Hi guys,
I'm currently using an iPhone as my primary phone and android as a secondary one. I want to shift to windows phone (mango) but there are a few apps on the android not available on winmo which I can't live without. Is there any way to run android apps on the windows mobile the same way(or ANY way) its done on the blackberry play book?
Thanks
I don't think there's any. But there are alternate apps.
Android apps on WP7 would be incredibly difficult, though theoretically it could be done with enough effort.
Most Android apps use Dalvik (a dialect of Java). This is totally incompatible with the Silverlight/C# that WP7 apps use, but there are enough similarities between them that it might be possible to build a tool that either translates the Dalvik instructions to MSIL (the binary that compiling C# produces) at launch, or dynamically interprets it (the latter would be very slow, though).
However, even with purely Dalvik apps, there are other problems. WP7 apps are limited to a very restrictive sandbox, with no access to the vast majority of the filesystem (for example). Android apps, by comparison, have a great deal of access to the device they run on, so even a very simple app may expect to have permissions that wouldn't be available on WP7. Instead, attempts to access restricted parts of the filesystem would have to be "virtually" redirected within the sandbox. This is possible in many cases, but a *lot* of work to code and has all kinds of weird edge cases.
Additionally, Android apps have a very different runtime model from WP7 apps. The biggest change is in how they handle leaving the foreground; WP7 apps are either suspended or dehydrated, while Android apps often just keep running (they can elect to suspend, but aren't required to). WP7 does support background tasks (with strict limitations, at least if you stick to the official APIs), but moving the Android app runtime into those background tasks would be quite difficult.
Finally, there's the issue of hybrid apps (apps that use native code in addition to managed runtimes like Sliverlight or Dalvik). These are much more common on Android than on WP7 (at least, than on WP7 outside this webite). Android runs on a Linux kernel, using POSIX system calls and APIs. WP7 runs on a CE kernel, using win32 system calls and APIs. There's a very loose mapping from one to the other (see the Wine project for running Win32 apps on desktop Linux) but it adds a lot of overhead and would be another layer, at least as tricky as the managed part, to the difficulty of this project.
Short version: nope, sorry.
GoodDayToDie said:
Android apps on WP7 would be incredibly difficult, though theoretically it could be done with enough effort.
Most Android apps use Dalvik (a dialect of Java). This is totally incompatible with the Silverlight/C# that WP7 apps use, but there are enough similarities between them that it might be possible to build a tool that either translates the Dalvik instructions to MSIL (the binary that compiling C# produces) at launch, or dynamically interprets it (the latter would be very slow, though).
However, even with purely Dalvik apps, there are other problems. WP7 apps are limited to a very restrictive sandbox, with no access to the vast majority of the filesystem (for example). Android apps, by comparison, have a great deal of access to the device they run on, so even a very simple app may expect to have permissions that wouldn't be available on WP7. Instead, attempts to access restricted parts of the filesystem would have to be "virtually" redirected within the sandbox. This is possible in many cases, but a *lot* of work to code and has all kinds of weird edge cases.
Additionally, Android apps have a very different runtime model from WP7 apps. The biggest change is in how they handle leaving the foreground; WP7 apps are either suspended or dehydrated, while Android apps often just keep running (they can elect to suspend, but aren't required to). WP7 does support background tasks (with strict limitations, at least if you stick to the official APIs), but moving the Android app runtime into those background tasks would be quite difficult.
Finally, there's the issue of hybrid apps (apps that use native code in addition to managed runtimes like Sliverlight or Dalvik). These are much more common on Android than on WP7 (at least, than on WP7 outside this webite). Android runs on a Linux kernel, using POSIX system calls and APIs. WP7 runs on a CE kernel, using win32 system calls and APIs. There's a very loose mapping from one to the other (see the Wine project for running Win32 apps on desktop Linux) but it adds a lot of overhead and would be another layer, at least as tricky as the managed part, to the difficulty of this project.
Short version: nope, sorry.
