run get a full loop from wine? (Score:2)
Wait, why should I?
BlueStacks (Score:5, Informative)
Looks similar to what BlueStacks does. http://www.bluestacks.com/
And, for those posting about being wary of software from a Chinese company, BlueStacks is located in California.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Doesn't it require a Facebook signin?
Re: (Score:3)
I've been running BlueStacks [bluestacks.com] on my laptop for over a year now
Is it getting any better, as of late? I had to deinstall it in frustration, caused by all the bugs that I kept running into. I think I last had it on my desktop PC in November.
Also: do you know how to enable access to Google Play, on Bluestacks?
Re:BlueStacks DISCLAIMER (Score:3)
BlueStacks is located in California.
They *do* order take out occasionally, though.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Oh hell no. BlueStacks is a mind numbing experience. I tried it and can only describe the experience as the closest thing I'll come to being repeatedly hit on the head with a hammer.
AndroVM is great! I've also tinkered with the Android X86 project [android-x86.org] code as well but under a VM, not on native iron.
Peeling the onion (Score:5, Interesting)
Impressive! (Score:3)
The lengths people will go to in order to finally get a working alternative to the SDK's goddamn piece of shit of an emulator.
Already in the SDK. (Score:5, Interesting)
The SDK can already hardware virtualize an x86 image already (via Intel HAXM on windows and Mac and KVM on Linux), and there is a 4.0.4 x86 image in the repositories.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I never said it was perfect, but then give me any application that is. Just said it was available.
Re: (Score:2)
Does it translate ARM code to x86 for apps that come with compiled libraries?
Finally.... (Score:2)
... I can play Fruit Ninja on a 22" screen!
Re: (Score:2)
Need Windows emulator... (Score:5, Funny)
I would like to try this on my Android phone. Does anyone know of a good Windows emulator I can use to run this software?
Re:Need Windows emulator... (Score:4, Interesting)
News for turds (Score:2, Offtopic)
How is proprietary software that only runs on proprietary operating systems, is "in early development status" and does something that existing open source software does much better news for nerds or stuff that matters? Did I overlook the advertorial tag?
Android on a stick. (Score:2)
$25 ARM on a stick [armdevices.net] Plug that into my monitor's HDMI and using bluetooth and there's my "ICS" experience.
What about native run on GNU/Linux (Score:2)
I always wondered if it could be possible to run android natively on a gnu/linux distribution. The android kernel and linux kernel are so similar. I understand most of the userspace is different, but running in a different cgroups and in a different chroot should provide some help with it. Anybody had some success with that?
Re: (Score:2)
Sounds like it ought to be possible.
Bedrock linux (a while back) seems to aim to allow several different distros to co-exist under the same kernel (i.e. no VM). That would seem like a reasonable approach. I guess the main thing is making an X11 based graphics driver for andriod so that it can display in a window.
Oh Joy! Now I can run... (Score:2)
...a broken OS on a broken OS!
Yo dawg (Score:4, Funny)
I heard you like shitty operating systems that rip off Apple's ideas, so we . . .
wow, wish i could run IOS apps on OSX (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
for years (since day1) — you can run iOS on mac OSX — you get an iPad or iPhone simulated on your screen.
just download the free XCode tools, and it includes the iOS simulator.
iPad simulator (Score:2)
you mean like the iPad simulator that comes with the free XCode IDE for years..
life must be gettin pretty good now.. ;-)
Re:yeah bitch (Score:5, Funny)
Chrome on Android on Windows is really fast, huh?
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Any suggestions on a better forum to read?
Re: (Score:2)
I don't like the way the threads are laid out, no titles of different threads.
I hate slashdots default view also, I still use classic view.
Re: (Score:2)
Not to mention the Republican shills.
Re: (Score:2)
Wine Is Not an Emulator. So it only works on Intel and AMD compatible machines.
Re: (Score:2)
Wine runs Windows applications compiled for a compatible CPU architecture. So if one were to cross-compile a Win32 program (e.g. Notepad++) using MinGW to produce an ARM exe then it ought to happily run under wine on one's ARM linux installation (e.g. Ubuntu on a Nexus 7.)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
What you're looking at here is the potential sinking of Microsoft's current OS convergence strategy.
MS are pushing Metro on the desktop so that you'll find the Windows phone OS friendly and familiar. Furthermore, they want people to write Metro apps that work on your phone and desktop so that you'll want to have the same OS on both. They hope that this strategy will drag the entrenched iOS and Android users back to the Windows camp. But once this hits a stable version, people will be able to import all t
Re: (Score:2)
So where was your motherboard made?
Re: (Score:2)
Taiwan
Re: (Score:2)
.... which is the westernized name for the "Republic of China".
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
The Westernized name is Formosa (it's Portuguese).
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Taiwan
.... which is the westernized name for the "Republic of China".
Which, as much as the People's Republic of China insists to the contrary, is currently a separate country.
Re: (Score:2)
...which is not the China everyone is suspicious of.
Re: (Score:2)
I have not yet either. Site is down as well, displaying the JustHost suspended page now.