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2

Personally, I own an iPhone. However I would love to see the Android UI. I know a person who does have an Android, but never see it enough. I'd really love to have a good emulator that non-developers can use just to test out the Android UI. Is there any sort of apple app, Mac app, or non-developer tool out there to run the Android UI? Thanks!

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4  
Just Wondering, What's wrong with the SDK's emulator? – Power-Inside Jan 20 '12 at 4:21
1  
Maybe its too slow. – roxan Jan 20 '12 at 4:54

4 Answers

up vote 13 down vote

Try Android x86 as a virtual machine on Virtual Box. this is by far the best working android I have seen...

  1. It has the basic, default Android UI.
  2. It is fully functional.
  3. It works 4 times faster than my HTC Sensation

Android X86 ISO files: http://code.google.com/p/android-x86/downloads/list

How to install it: http://dev.blogs.nuxeo.com/2011/10/speeding-up-the-android-emulator.html

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Can you connect this to the Google or Amazon App Stores? – Joel Coehoorn Feb 4 '12 at 3:37
You can install Android Market, just google "android vending apk", download an apk, in console type "adb install filename.apk". This is not certain to work without crashes since the market apk was designed to work with ARM processors, but if you'll be persistent enough you can find a stable enough market version. – Rotemmiz Feb 4 '12 at 9:23
up vote 10 down vote

Have you given the Amazon Appstore's Test Drive feature a try? Super simple, runs in most browsers - simply find an app in the store for which Amazon has Test Drive available then click the big green Test Drive button (a list of Test Drive apps is here). Once you have a Test Drive session open click the home button on the bottom of the emulator to access the homescreen then voila, Android!

FWIW I personally don't think the SDK emulator is a bad choice even though it is developer-focused. Quick and easy instructions are at How To Geek if you're interested.

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Yeah, you don't need to be a developer to install the Android SDK and run the emulator. Most of it's done through a GUI, too. – Konklone Jan 25 '12 at 1:06
up vote 1 down vote

There's an iOS app called Dreamboard that allows you to use the Android UI on your iphone/ipod . It's just a launcher that changes the theme so as to give you a feel of how the Android UI looks like. Please note that, inorder to download this app, you should jailbreak your iOS device. I currently have this app on my ipod touch, downloaded from AppCake(which i downloaded from Cydia after jailbreaking my device)

Here's a video link: Dreamboard in action

Hope this helps.

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up vote 1 down vote

If you are still searching the best solution would be Bluestacks. Its vey fluent and does not lag.

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