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That was quite disheartening for the OP
But I liked the thorough explanation.
for curiosity, which apps are you looking for?
Thanks a million for the detailed reply. I can give up on this now otherwise would have gone crazy searching. As for the apps I wanted to use Rako which basically controls the lighting in my house and creston media which controls my theatre. These I can't live without.
Additional ones would be anonymous email and sms bomb.( to bug my friends)
as for the lighting you got me..
but for media the xbox (if you have one) companion controls my whole xbox media experience from audio (zune), movies (integrated movie player streaming from my pc)..
What about this - http://wp7mapping.interoperabilitybridges.com/Library?source=Android
Can't this be used?!
buffalosolja42 said:
but for media the xbox (if you have one) companion controls my whole xbox media experience from audio (zune), movies (integrated movie player streaming from my pc)..
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Crestron controls my theater as a whole i.e lights, projector, blu ray etc. I just need to press 1 button and lights dim, screen comes down, blurry starts playing and so on. For the xbox controller its only for the xbox
buffalosolja42 said:
but for media the xbox (if you have one) companion controls my whole xbox media experience from audio (zune), movies (integrated movie player streaming from my pc)..
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drupad2drupad said:
What about this - http://wp7mapping.interoperabilitybridges.com/Library?source=Android
Can't this be used?!
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Click to collapse
Okay im a noob and i have noooo idea what that is
drupad2drupad said:
What about this - http://wp7mapping.interoperabilitybridges.com/Library?source=Android
Can't this be used?!
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That is just for developers who want to port their app.
jessenic said:
That is just for developers who want to port their app.
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Exactly! So yes, Android app can come to WP, only if developers are hard working to port it.
However, I haven't done more than making ROMs for WM, Themes for Android, but I am currently porting 2 apps from Android to WP. Honestly, all porting is made so dead easy that a little bit of English and Bing at hand, and you are off to a great start! It's slow process but anyone can port if they want to.
Related
I'm thinking of changing my handset in the near future and currently I have a Nokia N95. I'm a little undecided on either Android or Windows Mobile. Android looks very promising but the HTC Touch HD2 is looking very good. If I was to go Android, I'm probably looking at the Hero or maybe if I can wait for the X10.
However my main concern is actually getting some apps which will replicate what I can currently do with my aging N95. I suppose if there is no available app then it'll make my choice between Android and WM a whole lot easier.
If it's not too much trouble, if some experienced WM/Android users could give me the names of some apps that I require it'd be much appreciated.
Call recorder - Needs to automatically record calls in the background with no beep if possible. Would be nice for it to be able to manually record clips with hotkeys from main screen.
Network client to access network shares, mainly windows shares but sometimes linux (NFS) (guess this is no problem for WM, but for Android?)
Weather application - I've seen this in action already on the HD2, not sure about Android.
Convertor application - Converts currencies (able to retrieve latest rates) and measurements, volumes, etc.
VNC/Remote desktop client - Again, should be easy for WM, but for Android?
SSH client - Needs to be able to tunnel so I can have access to secure connections when using free wifi. (I think I saw ConnectBot for Android, no idea for WM)
Application that can automatically switch profiles (silent, ring, etc.) based on a set of rules such as time or (even better) by location
Media player application (think this is built into WM - but what codecs can it play?)
Many thanks
kai_ said:
I'm thinking of changing my handset in the near future and currently I have a Nokia N95. I'm a little undecided on either Android or Windows Mobile. Android looks very promising but the HTC Touch HD2 is looking very good. If I was to go Android, I'm probably looking at the Hero or maybe if I can wait for the X10.
However my main concern is actually getting some apps which will replicate what I can currently do with my aging N95. I suppose if there is no available app then it'll make my choice between Android and WM a whole lot easier.
If it's not too much trouble, if some experienced WM/Android users could give me the names of some apps that I require it'd be much appreciated.
Call recorder - Needs to automatically record calls in the background with no beep if possible. Would be nice for it to be able to manually record clips with hotkeys from main screen.
