Table of Contents
[hemmerling] Google Android 5/14 - Simulators, Skins, Operating Systems, System Images
Related pages:
- Google Android:
Tips for Simulator Firmware Selection
- “Consider using a system image with Google APIs to enable testing with Google Play Services”
.
Free Android Emulators
Android Emulator
- Emulation of Android smartphones is ok, emulation of Android tablets is slow ( due to the higher performance level of these devices ).
- Graphics Configuration:
- If your Win8 or Linux computer really provides OpenGL2 graphics, you may operate the simulator with default setting “Emulated Performance - [x] Use Host GPU”.
- But if your Win8 or Linux computer just provides OpenGL1 graphics, as my Win8 PCs “ASUS Eee PC T101MT” and “Dell Vostro 1000” notebooks with standard Windows drivers by Microsoft, you are lost:
- If you try to operate the simulator with default setting “Emulated Performance - [x] Use Host GPU”, the Android Simulator crashes by the error message “APPCRASH”, “Fault Module name: libOpenglRender.dll”.
- If you operate the Android simulator just with the setting “Emulated Performance - [ ] Use Host GPU”, you may just run Android applications on “API 1” level.
- If you try Android applications with a higher API level, e.g. “API 15”,
- The Android desktop screen is not displayed but just black screen with “android” in white letters.
- When executing “Run / Device Chooser / Choose a running device / Compatible” again, there is the error message “No, minSDK(API 15) > deviceSDK(API 1)”, if “minSDKVersion 15” is set in the project configuration file “app”.
- For Win8-32-bit PCs with 2GB of physical RAM and another 2GB virtual memory,
- With the default settings of “Nexus 5 API 23”, the emulator stops by the error message “emulator: WARNING: Requested RAM size of 1536MB is too large for your environment, and is reduced to 1152MB. Cannot set up guest memory 'android_arm': Invalid argument”.
- You may operate Android simulation with 343MB, 512MB or even 768MB simulated RAM.
- I still don´t know if is advisable to decrease the default simulated RAM of simulated devices with “big” RAM ( e.g. 1024MB, 1536MB RAM ), or instead to prefer a simlated image with “low” RAM ( e.g. 343MB RAM ).
- Error message:
Your emulator is out of date, please update by launching Android Studio: - Start Android Studio - Select menu "Tools > Android > SDK Manager" - Click "SDK Tools" tab - Check "Android SDK Tools" checkbox - Click "OK"
- It doesn´t help to increase the virtual memory of the Windows host computer...
- The simulator' camera doesn't work on Win8.1. Calling the camera is aborted by the error message “Unfortunately, camera has stopped”.
- The user may check manually for Notifications ( as the simulator provides an unmodified desktop application as known from hardware smartphones, in opposite to some other Android simulators ).
Andy Android Emulator -> Android 4.2.2
- The free Android emulator Andy Android Emulator for Win-32bit, Win64-bit and MacOSX.
- If you load the website with a Win-32bit, you get a download offer of the Win-32bit edition of the software.
- On my notebook “Dell Vostro 1000” with AMD XP3600 CPU and standard Windows graphics drivers shipped with Win8.1, “Andy_v45.5_63” installs, but doesn´t start properly: The application never appears on the screen
.
- If you load the website with a Win-64bit, you get a download offer of the Win-32bit edition of the software.
- Easy access to “Google Play” by preinstalled GAPPS app.
- File sharing between simulator and host.
- YouTube "How To Move Files Between Windows And Andy Emulator" - “The process of moving files between Windows and Andy has changed in Andy NEW Version .41”.
- Please create the a directory “Shared” in the directory “C:\users\<user>\Andy\”, e.g. C:\users\Administrator\Andy\”. By this directory “C:\users\<user>\Andy\Shared”, e.g. C:\users\Administrator\Andy\Shared”, you may share files between the Windows computer and the Android smartphone at ”/sdcard/Shared/Andy/Shared”.
