Chinese upstart smears Android's Ice Cream Sandwich over PCs

A Chinese startup has successfully ported Google's Android OS to Windows, perfect for those who want an Ice Cream Sandwich-shaped box in a Windows desktop. The application is suitably beta, with the usual caveats about crashing the host system, but the interest promptly took down the SocketeQ's sever so we're reliant on a …

[RyokuMas]

Hmmm....

Product in beta, 1990s site design, plenty of typos, based in China, no social media presence...

... suspicion detector going "Woop! Woop!"

Pity really - given how dog-slow the official Android emulator is, I was hoping to find something to use in its place for Android dev work...

[ukgnome]

Re: Hmmm....

"given how dog-slow the official Android emulator is"

I am so happy to read this, as I thought it was just me. Truly the worst emulator ever - and I regularly use the blackberry one!

[Khaptain]

Re: Hmmm....

The emulator actually runs OK but ONLY after you have waited "unpatiently" for it to boot up.

The big error is closing the Emulator between compilations...

[RyokuMas]

Re: Hmmm....

Depends what you want to use it for. I'm writing games.

Currently, on the latest SDK and emulator, I'm lucky if I get a one frame per 1-2 seconds.

[Khaptain]

Re: Hmmm....

I admit that my dev usually evolves around text based apps or sliding bitmaps, none of which require more than a few frames per second.

I upvoted you for having the courage to write anything else using the emulator. I did compile the 3d samples once and they were actually OK. I lost interest quickly though as I found the graphics threads a little confusing.

[Anonymous Coward]

Win8

Win 8 is bad enough and now some smart arze has ported Android onto it?

Is there a point to this?

He must be a nutter...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Hmmm....

There is an I386 Installable version of Android out there, comes with a bootable CD image, have a look for buildroid or similar keyword.

One of the versions is patched to allow Google market and use your ethernet connection instead of the GSM/Wifi support.

[frank ly]

re. Bluestacks

"Running Android apps on Windows is nothing new. BlueStacks already does a reasonably good job of that ..."

I've had Bluestacks on my laptop since they started. It works, in a slightly clunky way, for some of my useful apps and is good for any Android app that needs lots of typing and reading/checking. Now I have an Asus Transformer (with keyboard dock and 10" screen) I don't bother with Bluestacks. I thought they ran the Android emulation on their own servers and my laptop acted as a remote terminal?

[mark 63]

Port

Port?

wait, what ?

Ported os A onto os B?

what does that mean?

surely this is an emulator or something?

or a virtual machine?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Port

Sounds more like a shim, or similar to coLinux / AndLinux

[Khaptain]

Re: Port

Or Wine if you look at it from the other viewpoint.

[Ian Yates]

Re: Port

Isn't Wine an emulator?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Port

W ine

I s

N ot an

E mulator

[friet]

Android on x86??

They obviously never heard of the android X86 ports : http://www.android-x86.org/

Regards,

Frank

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Android on x86??

Been using this on an old netbook quite happily for months. It's excellent really stable. Only issue is some apps aren't compatible with it

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Android on x86??

Frank,

most competent computer users can run Android on x86, sadly most computer users are not competent.

[darkbaron]

plenty of mirrors available now

Loads of other sources for this already. I just downloaded from sailr.co.uk - just trying to get it working!

[Graham Wilson]

This brings a smile.

One has to smile at this. Here, apps might be the reason but as long as Microsoft remains obstinate about its Windows GUI then others will change it.

Perhaps this is only the beginning--Metro out, Android in!

[Old Painless]

aged and confused

I don't get it - just run Not Windows; I get it that people want to install stuff "because it's there",but I can't see the point here?surely anyone really wanting android on x86 would just.....run android on x86??

On the plus side,I wonder how many Windows sales managers read this and felt the icy grip of fear..."OMG!!!The civilians have twigged they don't need Windows !!!Sell sell!bye bye!!"

[Great Bu]

At last, Eadon is saved !

He can run android on his windows phone 7......

(I'm presuming that's the source of his life trauma)

[Kevin Fields]

Android on x86? Could use some help

I've tried to get Android on x86 running on a few different Dells. It could be that they're older kit (Two Celerons and a PIII), but I also couldn't get it to run on my newer i3 that I bought less than a year ago. Lots of video issues. I'd love to play with it more, specifically as an OS replacement on older laptops in the house since the kids really don't want or need to do more than websurf, e-mail and play AngryBirds and the like.