Submitted by The SD Times reports about Cider, which allows iOS applications to run on Android. From the research paper:
We present Cider, an operating system compatibility architecture that can run applications built for different mobile ecosystems, iOS or Android, together on the same smartphone or tablet. Cider enhances the domestic operating system, Android, of a device with kernel-managed, per-thread personas to mimic the application binary interface of a foreign operating system, iOS, enabling it to run unmodified foreign binaries. This is accomplished using a novel combination of binary compatibility techniques including two new mechanisms: compile-time code adaptation, and diplomatic functions. Compile-time code adaptation enables existing unmodified foreign source code to be reused in the domestic kernel, reducing implementation effort required to support multiple binary interfaces for executing domestic and foreign applications. Diplomatic functions leverage per-thread personas, and allow foreign applications to use domestic libraries to access proprietary software and hardware interfaces. We have built a Cider prototype, and demonstrate that it imposes modest performance overhead and runs unmodified iOS and Android applications together on a Google Nexus tablet running the latest version of Android.
It’s developed by the Department of Computer Science at Columbia University. They have a video of it too.
Just FYI but the first link is broken.
Thanks, fixed!
I wonder what Transgaming will say about the name: https://transgaming.com/cider
That’s the first thing that sprang to my mind too. Especially as the projects are very similar: a software compatibility layer to run apps from platform $FOO on the Apple platform. The only difference is the value of $FOO. That’s close enough to actually confuse users (as opposed to 99% of trademark disputes out there).
You can do the same on iOS as well:
http://9to5mac.com/2011/10/07/android-apps-on-your-ipad-theres-an-a…
http://www.lightrains.com/blog/android-apps-running-ios-box
This has been available since 2011!
Edited 2014-05-13 18:18 UTC
The 2D UI is still pretty choppy, but the 3D looks good… with a bit of work I wonder if this could at the very least aid developers in porting games to iOS.
I could have sworn there are already tools for crosscompiles, and you can pretty much tell when a “Android” app was developed for ios and then so compiled.
Cider is obviously a clever name for this, but others had already thought of it before…
The big question for me, what have I been missing? For which iOS application should I be forking out a fair sum??
I suppose there’s always iWork if you’re a masochist.
Just went to look it up on the “official site” apple.com/iwork to see what it is, but there was no information there… The iOS appeal might be more in the OS than its applications??
Seriously, couldn’t you just check on Google or Wiki?
Apple switches in their lately usual patent troll mode?