Re: What if somebody just bought an iPhone?

Tyrone wrote on Fri, 17 May 2024 16:39:40 +0000 :

Instead of jumping thru hoops with a simulator?  What is the point?

Thanks for helping me on my messaging questions; here I hope to partially
return the favor as I've tested every free Android emulator known to this
ng (and I wrote a tutorial for every single one of them & posted it there).

While I don't play games, I suspect a key reason people use emulators is to
play games on the PC that were built to work only on the mobile device.

Years ago I tested all the free Android emulators (see summary below).
Emulation allows me to run on my PC apps that would only run on a phone.

For example, on my phone I have the open source youtube clone which allows
far more functionality than the highly restrictive Google YouTube client.
 <http://newpipe.net>

But that functionality doesn't exist on Windows (AFAIK), but if you're on
the PC, you can pop up an emulator and use that functionality on the PC!
 <https://i.postimg.cc/056zRLBY/emulate01.jpg> Android app on Windows
 <https://i.postimg.cc/XqBY6xT8/emulated02.jpg> Windows HDD on Android
 <https://i.postimg.cc/1zsvNCRj/emulate03.jpg> Download YouTube video

Of course, you can do almost the same thing by mirroring your device onto
your PC - but then it's running on the phone instead of the CPU PC power.
 <https://i.postimg.cc/5NrK7jtg/scrcpy16.jpg>

But notice with two (or more emulators or mirrors) you can run two
different tasks on various phone emulated hardware to see how they differ.
 <https://i.postimg.cc/Hnw59ZHm/scrcpy24.jpg>

Luckily you can mirror iOS on the PC for free since Vysor does that.
 <https://i.postimg.cc/TYvqdxCT/vysor35.jpg> iOS & Android PC mirroring

But I don't recall, at that time, finding any free iOS emulators.
Do they exist?

Please see the sig for my summary of the emulators that I had tested.
--
 C:\app\editor\android\emu\{google,arm,ms,geny,andy,blue,nox,ko,mumu,remix}
  Google (Android ?, fails on older AMD CPUs but is the default for AS)
  Arm (Android ?, nobody recommends these as they are too slow to be usable)
  Microsoft (Android 6, works great on older AMD CPUs, integrates into AS)
  Genymotion (Android 7.1, everyone recommends this for speed & compatibility)
  Andyroid (Android 7.1.2, simple setup where AS instantly recognized it)
  Bluestacks (Android 7.1.1, simple setup & runs fast, but AS didn't see it)
  Nox (Android 4.4.2, targeted to gamers)
  Ko (Android ?)
  MeMu (Android Lollipop)
  Remix* (Android Marshmallow, incompatible with AMD)
 
 *Google Emulators* (Android 9)
  Google Emulators are the cat's meow, all the way to Android 9
  But they don't work on older AMD CPUs (on Windows only, apparently)
  One great thing about the Google emulators, is some have Google Play
  That allows people to run other software, e.g., NewPipe as one example
  Comes pre-integrated with Android Studio
 
 *Arm Emulators* (Android 9?)
  They are too slow on my machine to be worth the trouble
  Most people suggest ARM eabi-v7a for older AMD CPUs it's slow
  Does not appear to come with Google Play (which is important)
  Comes pre-integrated with Android Studio
 
 *Microsoft Emulators* (Last version, forever, is Android 6)
  The Microsoft Emulators are fantastic - but they stop at Android 6
  The Microsoft emulators don't appear to have Google Play installed
  They're the only emulators that work with Windows 10 Pro Hyper-V enabled!
  Very easy to integrate into Android Studio (as an external tool)
  <https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/vs/msft-android-emulator/>
 <https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/comp.mobile.android/aW64zYeBtF0%5B1-25%5D>
 
 *Genymotion Emulator* (Android 4 to 7 - and maybe 8 & 9)
  Generally considered superior to all other emulators on Windows!
  Most complex to set up (if things fail) due to Win10 & VMWare needs
  Very well integrated into Android Studio (even has its own plugin)
  I don't see Google Play (yet)
  <https://www.genymotion.com/fun-zone/>
  <https://groups.google.com/d/msg/comp.mobile.android/ix9empN-mxg/07ZmH2AWAQAJ>
 
 *Andyroid Emulator* (Android 7.1.2)
  This is very simple to set up (turn off Windows 10 Hyper-V!)
  This installs Bonjour and VMWare bundled "services"
  Comes with Google Play & F-Droid NewPipe came up, ran, but failed
  Android Studio recognized it instantly so it's nicely integrated
  <https://www.andyroid.net/>
  <https://groups.google.com/d/msg/comp.mobile.android/FkZu5vAswYo/wISRtpUUAQAJ>
 
 *Bluestacks4 Emulator* (Android 7.1.1)
  This is very simple to set up (turn off Windows 10 Hyper-V!)
  They seem to be very focused on running Android games on Windows
  Comes with Google Play & successfully ran F-Droid NewPipe tests
  I need to learn how to integrate it into Android Studio
  Drawback is that it has ads
  <https://www.bluestacks.com/bluestacks-4.html>
  <https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/comp.mobile.android/JBRjZ39w4Ok>
 
 *Nox* (Android 4.4.2)
  Targeted to gamers
  No ads
  https://www.bignox.com/
 
 *MeMu (Android Lollipop)
  Targeted to gamers
  Good support for AMD & Nvidia chips
  https://www.memuplay.com
 
 *Ko Player* (Android )
  Targeted to gamers
  Ad supported
  Said to be buggy
  http://www.koplayer.com/
  Updated: Nov 26, 2018 Version: 2.0.0
  http://down1.koplayer.com/Emulator/koplayer-2.0.0.exe
 
 *Remix* (Android Marshmallow)
  Incompatible with AMD chips
  Jide Technology has stopped supporting this
  It's an Android boot system
  http://www.jide.com/remixos
  Version 3.0.207 Release date: November 25, 2016
  It doesn't seem to be available in 2018