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Wha.... really? http://www.bluestacks.com/apps... [bluestacks.com] runs fine on windows with an emulator.

Expecting the banhammer to come down hard on those doing GPS spoofing with Pokemon Go running in an emulator, currently they're getting softbans if they move about too far

Wha.... really? http://www.bluestacks.com/apps... runs fine on windows with an emulator.

Oh you mean windows phone can those run programs yet or does it still just look similar to windows?

What if... Windows 10 would also run Android apps? Perhaps without the Google frame work and with a different store, but essentially the same apps?

You already can do that. In fact, the app has the seventh largest Android user base, beating companies like Xiaomi and Sony.

So, why can't I run Android Apps on OS X (assuming I have downloaded that dangerous OS), or Windows (again, assuming Java Support has been installed)?

Because you haven't head of BlueStacks? Or possibly the apps you want to run don't run stably in that environment. Back to Java: Java's just a language. It can be compiled to bytecode for various VMs (or even to native code), and the language itself doesn't guarantee compatibility between those VMs. Another example: If I write a library in C and compile it on GNU/Linux, it will use glibc as the C library. If I compile it for Android/Linux, it will use Bionic as the C library. Same language, same OS kernel, different environments built on top of them.

(this sound like the great shareware days of the 90s - and we moved on for a reason (tucows et al.))

Millions of people still flock to "shareware" sites like Tucows and Downloads.com (Now a part of the c|net family). If you mean by moving on Tucows main business is now an ISP wholesaler to resellers who need a web presence but don't want to hire an entire web team and running a wildly popular MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) Ting as well as domain registration and services to help a business build an online presence then yes they've moved on.

To keep this post on topic how is this different than Bluestacks? I've been using it forever to run Android apps on my PC. I've heard people pan it for being buggy but I've never had any problems with it.

Actually that was the goal of the AndroVM project. Unfortunately, that project became the commercial Genymotion project and the goal doesn't appear to be desktop integration, but instead a developer tool. You can use it to run apps, but I don't see any specific integration features.

Otherwise, there is BlueStacks, but it runs on Windows and Mac, but not Linux.

What they are talking about is running Android apps from within the windows environment. Ala Bluestacks or the like. That's not so unreasonable, especially with the push towards touch enabled displays.

Heck, you probably don't have any idea what you're talking about either

You mean like http://www.bluestacks.com/ or http://www.socketeq.com/? Yeah it's been done. Also an implementation of the android vm is also on Blackberry. Though none of these systems can access the Google Play store or the Google infrastructure.

I've been running BlueStacks on my laptop for over a year now. And with their port to ARM Windows RT devices should be able to use it as well.

Actually if you are running Windows or MacOS you just need Bluestacks.

You'll be able to use ANY Android app...that's tweaked for our service and available in our store. There'll be dozens!

You joke, but after running Android x86 on an old windows tablet I was absolutely amazed at the number of apps that worked on ARM devices only. Some basic things like pdf readers were not available.

Having run my own apps in the iPhone/iPad simulator, I can say it's nowhere near as good as the real thing. And apps on 'the real thing' are usually nowhere near as good as they would be on my desktop, except for portability and touchscreen-specific features. I have no desire for a solution that combines all the downsides of both PCs and portable devices.

Admittedly, there is the rare phone app that, for no obvious reason, has no match on the PC, but even rarer is an app that would be worth the inconvenience and inevitable compatibility issues that would come from using a shim-ulator like this. And for those, why not just... use your phone?

Unfortunately, if this takes off (and I can't really imagine it will), it would only encourage lazy developers to build compromised designs that work passably on phones and PCs without taking advantage of the unique strengths of either. It would be another decade of the same write-once-suck-everywhere that Java and Flash brought us.

And for all of you, who I'm certain aren't interested in the slightest, here's my dramatic reading of the announcement:

[The new hotness will] allow the more than 500,000 mobile apps to run on your PC

*based on our estimate that soon all PCs will be Windows 8 multi-touch tablets—Steve Ballmer said so!—and all Android developers partner with us.

'What's special about the player on AMD-based products?

We call it: "Vendor lock-in!"

There are many challenges with running apps that were originally designed for phones or tablets on a PC that in most cases has a larger screen and higher resolution display

Likewise, there are many challenges with using the Mario Kart wheel to control a 747.

To solve this, BlueStacks has designed and optimized the player for AMD Radeon graphics and in particular, our OpenGL drivers found in our APUs and GPUs so you get a great 'big-screen' experience.

To solve this, we use only pink Mario Kart wheels, and in particular, pink wheels covered in our proprietary glitter for the best possible experience.

Additionally, the apps are integrated into AppZone, our online showcase and one-stop-shop for apps accelerated by AMD technology.'

You'll be able to use ANY Android app...that's tweaked for our service and available in our store. There'll be dozens!

BlueStacks has achieved some incredible momentum

We think it will revolutionize the whole software market, just as CrossOver made Windows a thing of the past!

It's in the works - check out Blue Stacks which is an Android player for Windows that doesn't rely on emulation. I haven't tried it yet, but it sounds pretty cool.

seeing how simple it is to set up the Android qemu/kvm based SDK in a virtual machine on Linux, I don't know if that itch is really very scratchy.

BlueStacks got over $10m funding, so some people think it's a good idea. It should be really easy to do, too - all the source required is open and already runs on Linux/Android, it just needs porting to Linux/desktop.

please tell us more about this debian chroot solution.

http://www.mayrhofer.eu.org/debian-on-android http://www.saurik.com/id/10

You could already do that.

Well, more or less. It's a port of the Android libraries to a Windows JVM, which is sufficient to run many/most Android apps (much like what RIM are doing). It's not a port of Android itself. But it does run Android apps in windows on your desktop (or fullscreen).