Network client to access network shares, mainly windows shares but sometimes linux (NFS) (guess this is no problem for WM, but for Android?)
Weather application - I've seen this in action already on the HD2, not sure about Android.
Convertor application - Converts currencies (able to retrieve latest rates) and measurements, volumes, etc.
VNC/Remote desktop client - Again, should be easy for WM, but for Android?
SSH client - Needs to be able to tunnel so I can have access to secure connections when using free wifi. (I think I saw ConnectBot for Android, no idea for WM)
Application that can automatically switch profiles (silent, ring, etc.) based on a set of rules such as time or (even better) by location
Media player application (think this is built into WM - but what codecs can it play?)
Many thanks
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Click to collapse
Hi, I've been using android for the past six month (never touched WinMo) so hopefully I can help out
1) Call Recorder - No idea, I really don't think this is possible on Android at the moment
2) Next work shares - There are apps in the market for accessing files, but I'm not sure if they will suit your needs
3) Weather - If you get a Hero, you will have HTC's very nice forecast app, very similar to the one present in TouchFlo on WinMo phones. Which has widgets of several sizes. There are also apps in the market which offer more functionalitybut aren't quite so sexy.
4) Currency conversion - Haven't installed one because I haven't needed it, but I'm sure there will be one in the market.
5) VNC - There are a couple of free VNC apps in the market which are both very good.
6) SSH - No idea, sorry.
7) Profiles - There's an app in the market called "Locale" which I'm fairly sure does everything you asked for
8) Media Player - This is where android falls short. Mp4 or 3gp are the only natively supported codecs, and I've yet to see an app which supports any more.
SSH with COnnectBot
Another discussion where I posted a version of this led me to thinking that this might make for an interesting topic all on its own.
How would you envision a port of android made specifically for Desktop/Laptop environments, and do you think such an OS would be appealing to the average user?
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As I envision it, ChromeOS should be folded into Android 4.0 and Google should build a version of the combined OS for Desktops.
The idea would be to create a common ecosystem of apps and usage environment accross multiple device categories, ad have it all interconnected through Google products and other apps running in the background.
I envision something that boots instantly right into ChromeOS while the rest of the Android system boots up in the background, thus allowing you virtually immediate cloud based functionality on the desktop. You could even choose to ONLY boot into chrome, say if you needed to look up something quickly online and didn't want to fully turn on a computer that has been turned off.
The chrome side of things would be very similar to ICS for tablets and would be deeply linked to all things google as well as relying on versions of the same Google apps that run on mobile, but optimized for ICS and taking advantage of larger screen dimensions. I envision touch interface to be retained for those who have touch sensitive screens, but also better keyboard and touchpad/mouse controls than currently exist. Lastly I would bundle a Google fork of Libre office specifically designed to have deep automatic integration with Google docs and Google+, but allowing users to have local editing control.
I would love to have such a system and have a common ecosystem between my phone, tablet and desktop/laptop, much how Apple currently does with IOs devices and MacOS and how Microsoft is planning to do with Windows 8 and WP8. unlike those ecosystems, this would run variants of the same OS, as opposed to different OSs made to work together, thus being able to take advantage of current built up knowledge and the existing android market.
Imagine if Google did the entire thing open sourced and released it to desktop and laptop OEMs.
A guy can dream right? If only there was a way to have a bunch of people pitch it to Google.
What do you guys think and how would you envision such an OS?
Android is already going to be merged with the Linux kernel in version 3.3 (with improved power management in 3.4)
nejc121 said:
Android is already going to be merged with the Linux kernel in version 3.3 (with improved power management in 3.4)
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you sure about that? From what I've read Android is going to provide it's drivers and both Android and linux are going to provide patches to each other's kernels (with Power management being addressed in later versions of the linux kernel (3.4?). The Android kernel will remain (at least for now) a fork of the linux kernel.
Still that doesn't really address the subject of this thread.
