BlueStacks - Potential for Seamless Android Apps on Windows?

xaueious

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BlueStacks is a new software solution that allows Android applications to run on Windows. While you can run already Android applications in a virtual machine on Windows, current implementations are slow and cumbersome to use. A beta of the software is expected in June, according to a tweet by their Twitter account. Linux also is on the roadmap, and Mac OSX may possibly be involved as well. Their mission is to 'bring your favorite Android apps to your desktop or notebook PC.'

In the demo on a 28-inch HP TouchSmart PC shown to Slashgear, the software showed the capability to not only multitask seamlessly between Android and Windows applications, and also using Windows drivers to handle tasks from Android apps such as video chat and printing. You could also minimize Android applications to the taskbar. The software only currently handles applications up to Android 2.2, which is not exactly ideal, but could look to change sometime in the future. The release of the software is planned for later this year.

While we probably wont see the official Google apps such as the Android Market in shipping versions, this is an intriguing implementation. However, the Amazon app store is expected to work.

Android is vastly superior to Windows for touch and pen based interactions. BlueStacks is also negotiating with PC OEM manufacturers to include their software in new shipping devices. Android on x86 platforms has been painfully slow, despite recent pushes by both Intel and AMD to join the Android movement. This hybridization of Windows and Android functionality provide an alternative that will result in the best of both worlds.

Slashgear is expected to upload a video sometime today of the software in action. As a Windows tablet PC (Lenovo Thinkpad X200T) user myself, I am quite excited by this development.

BlueStacks does not have much on their webpage, but they have a Twitter account @bluestacksinc and have been quite active there.

Source
Slashgear via Downloadsquad via Reddit
 

Carbira1

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I don't really see the point of this. Angy Birds is already out for the computer!
 

xaueious

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Pulse, Newsrob, all the best ebook reader apps.

Fennec (Firefox Mobile) sucks on Windows right now. Every time I launch it, it dumps a giant command shell window in the background. I can use a more tablet friendly browser.

I doubt games will perform that well. That is not what I was thinking about. Video might be on the weak side as well. If they work, that's a bonus for me.

But the text stuff ebook reading alone makes this an exciting development.

You have to have owned a Windows tablet PC to understand the implications of this.
 

Carbira1

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No I do not have a Windows tablet. They are too expensive for the crappy hardware that is inside them.
 

xaueious

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Windows tablets do not all have crappy hardware...
The convertibles are commonly equipped with i3, i5, and i7 processors. The main difference is that they have a swivel monitor and a Wacom pen touchscreen.
The graphics usually are a weakpoint, but these are business grade devices that typically don't need that extra graphical performance. They are still the best devices for note taking and handwriting recognition.
They only started to make crappy Intel Atom tablets not too long ago...

FUJITSU tablets
Lenovo tablets
HP tablets
 

Carbira1

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Yea but I don't like to spend lots of money on something that will be obsolete next month!
 

rokky

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Seems like it should not be so hard to run native Android apps on Linux with the right libraries, but I do not know much about that ecosystem, so just guessing there. That would get my interest in having the best of both worlds with Linux power (and security dare I hope?), and the Android convenience of focused apps with simple elegance.

I have come to see Android apps as localized web apps that do not need a browser to run them, although I suppose the Dalvik VM could be seen as one big Java VM that skips the X window manager/desktop environment layer that run directly on top of Linux - so why not within a more standard Linux WM/DE ?

Dreaming ...
 

Fuganater

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No I do not have a Windows tablet. They are too expensive for the crappy hardware that is inside them.
As X said, Tablet PC's come with hardware that is as good or better than you average laptop. I almost bought the Inspiron Duo but decided instead to get a G-Tablet and an XPS 17.

Yea but I don't like to spend lots of money on something that will be obsolete next month!
Don't you already own a tablet? This is true for ANY electronic device. I just bought a $2000 laptop and in 2-3 months there will be better hardware out there. Its inevitable.
 

Rrok007

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Nov 21, 2010
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Yea but I don't like to spend lots of money on something that will be obsolete next month!

Join the Amish. I hear they haven't improved the hammer and shovel in a number of years.

Seriously, obsolesence isn't about the advancement of technology despite what people think. It's the absense of functionality. I have a 10 yr old 900MHz desktop with less than 1GB of RAM and only a 40 GB hard drive. The ONLY reason why I'm about to throw it out is because the systemboard has finally gone bad.
 

xaueious

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Yep...

Typing from a 4 year old HP Compaq 2710p with Core2Duo ULV @ 1.2GHz that is still going strong.
 
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