That mystical threshold has been crossed, however, thanks to the magic of 3D printing and some innovative engineering work.
The dark sorcery was performed by Nick Lee of Tendigi, a mobile design and development studio. He 3D-printed a custom case that, when paired with an app he built, runs Android on an iPhone.
You can get the full walkthrough from Lee’s Medium post. He describes the technical challenges and the limitations that come from this setup. Lee was able to take the Android Open Source Project source code and essentially build out his own workflow that would function with his custom case.
It’s the case that functions as the hardware to run the operating system, while the iPhone is essentially an external display. It’s an impressive feat, though not the first time that Lee has paired a seemingly incompatible operating system with hardware: He also put Windows 95 on an Apple Watch.
Why this matters: This won’t be any kind of mass market product, but it’s always fun to see what kind of crazy hack someone is able to accomplish with a little ingenuity. It’s also worth noting how much one can do with the open source nature of Android. It’ll be a frosty day in the netherworld before anyone’s allowed to port iOS to an Android phone.