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Get ‘Yer Chromebooks Ready! The CrossOver Android Preview Drops Tomorrow.

Uploaded By Jana Schmid on 2016-08-23 13:48:12

FINALLY!!!! We have arrived at the cusp of Androidism. It’s taken us two years, nine months, two weeks, and a day to get to this point in the process. At by this time tomorrow, CodeWeavers will release the Tech Preview of CrossOver Android to the select users who signed up for initial access. Over the past two years, nine months, two weeks and a day, the product has changed and changed and changed again all in the hopes of somehow being useful on Android devices.

Think about this…When this development started, there were few, if any, Intel based phones. When this development started, there were no Intel based tablets. There was no X86 Android project. There were no Intel based laptops or clamshells. Our development team essentially built a solution for a problem that could not be solved or fixed. At best, they were building a hypothetical solution to prove that it could be possible to run Windows based applications on an Intel Android device. It’s like Henry Ford building a car for a population that didn’t have roads; or Thomas Edison creating a light bulb for a population that didn’t have electricity. And yet, here we are…

Allow me to clearly state that like the first Model T’s and the very first light bulbs, CrossOver Android is far from perfect. It will run a very limited number of Windows applications (some because they just aren’t supported yet on Android and some because Android doesn’t / won’t support them at this time). The former implies that our support isn’t good enough, yet. The latter implies that Android does not have some key components, like OpenGL, to run some Windows applications. AND there is a point to make that some devices just doesn’t have the RAM, disk space, or processing power necessary to run a Windows application. And some devices, like phones, just don’t have the physical screen necessary to make running a Windows application all that appealing. Needless to say, your ‘mileage’ as to how useful CrossOver Android will be come tomorrow will vary.

So what do you NEED to know to make the CrossOver Android Tech Preview as useful as possible for you at this time?

First, you need to confirm that you have an Intel based device. The CrossOver Android Tech Preview will not run on an ARM device. It will not run on an ARM device. It will not run on an ARM device. Understand, I’d give an eye tooth for CrossOver Android to run on an ARM device because, let’s face it, that’ roughly 90% of the market today. Unfortunately, our tech just isn’t built that way. We hope to have ARM Android support sometime next year, but it's far off on our technology roadmap.

Second, you need to know where to find CrossOver Android. The .apk will be available on the Google Play Store. You will need to have provided us your Gmail address (the same one you use for the Google Play Store) to be added to the Technology Preview. We will then e-mail you a link tomorrow so that can ‘opt in’ to our Beta. We think that it's best for us to present CrossOver Android in the Google Play Store and most convenient for our end users.

Next
, you need to know how to best install it on your Chromebook. We have an awesome tutorial on exactly what you need to do to get this to work on a Chromebook. Get the CrossOver Android on Chromebook Tutorial Here. Note that on a Chromebook that process takes approximately an hour to complete (this includes the time required to put your Chromebook in Developer Mode). On an Intel Android device, the process is much quicker.

Additionally, you can find out more about CrossOver Android on our CrossOver Android Webpage.

Finally, you need to have an open mind. The first Model T didn’t race down the highway at 100 MPH. The first light bulb didn’t last for 2000 hours before burning out. CrossOver Android is a Tech Preview. It does some very cool things. It does run Steam. It does run Office 2010. It does run Wizard101. It does not run EVERY WINDOWS APPLICATION KNOWN TO MAN. 

The Top 3 Reasons We Let Kids of CodeWeavers Play Wizard101

So be patient with us. We ARE committed to making the software better and better and better with each passing release. And maybe someday, CrossOver Android will race down a highway at 100 MPH. Who knows??? When we first started development, we didn’t even have a target device in mind (and look at where we are today!!!). When we move from Tech Preview to possibly an Alpha and then straight to a Beta and then to Release Candidate and then to version 1.0, who knows what we’ll be capable of doing? Heck this Androidism thing might just be the start of a technology revolution. We may all be on the front lines of the NEXT BIG THING. (I should probably trademark Androidism now while I have the chance). 

Microsoft Office on Chromebook Coming in our Next Tech Preview

AND… this is your last call to sign up for the Tech Preview of CrossOver Android. Once released, we will put all new names on a
list for access to the Beta when that is released. You can sign up for the Tech Preview of CrossOver Android here.

About James B. Ramey
J
ames B. Ramey is the CEO of CodeWeavers. His life long love of video gaming started at the tender age of six with an Atari 2600 and evolved over time to include Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Apple Mac IIc, Windows PC, and MacBook Pro. When not fiddling with technology, James enjoys cooking, travel, debating politics in the office, and spending time with his wife, daughter, and their two rescue dogs. For the past 20 years, James has worked with clients around the world in best implementing technology to maximize a return on their investment. He is a graduate of Moorhead State University and earned his MBA from the University of Phoenix. You can find James on Twitter at @jbramey.

The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

Sweet!
Just that.
Sweet!

This is awesome!!!!

I'm afraid you forgot to mention that at the moment only Asus Flipbook, Acer Chromebook r11 and the 2015 Pixel support Android apps.
Thus, if I'm not wrong, you dont need just a generic Intel chromebook, but you specifically have to use one of those 3 laptops.
Is this correct?

Really looking forward to the top of the dough, I have a USB device "ASUS fonepad, 8 S. E." on the processor Intel Atom Z3530 64-bit x86, Android 5.0. 😊

Hi
First of all, geat work this could be awesome...
Ok, I have an Acer c270p. Has 4 gb ram & touchscreen
Already in dev mode cause I've installed 128gb ssd drive.
BUT it's not supported by Google for Android apps
Therefore I cannot run apk. File, does your system get around this somehow,?
Or do I have to wait and see if Google update this machine kernel.