- Android Central Forums "Android Emulator - You may now run any android app directly from your desktop" - “Unlike bluestack (if you know this product) it has access to any google play app and runs very smoothly”.
- The simulator' camera is properly working on Win8.1.
BlueStacks
The Tool
- The nagware Android emulator BlueStacks for Windows.
-
-
- “BlueStacks 2.7.320.8504” featuring “Android 4.4.2, SDK 19”, is one of the latest BlueStacks2 versions, as of 2017-07.
-
- FileHippo "BlueStacks App Player 2.7.320.8504" - The latest, and working BlueStacks2 release.
- FileHippo "BlueStacks App Player 3.56.76.1867"- The latest BlueStacks3 release.
Support
- Reddit "BlueStacks" - “The official subreddit of Bluestacks”.
-
BlueStacks Support "Solution for 'BlueStacks feels slow'"- “If you have further questions, please write to us at support@bluestacks.com”.
Contacts App
- While with standard Android OS, there is a “Contacts” App. There is no such App with BlueStacks.
- BlueStacks keeps the “Contacts” data in its “Settings”.
- For BlueStacks2 including BlueStacks 2.5, there is a shortcut App “Settings”, displaying a gray gearwheel icon.
- It is just a shortcut, you can´t save it as APK file on the file system.
- However, with BlueStacks 2.7 ( of 2017-07 ) and BlueStacks3:
- The contacts are now available by the “Settings” App, section “BLUESTACKS SETTINGS”, item “Manage Contacts”.
- There is no shortcut App “Settings” anymore, with a fresh BlueStacks 2.7 or BlueStacks3 installation.
- If you upgrade from BlueStacks 2.5 to 2.7, you keep this shortcut App “Settings.
Migration of Apps & Data with BlueStacks Updates
A
- The upgrade from one BlueStacks release to a newer release is by deinstallation and re-installation. The deinstallation process presents you 2 modale windows.
- Step #1 “Are you shure that you want to uninstall BlueStacks App Player?”.
- Step #2 “Do you want to keep all your apps and data? Note: This might take some space on your system depending upon app data size you currently have”.
- I failed to install BlueStacks2 by a Windows network drive.
B
- reddit "r/BlueStacks", "Bluestacks multi instance manager not opening after reboot" - Description of backup & restore process.
Keyboard Shortcuts
- F10 - “While playing a game, toggle slider on the left to enable keyboard controls (hot key F10). Click on keyboard icon to edit default or custom keyboard controls”.
- CTRL+Scroll wheel - “While playing a game, use CTRL+Scroll wheel for pinch and zoom”.
- “WSAD” Keyboard mapping to mouse movement ( suggested at the window top ).
- The Windows clipboard may not be used to paste data to an Android terminal ( CTRL-V doesn't works at Android Linux shell ).
- CTRL+SHIFT-H - “Game Controls” ( UP, DOWN )
Disabling Ads with BlueStacks 5
- On 2023-01-30, with the forced mandatory update to “BlueStacks 5.14.22.1003 N32”, now there is first-time ever, an advertising banner at the left side of the application window.
- BlueStacks Support " How to disable ads in BlueStacks 5", 2022 - “Under the 'Preferences' tab, click on the toggle button next to 'Allow BlueStacks to show Ads during gameplay'”.
BlueStacks 2.7
Copy + Paste
- Please use the BlueStack button “Paste” at the right side of the application frame. If you use CTR+V, the Windows clipboard is copied twice into the text input aear of your Android application. It doesn´t matter if you set the clipboard by CTRL+C from Windows host or from inside an Android app. So:
- “ABC” by Paste button “ABC”.
- “ABC” by CTRL-V “ABCABC”.
How to enable non-English Keyboard with BlueStacks 2.7
- As with BS2.7, AFAIK, you may not use “German” keyboard while system language is “English”.
- Settings:
- “Settings / Language & Input / Language” = “Deutsch ( Deutschland )”.
- “Settings / Language & Input / Keyboard & Input Methods / Default”.
- “Settings / Language & Input / Keyboard & Input Methods / Default / Hardware - Physical Keyboard” = “Off”.
