In a maybe sort of kind of way that is a couple dependencies short of a full six pack, or something to that effect. Nevertheless, a little clever hacking of Google’s own ongoing efforts to run Android apps on Chrome OS are yielding surprisingly positive results. Does platform matter any more?
Perhaps not as much as it used to.
Ars Technica’s Ron Amadeo is reporting a neat bit of hackery that has Android apps running on Mac, Windows and Linux. While Google is working to deliver Android app functionality on Chrome OS, developer “Vladikoff” has been finding ways to bend and blend Google’s App Runtime for Chrome (ARC) and converted app packages.
While this hack is buggy and crashy, at its core it works. Apps turn on and load up, and, other than some missing dependencies, they work well. It’s enough to make you imagine a future when all the problems get worked out, and Google opens the floodgates on the Play Store, putting 1.3 million Android apps onto nearly every platform.
See also: /r/chromeapks
As interesting as that is, it’s just a stop along the highway. That is, many if not most Android apps will crash or otherwise fail to run properly because Google Play Services aren’t running the background (ie Android Twitter can’t run let alone tweet without ’em).
Run Android Run
Marching into the future with our Android brothers and sisters, arm-in-arm. Perhaps, but Android everywhere schemes have to degrees foundered in the past (ie Bluestacks).
Additionally, while the ubiquitous computing ideal seems to demand uniformity, Microsoft’s ongoing and mounting Windows everywhere failures should serve as a blunt reminder that conformity breeds mediocrity and ultimately incompetence.
Lastly, while solutions sometime create need — the original iPhone is a perfect example — it’s hard to imagine the nature of problem that needs solving here. Then again, Blackberry didn’t get iPhone until it was already too late…
What’s your take?