Smartcase allows iPhone users to run Android - video

YouTube

Watch On

The developer responsible for rigging an Apple Watch to run Windows 95 is back and this time he's smashed two of the smartphone world's giants together.

In a detailed blog post, Nick Lee, of New York-based product design and development studio Tendigi, unveils a new phone case that will allow an iOS-fitted Apple iPhones to run Google's rival Android system.

As Alphr explains, to make the "magic" cover, Lee made use of the open source nature of Android OS to modify its most recent software, Marshmallow, and allow it to run through a USB-C/Lightning Port connection.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

The whole thing is wrapped up in a chunky looking 3D-printed case. It's not sleek by any stretch of the imagination, but it features HDMI and USB ports, plus expandable Micro SD card storage.

Strictly speaking, the setup isn't an iPhone running Android as its operating system, says Mashable. "The iPhone is effectively being used as a surrogate display for the Android board," it argues, and the Android OS actually runs through an app, which is why there are one or two teething problems: the system is a little jittery and doesn't fill the entire screen, although overall everything seems to be in place and works.

Because this is effectively Android running inside the bounds of the Apple system, a tap on the iPhone's home button will bring users straight back to the iOS homepage they are familiar with.

"Here at Tendigi, we’re no strangers to putting strange operating systems on Apple hardware," says Lee. Who knows what we'll see next?