The iOS simulator is great for testing websites locally on various Apple devices. Is there an Android equivalent?
I've tried Android studio, but I seem to have to build a device every time (unless I'm doing it wrong). I'm mainly concerned in seeing the sites in the default Chrome browser (Version 53, 59 etc).
What are you trying to test? An app or a website? If you have to "build a device" every time, you are doing it wrong.
The device emulator that you are using in android studio is the intended way to run android without a physical device. Ensure you have properly installed haxm if you are finding the emulator unbearably slow. It may help.
If you really want to try something else, you could try using the genymotion emulator. It is quite comparable to the official one though.
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I would like to develop Android app with Android Studio, but the only device I have for now is an iPhone (5 and 6).
Is there a way to have a live-preview of an app on iOS? For installing Android OS on iPhone I've seen solutions like iDroid, but they seem to be not supported and not exactly working in this kind of way.
Is there a way to have a live-preview of an app on iOS?
No, sorry.
You will not be able to run your android app on iOS. But what you can do to test it is use the Android Virtual Emulator. It is built an to android studio. This will run an instance of Android on whatever computer you are programming with. You will be able to test your app easily on that.
If you have a Mac and an iPhone 7, you can install a hack called Project Sandcastle. It is still in beta, and probably won't be updated ever. It doesn't support GPU, and supports only iPhone 7. The device heats as hell. I do not recommend installing this hack, just buy a cheap android device in store.
Do I need to install an emulator of some sort? Are there any online services that offer this? I've found little guidance elsewhere on this matter. I'm on Windows 8, just trying to figure out (locally) why my android users are experiencing issues with an MVC app.
The easiest way would be to download and install the Android SDK and use the emulator to try and reproduce the problem. The SDK has emulator images for all versions of Android, and you can create devices with different screens (resolution/dpi/size), so if your site uses responsive design you can test also how it scales across different devices and whether the problem affects one specific or all Android devices.
However, it is possible that the emulator might not be good enough for reproducing and understanding the problem. The Android SDK images come with the browser that is part of the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). While this browser is technically based on WebKit, it is based on a rather old version of it. Most OEMs that have built Android devices have signed the Google Mobile Services (GMS) license ship on their devices the Google suite of apps which includes the latest version of Chrome, which is based on the most recent WebKit version. The difference in the behavior between the two browsers is rather big.
So if the problem turns out to be with Chrome instead of the AOSP Browser, you will have to buy a real device and test on it. Depending on the budget you have and whether you want a phone or a tablet, you can go with a Nexus 5 ($350 w/o contract), Nexus 7 ($230 wifi only), or a Moto G ($175 w/o contract). Of course, you could also buy Samsung Galaxy S4, HTC One X, or a Moto X, but they all will cost you more.
It might be worth also borrowing from someone a Samsung Galaxy Ace 2, or equivalent low end MDPI device.
well, you can install an android emulator and use the browser there (http://developer.android.com/tools/devices/index.html), but it's extremely slow,
so you should, instead, try Genymotion. It's an android virtual machine and it's pretty smooth. (http://www.genymotion.com/)
another option, is the Opera mobile emulator, but that is specifically for the mobile Opera browser. (http://www.opera.com/developer/mobile-emulator)
if you want a chrome specific approach, try this (https://developers.google.com/chrome-developer-tools/docs/mobile-emulation)
http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html has the emulators.
… but it may be just as cost-effective to just spring the $40 for a cheap Android tablet with WiFi.
Is is possible to directly deploy apps on ios or android devices just for testing?
My Background:
I am currently developing iOS and Android apps but using only emulators.
Maybe you can consider me as an intermediate mobile developer but newbie in direct installation of application created.
Also, I'm afraid my iPhone or my android devices get destroyed if I will try some of the blogs tutorials found on the net.
You can try your application on actual mobile devices on both platforms.
With Android is pretty straightforward: just plugin your device to your computer's USB port. If you happen to have proper drivers for it, whenever you run your application from Eclipse IDE, you will be asked if you want to run your application directly on the device. Make sure you enable debugging on your device.
With iOS, it's also fairly easy. Just plug your iPhone/iPad/iPodTouch to your Mac, launch XCode and select device before pressing run. You might need to create a provisioning profile for it (you will need a Apple iOS Developer Account for this).
I don't think you will ruin any device just by following (and installing) tutorials from the net.
For Android: Yes, you can run the apps directly from Eclipse or Netbeans on your device, works exactly as with the emulator. To make real apps you have to test them on real devices!
You wont destroy your device. Read the Android SDK "getting started" stuff.
Can't really say about iOS though.
You can always buy a second hand cheap phone and use it.
I started developing apps in the Android emulator and I was surprised about the big difference between the emulator en a real device, which really made it worth to buy one of these terminals.
I am working on an Android app for a client of mine, who is unfortunately not very tech savvy. The thought of installing the Android SDK to get to the emulator scares the hell out of them. Is there any third party Android emulators out there that provide the same functionality as the one provided with the SDK, but minus all of the development periphery?
They are in the middle of buying a bunch of Android phones now (physical), where they'll be able to eventually test on a hard device, but in the meantime, I figured this was the best way.
I installed a minimum SDK (minus all the docs and platforms I didn't want) plus a Java runtime on a USB memory stick. Create an AVD on the stick, and put your app on it. Add a few batch files to start up the emulator etc, and give it to your client - all they need is any Windows box. It should fit on a 2GB stick easily enough and these are dirt cheap now.
You can install Android x86 in VirtualBox or VMWare.
I really want to get into Android programming but I only have access to company resources right now. I have the money right now to purchase a XOOM or a development laptop. Is it possible to compile Android apps using the command line on the Xoom while using other apps to write the program files.
What would seem like a dream environment would be if I purchased a XOOM and a BlueTooth Keyboard. Am I dreaming? Developing using older Android devices was naturally limited by the screen space of the device and the underlying hardware also.
No, as far as I know, you cannot develop Android applications from within Android. You will need a Windows, Mac, or Linux desktop environment to develop Android applications. Visit the Android Developer site for additional info on the SDK.
Go for the development laptop, and test your applications on the emulator. Initially you can get friends to test them out on their android for you, and hopefully by the time you make something important enough you will be able to afford your own android.
Check out AIDE. It can build and deploy apps natively on Android.
Google doesn't have a version of the SDK that runs on an android device, although as devices become more powerful this would be a pretty awesome thing to have.
You'll want the laptop, since it can emulate different android devices.
Buy the laptop and get a cheap phone on craigslists.
Although, the XOOM emulator doesn't work at all, so if you want to develop specifically for that tablet it's a good idea to buy it. It's impossible to emulate android 3.0 on any computer on earth :)