- By some reason, this setting is often reset to “On”, after a fresh boot of Windows and so a fresh load of BS. Then the Windows language settings indicator at the right bottom of the desktop is set to “ENG” .
- “Settings / Language & Input / Keyboard & Input Methods / Default / Deutsch - Android-Tastatur (AOSP)”.
- Even with proper settings, sometimes the graphical Android keyboard is displayed on the Android smartphone screen ( and takes 1/2 of the space ). Sometimes you may use the German keyboard without the display of the graphical Android keyboard.
Graphics mode
- You may select the graphics mode at any time at “Preferences / System”, “Graphics mode ( DirectX, OpenGL )”. Default graphics mode ist “OpenGL”.
BlueStacks 3
- BlueStacks Support "Solution for 'BlueStacks feels slow'" - “If you have further questions, please write to us at support@bluestacks.com”.
-
- As of 2017-09, BlueStacks3 is laggging in “OpenGL” graphics mode on my i7 Win10 computer with Nvidia 740m graphics card, as if the computer runs on 8 Mhz. Solution: Switch to “DirectX” mode.
-
- By default, bluestacks stores its data in “C:\ProgramData\Bluestacks\Android\SDCard.vdi”. However, you may have it pointed to a different directory.
- Once you have “SDCard.vdi”, now you need to be able to access the files in it. And DiskInternals, ltd. "Freeware Linux Reader for WindowsGet access to any files from Windows" is up to the task. A nice little freeware tool, open it up and go to file → mount image, select the .vdi type, and point it at “SDCard.vdi”.
- You may select the graphics mode at any time at “Settings / Settings / Engine”, “Choose graphics mode ( DirectX, OpenGL )”. Default graphics mode ist “OpenGL”.
- If you operate your Win10 computer with BlueStacks in “OpenGL” mode, sometimes - after using another 3D application like a modern computer game, operation seems to be “frozen”, i.e. especially “slow-motion” of keyboard input - Input of a single character might take 1 minute. Solutions:
- Shutdown your computer ( “off” ). Maybe this helps ?!
- Switch to DirectX mode. This helps!
Bluestacks 4
- StackOverflow "Turn on developer options in bluestacks" - “In Bluestacks, go to Settings → Preferences → Enable Android Debug Bridge (ADB)” ( at the BurgerMenu of Bluestacks user interface, not at the “system apps” settings within Bluestacks simulator ).
Bluestacks 5
- Shipped with operating systems, either:
- EN.Wikipedia "Android Nougat", DE.Wikipedia "Android Nougat" ( Android 7.0, API 24 ).
- EN.Wikipedia "Android Pie", DE.Wikipedia "Android Pie" ( Android 9, API 28 ).
- BlueStacks Support "What to do if you see an 'Update BlueStacks settings' pop-up on BlueStacks 5" - “Launch BlueStacks X and install the game again”.
Bluestacks 10 ( Discontinued in late 2024 )
Data Transfer
- Windows PC ⇒ Bluestacks 4
- Just move Windows files to Bluestacks, e.g. running WhatsApp. You will then find the files in the Bluestacks ( Android ) file system.
- Bluestacks 4 ⇒ Windows PC
- Option #1:
- At the “File manager app”, select a file.
- Select at ”:::” the menu option “Share” ( “Teilen” ).
- Select “Save on file manager” ( “Speichern auf Dateimanager” ).
- At the “media manager” app, select one or more files. At the top of the screen, a button “Export to Windows” ( “Export zu Windows” ) appears.
- Click on the button “Export to Windows” ( “Export zu Windows” ) and select a directory of the Windows PC file system. You may create new directories, but you are limited to the local PC, you can´t save the files in the Windows network.
- Option #2: Use Adobe Document Cloud.
Resources
- Bluestacks requires that Microsoft Hyper-V is disabled. If Hyper-V is enabled, Bluestacks refusesd to start by the error message
Microsoft Hyper-V is enabled on your system. Please disable it to use BlueStacks. VT-x/AMD-v Hardware accelleration is available on your computer, but it is not turned enabled
- If you want to open a free support ticket at BlueStacks, you are asked for the BlueStacks software version.
