How possible is it to port over android 4.4 kik-kat?

[riklaunim]

Android is certainly possible on the Raspi - it just needs a lot of work that the Foundation is not willing to put in, as Android does not have any benefit to the educational side.

More than 200 million devices per year quarter sold. Nice platform (if you like Java) to create applications, education applications too It's an global consumer operating system available on insane amount of devices that will dominate mobile and portable device market for years to come. You won't reach many if you won't be on devices that everyone has. Enforcing the whole Raspberry project to one device (SoC) IMHO isn't a good idea.

Many kids now know how to use a tablet, and are surprised that a CRT doesn't do anything when they touch the screen. Cheap tablets are now plain toys for kids (wherever it is good or bad).

[tigger2014]

Sideloading any old APK isnt a good idea i agree, but sideloading the PlayStore along with related services is perfectly safe, and then you can use the Play Store, posting 2 links as your response is a little useless when you don't choose to pick some text to accompany them.

[fruitoftheloom]

Trevd1234 or whoever wants to answer, forget my recent posts and just answer one question:

What unique features does Android Kit-Kat offer ??

[riklaunim]

Android in general has apps, SDK and a lot of developers willing to write apps for low power/low computing power devices. Although Raspberry Pi SoC is bit low-end even for Android it may start some process of reaching the mass market by "Raspberry Pi" as a brand, apps, idea.

I'm playing with linuxium Xubuntu on RK3188 dongle. It works, Libreoffice just works, but it won't give gaming, or even decent HTML5 video (GPU/VPU not support/lacking binary blob...). All the fun is on Android.

[fruitoftheloom]

Android in general has apps, SDK and a lot of developers willing to write apps for low power/low computing power devices. Although Raspberry Pi SoC is bit low-end even for Android it may start some process of reaching the mass market by "Raspberry Pi" as a brand, apps, idea.

I'm playing with linuxium Xubuntu on RK3188 dongle. It works, Libreoffice just works, but it won't give gaming, or even decent HTML5 video (GPU/VPU not support/lacking binary blob...). All the fun is on Android.

Apologies but the comment above, equally applies to an Android TV Stick, please
will someone inform me what unique features Android Kit-Kit offers ?

Put it another way, if I run Raspbian and OpenElec what do I gain by also running Android Kit-Kit ?

[jamesh]

I don't know why the Android stuff stopped - I think it got beyond the stage where it could be a skunk works job, and therefore needed paying for!

But I will check to see if there were any technical hurdles that were apparent.

[redhawk]

Put it another way, if I run Raspbian and OpenElec what do I gain by also running Android Kit-Kit ?

I have no doubt Android can run on the Pi but when put against Raspbian and OpenELEC I don't think it really has much to offer apart from novelty value given it's old processor and lack of RAM.

Nevertheless I can see the following possibilities (some of which I maybe wrong about):
-Angry Birds and other limited Android apps that don't require ARMv7.
-Better YouTube player
-No Neflix, Hulu or any other DRM based video service
-Better browser but no Flash Player support due to lack of ARMv7 processor (can use cloud based browsers as alternative to Flash Player i.e. Skyfire and Puffin).
-Skype (although I suspect this may not work properly and would also require external audio capture device)
-No access to Google Play Store (but apps can be side loaded as already mentioned)
-No access to Pi Camera
-No access to GPIO port
-No access to MPEG-2 and VC-1 hardware codecs even if you have purchased license key
-Limited USB hardware support (drivers much be cooked into ROM first you cannot simply install drivers like traditional Linux)
-APKs easy to unpack, tweak and repack to remove undesirable behaviour in applications
-Needs 512MB RAM and thus may not support older 256MB Pi.

If you're serious about Android then buy a ready made HDMI Stick / BoxTV they're cheap and pack a lot more power than the Pi.

Richard S.

[jamesh]

OK, got the information re: Android from Eben, there were no technical reasons why the work stopped, it was more a problem with having to maintain two different firmwares, plus the time to develop it. If you can get Android going with the current firmware that would be great.

I don't know why it required different firmware, probably 'just the way it was at the time'.

[jamesh]

Android in general has apps, SDK and a lot of developers willing to write apps for low power/low computing power devices. Although Raspberry Pi SoC is bit low-end even for Android it may start some process of reaching the mass market by "Raspberry Pi" as a brand, apps, idea.

I'm playing with linuxium Xubuntu on RK3188 dongle. It works, Libreoffice just works, but it won't give gaming, or even decent HTML5 video (GPU/VPU not support/lacking binary blob...). All the fun is on Android.

Apologies but the comment above, equally applies to an Android TV Stick, please
will someone inform me what unique features Android Kit-Kit offers ?

Put it another way, if I run Raspbian and OpenElec what do I gain by also running Android Kit-Kit ?

Why do you need unique features? Linux has no real unique features over other OS's for example, it's the packaging that what counts. For some people, Android's feature set, non-unique though it may be, may be the feature set they want.

[fruitoftheloom]

So basically because someone can and will port Android they will do it................

OK fair enough, I will carry on using my Android Certified Tablet as it will not be replaced any time soon by the Pi.

No more comments, I am now happy, this subject has been done to death over the last 2 years and will be flogged for several more...

[jamesh]

So basically because someone can and will port Android they will do it................

OK fair enough, I will carry on using my Android Certified Tablet as it will not be replaced any time soon by the Pi.

No more comments, I am now happy, this subject has been done to death over the last 2 years and will be flogged for several more...

It's not the result, it's the journey.

[redhawk]

Does anyone what happened to this - http://www.raspberrypi.org/android-4-0-is-coming/ by Naren ??

Naren has been working on a port of Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) to Raspberry Pi, and as you can see from the screenshots and video below, he’s been making great progress. Hardware-accelerated graphics and video have been up and running smoothly for some time; AudioFlinger support is the only major missing piece at the moment.

Richard S.

[joan]

What's that old saying about the last 5% of the work takes 95% of the time.

[jamesh]

Does anyone what happened to this - http://www.raspberrypi.org/android-4-0-is-coming/ by Naren ??

Naren has been working on a port of Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) to Raspberry Pi, and as you can see from the screenshots and video below, he’s been making great progress. Hardware-accelerated graphics and video have been up and running smoothly for some time; AudioFlinger support is the only major missing piece at the moment.

Richard S.

That is the Broadcom guy who was working on it. See my posts above as to why it was abandoned sidelined.

[redhawk]

I don't suppose getting the source released from Naren would be possible (unless it contains proprietary code)??

I apreciate this is a far from complete copy of Android but it may provide some insight on how to cook Android ROM for the Pi.

Is ICS/JB/KK possible with 256MB of RAM I don't have the 512MB Pi??

Richard S.

[jamesh]

I don't suppose getting the source released from Naren would be possible (unless it contains proprietary code)??

I apreciate this is a far from complete copy of Android but it may provide some insight on how to cook Android ROM for the Pi.

Is ICS/JB/KK possible with 256MB of RAM I don't have the 512MB Pi??

Richard S.

It's based on very very old firmware so it wouldn't work on a current Raspi. Not sure why it's not been released. Probably Broadcom copyright.