Remember when that guy Nick Lee ran Windows 95 on the Apple Watch? Well, he’s back, and this time he’s done another interesting crossover: running Android on the iPhone thanks to a custom-built case. Take a look at the video, and then we’ll dive into what’s really going on!
So – is this an iPhone running Android? No, of course not. iOS can’t be ported to other systems, as only Apple have the source code. Instead, there’s some trickery going on here, as the dev reveals.
Inside the case, the developer stashed a small circuit board called the LeMaker HiKey, which is capable of running Android. There’s also a Lightning cable, a battery pack, a boost converter and a resistor. The HiKey runs the Android Open Source Project (aka AOSP), so once it’s running things get pretty straightforward.
The board runs a VNC server app, sending images of the screen to the iPhone, which is running a custom VNC client app. The client software shows the images on the screen, and relays any touch inputs back to the HiKey board. If you’ve ever used remote access software like TeamViewer, RealVNC or Chrome Remote Desktop, this is basically the same thing.
The effect is pretty cool: full screen Android being displayed on your iPhone. It’s a bit laggy as the video demonstrates, but this is an inevitable part of streaming your OS to a different computer rather than running it natively.
Still, it’s a pretty impressive feat, considering the grunt work involved to get the software working and 3D printing an enclosure to keep everything in… even if you’re left with a super-thick iPhone running a laggy version of Android!
What do you think of the project? Let us know in the comments below.