Wanted for a while now to try out android programming without actually owning android device ... tried once with emulator which comes with android sdk and eclipse plugins and was deeply disappointed ... too damn slow.
Fortunately there are solutions out there that are much faster - e.g. android-x86 that can be installed on virtual box or the VMware. Although bare in mind that some versions do not have out-of-the-box support for Internet or Sound (it takes some intervention to make these features work).
I personally use VMware (seems faster than vBox) and luckily I found an android-x86 v4.0 with Ethernet and sound enabled. If you are interested you can download the image here http://www.buildroid.org/Download/android-x86-vm-20120307.iso.gz.
If you need instructions on how to install anroid-x86 on virtual machines just search the web as I did.
Happy android programming ! ;-)
10/01/2014 just an update.
Some useful tips if you are using Android on VMware.
1 .To find out the IP address of your virtual android device just enter terminal emulator and type:
"netcfg"
2. To connect eclipse to Android on VM:
a. enter command prompt on your PC: type cmd in start menu
b. go to the directory where android platform tools are installed
(e.g. cd "C:\Program Files\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools")
c. Then type adb connect <IP Address of the Android on VM>
Fortunately there are solutions out there that are much faster - e.g. android-x86 that can be installed on virtual box or the VMware. Although bare in mind that some versions do not have out-of-the-box support for Internet or Sound (it takes some intervention to make these features work).
I personally use VMware (seems faster than vBox) and luckily I found an android-x86 v4.0 with Ethernet and sound enabled. If you are interested you can download the image here http://www.buildroid.org/Download/android-x86-vm-20120307.iso.gz.
If you need instructions on how to install anroid-x86 on virtual machines just search the web as I did.
Happy android programming ! ;-)
10/01/2014 just an update.
Some useful tips if you are using Android on VMware.
1 .To find out the IP address of your virtual android device just enter terminal emulator and type:
"netcfg"
2. To connect eclipse to Android on VM:
a. enter command prompt on your PC: type cmd in start menu
b. go to the directory where android platform tools are installed
(e.g. cd "C:\Program Files\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools")
c. Then type adb connect <IP Address of the Android on VM>
