Android goes virtual

As of today, Myriad's Dalvik virtual machine can run any Android application on the Maemo-based Nokia N900, with other platforms to follow soon. The idea is to get manufacturers to preinstall Alien Dalvik, as the company calls its virtual machine, or licence the VM to developers who can bundle it with their applications. It …

[Anonymous Coward]

Should be fine on iOS App Store

The rules changed a while ago.

You've been allowed to include runtimes and emulators for while now. Apps made with Flash Packager and even C64 and DOS emulators are in the App Store.

The only requirement is you don't run code you download, which this doesn't do.

[Paul Shirley]

sure?

So how do you install apps without downloading them? Seems pretty clear if you download an Android APK you're downloading Dalvik machine code that needs interpreting or compiling to run and runs straight into Apples ban.

[Paul M 1]

Title

Maybe set up the Dalvik iPhone app so that it can share a directory in iTunes and copy the apps directly in?

I'd love to see it...

[Anonymous Coward]

Developer Must Package Them

The developer has to package them as indicated in the article:

"It enables an unmodified Android app to be sold as a MeeGo app, complete with installer and native icon"

[Greg J Preece]

Kick ass!

Going to get this downloaded on my N900 right away. There's very little that I miss from my other Android phone, but the few bits I do will be ported over lickety-split.

[Nathan 6]

Lawsuit Waiting to Happen

This surely violates Oracle patents. Hope they were smart and got a license from Oracle before try to sell this thing.

[Anonymous Coward]

@Nathan

>Lawsuit Waiting to Happen

Waiting being the operative - it may even become pending in the next 5 or 6 years, by which time Google, or some other OHA partner, will own them anyway.

[A J Stiles]

No it doesn't

Oracle's patents are null and void in most civilised countries.

[Anonymous Coward]

Lawsuits already happening

Myriad are a long term Java licensee but have started doing stuff for Android too. It seems their license renewal talks broke down...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/12/14/oracle_versus_myriad_on_java/

[pj3090]

Curious minds want to know

A dalvik VM is not enough, by itself, to run Android apps on a "foreign" phone. Rough analogy: Mac OS and Windows both run on Intel chips, but you can't just drop a Windows EXE on a mac and run it. I assume Myriad's dalvik supplies a WINE-like Android API layer of some sort? It seems like the API layer would be the hard part -- harder than a bytecode emulator.

[Greg J Preece]

It's Java, dude

See title

[Cookieninja]

Could it be ?

That Nokia's announcement this week, about "joining a competitive ecosystem" will be that they intend to use Dalvik instead of J2ME?

Surely a sensible step for Nokia in addition to their QT strategy for native applications across symbian and Meego? They might want to look at being able to allow developers to, optionally, target their QT apps at Android as well as their own platform.

It could be considered it an extension, or development if you like, of their existing strategy rather than a U turn.

It's what I would do if I was Nokia, perhaps even as part of an embrace, extend, extingish approach to regaining their lost market share.

[Wanda Lust]

Could it be

... that Nokia doesn't have notion what to do? And as for running this stuff on an N900, that'll really set the marketplace on fire /NOT/. I could nearly have been convinced the N900 was a marketeer's wet dream had I not seen one, just one, in the wild.

[Tigra 07]

So many questions...

So basically Android has begun assimilating other phones now and will soon have infected them all?

Don't tell me all these people will stick with Nokia when they can see what Android has available?

And this could possibly be a way of Nokia even getting ready to adopt Android rather than redesigning its OS?

[ThomH]

What about NDK apps?

That is, the native development kit, that I believe allows you to use C/C++ to write some code that executes directly on the CPU, outside of the Dalvik virtual machine? It's commonly used to port games, since they often have large C/C++ engines at their heart. It has limited API access though, I think to ensure you route most tasks back through the VM, so it's not necessarily a problem.

If this is a problem then I'll bet it remains middleware only; I'm not sure someone trying to explain the distinction between Dalvik and Android to consumers who are just asking why they can't download any of the popular games is a winning market strategy.