Live data from Hacker News

Cider Project: Run iOS apps on Android

engineering.columbia.edu

51–60 of 108 posts

Re: Cider Project: Run iOS apps on Android

#51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always read it as "Hacker" in the traditional sense of the term, not the alarmist media "OMG!!H4qq0r" sense of the word. Hacking used to simply mean programming.

"Hacking used to simply mean programming" Did it though? I thought it referred to finding creative solutions to problems that often incorporated programming. Was anyone really considered to be hacking if they were writing tic tac toe in Basic?

Of course. If you were the first to write tic tac toe in basic on the VIC-20, in the early 80's (or on something else in the 50's,etc)

Re: Cider Project: Run iOS apps on Android

#52
post #8

> "a new system that can run iOS apps on an Android device for the first time" We at Apportable (YC W2011) have been doing that for 3 + years in a much for commercially viable way. We strive for source compatibility and are not building an emulator that requires taking libraries from an iOS device.

But the focus is on games. I am developing an app that is not a game that makes heavy use of UIKit and core animation... When can I use apportable realistically?

We started with games and it's most of what you see on the site, but it's never been our only focus.

If you hit our sales team up at contact@apportable.com, we have product that is in beta that you could get access to that might work for you.

Re: Cider Project: Run iOS apps on Android

#53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or maybe, just maybe, someone who has spent this much time developing a VM for Apple's software architecture has a great skillset and would be a welcome addition to one of Apple's teams. The same exact thing happened to the guy behind ReactOS (an Open Source Windows NT replacement). The guy became /so/ familiar with Windows that he eventually got a job on the actual Windows Kernel team.

I don't get why hackers want to work at such large companies. If someone has over about 50 employees or about 10 million backing, I don't see what's interesting about it. edit (due to the downvotes): Sorry, this was an honest question. I've been working for about 15 years and have always been really put off by the institutional structure of large companies ... the constitution of them just doesn't work for the kind o…

Take the folks at Walmart Labs (http://www.walmartlabs.com/) for instance, NodeJS hackers working on the backend powering Walmart's mobile commerce. A small percentage of hackers will get a chance to work on problems and devise solutions at the sort scale they work on.

You certainly won't see similar challenges if you limit your scope to companies with less than 50 people and less than 10 million in funding. Unless you are a founder or maybe a first hire that would seem to preclude you from almost any interesting company coming out of SV in the last 15 or so years.

Re: Cider Project: Run iOS apps on Android

#54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bigger paycheck, better benefits, better job security, less and more predictable hours, access to amazing tech.

Oh yes, what I call the "family argument" (work rules are different if you have a spouse and kid). I always forget about that one. Makes perfect sense. Sorry about that - it was pretty obvious.

You also have the time budget to do things correctly, unlike start ups.

Re: Cider Project: Run iOS apps on Android

#55

there are all kinds of cool iOS apps that they cannot run, like iTunes and iMessage Really? iTunes is cool? I'm yet to see someone who likes it, including my friends who are big time iOS fans.

I doubt they mean iTunes the desktop application; the "music" player on iOS is called "Music.app".

As far as iTunes as a main music library manager; it's very, very good (though iTunes 12 has soured me on it a bit).

On , which is known it's users having tens of thousands of FLAC file libraries, iTunes still rates pretty decently among people running OS X.

Re: Cider Project: Run iOS apps on Android

#56
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh yes, what I call the "family argument" (work rules are different if you have a spouse and kid). I always forget about that one. Makes perfect sense. Sorry about that - it was pretty obvious.

You also have the time budget to do things correctly, unlike start ups.

that was definitely one of my motivations for joining a large company.

Re: Cider Project: Run iOS apps on Android

#57

Can Apple can stop the research team releasing the source code? The research project was partly funded by NSF grants, so does that mean the public have the right to see all work related to the project? I ask because the lead researcher, Jeremy Andrus, is now employed by Apple and wrote this on the YouTube video: "I have started a job with Apple, and will not be continuing work on this project. The team at Columbia wi…

> The research project was partly funded by NSF grants, so does that mean the public have the right to see all work related to the project?

For better or worse, no. NSF funding brings requirements for data sharing, but does not automatically trigger code availability.

Re: Cider Project: Run iOS apps on Android

#58
post #5

... we reused existing iOS frameworks and libraries in our approach, avoiding the difficult and complex reimplementation effort of Wine. Cool, but it's against Apple's EULA to run the iOS binaries on non-Apple hardware, so unfortunately this project suffers from the same problem as emulators that require you to acquire the original firmware somehow.

The EULA isn't all that important actually. It's the copyright. It's illegal to distribute copyrighted software without permission.

As long as they don't distribute that copyrighted code or derivations of that code then they should be okay. The end user then has to find a legal way to get a copy of that code.

Re: Cider Project: Run iOS apps on Android

#59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bigger paycheck, better benefits, better job security, less and more predictable hours, access to amazing tech.

Oh yes, what I call the "family argument" (work rules are different if you have a spouse and kid). I always forget about that one. Makes perfect sense. Sorry about that - it was pretty obvious.

Startups are stressful whether you have a family or not. It's understanding why someone wouldn't want to be involved. For better or worse, if you're not interested in making waves, bigger companies usually offer nicer work environment for their employees. There's less stress, less drama, and more comfort. Emotions are much milder and perks are much more significant.

Re: Cider Project: Run iOS apps on Android

#60

Here's a comment from this project's creator on the demo video ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uaple0Ec1Dg ): I have started a job with Apple, and will not be continuing work on this project. The team at Columbia will probably be doing some follow up work, but I won't be involved from here on out. So basically Apple has tried to kill or at least slow down the release of this to the public (he's obviously talented,…

I think if Apple wanted to kill this they could just C&D or sue them or something. They probably wanted this guy for his actual skills.

Yeah, but then they look heavy handed and the cost is probably relatively similar. Not to mention that they get the net gain of the skills.

It seems highly likely that Apple has some interest in protecting their brand. Part of the whole "Most amazing phone we've ever made" is the implication that the things you can do on iPhone can't be done on commodity hardware. This would undermine that in a way.

To say there is no way they would hire instead of doing a C&D if that was the motive is really silly. We don't know why they did it, but we can basically assume they know he was doing that before the hiring process.

Post reply on HN