Someone built a case that allows the iPhone to run Android… sort of [VIDEO]
Android running on an iPhone is a fantasy some have entertained, but few Android enthusiasts will ever admit to. A borderline taboo subject depending on your OS affiliation, a developer by the name of Nick Lee has figured out a way to get Android up and running on an iPhone… sort of.
The culmination of many days worth of tinkering, Lee built a custom 3D-printed enclosure acting as an iPhone case. Inside, a circuit board (the Lemaker HiKey) does all the heavy lifting and is running a special version of Android Marshmallow. Using a Lightning connector to plug into the iPhone, an iOS app allows the 2 devices to communicate with one another.
Really, it’s just a tiny computer attached that uses the iPhone as a sort of display, something we’ve already seen with apps like TeamViewer and others (albeit those are over a WiFi connection and not direct like this implementation). Although the iPhone isn’t technically running Android, it does allow for the user to interact with it which is almost sort of like running Android even though it’s really not.
Nick Lee works as CTO of a mobile development studio in Brooklyn called Tendigi. Previously, he was able to get Windows 95 up and running on an Apple Watch, so this latest feat was simply to see if it was possible. While the Apple certainly doesn’t make it easy, sometimes it’s fun to see a proof of concepts like this. Seriously though, there’s already a huge market for iPhones running Android. Just ask the hundreds of Android OEMs who’ve made a business of building copycats.