1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,400
There's a long-standing idea that if you buy something, you should be able to use it however you see fit.

2
00:00:05,400 --> 00:00:10,240
Within reason, of course. But Apple is notorious for making it very difficult

3
00:00:10,240 --> 00:00:14,000
to install alternative operating systems on its iPhones,

4
00:00:14,000 --> 00:00:18,520
even if they've been paid off in full and are not part of a carriers financing program.

5
00:00:18,520 --> 00:00:21,840
Now, although usage restrictions are familiar for software,

6
00:00:21,840 --> 00:00:26,840
where the idea is that you pay for a license to use the software rather than the right

7
00:00:26,840 --> 00:00:33,120
to do whatever you want with the source code, this doesn't make as much sense in the context of hardware.

8
00:00:33,120 --> 00:00:36,160
I mean, the physical device may be protected by patents,

9
00:00:36,160 --> 00:00:40,120
but you still own the actual silicon and glass

10
00:00:40,120 --> 00:00:44,600
that makes up your iPhone. But one team of developers recently found a way

11
00:00:44,600 --> 00:00:48,240
to get Android installed on iPhones.

12
00:00:48,240 --> 00:00:53,280
The system goes by the name Project Sandcastle, and it uses a specific jailbreak,

13
00:00:53,280 --> 00:00:56,760
which you can learn more about up here, to bypass Apple's restrictions

14
00:00:56,760 --> 00:01:00,680
and get Android up and running. At least to an extent.

15
00:01:00,680 --> 00:01:05,200
But how exactly did the team at Corellium, a cybersecurity startup, pull this off?

16
00:01:05,200 --> 00:01:09,720
One of the big keys is that they built a virtualized version of the iPhone

17
00:01:09,720 --> 00:01:13,680
that runs iOS on a Corellium built virtual machine.

18
00:01:13,680 --> 00:01:17,140
In fact, because Corellium sells this iPhone VM,

19
00:01:17,140 --> 00:01:20,760
they're currently embroiled in a legal battle with Apple.

20
00:01:20,760 --> 00:01:24,280
Their in-house virtual machine allowed them to test exploits

21
00:01:24,280 --> 00:01:29,040
without running the risk of bricking one expensive iPhone after another.

22
00:01:29,040 --> 00:01:32,500
As for pulling off the actual feat of running Android on an iPhone,

23
00:01:32,500 --> 00:01:37,640
the team had to write a number of custom drivers, including for NVMe support.

24
00:01:37,640 --> 00:01:40,960
Although Android is known for working on a wide variety of hardware,

25
00:01:40,960 --> 00:01:45,840
there weren't drivers available that could link an operating system other than iOS

26
00:01:45,840 --> 00:01:52,320
with the hardware inside an iPhone. Corellium also had to adjust how Android handles memory,

27
00:01:52,320 --> 00:01:56,400
as the iPhone processor family handles data in different sized pages

28
00:01:56,400 --> 00:02:01,400
than what you would see in an Android phone. Additionally, it turned out that iOS initializes

29
00:02:01,400 --> 00:02:05,440
multiple processor cores, which all modern iPhones contain,

30
00:02:05,440 --> 00:02:08,960
differently than Android, which caused further complexity.

31
00:02:08,960 --> 00:02:12,640
But despite these setbacks, there's now a working beta of sandcastle

32
00:02:12,640 --> 00:02:17,880
that you can install on your iPhone after using the check-rain exploit to jailbreak it.

33
00:02:17,880 --> 00:02:22,440
This particular jailbreak takes advantage of a security flaw in the iPhone's boot ROM,

34
00:02:22,440 --> 00:02:25,640
which is the first thing that runs when you power up the device.

35
00:02:25,640 --> 00:02:30,320
The flaw is a hardware level issue, so it's been described as un-patchable

36
00:02:30,320 --> 00:02:33,440
until Apple significantly changes their hardware design.

37
00:02:33,440 --> 00:02:39,320
But although getting Android to run on an iPhone was definitely an impressive and cool feat,

38
00:02:39,320 --> 00:02:42,900
there are unsurprisingly significant caveats.

39
00:02:42,900 --> 00:02:48,640
Right now, the only devices that can run Project Sandcastle are the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus,

40
00:02:48,640 --> 00:02:53,280
as well as the 7th gen iPod Touch. And once you get it up and running,

41
00:02:53,320 --> 00:02:58,440
don't expect every Android feature to work the way that it would on a true Android phone.

42
00:02:58,440 --> 00:03:01,840
Notably, there's currently no support for audio,

43
00:03:01,840 --> 00:03:05,300
cellular connectivity, Bluetooth, or the camera.

44
00:03:05,300 --> 00:03:08,820
And don't expect GPU support for gaming either.

45
00:03:08,820 --> 00:03:13,560
However, multi-touch, USB, and Wi-Fi all work.

46
00:03:13,560 --> 00:03:18,660
So if you're interested in simply using Android to connect to the internet on an iPhone

47
00:03:18,660 --> 00:03:23,360
and browse lttstore.com, go ahead and give it a shot.

48
00:03:23,360 --> 00:03:27,580
However, do take note that because of the nature of how CheckRain works,

49
00:03:27,580 --> 00:03:33,560
it disappears whenever you restart your device. So you shouldn't be relying on Project Sandcastle,

50
00:03:33,560 --> 00:03:36,960
if this wasn't already clear, as a long-term OS for an iPhone

51
00:03:36,960 --> 00:03:42,200
that you use as a daily driver, even if you could put up with the limited functionality.

52
00:03:42,200 --> 00:03:48,040
But given the relatively short length of time that the Android port took to develop into a functional beta,

53
00:03:48,080 --> 00:03:51,720
could we see an unsanctioned, yet fully functional Android

54
00:03:51,720 --> 00:03:56,800
running on an iPhone in the future? I mean, it worked for the Hackintosh folks.

55
00:03:56,800 --> 00:03:59,880
That is until Apple goes ARM and it gets more complicated.

56
00:03:59,880 --> 00:04:04,800
Eh. Thanks for watching, guys. Like, dislike, check out our other videos,

57
00:04:04,800 --> 00:04:09,440
leave a comment if you have a suggestion for a future video, and don't forget to subscribe.

58
00:04:09,440 --> 00:04:12,720
Or all the toilet paper in your house will suddenly be gone

59
00:04:12,720 --> 00:04:16,080
and you're gonna take like a giant dump and you're gonna have no way