You know that N900 you keep around, just because. The one that's been hacked so many times you call it "leatherface?" Well, it's about to get a lot more flexible. Built upon the app quickening Dalvik Turbo, OHA member Myriad just announced Alien Dalvik with the promise of running "the majority" of unmodified Android apps on non-Android platforms "without compromising performance." A bold claim, no doubt. Myriad will be backing this up at Mobile World Congress starting next week with plans to release it later this year on MeeGo. But why wait until then? You can see it demonstrated right now running on a Nokia N900 in the video after the break (it's running Google Maps in the picture above). Hey Mr. Elop, you want to build, catalyze or join a competitive ecosystem? Maybe this is your solution. Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Myriad 'Alien Dalvik' runs Android apps on any phone... starting with MeeGo (video)
You know that N900 you keep around, just because. The one that's been hacked so many times you call it "leatherface?" Well, it's about to get a lot more flexible. Built upon the app quickening Dalvik Turbo, OHA member Myriad just announced Alien Dalvik with the promise of running "the majority" of unmodified Android apps on non-Android platforms "without compromising performance." A bold claim, no doubt. Myriad will be backing this up at Mobile World Congress starting next week with plans to release it later this year on MeeGo. But why wait until then? You can see it demonstrated right now running on a Nokia N900 in the video after the break (it's running Google Maps in the picture above). Hey Mr. Elop, you want to build, catalyze or join a competitive ecosystem? Maybe this is your solution. 
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I like what I see! I'd love to see the Android framework turn into something like Qt. We'll get to have a well supported framework and a decent UI on multiple platforms. Even on iOS maybe? (see Qt-iPhone project). Although I wouldn't bet on any Android apps being approved on the AppStore...
ReplyDeleteI agree this is more of a problem for Nokia than a win.
ReplyDeleteAndroid secretly eats symbian/meego from inside.
Um, I don't think you realise but when the Symbian version pops out.. Symbian will be second only to iOS in number of apps available.
ReplyDeleteWhy get an Android when you can get a Symbian phone that has better battery life, the same apps plus extra unique ones free out of the box like Ovi Maps, Loop and Bubbles?
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Yeah, I think this is more of a problem for Nokia than a win. Who wants to use Ovi Maps if you can use Google Maps instead? They can throw away their store and mail service as well, when now everybody can use the far superior Google stuff. And please don't mention the ability to use Ovi Maps offline. Have you ever compared the usability of the web versions of Ovi Maps and Google Maps?
ReplyDeleteFor me as a N900 user this is great, but we have to see, how it's going to work out for Nokia as a company.
Thats right!!! We can throw away EVERYTHING which is not Google, so now Google could definitely know everything we do. We just have to develop the Google toilets so Google could also know when we're going to poo, and we're done.
ReplyDeleteI don't know, I kinda like my offline Ovi Maps, has helped me around in quite some places so far: New York, Hong Kong, Key West, Beijing, Amsterdam and more... international roaming data is damn expensive, but of course, Google Maps is great if you just use your GPS as a test walk around the block.
ReplyDeleteWho wants to use Ovi Maps? Uuuuh, I don't know maybe people that want use navigation offline without data plan?
ReplyDeleteMost of Nokia's services aren't that great compared to Google's but for what it's worth, Ovi Maps wipes floor with Google maps. You can download a map for any country or city right from your phone, the UI is much better aswell and there are lots of small things that overall make it better. And most of the people especially in the EU don't use data plans on their smartphones, who wants to waste data downloading a map? What if you go to another country? With Ovi Maps you just predownload all the countries you'll visit on your trip and you're good to go.
In fact Ovi Maps beats the shit out of any other GPS navigation solutions on a phone, including Tomtom, Navigon, CoPilot, Garmin, Sygic, NDrive, etc...
People who don't want to burn through their limited internet data love using free offline OVI Maps navigation over Google maps. This is a BIG issue outside first world countries with cheap internet, the places where Android grew the most in 2010.
ReplyDeleteOVI Maps also offers navigation in a lot more countries than Google maps.
Good idea actually. If meego will have this dalvik by default, it means that developers won't have to make a separate source tree for meego, which is win-win both for developers and Nokia, as there won't be too many developers running to create a whole different source for a not-very-popular platform (which it will be at the beginning at least).
ReplyDeleteFor any new platform it's a chicken and the egg problem - developers won't create for unpopular platform and people won't buy into a platform with no software. Google spent millions in prizes for developers challenges to encourage devs to write for Android, iOS became popular for reasons other than software, and WP7 is still in infancy. Meego when launched (and if) will only be 4th or 5th platform by popularity, so this cross-android compatibility makes sense.
On other hand, I'm quite sure, that even if it runs basic apps, it won't have a true android experience. One of the things Android is very good at is application interoperability. Apps can ask other apps to do all kinds of tasks for each other, without having to know anything about them. For example app can just ask a system "scan barcode", "compose email", etc and the app registered for this task will run, and when finished return a data to the original app. I doubt this alien dalvik will able to implement the whole infrastructure, and if yes, why bother installing a meego in a first place, when basically you are emulating a complete android system?
This is the power of Open Source, and yes to all of the doubters Android is an Open Source OS.
ReplyDeleteThe same would be possible in reverse, to have MeeGo/Ubuntu apps run on Android. In fact, Ubuntu has already been accomplished, though something other than VNC would be better for the display framework.
This is why I love open source software.
ReplyDeleteExcept Qt apps run on MeeGo, Symbian, desktop Linux, desktop Windows, OSX, WinCE anyway. Dalvik shouldn't be default but an addon.
ReplyDelete"Twitter, google maps and chess". Finally, I have chess!
ReplyDeleteas if thats the first apk file one would download
Built on QT. Is it possible I could be running Android apps under my Ubuntu installation in the future? THAT would be AWESOME!!!
ReplyDeleteGame set and match for google. Why would anyone code apps for meego/symbian if you could have the much bigger market for android/nokia/webOS and so on. They should encourage this if they want true domination!
ReplyDeleteIt's actually the opposite of what you think.
ReplyDeleteWhy would anyone buy an Android phone and deal with it's shortcomings as an OS when you can buy a superior OS with more security and features but still have access to Android apps? Things like free offline GPS navigation on Nokia phones through OVI Maps is a plus.
Comment exploded into a million tiny pieces of glittery magic.
ReplyDeleteinteresting... Now Nokia can have access to the Android warmth without peeing their pants!
ReplyDeleteHeadstrong bullish "We stand effing alone" attitude paid off. Also Kallasvuo buying Trolltech out paid off in the end :P
ReplyDeletetassu 32 minutes ago
ReplyDeleteMyriad Alien Dalvik will be commercially available later this year on the MeeGo platform. Other platform support will be announced in the coming months. Alien Dalvik will be demonstrated for the first time on the Nokia N900 at this year’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona from February 14th-17th at the Myriad hospitality suite located at The Avenue, Stand AV91.
MWC its getting more and more exciting...and I am loving more and more my N900(overclocked 1,15GHz)