- At the top of the start page of the BlueStacks website, there is the message “v2.5.61 for Windows”. The appropriate form for support request of the BlueStacks software version is “2.5.61.0000” ( so version with 4 digits built number ).
- At installation, you may configure the datapath ( default: “C:\ProgramData” ), however even if you configure a user-specific datapath, the following directories are created, filled with data and used:
- “C:\ProgramDataBlueStacksSetup”.
- “C:\ProgramDataBlueStacksGameManager”.
- “C:\ProgramDataBlueStacksSetup”.
- BlueStacks Support "How to Find BlueStacks Version Number?" for Windows - “Hover the mouse over the BlueStacks icon in the Windows System Tray / Notification Area at the bottom right corner of your PC's screen”.
- After some little time of use, the emulator refuses access to the PlayStore and displays a nag screen
To continue using BlueStacks Purchase App Player Premium <Buy Now> or Please help us find good apps <Try these apps>
- BlueStacks Support "How to Find BlueStacks Version Number?" - “Hover the mouse over the BlueStacks icon in the Windows System Tray / Notification Area at the bottom right corner of your PC's screen”.
- tom's guide "How to Run Android Apps on a PC Using Bluestacks" for Windows and MacOSX.
- Easy access to “Google Play” by preinstalled GAPPS app.
- At installation, you may configure the datapath ( default: “C:\ProgramData” ).
- You may install APKs:
- By drag+drop from Windows desktop to Android desktop.
- By the button “APK” which opens a file selector for the Windows filesystem.
- By “Settings / Bluestack Settings / Import windows files”.
- You may deinstall apps:
- By “Settings / Bluestacks Settings / Manage applications”.
-
- Get a Terminal emulator:
- Enter at shell command prompt:
- “getprop ro.build.version.release” → 4.4.4 for KitKat.
- “getprop ro.build.version.sdk” → 19.
- Notifications are played with sound at the moment of alarm, while the notification symbol ( Triangle with ”!” is displayed in the Notification area. There is no storage or queuing of notifications. There is no silent alarm, about which the user may just be notified by checking the Notifications.
- The simulator' camera is properly working on Win8.1.
- The simulator has a built-in screenshot function, which may be executed by the “camera” button of the simulator's user interface ( not of the GUI of the Android operating system! ).
- Screenshots must be processed manually directly after shooting:
- You may “send” the screenshot image to Windows( “Send to Windows” ), i.e. you are asked to save the image in the Windows filesystem, by a modale file selector window, of Windows.
- You may upload the screenshot image to some online services.
- But you may not store it on the Android filesystem.
- Images taken with the camera app shipped the operating system are visible at ”/sdcard/DCIM/Camera/”, e.g ”/sdcard/DCIM/Camera/IMG_20160527_183924.jpg”.
- How To Copy Data From BlueStacks To PC?
- BlueStack Support "How To Copy Data From BlueStacks To PC?" - “BST shared folder on Bluestacks 2 is mapped to windows, and can be accessed at the following location on your PC”
/storage/sdcard/windows/BstSharedFolder
on Android and either
C:\ProgramData\BlueStacks\UserData\SharedFolder
or
<user-defined-installation-path>\BlueStacks\UserData\SharedFolder
- BlueStacks3:
C:\ProgramData\BlueStacks\Engine\UserData\SharedFolder
or
<user-defined-installation-path>\BlueStacks\Engine\UserData\SharedFolder
</code>
-
- Play on a BlueStacks Nougat 32-bit instance.
- Play on a BlueStacks Nougat 64-bit instance.
- Play on a BlueStacks Pie 64-bit instance.
Droid4X -> Android 4.2.2, SDK17
The Tool
- The free Android emulator Droid4X for Windows and MacOSX. Unfortunately, there is no full download, but just download of an installer.
