Android apps to run on non-android devices with ‘Alien Dalvik’

By , Published February 8, 2011

Switching from your smartphone to your laptop to your netbook and back again can often seem disjointing: apps for one aren’t available or suitable for the other, etc..

But that could be all about to change…

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The ‘Myriad Group’ today announced the launch of  ‘Alien Dalvik’ – a variant of the virtual machine used by Android, that will allow for Android apps to run ‘seamlessly’ and without any performance loss on non-Android platforms.

Maybe even Ubuntu.

“By extending Android to other platforms, we are opening up the market even further, creating new audiences and revenue opportunities,” said Myriad Group’s Chief Executive Officer Simon Wilkinson on the launch.

The Alien Dalvik promotional spiel

No tinkering needed

The majority of Android applications require no modification to work with the framwork and all applications running through the innovative model will appear native, causing no ‘disruption’ to the end user.

‘Myriad Alien Dalvik’ will be made available commercially later this year on the MeeGo platform, with support for further platforms due to be announced accordingly.

The ‘Alien Dalvik’ will be demonstrated next week at the Mobile World Congress 2011 in Barcelona, on a Nokia N900 (pictured above).

Thanks to Guus

Image Credit: Myriad Group AG

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  • Eugeny

    That’s right – all the required things are running Dalvik VM under another platform and creating corresponding native bindings for Android Framework.

  • http://twitter.com/killerh0b0 Carlos Zapata

    so your saying, I could play, lets say angrybirds from android on my laptop?

    • http://twitter.com/jknvv13 Joaquin Vacas

      At the moment the app that opens androdi apps, has no OpenGL acceleration, but will be added and it will adjust perfomance, and other things like DPI, Ram for a VM, widget support, and full hardware access

    • http://twitter.com/jknvv13 Joaquin Vacas

      At the moment the app that opens androdi apps, has no OpenGL acceleration, but will be added and it will adjust perfomance, and other things like DPI, Ram for a VM, widget support, and full hardware access

    • http://twitter.com/weirdfo M-A Loyer

      In fact, only apps that does not use Native API will work with this VM (this exclude most of the games).
      Native API code is built in libraries compiled for the target processor (usually ARM, not in Dalvik bytecode) and called from the Dalvik code using JNI. To run these libs you would need to add a CPU emulation layer.

  • http://twitter.com/brunoerre Bruno R.

    Is this real life?

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_ON6CS3UJOSXBQ7RM3LUWAERN2A d4rk_l1gh7

      Yes David, it is…

    • http://twitter.com/explodingwalrus Carl Draper

      is it fantasy…caught in a landslide…

      • http://snkiz.blogspot.com/ Corey B

        no escape from reality

        • Anonymous

          Open your eyes…look up to the skies and seeeeeeee…..

  • Anonymous

    What causes incompatibility in the first place? Isn’t Android based on Linux?

    • Anonymous

      It’s only the same (modified) kernel. The libraries are different, and Android apps run on top of a Java VM layer

      • Anonymous

        Was having different libraries and having apps running on Java VM layer necessary? As far as I know, even vanilla Ubuntu can operate normally on tablets that comes preinstalled with Android as long as you do things right.

        • http://twitter.com/smjreynolds Sam Reynolds

          Ubuntu can run on the tablets because it has been compiled for ARM.
          As for the different libraries, I’m sure it wouldn’t be too hard to include them with WINAE (Winae Is Not an Android Emulator) or whatever the resulting F/OSS will be – unless they’re proprietary. And don’t forget – all Java programs are run in a VM.

          • Anonymous

            Why is Java so deeply involved in Android?

          • http://twitter.com/weirdfo M-A Loyer

            It’s an architectural decision from Google.

            They had to choose a language and they took Java. Reasons might be something like : it’s easier to make portable software (in a single binary package, in this case bytecode). Even if 2 different Android device run on two completely different CPU architecture (ex: i386/Atom vs Arm), you just need the right VM.

            Java is pretty good for general purpose apps, but lack low-level features needed for games and advanced 3D graphics. That’s where the Native API enter the game, but the code produced with it is locked on a processor architecture (and could also be from devices with the same CPU architecture, but different hardware or even CPU versions)…

          • Anonymous

            Thanks for the info. I see, it does make sense. Java has already been in use in existing portable technology. I wish Java was more open…

            Anyway, are the native APIs an issue with porting Android apps to other platforms?

          • http://jamesgecko.com/ James

            Java is generally open enough for most things; the kerfluffle you hear about it generally involves Oracle trying to murder Google with patents or possibly the certification tests which a 3rd party implementation of Java must pass in order to be 100% officially able to run exactly the same code as the Sun/Oracle Java.