Santeno said:
As I envision it, ChromeOS should be folded into Android 4.0 and Google should build a version of the combined OS for Desktops.
I envision something that boots instantly right into ChromeOS while the rest of the Android system boots up in the background, thus allowing you virtually immediate cloud based functionality on the desktop.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah i too dream of Google using all the OS & games tech experience they have gained from Android to bootstrap a full desktop OS.
My personal fantasy is that the under no circumstances include any of the Chrome Cloud based nonsense. But focus quite heavily on games and multimedia, offer an OS that delivers content & gaming rather than try going head to head on productivity (where they would get owned).
Am not going to go into my objections to the cloud concept, lots of geeks my age & older well remember the mainframe model from the 70's and the cloud suffers many of the same inherent flaws IMHO.
I addition my fantasy involves ARM leveraging the experience with the multi-cores they have developed to produce an ARM desktop CPU arrays, as am a big fan or clusters and arrays, render farms etc.
I have to confess being serious i don't see either happening since both would be attempting to breaking into markets they are inexperienced in and where entrenched competitors already have a tough obstacle course laid out, plus pretty deep war chests.
But the main issue with a Google desktop OS, IMHO to succeed, i think it would have to be capable of some kind of half decent x86 emulation ........... But hey we are talking 'The Brothers Grimms Tales of Silicone Valley' here anyways.
Its possible to do so now, albeit not the same experince you get on your phone or tablet due to lack of driver support Its how i checked out 4.0 before I got it on my Asus Transformer Prime. Worth a try!
(Im new to XDA so I cannot post links, however google "android x86 download" and its the first link.)
There are ready is a port of android that works on desktops that these guys are working on over at http://www.android-x86.org/.
Hi guys, today I saw Nokia WP7 Lumia 800, before myself.
No doubt WP7 looked Beautiful. I mean Android is far better in definition of smartphone, for e.g. True multitasking, etc. but I never found Android OS beautiful.
I had Android in my hand (CM7 with complete ICS look, also ICS status bar), and my friend had WP7, and WP7 looked amazingly beautiful.
Personally I would love an OS which is beautiful, since I look at it (the OS), and I'm not a huge app user. Also I'm not a user who does not need apps running in background. Here are the apps that I use on Android (only these apps)----
1) App Lock - Prevent unauthorized access for any person to any of my apps (Very useful)
2) Calculus Tools
3) Handy Calc
4) Concise Offline Dictionary (Very useful)
5) Moon Reader (epub reader ebook reader) (Very Very useful)
6) MX Player (Very useful, plays any video format)
7) Opera Mini & Opera Mobile (Very useful, saves data cost, but IE10 does same, opera saves 97% how much IE10?)
8) USB Tunnel (Reverse Tether, very useful)
So, I want to ask, are these apps ( or there replacement apps )are available on WP7 market, or WP8 market???
I'm looking forward to buy WP8 in future. Please reply if you know these apps or replacement apps are available for WP7 orWP8?
Also, Windows is major PC OS, and I'll always have Windows ( Mac never ), and Windows PC has many software, so there is great possibility that WP8 will see many new apps in market, ( WP8 ports of the PC softwares ). Also looking for full integration with my PC. ( like iOS and MAC).
"App Lock" sounds like something that should be provided by the OS. On WP7 you can easily set a PIN or password, and configure the phone's lock behavior in other ways. That said, I don't know of a way to lock apps without also locking the rest of the phone (although some behaviors, like taking pictures or placing calls using voice, can be enabled even while the phone is locked if you want them to be).
The calculator that comes with the phone is very good, but if you want something more like a graphing calculator (or otherwise intnded for calculus) you'll need an app. I don't know how good they are, since I just tend to use the Scientific and Programmer calculator modes (which are built in), but such apps do exist.
There are a number of offline dictionary apps, for sure. English is well-supported, but quite a few lenguages are in the offline dictionary app list.
There are many Ebook reader apps. I personally use the Kindle app (which takes minor hacking to use with ebooks not from the Kindle store, and uses .MOBI or .PRC files) but there are several free apps for EPUB as well.