Resources
- You may install APKs:
- By drag+drop from Windows desktop to Android desktop.
- By “Settings / APK Install”.
- Easy access to “Google Play” by preinstalled GAPPS app.
- The Windows clipboard may be used to paste data to an Android terminal ( CTRL-V works at Android Linux shell ).
- “WSAD” Keyboard mapping to mouse movement ( suggested at the help screens ).
- File sharing between simulator and host, by “Settings / Share folder”.
- Warning: At each start of “Droid4X 0.8.7 beta”, existing installations of “VirtualBox” ( e.g. necessary for “Xamarin Android Player” ) are uninstalled.
- By this, the application aborts, at “80%”. With next call, the application starts properly.
- If Xamarin Android Player is called next time, it fails to start and claims a network ( configuration ) error. As the VirtualBox Manager was deleted, the network settings of Xamarin Android Player may just be configured after re-installation of VirtualBox.
- On my notebook “Dell Vostro 1000” with AMD XP3600 CPU and standard Windows graphics drivers shipped with Win8.1, “Droid4X” hangs at start at “80% progress display”.
- The user may check manually for Notifications ( as the simulator provides an unmodified desktop application as known from hardware smartphones, in opposite to some other Android simulators ).
- The user interface of the simulator supports visual zooming by “CTRL” and Mouse-movement.
- The simulator' camera doesn't work on Win8.1. Calling the camera is aborted by the error message “Runtime error. No Activity found to handle Intent {act=android.media.action.IMAGE_CAPTURE(has extras)}” and a button labeled “End Application”.
Genymotion for personal use
The Tool
- The Android emulator Genymobile "Genymotion", a Java application for Windows, Linux, MacOSX, shipped in a VirtualBox.
- Once, in 2014, there was a free limited “freemium” edition. Nowadays, in 2015, you may just download the software entititled to be the “premium” edition. But indeed, without applying special commercial licencse, the download is entitled to be the “freemium” edition, i.e. “Genymotion for personal use”.
Resources
-
- “What are the VirtualBox versions compatible with Genymotion? To run virtual devices, you must install Oracle VM VirtualBox 5.0.4 or above. Genymotion might run with older versions of Oracle VM VirtualBox but we cannot guarantee it”.
- “Why does an error message state that VirtualBox is not installed whereas I have successfully downloaded and installed Genymotion?”.
- “On Windows: the Oracle VM VirtualBox installer 5.0.4 is packaged within the ready-to-run Genymotion installer. Make sure you have downloaded and installed this package”.
- “Why doesn't Genymotion run on Windows 10?”.
- Genymotion insists on deinstalling existing VirtualBox installations, but installs VirtualBox 5.04 instead.
- Without software activation at each, the software is inoperable. At “Setting / Account”, the status “Not authenticated” is displayed.
- To activate “Genymotion” by using the free personal licence, you must
- Create an account at Genymobile.
- Login by “Setting / Account ” - “Sign in”. By this, the status at “Setting / Account” is modified to “Signed in as XXX”.
- Genymotion is shipped with a “droid4x” Android image. After all, I was not able to start it. The start is aborted by the error message “Unable to start the virtual device”. Any help is appreciated.
- The user may check manually for Notifications ( as the simulator provides an unmodified desktop application as known from hardware smartphones, in opposite to some other Android simulators ).
MEmu -> Android 4.2.2
The Tool
- The free Android emulator MEmu for Windows for Windows, as of 2016-01 shipped with Android 4.2.2.
Resources
- You may install APKs:
- By drag+drop from Windows desktop to Android desktop.
- By the button “APK” which opens a file selector for the Windows filesystem.
- Easy access to “Google Play” by preinstalled GAPPS app.
- The “MEmu Market” is in chinese language only
- On my notebook “Dell Vostro 1000” with AMD XP3600 CPU and standard Windows graphics drivers shipped with Win8.1, “MEm” aborts by the error message “The version of OpenGL is too slow. Please upgrade the graphics driver and restart”.
