Hello ^_^ From Canada Too!

[AndreaSA]

Hey!
My name is Andrea and starting to get involve in the android world. I haven't buy any android tablet yet but I am looking around ^__^ I like the wePad so far
Laters!

 

[pawnslinger]

Hey!
My name is Andrea and starting to get involve in the android world. I haven't buy any android tablet yet but I am looking around ^__^ I like the wePad so far
Laters!

According to what I could find, the WePad runs Windows7... it looks very nice, but is a bit pricey, as most Windows devices seem to be. They say it will run Linux, when it is released, but it is Intel based, so I doubt Android will be ported to it... since Android, I think, pretty much requires some sort of ARM based processor.

It is in the same class as the Archos 9, another Windows tablet... both are very nice, but unfortunately, not Android based.

 

[joshua.lyon]

I'm pretty sure the WePad got renamed to WeTab (along with their company name) to avoid some legal conflicts. The WeTab is reported to run a WeTab OS (running on Linux) and supports Android Apps. It's somewhat unclear as to exactly how you would get Android apps on the device though. They make mention that it can run apps from open places like the Android Market... but the Android Market doesn't run on all devices (like so many of the knock-off aPads with VIA chips).

Product details | WeTab

 

[AndreaSA]

Thanks for the info guys!!
I was hoping to port android to the wetab
but I will keep looking.
I'll look into Archos 9

 

[pawnslinger]

I'm pretty sure the WePad got renamed to WeTab (along with their company name) to avoid some legal conflicts. The WeTab is reported to run a WeTab OS (running on Linux) and supports Android Apps. It's somewhat unclear as to exactly how you would get Android apps on the device though. They make mention that it can run apps from open places like the Android Market... but the Android Market doesn't run on all devices (like so many of the knock-off aPads with VIA chips).

Product details | WeTab

According the product specs at the link you gave, it is still an Atom processor from Intel. I do not think that will run standard Android apps. The Atom is an x86 type processor, and Android binaries run on ARM type processors... the Android apps would need to be re-compiled with a x86 compiler of some sort.

Has anyone seen Android running on x86 hardware?

 

[joshua.lyon]

I'm pretty sure the WePad got renamed to WeTab (along with their company name) to avoid some legal conflicts. The WeTab is reported to run a WeTab OS (running on Linux) and supports Android Apps. It's somewhat unclear as to exactly how you would get Android apps on the device though. They make mention that it can run apps from open places like the Android Market... but the Android Market doesn't run on all devices (like so many of the knock-off aPads with VIA chips).

Product details | WeTab

According the product specs at the link you gave, it is still an Atom processor from Intel. I do not think that will run standard Android apps. The Atom is an x86 type processor, and Android binaries run on ARM type processors... the Android apps would need to be re-compiled with a x86 compiler of some sort.

Has anyone seen Android running on x86 hardware?

Their article says it can run Android Apps... not the Android OS. Also note that Android apps are Java based... which is cross platform. Also consider that hardware and software can be emulated (think Console emulators, VMs, XP mode, etc).

--posted from my apad

 

[pawnslinger]

It says that it will run the java apps, and it supports the Android AppStore. And, yes, it may be done by some sort of emulation. But my question stands, has anyone seen Android run on x86 type hardware, like an Atom?

If it isn't going to run Android, then I suspect lots of problems running Android Apps - having experience with emulators of various kinds, they are never as good as the real thing.

If they really want to run Android Apps, which is based on Linux, then it would seem a fairly simple matter to recompile Android to run on the x86 hardware, then the Android Apps would run native. I guess, if the processor is horse enough, they could do it in some sort of vm, so you could have the best of both worlds. But it is an Atom, not a very high-powered x86 processor.

 

[joshua.lyon]

It says that it will run the java apps, and it supports the Android AppStore. And, yes, it may be done by some sort of emulation. But my question stands, has anyone seen Android run on x86 type hardware, like an Atom?

If it isn't going to run Android, then I suspect lots of problems running Android Apps - having experience with emulators of various kinds, they are never as good as the real thing.

If they really want to run Android Apps, which is based on Linux, then it would seem a fairly simple matter to recompile Android to run on the x86 hardware, then the Android Apps would run native. I guess, if the processor is horse enough, they could do it in some sort of vm, so you could have the best of both worlds. But it is an Atom, not a very high-powered x86 processor.

Just to re-iterate, WeTab is not running the Android OS on their device. It specifically says on their website that they are running their own WeTab OS based on Linux. I'm not sure what relevance of running the Android OS on an x86 platform has to do this discussion as that is clearly not what they are doing.

The WeTab is operated via a multi-touch display, and a variety of applications giving the user access to a wide variety of content and functions. The WeTab is built on the WeTab OS Linux-based operating system, which provides support for Android and Adobe AIR applications, amongst others.
...
WeTab OS is based on open source technologies. A current Linux distribution with its own touch-based user interface provides the basis for WeTab OS. All applications are installed automatically and either run natively on the system or on a special layer. -source-

The comment about 'a special layer' indicates that they are using some sort of technology to run the applications within their WeTab operating environment. I also doubt that they are planning on running the applications directly on a traditional emulator. I was simply using VMs and Emulators as a reference as it's the same concept as what WeTab is doing: running applications designed for one environment in another environment.

Further evidence of support for this can be seen in the developments Ubuntu has been making for support of Android applications. Canonical, the commercial arm behind Ubuntu has been developing technology to run Android Apps directly in Ubuntu. This is different than a typical emulator in that it's not simply emulating the hardware and fully loading the Android OS within it -- instead, they're recreating the execution environment. As the article indicates below, the Android OS isn't just linux and it's apps aren't just Java apps. Linux and Java are the foundational technologies, but Google put it's own spin on things.

Android uses the Linux kernel, but it isn't really a Linux platform. It offers its own totally unique environment that is built on Google's custom Java runtime. There is no glide path for porting conventional desktop Linux applications to Android. Similarly, Java applications that are written for Android can't run in regular Java virtual machine implementations or in standard Java ME environments. This makes Android a somewhat insular platform.

Canonical is creating a specialized Android execution environment that could make it possible for Android applications to run on Ubuntu desktops in Xorg alongside regular Linux applications. The execution environment would function like a simulator, providing the infrastructure that is needed to make the applications run.
-Original Article-

I should note that this is all just speculation as to how WeTab might be planning to run Android Apps within their tablet... I've sent the WeTab developers an e-mail with these questions, so we'll see if they respond. I should also note that all the articles I found regarding the technology Canonical was working on are from over a year ago... it seems like they've gone hush-hush on it, so I'm not sure what the status is now.