ARC Welder Android emulator Archives

Podcast: Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Google Podcasts | RSS | More

Listener Jerry in Detroit, Michigan listening on CKLW 800 asked about using Android apps under Windows:

How can I play some of the app that are available for phones on my regular computer. I’ve used sendbackies, and other apps. I know I have to change my operation from Windows 8.1 to an android base system. But has someone finally come out with an android base operation that will work with Windows 8.1?

There are a couple of ways to run Android apps on Windows right now.

The BlueStacks App Player is a fairly seamless way to run Android apps on a Windows PC. It gives you a Windows gadget that gives you access to an Android desktop where your apps will be listed and, here’s the best part, it supports the Google Play store. So there’s no messy sideloading of APK files. You just choose an app from the Play store, it downloads, and you’re ready to go.

BlueStacks is free, too. Intel, Samsung, Qualcomm, and AMD are all investors who have sponsored BlueStacks, and for obvious reasons. Each of them wants to see Android succeed and they want to see better integration of Android with Windows PC.

There is a catch, however. BlueStacks Free version will download sponsored apps to your computer automatically. The hope is, of course, that you will find these apps interesting and give them a try before deleting them, but that’s entirely up to you. If you want to buy the Premium version, you will get an offer screen on your first launch of the program after installation. An annual subscription of $24 will avoid having any sponsored apps automatically shoveled on to your computer.

Your next option would be an extension for Chrome called ARC Welder. You download ARC Welder from the Chrome Web store and then launch it from your Chrome browser’s app launcher. Using Chrome as a base means ARC Welder will work not only with Windows, but also Chromebooks and Macs.

Once you launch ARC Welder, you point it at the APK for the program you want to run. That’s a process called sideloading. Where do you get an APK? Well, if you’ve connected your Android phone to your Windows PC and backed it up, the APK files for the apps installed on it will be in the folders made during that backup. There is also a website called APK Mirror that runs at apkmirror.com and lets you download the APK files for many popular apps right there.

ARC Welder’s big limitation is that it will only run one Android app at a time, but it’s emulation is pretty good. It doesn’t support Google’s Play store, so you can’t run any official Google apps, but when an app DOES run, it works pretty well.

Finally, you can download the SDK (that’s computer speak for Software Developer’s Kit) from Google. Because Android is free, it’s free, but you will pay with sweat and tears from the setup process. In order to test your apps, the SDK includes an Android emulator for Windows. You will have to create AVDs (or Android Virtual Devices) and then sideload the APKs just as with ARC Welder, but it will work. It’s clunky, but it was never designed to be an end user product, it’s really a tool for developers.

So, in the end, why don’t you just go download a copy of BlueStacks from bluestacks.com? That is far and away the easiest and best method for running Android apps on Windows.

Josh in Tupelo, Mississippi listening on Supertalk 94.3 FM asked Into Tomorrow about free alternatives to Photoshop:

I dabble in graphic design. I’m in need of a program comparable to Adobe Photoshop but need something that is anywhere from “free” to “much cheaper than Photoshop.” Any ideas?

You have several options. GIMP is great, a little rough around the edges, and with more of a Linux feel to it, but it’s totally free and it does a lot of what Photoshop does, and does it very well, there’s a version of it called “GIMPShop” that tries to mimic the Photoshop user interface as well, so you could look at that one if you’re really looking for more of a Photoshop clone.

Pixlr is another free option, it’s not as full featured as Photoshop or even GIMP and it’s web based, but it is pretty powerful, especially for a cloud-based tool. If you’re good at image editing already, just make sure you’re not on Basic mode.

Photoshop Express is Adobe’s own free online editor, again, fewer features than real Photoshop, but it will look similar and perform some basic functions. Paintshop Pro will also cost around $80, it’s has plenty of useful features and it may be enough to satisfy you, if you don’t need the most advanced Photoshop functions.

Another great free alternative is PhotoScape. PhotoScape has all of the basic image editing tools you might want, as well as some advanced features that let you add text and other objects to your images. It is far simpler than Photoshop, although admittedly doesn’t do nearly as much, but it’s free, and for someone looking to touch up their digital photos, PhotoScape is a great tool and they have both Windows and Mac versions. You can get the details at photoscape.org. And you didn’t mention whether you had Windows or Mac, but if you happen to have a Mac, look at Pixelmator in the Mac App store.

Very comparable in power to Photoshop unless you need color separations for professional printing, but much cheaper at $14.99 and, I think, much easier to use as well.

Recently, Google made the first batch of Android apps available for Chrome. It was only a matter of time before some clever users gave that power to everyone. Now that time has come. Here's how to install (nearly) any Android app on any operating system.

Obvious Disclaimer: This is still eight million kinds of broken and absolutely nothing here comes with a guarantee. In addition to apps that are in no way officially supported, you're also going to be messing around with low-level stuff in Chrome. This is probably not something you should attempt on a work computer, nor should you expect this to be simple or bug-free. This process is the opposite of both those things. You will need Chrome 37+ for the following guide.