- Notifications are played with sound at the moment of alarm, while the notification symbol ( Triangle with ”!” is displayed in the Notification area. There is no storage or queuing of notifications. There is no silent alarm, about which the user may just be notified by checking the Notifications.
- The simulator' camera is properly working on Win8.1.
- Images taken with third-party cam Apps are visible:
- In the Android filesystem at ”/mnt/sdcard/Pictures/”, e.g ”/mnt/sdcard/Pictures/app_inventor_1464345815996.jpg”.
- In the Windows filesystem at “C:\Users\Administrator\Pictures\MEmu Photo”, e.g. “C:\Users\Administrator\Pictures\MEmu Photo\app_inventor_1464345815996.jpg”.
- Images taken with the camera app shipped the operating system are visible at ”/mnt/sdcard/DCIM/Camera/”, e.g ”/sdcard/DCIM/Camera/IMG_20160106_230157.jpg”.
- The simulator has a built-in screenshot function, which may be executed by the “camera” button of the simulator's user interface ( not of the GUI of the Android operating system! ).
- Screenshots are visible:.
- In the Windows filesystem at “C:\Users\Administrator\Pictures\MEmu Photo\Screenshots”, e.g. “C:\Users\Administrator\Pictures\MEmu Photo\Screenshots\Screenshot_2016-05-27-21-33-40.png”.
- But not in the Android filesystem.
MIT Android Inventor 2 -> Android 2.2
The Tool
- A free Android emulator is shipped with the “MIT Android Inventor 2” for Windows, Linux, MacOSX → See Google Android 6/6 - App Protoyping.
Resources
- Android Developers "Android 2.2 APIs" - “API Level: 8”.
- The simulator' camera doesn't work on Win8.1. Calling the camera is aborted by the error message “Sorry! The application Camera (process com.android.camera) has stopped unexpectedly. Please try again” and a button labled “Force close”.
Visual Studio 2015 Community Edition
Windroye -> Android 4.4.2
The Tool
- The free Android emulator Windroy "Windroye" for Windows, as of 2016-01 shipped with Android 4.4.2.
Access to Google Appstore
“Google Play”: No preinstalled GAPPS app, but GAPPS may be installed easily: Download the proper Google Play Services .zip file from Open GApps??.- As of 2016-05, I failed to connect with “Windroye 2.9.0” to the Google App store, by the error message “There was a problem communicating with Google servers”. Besides that, sometimes the modal error message appears “Unfortunately, the process com.google.process.gapps has stopped”.
Resources
- At installation, you may configure the datapath ( default: “C:\ProgramData” ).
- You may install APKs:
- By drag+drop from Windows desktop to Android desktop.
- By the menu item “Install APK”.
- By default, Android is configured to operate in Chinese language, but you may change the language and keyboard settings by “Settings”. Remember the language settings are those with the symbol “A”.
- On my notebook “Dell Vostro 1000” with AMD XP3600 CPU and standard Windows graphics drivers shipped with Win8.1, “Windroye” aborts the installation by the error message “OpenGL version must be 2.0 above!”.
- On my Win64 notebook, Windroye once installed and operated properly, but after a while it aborts at startup “Windroye fixed an error, please restart”. Maybe because “Client Hyper-V” was enabled on the system?!
- The simulator has a built-in screenshot function, which may be executed by the “camera” button of the simulator's user interface ( not of the GUI of the Android operating system! ).
- Screenshots are visible:.
- In the Android filesystem at ”/mnt/Pictures/”, e.g ”/sdcard/Pictures/windroye-screensh” ( in the Android filemanager App “ESD”, it looks as if all screenshots have the same name.
- In the Windows filesystem at “C:\Users\Administrator\Pictures”, e.g. “C:\Users\Administrator\Pictures\windroye-screenshot-1464343570.png”.
Xamarin Android Player -> Various Android Images
The Tool
- The free Android emulator Xamarin Android Player for Windows and MacOSX.
Resources
- “The Xamarin Android Player utilizes VT-x and AMD-V hardware accelerated virtualization and OpenGL 2.0 to provide fast boot times and a snappy, smooth user interface”.
