BlueStacks Android emulator expands to Windows XP and Vista

If you’re still holding on to your ancient Windows XP machine and you’ve got a hankering to try out the impressive BlueStacks app emulator, today is your lucky day. The software is expanding support to older Windows versions, XP and Vista, and it already supported Windows 7. Other than the expanded platform support there isn’t much new, since the premium version and the OS X version are still in development.You can download the software from their website.

BlueStacks got a lot of attention when they debuted their Android emulator, which allows quick and easy access to free Android apps. Users can also move apps from their Android phone to BlueStacks on their computer using a software portal. The performance isn’t great at the moment – you’ll need a powerful computer to run games smoothly – but the ability to run Android apps relatively painless ly on desktop hardware is alluring. It’ll only become more so as Windows moves into the tablet realm with Windows 8.The software is already showing up on at least one ViewSonic tablet.
AMD agrees. The processor company invested 5.6 million dollars into the company to spur its development, and help create a viable base of touch-enabled apps for x86 netbooks and tablets. With all this interest comes some very exciting times for BlueStacks – we’ll probably be seeing them at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. We’ll be on the lookout for more feature and platform updates.

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AMD invests in BlueStacks to bring Android apps to Windows tablets

Android and Windows users had something to cheer about last week when start-up BlueStacks released the first version of their Android emulation software, which makes running and syncing Android apps on Windows easy. Now hardware giant AMD and virtualization software maker Citrix are investing 5.6 million dollars into the small company, hoping to spur development and expand x86 hardware’s capabilities to include the wide range of Android apps. BlueStacks says that they’ll use the cash to quickly bring feature-complete versions of its Player software to desktop computers.

The potential for BlueStack is promising to say the least. Windows doesn’t have a lot of touch-optimized software at the moment, and with the tablet-friendly Windows 8 on the horizon, that’s a definite handicap. Opening up Windows and other desktop operating systems to hundreds of thousands of Android apps can only help, and considering that x86 tablets tend to be 2-3 times the price of current Android slates, it wouldn’t pose a threat to Honeycomb or upcoming Ice Cream Sandwich tablets. Not only does BlueStacks run Android software on Windows, it can also sync apps with users’ phones, though this early in the development cycle the selection and support is rudimentary at best. The Pro version, which will run paid Android apps, is expected before the end of the year.




AMD could use whatever help it can find at this point. The company has been trailing behind Intel in the processor market for years, and while its Fusion low-power netbook chips have been well-received, they’re still not making a significant dent in the desktop market. Both AMD and Intel are having trouble finding traction in the tablet market, with ARM processors being the internals of choice at the moment. Citrix, a professional virtualization company that already supports the iPad and Android tablets, is also investing in BlueStacks.
[via SlashGear]

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BlueStacks App Player brings your Android apps to Windows

Have you ever used a particularly great app and thought, wow, I wish I had this on my computer? No? Well, now you can anyway. Kidding aside, the applications for the new BlueStacks App Player are pretty enormous: more than a simple Android emulator, it allows just about any Android app to run full-screen on a Windows computer. Even more compelling, users can sync selected apps between their computer and their phone or tablet.


The uses today aren’t all that obvious. After all, Android is a touch-based environment, whose support for precise mouse and keyboard input is sometimes tenuous. But as touch interfaces find their ways onto more and more full-sized machines, the usefulness of BlueStacks will increase. Consider that with the BlueStacks App Player installed, the touch-enabled all-in-ones from Dell and HP instantly become 20-inch+ Android tablets capable of running Honeycomb apps… all without affecting the flexibility and power of Windows. Think about it: if implemented correctly, an $800 Windows 8 tablet could have access to hundreds of thousands of touch-based apps on day one.








Unfortunately, BlueStacks doesn’t have direct access to the Android Market. Instead you download apps from the company’s database or “push” them from your phone or tablet.The service is still in its early stages and does not have paid apps or an OS X version. The company is focusing on games and RSS reader-style apps and marketing its software directly to computer makers, no doubt hoping that a built-in selection of Android apps will help spur consumers as more and more Windows-based tablets hit the market. You can download the early version of BlueStacks for free right now.

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