Glossary

This process is pretty new, so to make things simple, we'll define a few terms first:

ARC: The App Runtime for Chrome (or ARC) is the piece of software that allows Android apps to run in Chrome. In the same way that ART (and the older Dalvik) currently run Android apps in Android itself. By making a modified version of the Android runtime for Chrome, Google can allow developers to add support for Chrome without rebuilding their apps from the ground up.

ARChon Custom Runtime: ARC is officially only designed for Chrome OS at the moment. To get around this, developer vladikoff created the ARChon Custom Runtime, which not only allows Windows, OS X, and Linux to run Android apps, but also removes the limit on how many can be run.

Google Play Services: We've discussed what Google Play Services are in the past. As we've explained before, app developers can plug into these APIs to get pre-written functionality. Think of them as plugins that Google gives to developers for their apps. In the context of this article, we'll be talking about apps that may or may not be supported in Chrome based on whether or not they include functionality from Google Play Services.

Unpacked Extension: Extensions normally come from the Chrome Web Store or prepackaged in a .CRX file. For the purposes of Android apps, we're going to use unpacked extensions. These are folders that contain all the files for an extension (or, in this case, Android APK). They function the same as extensions, but are not wrapped up in a single file.

Step One: Install the ARChon Runtime

Chrome OS uses a specialized runtime that allows Android apps to run natively inside it. This means that it's not an emulator or virtualization stack, but a proper runtime. In layman's terms, Chrome OS is using the same type of engine that Android uses to run software directly. So instead of a Genymotion-like situation where you have a whole Android phone running on your computer, here you can launch Android apps from the Chrome launcher.

To begin, we'll need to download the ARChon Custom Runtime. This is necessary to run Android apps in Windows, OS X, and Linux. While you can technically run Android apps in Chrome OS, you're currently limited to one of four apps. The methods in the rest of this article will run alternative apps by spoofing the signed key on those apps, but if you want to run any app you'd like, download ARChon. Here's how:

1. Download the ARChon runtime here.
2. Unzip the archive.
3. Open your extensions page in Chrome by going to Menu > More Tools > Extensions
4. Enable Developer mode in the top right corner, if it is not already enabled.
5. Select "Load unpacked extension."
6. Choose the folder containing the ARChon runtime you unzipped earlier.

The ARChon runtime will now be running as an extension in Chrome. You may see a couple warnings like the following on the extensions page. However, these are normal and shouldn't affect your ability to run Android apps.

Next, you'll need some Android apps to run. This is a little complicated, since Android APKs are not properly packaged for Chrome. However, with a little elbow grease (or some help from your friendly neighborhood internet), you can get some of them to launch. Whether they function properly is an entirely different matter.

Step 2: Install Existing Android Apps

The quickest, most dead-simple way to get some working Android apps is to find some online. Forums like this subreddit are already working on getting some functional. However, this is a far cry from the 1.3 million apps on the Play Store. While most of those will probably remain out of your reach due to incompatibility issues, we'll also look at how to (try to) create your own.

Disclaimer: Distribution of modified apps is, generally speaking, some degree of copyright violation. In practice, there's little distinction between downloading a pre-modified app, and downloading the regular version and modifying it yourself. For this reason, it's unlikely any developer of a free app will be too concerned if you download a pre-modified app to play around with. However, downloading a modified paid app is piracy. Please support developers and don't download modified versions of paid apps without paying for them. And, while it should go without saying, don't write a bad review or criticize the developer if an app is broken in Chrome. You're on your own here.

Some helpful internet users have created a growing list of apps that work in Chrome. You can find download links in that document, or find more in communities currently working on Chrome APKs. Once you have a .zip file containing one of these modified APKs, here's how to install it:

1. Unzip the file and place the folder (likely named something like "com.twitter.android") in a place you can easily find.
2. Open the Extensions page in Chrome.
3. Click "Load unpacked extensions."
4. Select the folder with the modified APK you downloaded.

The app will now appear in your list of Chrome extensions. If you're a particular fan of Chrome apps, you might also notice that a shortcut has been added to the Chrome app launcher. Depending on how it was packaged, it may have a benign Android icon and the package name instead of a proper app name.

(Optional) Step 3: Repackage Your Own Android Apps for Chrome

There are a few ways to make and tweak APKs so that they can run on Chrome. These methods are also under active development, so if you're reading this later, there may be even easier ways that have been developed to convert them. For the sake of completeness, we'll go over how to install the chromeos-apk tool, as well as how to convert them manually, should you need to do any extra tweaking.

Windows:

1. Download the node.js .msi file (not the .exe) from here.
2. Install node.js.
3. In a command prompt, run the following command: npm install chromeos-apk -g

That's it. You now have the chromeos-apk tool installed on your machine and can call it from any folder in the command line. You can skip ahead to the section below on how to use it.

