You may not get tired of hearing the same iOS vs. Android argument, but Nick Lee is. The CTO of Tendigi, a mobile design and development studio in Brooklyn, who is quite famous for putting kinky and wacky operating systems on various Apple devices, such as running Windows 95 on an Apple watch. And this time, he did something which is even more insane. He ran a full-fledged version of Android on an iPhone. And to do so, all he needed was a special, 3D printed smartphone case.
First of all, Lee bought himself a board and cloned the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) and decided to build a custom version of Android Marshmallow he could run on that board. Then, he 3D printed an enclosure size of an iPhone, and combined it with the board, a boost converter, a battery, and resistor to create a lightweight case.
Initially, it was pretty bulky and looked like a brick. However, Lee was able to make an enclosure not too much larger than a smartphone battery case after slimming down the design. SD card slots, as well as HDMI and USB ports, were also included.
In the video, he seems to boot Android with the help of a custom Tendigi app on the iPhone’s home screen. The iOS app is used to interact with the case and load the customized Android on an iPhone 6S’s display. The process took many days, and it’s not something practical the consumer can use. However, it’s quite an amazing proof of concept to see another OS to run on the iOS platform. However, Lee could build a sleeker version of the case for the consumer if there was interest.