Not sure about media player apps. Most of them just support the codecs built into the phone (which are a good selection, but hardly all-encompassing). Apps are allowed to implement additional codecs, but I have never personally used any that do. Zune software on the PC can transcode most codecs to something the phone can read when you sync the files from your PC, though.
Opera (mini and mobile) for Windows Phone is currently only available on fully-unlocked custom ROMs, though it may be made to work on root-unlocked stock ROMs soon. I don't know about the data savings of Windows Phone IE.
USB Tunnel is for letting the phone connect through the PC's Internet connection? That feature is built into the OS. When the phone connects to the Zune software on the PC, it automatically enables Ethernet over USB.
Please bear in mind that nobody knows anything much about what will be available for WP8 right now. It was ony just announced, is still months from release, and there's very little meaningful and reliable information about it available yet.
While Android provides many opportunities, I still feel it's quite limited. I'm interested in hearing what you'd like to see in any next operating system for mobile devices.
The thing I'd like to see with future operating systems (not exclusive to mobile OS's actually), is full integrating of app functions in the OS so that they can be shared between apps. Or rather, so you can actually perform every function from within the OS environment. An office app isn't a standalone app providing a new environment to work in, no, it provides its capabilities to the OS. Have a powerful calculator app? Have its functions integrate in the OS, available to you in any appropriate project you're working on with the office functions - all still from the OS. Games can still be standalone, I reckon, I'm not sure how these would add new functions.
A different way to look at it, is 'codecs': The OS is capable of handling everything there are codecs for. Want to edit an .mp3? An app provided you with the functions and code to have the OS create an appropriate 'app environment', with the style from the OS itself (which would provide truly universal theme support, too).
So, what ideas do you folks have?
Cusomization
I think more OSes need to be able to be modified without hacking. There should be more options to change colors, use custom pictures, or even be able to write your own "widgets", something like render script but even noobier. Quite a lot of people like to customize their devices, people like this devices to reflect themselves,we can see this from the large amount of jailbreak themes on iOS, or even theming on android.
Why DirectX is more powerful than OpenGL?...guys we need to see pretty graphics on ubuntu...why I can't use the full power of my geforce card on ubuntu OS? I think they should make some changes.
Also ubuntu drains battery too fast they should focus on this issue.
Sent from my GT-I9003 using xda premium
better apps on Ubuntu! Gaming specifically.
For ubuntu os just app support
Sent from my R8113 using xda premium
definitely more ubuntu support
Bit of a story here.
So I have been long into car hacking, doing all sorts of canbus related modifications to my Merc W203 model.
The stock radio is utter garbage by today's standard, and Xtrons do a ton of android head units for my car. (Either with an A35 CPU and 2gb ram, or Px5 CPU with 4gb ram).
I am wondering, would it be possible to COMPLETELY remove android from it, and instead boot something like archlinux-arm on it. I want to create some custom applications on it whilst also having full control over the entire OS (Hence the want for Linux, not android).
I do kernel development as well so I am not worried at all about devices not working, I can likely hack together a kernel driver for nonworking hardware on the unit.
I am simply looking if it is possible to wipe android and see if it's possible to use it as a bare bones PC.
Any help would be appreciated, before I bite the bullet and spend £250 on one!:laugh:
You still need the GUI and stuff like that.
Besides, Android "is" Linux! Much better, imo, to base it off of Android, to keep the ecosystem that that comes with.
FransUrbo said:
You still need the GUI and stuff like that.
Besides, Android "is" Linux! Much better, imo, to base it off of Android, to keep the ecosystem that that comes with.
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I am pretty sure by he said 'bare bones' does not mean an (Linux kernel based) operating system with only an command line terminal (i.e. something that looks like MS-DOS).
My point is that native Linux doesn't HAVE "mobile GUI". It have X11, which is *NOT* (!!) suited for such a project..
