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iEmu Hopes To Bring iOS Apps To Your Android Device

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iEmu is a new Kickstarter project brought to you by Chris Wade, one of the guys responsible for iOS’s earliest jailbreak exploits back in the day. Chris is hoping to gain enough funding so that he and his team can get an iOS emulator up and running on Android, Linux, Mac and Windows. The iEmu team’s goal is to raise around $20,000 (currently at $5863), which should be just enough to cover a diet of Hotpockets and Top Ramen and a few living expenses for the next 3 months while they slave away at making the impossible possible.

But this entire project is easier said than done. iEmu is attempting to emulate the Samsung A4 chipset (used in the iPhone 4 and 1st gen iPad) by building on top of the open-source QEMU emulator. Apparently, the first step of emulating the CPU has already been accomplished but they still need to emulate support for the GPU, USB controller, Multitouch controller, memory, audio and all those secondary components like Bluetooth, GPS, compass, etc. And even if/once all of this accomplished, there is still the task at getting all the emulated pieces to actually boot. The iEmu team, no doubt, has one heck of an uphill battle ahead of them. (And we all know Apple’s legal team would have something to say about all of this.)

iEmu’s main goal for this Kickstarter project is simply to get “most iPad/iPhone apps” up and running on non-iOS devices like Android. Pretty sweet if they can actually accomplish it. Can you imagine all the the awesome iOS games you could have at your disposal in your hypothetical future? This would change everything. Again.

[Via TechCrunch]

Chris Chavez
I've been obsessed with consumer technology for about as long as I can remember, be it video games, photography, or mobile devices. If you can plug it in, I have to own it. Preparing for the day when Android finally becomes self-aware and I get to welcome our new robot overlords.

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29 Comments

  1. Some bullshit. That shit is SURE to be janky as hell. So I don’t really give a fuck about this mess.

    1. Not necessarily. Samsung and Motorola phones might handle it a lil better than HTC phones tho. The OMAP, Hummingbird and iPhone all use the PowerVR gpu.

      1. The Samsung Hummingbird is basically the A4 chip with a GPU that’s twice as strong, emulating won’t be a problem.

  2. That would be interesting

  3. Droid does IOS
    Hey iphone, what do you have now?

    1. You really believe you are going to be able to run most iOS games on an Android handset? I don’t know about specs, but I don’t think it will be so easy, mostly because of CPU/GPU power needed… Still, the main reason behind this project is not about being able to run iOS apps in Android, although this blog seems to want it to be. The main drive behind the project is to create an emulator that will run in various platforms (Linux, Windows, Mac, etc) so that people can develop new apps without a Mac and also so that the security researchers can do their work more easily and with less risk of getting their hardware fuck*d up. Get your shit straight phandroid.

      1. A4 runs at 800 mhz. Pretty sure Android’s Dual Core 1.2 Ghz (2 Ghz by the time they finish) will run any iOS stuff ezpz.

        1. I’m not so sure about that. Unless the emulator is made incredibly well, the system running the emulator should be about 10X faster than the emulated system. That is why the DS emulator for android does not run well.

          1. It depends on if they are going to make an emulator or just try to do something like WINE. Maybe they will make an emulator and then using that knowledge create something like WINE. I could only hope. Still, there is no reason why most Android phones could run iPhone apps even in an emulator, as they are so much more powerful than what even the iPhone 5 is going to be.

  4. why not a simulator? that would at least have a chance of performing well. emulators are always slow

    1. simulator == emulator, basically. Do you mean a compatibility layer? (i.e. WINE)
      I’d say if the goal is to run on Android, a compatibility layer, i.e. clean-room re-implementation of iOS libraries would probably be the best performing option.. this would preclude code running on devices that are far removed from a4 though (the obvious example being x86).

  5. to code an emu, you need a computer, $20,000 for a computer. you can code couple hrs per day and still can keep their full time jobs.

    1. Who’s there?
      Or it’s just smart a.. speaking…

    2. No you don’t..
      In poor little America you need around 300$ to build a functional pc, maybe 3000$ if you want to do some coding, the rest is probably for fast food (One of the many reasons all Americans are fat).

      1. A ignorant and dick thing to say, Dario Suckage.

  6. This should be good

  7. would be awesome to emulate the call of duty nazi zombies..hopefully they accomplish this feat.

  8. As Larry David would say: “Meh”

    1. I think he would say: “Pretty Good… Pretty, Pretty Good!”

  9. Where are we going to get the apps? Can we put them on there from our computers if we have them downloaded there? Because I sure as heck won’t be downloading them from the internet, Apple would sue me XD

  10. apple will sue

    1. Apple will sue?
      You mean: Apple will ruin their lives by putting their project to sleep, and giving them some jail and requesting 100 million $

  11. They may only need a computer but it could take them years to do this type of work on just a few hours a day. I imagine there are a few people who wish to complete this ASAP and need to be able to survive while building it. Don’t be a Debbie Downer.

  12. iemu website down?

  13. Sounds like the long way to get where they want to go.. at this site.. http://blog.tlensing.org/2011/05/01/cocotron-and-xcode4-how-to-run-objective-c-apps-on-linux/ there are people already working on getting apps to run on Linux.. Getting them to run on Linux, and then to run on Android from there, sounds like the more sensible plan.. but I could be wrong.

  14. Watch Apple C+D this when it’s possibly nearing completion…

  15. Well this is ambitious, but it definitely worths. I wish we can see some preview in the near future, mosto of all I wish they can reach the money they need.

  16. well this emulator going to work perfectly on my Samsung Galaxy S 2 Plus :)

    try to beat that apple! yea i ate ur apple! OWNED!

    he got pledged of 19,005 and he is missing 1000 bucks!

    Come On Americans ppl! DONATE as i did!!! xD

    ALL THE WORLD! u luv android? yes? (Of Course) GREAT! do ur job and help the iEmu Creator!!

    Tnx :P

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