            Yes, native APIs are an issue with porting. Java can run on a lot of hardware, but it is slow. To run quickly, you need to talk (more or less) directly with the hardware. Unfortunately, the details of how you need to talk to hardware vary from device to device; it’s not a universal thing. And most solutions will be at least slightly slower than talking with hardware directly.

            Edit: Oops. The comments go in reverse! I see M-A Loyer already answered this.

          • Anonymous

            Thanks for the reply, your comment cleared up the issues of Java.

    • Matt Sturgeon

      Android uses the linux kernal. But it is not full Gnu/linux because much of the Gnu operating system isn’t needed for mobile devices.
      Also Android does not run X11, or anything related to it. It has it’s own graphics system.

  • Anonymous

    What causes incompatibility in the first place? Isn’t Android based on Linux?

  • Anonymous

    it’s cooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool!!!!!!

  • Anonymous

    it’s cooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooool!!!!!!

  • http://openid-provider.appspot.com/TheMerkinman Merk

    People see this and get all excited forgetting:
    A) No cursor
    B) Their hardware most likely doesn’t have multitouch

    I could see A being solved with some sort of default cursor, B not so much

    • Matt Sturgeon

      Ok, but devices that run MeeGo are mobile devices. Tablets and Smartphones.
      And Ubuntu is also moving towards Tablets.

    • http://twitter.com/dojan5 Joel Lundborg

      AndroidX86
      Adding input doesn’t require modifying the application, rather the framework.

  • http://openid-provider.appspot.com/TheMerkinman Merk

    People see this and get all excited forgetting:
    A) No cursor
    B) Their hardware most likely doesn’t have multitouch

    I could see A being solved with some sort of default cursor, B not so much

  • http://twitter.com/zc456 Squeaks

    Android 3.0 Honeycomb applications running on netbook with Ubuntu. Hell yes!

    • Anonymous

      Why not use Android-x86? ( http://android-x86.org/ )

      • Anonymous

        Nice idea, however I would prefer to run some apps from Android without giving up the whole desktop.

        • Anonymous

          It is a live CD!

          • Anonymous

            Yeah, I know. But dual booting with leave CD is exactly the same inconvenient as dual booting with system on hard disk… But maybe it’s going to work in VirtualBox… I’ll give it a shot.

      • http://twitter.com/NervengiftC Clemens

        i tried it but its partly very laggy and it won’t support wifi on my netbook
        also I too don’t want to have it running as an extra OS

        • Anonymous

          It is a live CD!!!!!

          • Anonymous

            Which means you still have to shut down your current OS to run it. That is not something some people would call a solution.

          • Anonymous

            LOL so true.

          • http://www.corbindavenport.com/ Corbin Davenport

            Android x86 works wonderfully in VirtualBox.

  • http://twitter.com/zc456 Squeaks

    Android 3.0 Honeycomb applications running on netbook with Ubuntu. Hell yes!

  • Anonymous

    Isn’t this what WebOS has been talking about the last few days? Oh well we’ll find out tomorrow.

  • Anonymous

    Isn’t this what WebOS has been talking about the last few days? Oh well we’ll find out tomorrow.

  • http://tomslominski.net/ Tom Slominski

    That phone looks fat ;/

    • Anonymous

      It is fat…

  • Anonymous

    So, any idea when this will be ported to Ubuntu (GNU/Linux)?
    There are some android apps that could be very useful for desktop users.

    • http://twitter.com/me4oslav Georgi Karavasilev

      Yeah my laptop is jelaous to my phone for the Facebook and Twitter apps.
      I just can’t get used to gwibber, pidgin and empathy.

      • http://twitter.com/explodingwalrus Carl Draper

        try Hotot in place of Gwibber for twitter.

      • http://twitter.com/explodingwalrus Carl Draper

        try Hotot in place of Gwibber for twitter.

        • http://twitter.com/me4oslav Georgi Karavasilev

          I tried Hotot, but it is the *only* application that runs slow as hell on my laptop, why dunno.

    • http://twitter.com/toetjesman henk de vries

      well, meego == Linux so i guess they will

  • http://twitter.com/mickstep Michael Stephenson

    This will be awesome on meego phones, when one eventually hits.

    • http://twitter.com/beirvn Ben

      I really hope this meego phone thing finally happens at MWC next week.

      • Anonymous

        yes you will have some devices to play.
        and some announcements to be made :-)

  • http://twitter.com/DarthScape Kyle B

    Wouldn’t it be great if you could have a Dashboard widget layer like Mac, but instead of widgets, have android apps, all running on Ubuntu.

