Developing applications on web-browsers as platform offers the advantage of cross-platform compatibility and what else can be better if we can run Android applications on a web-browser like Google Chrome, which in-turns results in cross-platform functionality of Android app on Windows, Linux and Mac bridging the gap between mobile and desktop app Eco-system. Google has been officially working to achieve this and has already made available an run-time which only supports a few applications at the moment, the same has now been unlocked/hacked by developer Vlad Filippov making it run other android apk's. Do watch the video demonstration shared below and follow installation link to start using.

Google Android 4.4 KitKat brings some changes which will definitely raise some eyebrows, specially with users who are touchy about their privacy. After amending their TOS which enables Google to use your photos in advertisements all across the web via Google Shared Endorsement, the company is now making your Google+ photo connected to your phone number which will be shown to any user on their Android mobile phone as Caller ID when they dial your phone number. Currently this "Smart Caller ID" feature which is now live on Android 4.4 shows caller ID photos pulled automatically from verified Google Places and Google Apps customer accounts. This feature will however get expended to include personal Google+ accounts in early 2014, after this expansion anyone with an verified phone number and discovery turned on in G+ profile will have their names and profile photos display on each others screen even if they have not exchanged/saved contact information. Thankfully, users can easily opt-out and disable this feature as shown below.

Google has unveiled the next version upgrade of their mobile operating-system "Android 4.4 KitKat" accompanied with new "Google Branded" flagship Android handset "Nexus 5". Powered by Android 4.4, stunning 5” 1080p display, Quad-core Snapdragon 800 processor, 2GB RAM, 4G/LTE and 8 MP camera with image stabilization - the Google Nexus 5 is without a doubt the best smartphone in it's price category.

On the software front Android 4.4 update is designed to run fast, smooth, and responsively on lower hardware specs like older devices with 512MB RAM and offer's a more polished design with many new features. Do watch the Nexus 5 and Android 4.4 First look video below.

The quick and dirty Google Android 4.3 installation instructions for Windows shared earlier were not perfect and resulted in slow performance. Free virtualization utility Virtualbox offers an superior alternative to QEMU based virtualization used in the previous approach offering much superior working experience and performance benefits. Here's a complete picture-guide to get Google Android 4.3 x86 working in Windows using Oracle VirtualBox.

Using Android on a Desktop PC can have multiple usage scenarios, for example testing of android applications, mobile-websites or using Android applications and games like WhatsApp from PC. While using a virtual machine is an easy way to get what's needed, it results in performance degradation, being an open-source project there are now native x86 architecture ports available for PC users like SocketQ and Project Android-x86.

When Google released Android 4.3 last week, the Android-x86 team got to the work and ported the brand new OS upgrade for x86 hardware, and we now have an ready to download test build of Android 4.3 for x86 platform.

With Android 4.3 Jelly Bean source, new 3.10.2 linux kernel and support for hardware-accelerated graphics on devices with AMD Radeon and Intel graphics chipsets the test build has almost all features enabled from the upgrade except Superuser (root) access and non-functional Suspend and resume support. Watch the demonstration video running Android 4.3 natively on an Acer Aspire 522 mini-laptop posted below, also shared is a simple "novice friendly trick" to test-run this new Android build under Windows with a few clicks and no additional software installation.

BlueStacks would be the most widely known emulator for running Android on Windows PC, and now there is a new entry to this niche named SocketQ's WindowsAndroid. However, there is a HUGE difference between the two - unlike BlueStacks which uses a virtual environment to host Android in Windows environment, SocketQ's WindowsAndroid is a full native port of Android to MS Windows architecture.

Running Android as an native Windows application allow Android to make use of full hardware and
graphics acceleration with high performance media codecs available to Windows PC. This not only offers higher performance but also integration with Windows’ applications like Flash, Windows Media Player, etc. Do checkout the demonstration video below.

The application eco-system of Google's mobile operating-system Android is increasing by leaps-and-bound everyday, to take advantage of this ever-increasing application base virtualization on platforms like Windows OS is already getting attention. To get things moving forward on the front, a new software application for Windows platform BlueStacks is out now enabling users to run android applications on Windows computers.

BlueStacks allows users to run Android OS apps on Windows PCs with instant switching between the two. BlueStacks helps PC manufacturers to ride the Android momentum by enabling Android apps on x86-based tablets, netbooks, notebooks, convertibles and AiO Windows PCs. With the new hybrid convertible form factors, BlueStacks completely eliminates the need to carry two devices. The end consumer benefits from getting both Android and Windows at the price of a single PC.