- Requirements:
- “For OSX, Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1, the Xamarin Android Player requires VirtualBox 4.3.18 or higher, which will be installed or updated as necessary. For Windows 10, you must upgrade VirtualBox to version 5.0.2 or higher”.
- “A graphics card that supports OpenGL 2.0”.
- The Xamarin Android Player is shipped with a VirtualBox. If you already got a VirtualBox installed, You may abort the installation of the shipped VirtualBox and finish the installation of the Xamarin Android Player successfully, anyhow.
- Though there is no visible link, Xamarin uses an installed VirtualBox. You must setup network access by VirtualBox, manually.
- You may install APKs by drag+drop from Windows desktop to Android desktop.
- “Google Play”: No preinstalled GAPPS app, but link to GAPPS installation instructions: Xamarin University "Installing Google Play Services in XAP".
- Download the proper Google Play Services .zip file from Open GApps.
- After installation and online update: “Now you can run applications that depend on Google Maps in the Xamarin Android Player”.
- Operation on 32 bit hosts:
- On my notebook “Dell Vostro 1000” with AMD XP3600 CPU and standard Windows graphics drivers shipped with Win8.1, the 32bit edition of “Xamarin Android Player” aborts by the error message “OpenGL Error”.
- Btw, the available Android smartphones simulations are specified to have 2048 MB RAM, which is not useful for 32-bit hosts.
- XAMARIN refused to start when Hyper-V ( i.e. “Client Hyper-V” ) is enabled on your Win64 computer.
- The simulator' camera doesn't work on Win8.1. Calling the camera is aborted by the error message “Camera error. Can´t connect to the camera”.
- The simulator has a built-in screenshot function, which may be executed by the “camera” button of the simulator's user interface ( not of the GUI of the Android operating system! ). Screenshots are stored on the Windows desktop by names like “Nexus 4 (KitKat) API19 Screenshot 1.png”.
YouWave -> Android 4.0.4
The Tool
- The Android emulator YouWave for Android for Windows - “Runs Android apps and app stores on your PC, no phone required. Download thousands of apps online via app stores within youwave”.
- Free YouWave 3.3 edition ( Android 4.0.4 (ICS) ).
- Please select “Custom Installation ( Advanced )” and deselect:
- ”[ ] Install Ad-Aware Web Companion to block dangerous websites”.
- ”[ ] Set search powered by Bing(R) as my homepage, new tab, and default search engine on Firefox and Internet Explorer”.
- “Tuneup Utillities” - Please change from
- ”( ) I accept” to
- ”(x) I do not accept”.
- Commercial YouWave 5.4 edition ( Android 5.x ).
Resources
- The installation is refused by the error message
YouWaveAndroidSetup. Warning: Previous Virtualbox installation detected. If you have installed VirtualBox in your machine, YouWave cannot be installed. To install YouWave, you need to manually uninstall VirtualBox and delete the directory 'C:\Users\<user>\.Virtualbox'
Commercial Android Emulators
- AMIDuOS - “Try AMIDuOS for free for 30 days, buy it for only 15 EUR (Lollipop) odr 10 EUR (Jellybean)”.
Commercial Android Emulators as Online Service
Appetize.io
- Appetize.io - “Stream iOS & Android Native Apps in the Browser”.
AWS Mobile Services & AWS Device Farm
- AWS Console Mobile App - List of all AWS services for development, testing and distribution of mobile apps.
- AWS Device Farm - “Improve the quality of your iOS, Android, and web applications by testing against real mobile devices in the AWS Cloud”, “Start Testing Today. Your first 250 minutes are free”.
Manymo
- The Android emulator online service Manymo - “Manymo in-browser emulators appear like local emulators”.
- “Or sign up for our Free plan, which offers 10 time-limited emulator launches, one at a time, per month”.
Xamarin Test Cloud
- Xamarin Test Cloud - “Mobile app testing made easy. Automate your app testing on 2,000 real devices in the cloud. Build quality mobile apps quickly and with confidence”.
