Developer Nick Lee 3D prints case that runs Android on an iPhone

Nick Lee has outdone himself at running unlikely operating systems on Apple devices. In a move that has the potential to outrage or satisfy fanboys everywhere, Nick Lee has found a way to run Android Marshmallow on the iPhone. Nick Lee had previously installed the Windows 95 operating system on an Apple smartwatch . The entire setup had three components, a custom build of Android, a board that ran Android, and a 3D printed case to hold the board in. The software side of the hack required a custom build of Android. This was possible because of the Android Open Source Project, which is maintained by a group of original equipment manufacturers and Google. The custom version of Android had a few extra components that allowed the OS to interface with an iPhone. There were connectivity and communication features added to allow data and commands to flow between the two operating systems. The real magic was a screen streamer that allowed the emulation of touch input. The hardware part came next. This was the hardware that actually ran the Android operating system. Lee chose the Android Open Source Project reference board, the HiKey board by Lenovator. The board comes with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity options. The ARM Cortex-A53 processor on it could run the latest version of Android, and the board was small enough for fitting into a case. A battery pack was attached to this board. Now came the final part of the project, the 3D printed case. Lee used an iPhone 6 case template available on Thingverse as the base of his design. The 3D version of the case was made on sketchup, with only basic knowledge of the software. The first version of the case was pretty bulky, but got considerably slimmer after an iteration.

The hack used a custom application from Tendigi on the iPhone. There are more details and instructions available at Nick Lee’s blogpost.