OS X/Linux:

The chromeos-apk tool was originally developed for Linux and OS X devices. Here's how to install it there:

1. In a terminal, run the following command:
2. (Ubuntu only): Run the following command:
3. Download node.js.
4. Unzip the tar.gz file you downloaded from the above link.
5. Per the README file, open a terminal to the unzipped folder containing node.js. And run the following commands in order:
6. Run the command:
7. To make sure you're updated to the latest version (now or in the future), run:

How to Use the Chromeos-apk Tool

You now have the chromeos-apk tool installed on your machine. To use it, first you'll need to acquire an APK. If you're trying to convert a free app, you can use this tool to pull an APK directly from the Play Store. You can also use this tool to get an APK from an app installed on your phone. Many file managers and backup utilities like ES File Explorer and Titanium Backup can also pull APKs on your device.

Once you have your APK, it's super simple to create a Chrome-friendly version. Open a command prompt or terminal in the folder where you have the APK stored, then do the following:

1. Run the following command:
2. Example:
3. If prompted, enter the package name of the app. This can usually be found in the URL of the Play Store listing. For example, in this URL, the portion after "?id=" is the package name. In this case, "com.evernote".

You now have a modified APK, ready for Chrome! You can install it using the same instructions in Step 2 earlier in this post. Namely, open your extensions page, click "Load unpacked extension," and choose the folder you just created.

At the time of this writing, the chromeos-apk tool still only gets the app working. It won't remove the key (which allows you to run more than one app at once), nor does it fix the app icon. We'll handle that in the cleanup section.

Alternative: Convert APKs Manually

If you can't (or don't want to) use the command line utility to modify APKs for Chrome usage, you can repackage them yourself. You'll still need to download chromeos-apk from Github here. You'll also need an APK for the app in question, so use the methods described in the section above to get them. Then, follow these steps:

1. There is a folder named "_template" inside the chromeos-apk tool you downloaded. Make a copy of this somewhere else (preferably near the APK you downloaded).
2. Copy the APK into "_template > Vendor > chromium > crx". There should be a README file in the correct folder that says "APK goes here." in the correct folder.
3. Rename the "_template" folder to the package name. The package name can usually be found in the Play Store listing URL after "?id=".
4. Modify the "manifest.json" file in the main folder of the package. This is considerably easier to do with an app like this.
5. Add the app's package name (like "com.pandora.android") to the "package name" field.
6. Add the app's regular name (like "Pandora") to the "name" field.
7. Delete the entry named "key", which will have a very long, seemingly random string for a value.
8. Save the modified JSON file as "manifest.json" and replace the existing version with the new, edited one.
9. Download the app icon from Play Store.
10. On a Play Store listing page like this one, right-click the icon image.
11. In the URL bar, change "w300-rw" to "w128". Hit enter.
12. Right-click the new image and save it as "icon.png" in the main folder of the modified template folder.

Congratulations! You have just manually modified an APK to run in Chrome. The entire process isn't terribly complicated, it's just time consuming if you're altering each app manually.

You'll also note that none of this process involves changing the app itself. The APK sits inside an elaborate wrapper. Either it works or it doesn't. Time will tell if Android apps can or will be targeted for desktop use, but for now the floodgates are open to tinkerers if you really want to try them out.

50 Seeds 28 Peers

Share Ratio

ARC Welder for Chrome torrent download

Web application emulator (function () {(‘review-app-page-desktop’);}); ARC Welder stands for App Runtime for Chrome. This is an IT programming and plugin that functions as an emulator for Android devices. This application allows you to test the application before publishing it online. Advanced users can also use this plugin to launch Android application packages. After loading the APK file, Welder ARC allows you to configure the file on the selected device. With ARC Welder you can avoid the boring application testing process. This system is fully automated and the interface is intuitive

Simple application emulator The Runtime application for Chrome allows you to run APK files. But you can’t just install apps from the Google Play Store and expect them to work. Requires an Android application package or an Android application stored in a ZIP file. After downloading an APK file from one of the Internet repositories, you can load and test it in the Welder ARC program.

ARC Welder does not guarantee that all Android applications can run on its system. But if you want to create an application compatible with Android, Chrome OS and Chrome browser, this software can help. After loading an APK file in the ARC Welder program, you can decide whether to load the mobile application in portrait or landscape mode. Then configure the application on the smartphone or tablet version.

Further application compatibility When using ARC Welder, it is important to provide program access to local files and applications. This will index these files so you can quickly search for downloaded APKs. This allows ARC welders to convert APK files into useful programs. You can run the program directly in the Chrome browser. Some applications can also transfer databases from mobile or tablet. But there is no known way to configure the APK to always work.

The reason that not all Android apps work on ARC Welder is because of the developmental delay. It shouldn’t be a problem to run an APK for a normal Android application, but newly released applications may not be compatible. You can still test them to see if they work; when you open an APK file in the ARC program, Welder places it in your favorite folder. This gives you easy access to it every time you use the emulator. Useful for quick tests Although ARC Welder lacks stability, it is worth a try. It has unique features that make it easier to control mobile application creation. You can adjust the input so that the screen and keyboard behave in the same way as the touch screen. You can also store application information such as login details, passwords and other information. Make sure not to lose any device with the ARC Welder program installed because the application has no security features. Overall, this Android emulator allows you to quickly test applications in a virtual Android environment rather than on a real mobile device.

Get uTorrent

32 2 Rating