Hardware Android rumoured to be integrated

Gh0sti

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id rather see iOS with nintendo then anything honestly looking forward its inevitable that apple/iOS will dominate the mobile market of gaming sadly nintendo might become a sega and have to sell their ips on iOS app store market

but if this does have android will it be easier to hack via software and actually see malware idk if i really want android OS its so vulnerable

i really hope its 4.x ice cream OS non of this shitty gingerbread 2.3 or froyo 2.2 OS they are outdated and crappy and vulnerable to malware ill be kindof pissed if its 2.3 its running hope its not 3.x honeycomb either
 

triassic911

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As much as I would love to see this, I doubt this is true. the Android OS has a large hacking community that it wouldn't make sense for Nintendo to do this. Go through the xda developer forums.
 

lexarvn

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If this turns out to be true, it will be a major selling point for me! It wouldn't be much harder to lock down a special version android os on the wii u than nintendo's os really. Not many companies have tried and that's why xda exists. They aren't really hackers so the few devices that do have an actual hardware protection system in place hardly ever get even temporary roots. Rooting != hacking.
 

59672

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Doubt it highly, its too easy for android, IOS, etc to be modified and allowed to play pirated games besides, outsourcing like this isn't the sort of thing nintendo would do. Just like why nintendo never plans on being a 3rd party, simply because they take pride in doing all of this work themselves (and having total control over it). If nintendo magically had to quit making systems, I'd think they would more likely make pc games than make games on other companies locked platforms and would probably also end up making some sort of pc controller for their games.
 

FAST6191

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Well it would not be the first time a mobile OS has been merged into a console (DC had a version of windows CE) and if the consensus is to be believed and consoles are not the dominant force they once were with mobile operating systems/devices being a big cause of it this could be an interesting way to stave off their demise for a while.

Purely from a technical standpoint (and I assume any such options would be buried behind a proper hypervisor) I say go for it.
 
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FAST6191

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Vigilante the Wii was built with a somewhat known version of unix *correction as are countless other devices including many using plain embedded linux, granted there was that bug/hole that caused a few older kernel using devices to be rooted but well there is a good reason the phrase "security by obscurity" is used to belittle companies that attempt it.

*(edit)I misremembered 25c3 wii fail - actual a custom microkernel, the next point about things still holds though.

Equally if it is buried under a hypervisor hacking it will not do much (think how we could run things on the PS3 BD java way before any homebrew was even considered- same logic). Also http://gbatemp.net/f...d-translations/ - closed source does not stop that much.
 

mysticwaterfall

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id rather see iOS with nintendo then anything honestly looking forward its inevitable that apple/iOS will dominate the mobile market of gaming sadly nintendo might become a sega and have to sell their ips on iOS app store market

but if this does have android will it be easier to hack via software and actually see malware idk if i really want android OS its so vulnerable

i really hope its 4.x ice cream OS non of this shitty gingerbread 2.3 or froyo 2.2 OS they are outdated and crappy and vulnerable to malware ill be kindof pissed if its 2.3 its running hope its not 3.x honeycomb either

Way to spout the Apple company line. Saying iOS is magically immune to malware is silly. I guess all those apps that stole peoples contact data without notification don't count. Or that worm (granted, on jailbroken phones) that infected thousands of phones doesn't count.

I'm certainly not saying Android hasn't had its own problems, but preatty much all of them have been because of people stupidly installing apps from god knows where and/or ignoring permission warnings. If you install a checkers game that has "send sms" and "make phone calls" permissions then wonder why you have a high phone bill, your an idiot.

The bottom line is that mobile phones in general may not have viruses et al in the traditional sense, by they (on any brand) certainly all have rogue programs.

Your post also seems to imply non apple phones are somehow magically going away. Last I checked, Android was in #1, even though granted, Apple is the largest single manufacturer. I also have yet to see an iPhone that hasn't been jailbroken.
 

kaputnik

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Well it would not be the first time a mobile OS has been merged into a console (DC had a version of windows CE) and if the consensus is to be believed and consoles are not the dominant force they once were with mobile operating systems/devices being a big cause of it this could be an interesting way to stave off their demise for a while.

Purely from a technical standpoint (and I assume any such options would be buried behind a proper hypervisor) I say go for it.


On the other hand, it could just as well be downright detrimental for Nintendo to introduce their customers to another gaming capable platform, especially as the majority of the cell phone games are appealing to the same kind of gamers as Nintendo has tried to appeal to with the Wii. Also, Android phones are becoming more and more of direct competitors to Nintendo's handhelds.

