
Project Sandcastle: Android for the iPhone - homarp
https://projectsandcastle.org/
======
chatmasta
Note this project is being run under the roof of Corellium, which was in the
news recently because Apple is suing them.

I’m really impressed with what this company has achieved and super excited
about their products. I hope they beat Apple!

~~~
Lammy
I wonder if this project is in part a hedge against Apple's legal attacks, as
in "our tech opened up Apple's locked hardware".

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willstrafach
Source code:
[https://github.com/corellium/projectsandcastle/](https://github.com/corellium/projectsandcastle/)

The backstory is also incredibly interesting:
[https://projectsandcastle.org/history](https://projectsandcastle.org/history)

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floatingatoll
The list of what hardware is supported on what phones is here:
[https://projectsandcastle.org/status](https://projectsandcastle.org/status)

As of right now, many functions are not available on any device: Bluetooth,
camera, cellular, GPU, sound.

The only devices with CPU support are the iPhone 7 and 7+.

~~~
saagarjha
And the new iPod Touch, apparently?

~~~
my123
Hello,

Yes iPod Touch 7 is part of the first wave of supported devices, and cost
compared to other options + it using the same A10 SoC played a role there.

Other devices will be supported soon.

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Etheryte
There's no denying the technical side of this is simply incredible. As a user
though, my personal (and probably very divisive) preference for the iPhone is
exactly because it is _not_ Android. Many companies make very solid phone
hardware, I don't think Apple is that far ahead in that regard, if at all. For
me, the isolation, privacy controls, and more on iOS are the reason to prefer
that over any Android phone. So while I have massive respect for pulling such
a technical feat off, I can't help but scratch my head when I see it.

~~~
etaioinshrdlu
Fascinating! I recently switched to an iPhone from 8 years of Android and the
iPhone hardware is amazing but I kind of hate iOS. I have reasons:

Siri can’t do basic tasks like turn on flashlight or wifi hotpot.

Voice recognition quality is much less accurate than Google's.

App store has poor search and filtering options.

App store fails to install apps and does not show errors.

Swipe typing is inaccurate compared to android. Gboard exists for iOS but it
is clunky: it pops you out of your current app frequently and sometimes the
default iOS keyboard reverts, despite Gboard being set to default.

No live wallpapers — boo! They’re fun. (iOS has them but they are video files,
not apps.)

No equivalent to Smart Lock on android where the device stays unlocked when
you're at home or when it detects you are carrying your device. Face ID,
therefore, needs to be used super frequently as a result, which doesn't work
well at funny angles or with the device in horizontal mode.

Possible bug: Battery won’t charge past 80% even when Optimized Battery
Charging is disabled. My device has literally never reached 100% despite
trying.

Safari is the unchangeable device default and I find it awkward to use with
many tabs.

I'm just one user, but I was shocked to learn how good I actually had it on
Android (Pixel 3 series.) I thought the grass was greener on the iOS side but
it wasn't a clear winner.

I am totally on the fence as to whether to keep it. I love the privacy focus
that iOS has but dislike the restrictiveness and features that make the device
slower to use. (The smart lock is a huge deal to me...)

~~~
scarface74
_Siri can’t do basic tasks like turn on flashlight or wifi hotpot._

Yes it can. I just did it “turn on the flashlight”.

It won’t turn on the hotspot, but, if you have another iOS device or Mac
within range, you can connect to one and it will turn it on automatically.

As far as your battery not going past 80%, why wouldn’t you take it to an
Apple store for repair?

~~~
etaioinshrdlu
I stand corrected about the flashlight. I also am pleased to learn in some
sense the hotspot is always available.

I think I will get the 80% battery checked out ! Thanks.

------
azinman2
I’m confused as to how this works.. this is something you install to replace
iOS (and if so, how.. a jailbreak like mechanism)? Or is this an OS inside of
an app?

~~~
aspenmayer
Sandcastle is using the checkm8[0] unpatchable bootrom exploit to allow
running unsigned secureROM arbitrary code with help from alloc8[1]. They then
load a modified pongoOS[2] to get device tree and load their modified AOSP[3]
from what I can tell.

[0] [https://github.com/axi0mX/ipwndfu](https://github.com/axi0mX/ipwndfu) [1]
[https://github.com/axi0mX/alloc8](https://github.com/axi0mX/alloc8) [2]
[https://github.com/checkra1n/pongoOS](https://github.com/checkra1n/pongoOS)
[3]
[https://github.com/corellium/projectsandcastle](https://github.com/corellium/projectsandcastle)

~~~
saagarjha
What does alloc8 (for iPhone 3GS) have to do with this? Also, what are their
modifications to pongoOS and why do they need them?

~~~
my123
Hello,

Upstream pongoOS is used for this AFAIK, without further changes needed.

However, the FDT from Apple device tree generator is currently basic and not
really ready for anything other than FB + display, so a custom device tree is
provided in the Sandcastle distribution.

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saagarjha
I’m curious why they chose iPhone 7 as the device to start with; iPhone 6
would have saved them the page size issues since it uses 4K pages.

~~~
luxuryballs
Probably had a recently retired iPhone 7 to use instead of their daily driver.

~~~
saagarjha
I would be _extremely_ surprised if Corellium didn't have a dozen of every
iPhone model hanging around ;)

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spondyl
Fortinet Web Filtering at my work has blocked this page under the category of
"Hacking" :(

I just submitted a re-evaluation and it was updated to... the hacking category

\---

Web Page Blocked!

You have tried to access a web page which is in violation of your internet
usage policy.

URL: [https://projectsandcastle.org/](https://projectsandcastle.org/)
Category: Hacking

