After almost three years of development, CodeWeavers has released the CrossOver Android Tech Preview that lets users run Windows applications and games on Intel based Chromebooks and Android tablets. James Ramey, President of CodeWeavers, posted the news on the CodeWeavers blog, and of course included a pretty big caveat about what to expect from the CrossOver Android Tech Preview.
Allow me to clearly state that like the first Model T’s and the very first light bulbs, CrossOver Android is far from perfect. It will run a very limited number of Windows applications (some because they just aren’t supported yet on Android and some because Android doesn’t / won’t support them at this time). The former implies that our support isn’t good enough, yet. The latter implies that Android does not have some key components, like OpenGL, to run some Windows applications. AND there is a point to make that some devices just doesn’t have the RAM, disk space, or processing power necessary to run a Windows application. And some devices, like phones, just don’t have the physical screen necessary to make running a Windows application all that appealing. Needless to say, your ‘mileage’ as to how useful CrossOver Android will be come tomorrow will vary.
You can check it out in action in the video below:
In order to run the Tech Preview, you’ll have to confirm that you have an Intel based Chromebook or Android tablet as it will not run on ARM devices. The .apk will be on the Google Play Store and if you signed up for the Tech Preview, you should have received an email with a link to the app. The company has also provided a tutorial on how to get CrossOver Android working on a Chromebook, a process which they say takes about an hour.
The CrossOver Android Tech Preview was released yesterday, and there may still be time to sign up as the Tech Preview sign up page is still live on the CodeWeavers website.
Are you looking forward to trying out or have you tried out CrossOver Android on your Intel based Chromebook or Android tablet? Let us know in the comments below, or on Google+, Twitter, or Facebook.
[button link=”https://www.codeweavers.com/about/blogs/jramey/2016/8/24/get-yer-chromebooks-ready-the-crossover-android-preview-drops-tomorrow” icon=”fa-external-link” side=”left” target=”blank” color=”285b5e” textcolor=”ffffff”]Source: CodeWeavers[/button]