-
- Archive.org "LessPainful" ( - 2014-12-17 ).
- Blog Archive.org "LessPainful Blog" ( - 2016-03-10 ), last blog entry “Test engineering for Cross-platform. One of the promises of Calabash is cross-platform testing” ( 2013-03-28 ).
- Twitter "lesspainful, @lesspainful" ( - 2013-03-16 ).
-
Resources
Android Smartphone Skins
OpenSource and Commercial Android Operating Systems
OpenSource and Commercial Android Operating Systems for ARM Computers
ColorOS
- Oppo.
/e/OS ( formerly: Eelo )
Software
Hardware
Resources
- EN.Wikipedia "/e/ (operating system)", DE.Wikipedia "/e/OS" - “A fork of LineageOS”.
LineageOS ( formerly: CyanogenMod )
- EN.Wikipedia "CyanogenMod", DE.Wikipedia "CyanogenMod" - Aftermarket firmware and operating system.
Replicant
- Replicant - “A fully free Android distribution running on several devices, a free software mobile operating system putting the emphasis on freedom and privacy/security”.
OpenSource Operating Systems for ARM Computers
KaiOS ( formerly: Firefox OS )
- Mozilla Developer "Firefox OS", Mozilla Developer, Archive "B2G OS" - “B2G OS is (was) a complete, standalone operating system for the open web. It is an open source project developed by the Mozilla community and forms the basis of Firefox OS products. As of 2017 it is no longer maintained”.
Android Operating System Images for Android Emulators with HARM
- Intel.
- Windows Drivers for Hardware Accelerated Execution - Intel "Intel Hardware Accelerated Execution Manager".
- Images.
OpenSource and Commercial Android Operating Systems for x86 Computers
Android-IA
- 01.org - Intel Open Source "Android* on Intel Platforms" - Once in 2014 Intel announced to develop an operating system “Android-IA” also for standard x86 desktop PCS, but then canceled the project. Intel offers just an Android operating system for some special x86 hardware boards.
Android-x86
- The original OpenSource Android operating system Android-x86 - Porting Android to x86.
- Android-x86 - Porting Android to x86 "Download" of ISO images.
Console OS
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- Wiki Android-x86 Wiki.
- Blog Christopher Price.
- Google Groups "Android-x86", Thread "Console OS stole Android-x86", 2015-12-12 - “I decide to STOP development of lollipop-x86 entirely. We will focus on the marshmallow-x86 branch to make it stable as soon as possible”.
- CNXSoft - Embedded System News "Is Console OS just a Scam Based on a Fork of Android-x86 with Little Modifications?", 2015-12-13 - “Most notably, after our Kickstarter ended, Intel decided to abandon Android-IA for the PC. While we tried, and spent far more than raised via Kickstarter, to take on maintaining Android-IA… we realized Intel had simply cut back support too much”
Resources
Resources
- Special characters like ”@”.
- With Android simulators on Windows, with German keyboard at the physical host, you can´t enter some characters which require special keypresses, e.g. ”@” requires ALT-GR and “Q” to be pressed simulatiously.
- But usually you may copy it on the Windows host from an editor by CTRL-C and paste it at the simulator in the Android application by CTRL-V.
- Smartphone apps which require multi-touch are hard to use with smartphone simulators operated by keyboard & mouse, as mouse input is just single-touch input. So how about keyboard shortcuts just for smartphone simulators?
- Remember a car simulator with offers “gas” and “break” - if the screen distance is too big, you you can´t switch from “gas” to “break” by mouse operation immediately, as required.
- Remember a military flight simulator, with “target cross” and “fire button” as interactive screen inputs. With multi-touch, you may move the “target cross” with one finger, while you press the “fire button” on the screen with another finger. With single-input by mouse, you are lost. Really.
- alternativeTo "Genymotion" for AllPlatforms on Windows, Linux, MacOSX.
- alternativeTo "BlueStacks" for AllPlatforms on Windows, Linux, MacOSX.
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