
Want to run iOS apps on your Android? Back this - shawndumas
http://the-palm-sound.blogspot.com/2011/08/want-to-run-ios-apps-on-your-android.html#links
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Xuzz
It's ambitious, but cmw can do it if anyone can. He already has most of the
bootloaders running in QEMU, and is making progress on the kernel. I'm not
sure that it would work for anything but an incredibly-slow demo on an Android
phone, but it would be useful on a desktop. Developers also benefit: you'd get
a fully correct emulator to locally test their apps, rather than needing the
often-incorrect simulators and x86 builds. It's not a trivial project, but if
it ends up working, it would be pretty damn useful.

(It's also not something Apple can shut down: you'd just download the iPhone
firmware file and run from that. There's no copyright infringement here, you'd
just be downloading publicity available files and running them on a different
"kind of device".)

Edit: I think this post title is a bit misleading. I'd say "Ambitious
Kickstarter project to run iOS in QEMU", since the side-effect of running on
Android is both likely useless and not really what it's about.

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Fizzer
Apple may not be able to shut it down, but I wonder if they would go after app
developers that use it.

Apple's terms forbid developers from releasing their apps outside official
channels. However, say I release my iOS app to customers using an emulator
running on Windows. Nothing is hitting an Apple device, so in theory they
shouldn't have any jurisdiction.

Is the mere fact that it's using Apple's APIs enough reason for them to kick
me out of the developer program, therefore pulling my apps from the app store
and my customer's devices?

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Xuzz
It's not "using Apple's APIs", though. It's emulating the hardware of an
iPhone, and then running an unmodified iOS on top.

Also, unless this thing (which is really intended as a development and
security testing tool, not a user-facing product) "takes off" (and even,
possibly, if it does), they will simply not care. I have apps in Cydia — hell,
I've written part of Cydia itself — and they have no issues (so far) with my
App Store apps. I really don't think they'll have a big issue with this. Maybe
they'll block it from the App Store, etc, but I doubt they'd do anything more
than that.

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wanorris
If it's redistributing iOS, this sounds like a simple, old-fashioned copyright
violation. That sounds like the kind of thing Apple would be likely to shut
down, and I can't really say that I blame them, even though this is a cool
idea.

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saurik
If you read Xuzz's comment up-thread, he specifies that you (the user)
download the firmware from Apple: this project does not require any
redistribution of any of Apple's intellectual property.

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JoshTriplett
Direct link to the Kickstarter project:
[http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cmwdotme/iemu-an-open-
so...](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cmwdotme/iemu-an-open-source-ios-
device-emulator)

~~~
idonthack
Thanks.

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uvTwitch
These guys are gonna get the fuck sued outta them; Asking for money is asking
for trouble.

Nice idea though, hopefully they open source the important guts before Apple's
lawyer-jackals pounce.

~~~
serge2k
Apple really doesn't have a leg to stand on, it's probably a violation of the
licensing for iOS but other than that what can they sue over?

and it's on github apparently <https://github.com/cmwdotme/QEMU-s5l89xx-port>

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mtogo
Please link to the original source.

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rbanffy
Wouldn't it be smarter to emulate at the API level instead of at the hardware
level?

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Xuzz
It would be if "running iOS apps on Android" was actually the goal of the
project, which it isn't. The goal is for easier debugging and security
research of iOS and iOS apps, being based on QEMU and running on non-desktop
platforms would just be a side effect.

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serge2k
I doubt they ever reach the point where they have enough performance to run
anything more than a very slow demo on an android device.

Replacing the simulator for iOS development is a nice goal though. It is okay,
but I found a couple bugs in it that were annoying.