It's not very nintendoish to incorporate third party stuff either, if anything, historically they've done everything they can to stop it.

But I do agree that there's nothing that hinders it from a technical point of view. It's very possible to do, and just as you say, the same thing has been done before with WinCE on the DC. And it would of course be awesome.

Oh well, time will tell I guess :)
 

Guild McCommunist

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I don't really see why they'd have Android and if it did, if it'd be any good.

First off, Android's big thing is that it's open source, right? Almost anything open source for a game console is just bad news to the console maker. It probably just makes piracy easier. That takes away one of the biggest appeals to Android if it's closed source.

Plus the other big draws are like the marketplaces for a diverse amount of apps. And do you really think Nintendo would take Google Marketplace or Amazon Marketplace? Probably not, they'd do their own marketplace (eShop). Which would kill the point of having a marketplace.

So basically you're stuck with something called "Android" but really isn't Android. No open source, no app diversity like other Android devices, it's just possibly a similar GUI. In which case you'd just want a new Nintendo-made OS that's tailored specifically for that system.

As rumors go, I'd put this on the "really far out there and not even feasible" side.
 
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koji2009

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The Wii U running android for the main system is VERY unlikely... There is no mature well developed version of Android for PowerPC... That said, as I've said before the Wii U controller HAS to have a working processor/ram of some sort to do all of it's functions, and a stripped down OS to handle all of that. I could see Nintendo using Android for the tablet controller... but of course it wouldn't be anywhere near a "complete" version... Why would nintendo make a new OS from scratch for it's controller when there is a free and openly available one they could build off of instead?
 
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Hadrian

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I can see them getting help with the OS, Nintendo are more concerned with hardware and gaming, so they may seek help for other matters so they can keep up with modern consoles. Just like how its rumoured that they're getting help from Valve or EA for the online store, if that was true then no doubt that it won't be the Steam/Origin service on the PC. If Google was helping them with the OS with a Android like design it certainly won't be what people want or expect it to be. It'll be something clean and easy going that suits Nintendo.
 

kaputnik

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I don't really see why they'd have Android and if it did, if it'd be any good.

First off, Android's big thing is that it's open source, right? Almost anything open source for a game console is just bad news to the console maker. It probably just makes piracy easier. That takes away one of the biggest appeals to Android if it's closed source.

Plus the other big draws are like the marketplaces for a diverse amount of apps. And do you really think Nintendo would take Google Marketplace or Amazon Marketplace? Probably not, they'd do their own marketplace (eShop). Which would kill the point of having a marketplace.

So basically you're stuck with something called "Android" but really isn't Android. No open source, no app diversity like other Android devices, it's just possibly a similar GUI. In which case you'd just want a new Nintendo-made OS that's tailored specifically for that system.

As rumors go, I'd put this on the "really far out there and not even feasible" side.

While I do agree that it's not very feasible, I don't think security concerns is the reason. Sony basically did the same thing with OtherOS on the PS3, so open source stuff on consoles is nothing new. Sure, that feature got removed in the end, and there's no doubt their official reasons for removing it was corporate bullshit, but the fortress still held for quite some time. If they do it right, it should be very possible from a security standpoint to run Android under some kind of hypervisor, without restricting Android itself all too much.

Personally I just dont see what Nintendo has to gain from allowing it; there's absolutely no money in OS or app sales for them, unless they do what you suggest, and restrict it so much that everything that is great about Android is removed (I wonder what Google would have to say about that btw, it might be quite damaging to the Android brand, as the openness is one of it's main selling points). And yes, then they're better off just adding some web browsing feature and such to the regular OS. There's no PR value in it either, I mean, while it might actually be useful or at least fun for some, yet another device that does what smartphones do isn't all that cool. It's not like OtherOS, which made a toy into a powerful and extremely cost effective computer, fit for professional use. I can imagine the effect that had on all those kids that thinks a more powerful console always equals a better gaming experience.

They might base something on Android to run eventual secondary features on, but in that case, whatever it is, is not gonna be even close to Android as we know it, nor will it be called Android. It's not gonna be more Android than OSX is FreeBSD.
 

TripleSMoon

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Plus honestly (speaking as an Android enthusiast), the whole "Android inherently has more security holes than other OSes" is incredibly unfounded and misleading... yes, anything with open source will likely be more easily hacked. But at the same time, Android can be utilized and designed as a very locked down product, just as well as a closed source OS. Consider the bootloaders in various Android phones by Motorola, which allow extremely basic root access at best, but no real opportunity for good homebrew (unless the users manage to unlock the bootloader).
 

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