A software company called BlueStacks has done a deal with AMD that will allow Android apps to run better on Windows based AMD pc’s and tablets via a programme called the AppZone Player. BlueStack users will have acess to over 500,000 apps and serveral apps stores, 1Mobile Market, Amazon Appstore, GetJar, and Google Play where they can register and pay for their apps. BlueStacks also includes a feature called Cloud Connect that can sync apps between the Windows client and a user’s dedicated Android devices
In a blog post, the company explained that “BlueStacks has designed and optimized the player for AMD Radeon graphics and … OpenGL drivers found in [ADM] APUs and GPUs.” The results should allow machines running Windows 7 or Windows 8 to smoothly run Android apps in full-screen mode.
Source: informationweek
The Bluestacks software can also run on intel based chips and will soon be able to run also on Arm based chips. This is especially good news for the soon to be released Windows 8 rt platform, that will power Arm based pc’s and tablets that at the moment only has to offer 2000 apps via the Windows 8 store.
BlueStacks are also in discussions with hardware developers such as Hewlett Packard to their programme come pre-installed on its AMD-powered computers.
However not all apps will work with this programme. There is also no home screen for widgets or custom launchers which is disappointing because Android has a great selection of useful widgets available also Apps that take advantage of hardware-specific features – such as phone dialing and SMS, GPS positioning, or sensors – aren’t much use with BlueStacks, either.
Finally its also important to point out that if you are using a device with a intel chip, you will not be able to use the AppZone Player to gain access to Android apps. But there is another programme available by BlueStacks that will also enable access. To access it just head over to the bluestacks website and download their software. However its important to point out that this version of the BlueStacks software might not run as smoothly as the App zone version, due to App Zone version being specifically designed to work with Arm processors.
