Android Apps on Windows?
From:
Microsoft is bringing Android apps to Windows 11 with Amazon’s Appstore – The Verge:
Microsoft says it’s using Amazon’s Appstore to bring Android apps to Windows 11. Apps will be listed in the new Windows store, and can be pinned to the taskbar or snapped alongside traditional Windows apps. Microsoft is also partnering with Intel to use its Intel Bridge technology to make this a reality, although the Android apps will still work with both AMD and Arm-based systems.
So, Android Apps on Windows?, not via the Google Play store though – would have been interested on being a fly on the wall assuming those conversations happened! We’re short of details, but this is an exciting play. Microsoft already has a development route to market for Android using it’s own plaforms (Xamarin allows code (almost) once development in C# using Visual Studio to develop cross platform mobile apps) so it makes sense to tie themselves further into Android having abandoned their own Windows Mobile platform.
Using the Amazon Store however is not an assumed simple move for existing Android apps, certainly there’s some hoops to jump through to migrate to Amazon and losing Google Play Services could mean platform changes of functionality losses.
I’m off now to research the Intel Bridge technology that they are using, news is a little thin but this quote from Engadget offers some suggestions;
Intel says Bridge is a runtime post-compiler that allows applications that were originally designed for a variety of different hardware platforms to run natively on x86 devices. The company points out the technology is part of its ongoing XPU strategy, which means it won’t be merely limited to bringing Android apps to Windows 11.
Probably not quite enough to get me to jump to Windows 11, not now that I’m all in on Apple Silicon! But If you’d like to know more about cross platform apps, mobile or otherwise, and how they could benefit your business then I’d love to hear from you.
About me
Andy Flisher is a Mobile App Developer based in the North East of England with over 20 years software development experience. He is available for hire and specialises in cross platform mobile app development, web applications, desktop software, bespoke cloud architecture solutions and providing outsourced project management services.
Parler, Free Speech and the case for moderation – but who should do it?
From: Google suspends ‘free speech’ app Parler – BBC News:
Google has suspended “free speech” social network Parler from its Play Store over its failure to remove “egregious content”.
It’s been a busy weekend for Parler, seeing themselves removed from Google Play, the Apple App Store, and having their underlying hosting services revoked by AWS. Effectively the ‘unbiased’ free speech advocating social networking platform is dead.
It should be said that I’m based in the UK, we have freedom of speech here, much like the US, and we have the same problems as much of the Western World does, the illusion that Freedom of Speech also provides Freedom from Consequence. It doesn’t and shouldn’t in my opinion, and nor does it offer you a guarantee that you will have a platform to share that speech. Prior to blocking the app Apple had warned them that they needed to moderate their content, the opposite of Parler’s goal, should Apple be able to dictate that? Possibly not, but certainly they do have the rights to remove the app, it’s their storefront.
Private companies such as Facebook, Twitter (who have both banned Donald Trump over last weeks events at the Capitol) can choose who can and can’t use their services, there is no given right to access, which is what has led to services like Parler springing up, promising no bias, and full freedom (as is their right) – but as they have discovered – there are other private companies further up the chain who have rights to choose what traffic and content goes through their systems. Of course these private companies are also subject to external pressure, political, social, religious and more, but ultimately they have power over your ‘Freedoms’ and some people are not happy about this.
For me I’m in the camp that if it’s got to the point that your hosting provider says your content is bad, then it’s better off unseen. There are other hosting providers, if they aren’t happy either then maybe you should take the hint.
I won’t miss Parler