Regards
Sb.

Apparently if your Chromebook is not on Google's list of supported machines you are looked out of the play store. Oh well, there's still Crouton with WINE.

I have two questions.

  1. Is this based on Wine?
  2. What is minimum Android version?

Thank you for answer.

Please, what are the minimum hardware requirements? Will it run on any mainstream intel android tablet with 1GB ram?

Well, potective can Express flaws: 1)No support for sd card, and this is extremely important and necessary! 2)not a single app or game I couldn't run my PC to my tablet, only those that are offered by the software and you need to download and buy for the most part. 3)No configuration of the controller control.
P.S. I certainly understand that this is an alpha version, but need a program which supports sd card(sd flash card) and which supports my apps for PC a games.

Anyone have an apk? I want to see if you can run it on a Chromebook which doesn't have the Play Store.

@ g.p. pellegrino

At this time, you are correct for Chromebook. However, Google will be adding more devices that meet the Intel requirement within the next couple of months (maybe sooner). AND (big AND) CrossOver will run on many Android tablets that have Intel processors. So, its not really an oversight on my part as more and more devices are coming and we do run on other Android / Intel devices right now.

@ Stuart Binning

Yes, you may have to wait until Google flashes the machine kernel. Because we're using the Google Play Store as the distribution point for the .apk, I don't see a solution around this yet.

@ Bob D

Yes, there is crouton with WINE. We're the WINE guys (the developers supporting WINE) so we're very familiar with that solution too.

@ Shunsuke Yara

Yes, this is based on WINE.
The minimum Android requirements are an Intel Processor and Android 5.0 or newer.

@ Roberto Costa

Minimum hardware requirements are Android 5 or greater; Intel processor; 2 GB RAM is preferred (but it might run on 1 GB - the Windows application you are trying to run may not run great as a result); and about 80 MB of disk space.

@ elvineo

No support for SD Card YET! That's a feature we believe is coming soon and is critical because of the size of Windows applications. It's just a very difficult problem that we are working to fix. There is a very limited number of games that work on the tablet. You do understand Android has zero support for OpenGL? And we're still working to make this better? Sso not all games are going to work. But I think we do have configuration of controller support as I believe that does work (at least it does in Linux)

And I do question whether or not you understand that this is a Tech Preview. It's pre-Alpha. We plan to continue supporting more and more features and more and more Windows applications in the coming weeks and months.

Running on an HP Revolve 810 G2; Intel i7-4600 12gigs ram 256Gb SSD with touch.
OS: Remix OS for PC's Marshmallow; Antutu score for system 186900.
Tested a few home brewed apps no issue so far so good, will test further in the next few days with other mainstream apps.

This can run on any x86 computer running Android.

Androidx86 project installed to a lot of system. I personally am running Remix OS for PC's but there is also Phoenix OS which people like as well.

So no it is not just for Chromebooks it is for any x86 PC running Android.

Hello. Here's the situation...

  1. I had signed up for the Crossover Preview and am on a Intel Chromebook but access to "Dev" channel is blocked by admin.
  2. I do have a rooted android phone(so was planning to take the apk after the download form Play Store) and put it on the chromebook but my phone is also not supported because of ARM processor.
    Is it possible to get emailed the apk of the the crossover(as i already signed up for the preview/beta and i don't want it to go to waste).

Thank you,
Aatreya

yes this works very well on x86 android/remixOS....
its very fluid for my used apps thus far:
i have tested and use Flash player 22.0 for firefox under this on remixOS as i dont loggon to windows anymore, MS office works well including the WPS office and obviously OO 4.x, adobe acrobat XI also works brilliantly...
I installed some apps that required use of Runtim libraries(c++2005/08/10/12/13/15 all install correctly), .Netframework 4.6.2 and directx 2010 work!
....most portable apps/suites work flawlesly, ccleaner works all versions i tested
games i tested and seen working:
ubisoft scrabble international,crazy taxi3,Brian lara international cricket 2007 opens and FC,
BUT THIS IS VERY GOOD CONSIDERING ITS AN ALPHA....i can even access my amain storage/NTFS drive mounted under RemixOS as SDCARD(2TB) and install apps to it and use portable apps from it!
...online streaming is not laggy using flash player via firefox, sound is perfect no glitchy either!

I have an Asus Chromebook C100P Flip. It has a Rockchip 3288-C processor which I think is ARM based. Is that correct? I already have the Play Store running on it.

James Ramey wrote:

@ Stuart Binning

Yes, you may have to wait until Google flashes the machine kernel.
Because we're using the Google Play Store as the distribution point
for the .apk, I don't see a solution around this yet.

Could there be a way around it using something like ARC Welder? I've heard that is a method people were using to get android apps on their chromebooks (I had a friend who was running android apps on their C720), and I was wondering if you could get around it that way?

Signed but havent got the .apk link to install!!!
i am running Remix OS for PC on a dell desktop

I'm disappointed to see that my Nexus Player from Asus isn't listed as supported in the Play Store. Is there a reason for that? It's an x86 Android device with a Atom Z3560 on Android 7.

Unable to use the app

Test version of this application has not been released, or if this account can not use the application.
If you are invited to participate in the test, make sure that you are invited to log into the beta account. If you are invited to participate in the test program Google Groups or Google+ Communities, make sure that you have joined the respective Groups or community.

https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.codeweavers.cxoffice

i sign up,i don't see CrossOver Preview on play store

Hii

Unable to use this App, please guide.

If this ever gets to the ARM side of the market, I'd love it. There are some programs that just don't have a good (or even crappy enough to be workable) alternative on mobile. It might me a stretch to hope for ARM support, and I know it would have more bugs than a bikers smile, but I'd give it a shot to see if it works.

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