    • http://twitter.com/scottrosenquist Scott Rosenquist

      Compiz has a widget layer. And I’m pretty sure you can set any window to show on that layer. Meaning this SHOULD be possible.

      • http://twitter.com/MotionShot Heimen Stoffels

        That, plus Kubuntu/KDE has a widget dashboard too, so indeed it should be possible. But I guess KDE gets it first, ’cause KDE has native widgets+Google widgets+Mac widgets support, so I have a feeling KDE would get this first too.

  • Anonymous

    Angry birds on my netbook? Count me in.

    • Alaukik

      You should see other alternatives(http://www.thethinkingblog.com/2011/01/angry-birds-alternative-games-online.html).

      i personally like demolition dude.

    • Anonymous

      Angry birds for PC runs fine in wine.

  • Anonymous

    well i hope this extends to “other linux” platforms (meego, webOS, ubuntu, etc.) and not to emm.. “windows phone 7″

    • http://jamesgecko.com/ James

      Why? You don’t think that one common app format that ran on all smart-phones would be awesome?

      Nevertheless, probably not going to happen with Windows Phone 7 or iPhone. Microsoft wouldn’t want to give people reasons to switch to another platform, and Apple won’t allow a 3rd party App Store alternative or apps that don’t fit in well with the rest of the iPhone platform.

      • Anonymous

        actually msft would love to steal android’s thunder

        • http://jamesgecko.com/ James

          I did not say otherwise. However, they prefer to lock people into a single platform. Making it easy to write cross platform applications is a strategy which does not mesh well with their brand of market dominance.

  • Anonymous

    This would be great, as I’d love to be able to use the Android Slingplayer in Ubuntu (Slingplayer just sucks in WINE, and it gets broken whenever one upgrades WINE).

  • Anonymous

    This would be great, as I’d love to be able to use the Android Slingplayer in Ubuntu (Slingplayer just sucks in WINE, and it gets broken whenever one upgrades WINE).

  • Anonymous

    This would be great, as I’d love to be able to use the Android Slingplayer in Ubuntu (Slingplayer just sucks in WINE, and it gets broken whenever one upgrades WINE).

  • http://davidmburke.com/author/admin/ Bufke

    A long time ago people were talking about Android apps running on Ubuntu. Haven’t heard any progress since 2009.

  • http://twitter.com/conorsulli Conor O Sullivan

    Canonical have a similar idea, I wonder if this will breathe new light into it :-p :

    Android Execution Environment

    https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Specs/AndroidExecutionEnvironment

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_FX5ITOLLHVNOY673XBRGCKF3DI Freddi

      The Myriad solution might be nice for the Myriad group to get well-earned money for their hard work, but it will never be shipped in Ubuntu as default.

      That’s why Canonical has to consider an open Android Execution Environment, so that Ubuntu (including Wine) will be one of the most compatible software platforms.

    • http://twitter.com/r_mo Stephen Armitage

      I hope so, I was pretty disappointed when that project didn’t go anywhere.

  • Akshat Jain

    Andubuntu 13.04 Rampaging Robot

  • Wayne

    What about iOS (namely iphone/ipod touch)???

    • https://login.ubuntu.com/+id/epQd8JY jmcs

      Apple doesn’t allow third party frameworks on iOS.

    • https://login.ubuntu.com/+id/epQd8JY jmcs

      Apple doesn’t allow third party frameworks on iOS.

  • http://twitter.com/stewieX One Geek To Another

    So much for this plan. Nokia has apparently cancelled their only upcoming MeeGo phone, possibly with plans to court Windows Phone 7 as its replacement. http://www.informationweek.com/news/mobility/smart_phones/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229209165&cid=RSSfeed_IWK_All

    Hopefully the Myriad Group will now focus its efforts on Ubuntu.

  • http://twitter.com/thecosmicfrog Aaron Hastings

    ‘Myriad Alien Dalvik’ will be made available commercially…” – awww… :/

  • Dominic Hasford

    There is no Nokia phone that runs Android, no? It’s Symbian (my fav mobile OS) or Meego. Unless it’s the N900 in the picture, that makes sense.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Vlad-Spatariu/100001603089218 Vlad Spatariu

    Am I the only one that thinks of Java as a very sluggish and “Fat” language and that the Google folks made a mistake mixing it deep in Android? Just a thought though, don’t get on my neck guys. :)

  • http://twitter.com/brandenmikal branni

    hopefully this will be how the implement android apps on chrome os. i hope so; loving chrome os so far and the fact that its based on ubuntu! :)

  • http://twitter.com/brandenmikal branni

    hopefully this will be how the implement android apps on chrome os. i hope so; loving chrome os so far and the fact that its based on ubuntu! :)

 
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