bootdroid: April 2012

Let's be honest with ourselves, the App Store, the features, the gestures; just the iOS platform in general is a clean and simple yet professional mobile platform used and loved by millions of people each waking minute. Samsung can make as many commercials as they want about the iPhone not having certain features, but even I would trade all of that in for the famously well known iOS platform. Not only is it universally compatible with it's fellow Mac OS when it comes to syncing and transfers, but also somewhat compatible with Windows as well. It's the type of software that's got everything and enables you to get almost anything through it's majorly successful market, the App Store. So what's stopping you from getting this unique gift that Steve Jobs has so kindly given to the world? Well for starters, it could be the expensive hardware that Apple tends to overprice on launch; or even an upgrade that you not eligible for till 2015. Maybe it's even the fact that you love your monster 4-inch Android screen with a sleek unibody that Apple's devices lacks. Whatever the reason being, my job is to try and bring the experience of the selfishly unique operating system to the palm of the hand of the Android user.

Sadly, this isn't the only problem we are facing today and for the coming weeks. As you all may have heard, we are at the border of copyright laws, tempted to step over. Although a release is in our grasp, we simply can't step over that border and we won't step over that border. The team and I are 100% against illegal activity of any sort and we have whole-heartedly agreed that we will not cross that border. So let me make this clear for whomever cares to quote: We will not be releasing the final product of bootdroid, or any builds for that matter, if it means crossing the lines of international copyright law or any law what so ever. Now, saying that, for every dark day there is a light that shines brighter than the rest. We have come to far to stop now and give up all the progress we've made within the last couple of months. We are not going to scrap this project. In fact, we are going to do the exact opposite.

I don't know if you guys are familiar with software like Parallels Desktop or VMWare Fusion, but the basic idea behind it is bring the Windows experience to the Mac by virtually simulating the complete Windows OS with full features and compatibility. You're booting Windows on a Mac. Now, this has been a fairly successful process because like Android OS, the Windows Operating System is so customizable when it comes to displaying itself on different types of hardware and utilizing the processing power, whether it's weak or strong. Sadly, Apple's iOS platform is un-customizable to the fullest. They basically made it compatible with four different screen sizes, that fall under two separate categories (retina display and original display). Now, if there were to be an Android device with the same antenna-model as the iPhone, the same screen size, processing power, camera resolution, ect.. then our lives would be very easy when it comes to porting the iOS platform to that device (besides Apple's intelligent protection, which is what they use to patch Jailbreak exploits and and prevent application piracy). So although a full featured port would be nice, Apple simply doesn't give us the option for customization like that.

All bad news so far, I know, but we're getting to the good stuff. That last paragraph ended off on a note. A full feature port is out of the question until Apple decides to go
open source with their mobile platform, but don't hold your breath. That's not gonna happen any time soon. Now our new addition to the team, Matt, has brought us the idea of a semi-port. It's basically the same thing as a port, but a lot of recreation is required which makes that project a tad bit harder because only one of us is a Photoshop fanatic. For all of those that think a semi-port is a downgrade from a full featured port, we ask you to think about it for a second. A full featured port would be great for games, and since it already has the C language built in, there is no need for any system creation or application simulation; but many issues can occur, such as the screen might be stretched, the graphics might blurred and your system might not be able to handle your processor. A semi-port kinda defeats all of this in a single strike. Since all of the displays and configuration is custom, many less bugs will occur. It's kinda like the software "Crossover" by Codeweavers. The only issues we might come into contact with is simulating the games and iTunes transfer. All of this stuff is under strict protection that may void a certain copyright law to fix, but we'll take a more "in-depth" look at that later. In the end, we will not settle for less. We will deliver to you the full featured iOS platform one way or the other.

For now, process all of this in your head. We are working on getting the sites back up, but we want to continue this project with much precaution. We do appreciate your patience though. We agree that this is taking a long time to complete, but development on a scale like this never happens within a few weeks.

Long live bootdroid.