So either have to port whatever GUI Android have back to Android, or write his own. Which is a *MASSIVE* (!!) undertaking..
Also, Linux isn't quite suited for mobile applications. That's why Android was created. It took all the good from Linux and made it fit a mobile application.. Reverse engineering or back porting all that work to Linux is just dumb..
FransUrbo said:
My point is that native Linux doesn't HAVE "mobile GUI". It have X11, which is *NOT* (!!) suited for such a project..
So either have to port whatever GUI Android have back to Android, or write his own. Which is a *MASSIVE* (!!) undertaking..
Also, Linux isn't quite suited for mobile applications. That's why Android was created. It took all the good from Linux and made it fit a mobile application.. Reverse engineering or back porting all that work to Linux is just dumb..
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Wait does the OP mean he need some thing like postmarketOS(some kind of Linux distribution with mobile GUI)?
Of course he does!! What do you think "Linux" is?!
Linux is *JUST* (!!) the kernel! NOTHING else.
The *distribution* is everything else. Boot procedure (scripts, commands, filesystem tools - technically that's "The Userland" - the install procedure, the packaging etc etc). Then you put your GUI on top of that.
On top of that you have X11. Or "The GUI". TECHNICALLY, X11 require some more stuff, the window manager too actually be useful. Without it (the window manager), X11 is just an API to the graphical functions - "draw window border", "draw a close button" etc etc. Which is what the window manager utilises.
So: kernel <- userland <- X11 <- Window manager <- Graphical apps
Then all of that is packaged up in a need CD/DVD/Image to make it easily installed and used. And we call that "The Distribution".
This is how UN*X works and that's how LINUX works. Simple, portable and very useful. But not for a phone, tablet or, in this case, a car!
That's why Android was created. It is ALL of that, in ONE package! With thousands and probably millions of apps compiled for it. Do it yourself, and you have to write EVERY (!) app you need yourself - radio apps, navigation etc etc ad-finitum..
Because NO ONE/THING (except in very rare occasion) "talks" to the kernel. They "talk" to libraries (libc, libX11 etc) to do what they need. Which is why you need "The Userland". THEY (the libraries) then "talk" to the kernel (networking, filesystem, input, output etc) giving the apps a nice API - "Application Programming Interface". A set of functions and tools for applications to use, so they don't have to recreate "the wheel" every time.
Now, I'm not going to go deeper, unless you want me to . I do understand that the un-initated don't know the difference between "Linux" the-kernel and "Linux" the-everything. But this *IS* important, believe it or not..
The kernel is absolutely useless on its own. It can't do squat! It was never MEANT to be used on its own. It was designed and built to be used *with* a distribution - "GNU" in the large majority of cases..
Although it's possible to use bare-bones Linux with either your own distribution (MASSIVE amounts of work, I know, I've tried it!) or an existing one (Debian GNU/Linux, RedHat, SuSE etc - they all provide binaries and packages for a multitude of processors), none of them have all the goodies that Google Play Store have.
And none of them are really targeted towards a mobile graphical environment.
Raspbian for example, was made for the Raspberry Pi, but that is in 99% of cases a non-graphical environment (robots and media stations mostly). Most distributions is like that.
The Play store on the other hand is *specifically* targeted towards a mobile, graphical environment. As this is. I would be foolish to try to reinvent the wheel when Android already IS Linux+userland+GUI+distribution.
Keep in mind though that Android apps on Google Play is compiled for an ARM (ARM64) architecture! Meaning, whatever hardware utilised, MUST run on/with an ARM processor..
All this limits the hardware choices substancially.
Everything "is possible". In theory. In practice though, I'd say the answer is "no". It is simply to much work to get it working. For absolutely no benefit.
With that being said... Bare Android on the other hand!! Now THAT is an idea.
Get your Android kernel source and compile it for the specific hardware you're using and then your Android distribution, set it up juuuuuuust so and you'll get what I (and probably everyone always wanted - a non-bloated piece of ... well, we've all seen them.