Home 3D Printer 3D Printed Phone Case Lets an iPhone Run Android

3D Printed Phone Case Lets an iPhone Run Android

Of course this acquisition is just interesting for tech lovers but it’s a pretty interesting project. 3D printing made this project possible and a nice custom 3D printed case was produced.

Nick Lee is a hacker from Brooklyn; he is welln known in nearly every corner of the internet with a special hack: He got Windows95 running on an Apple smartwatch. For his next project the hacker has chosen an even more difficult task. He successfully tried to get Android running over an Apple iPhone.

The iPhone is not easy to hack but Nick Lee has already some experience made with hacking the iPhone. He is working for Tendigi and they have often projects that require hacks. For this project Nick has bought a HiKey board from Lenovator – that’s an Android reference board with Wifi and Bluetooth. And auf cause the board is small enough to be hidden on the backside of the iPhone, inside the case.

First Nick Lee downloaded a case from Thingiverse, then he modified it to his own requirements. He also decided to buy a Vinci 2.0 Duo 3D printer to print his case.

Once I had a clear idea of component size and layout, I scaled the 3D model to a more reasonable size and added openings for the SD card, HDMI and USB ports. It’s not too much thicker than the average battery case

After modifying android and playing it into the HiKey board he actually got everything running. The iPhone is only used as a kind of screen and sends all inputs to the Android board. The Android board works like every other Android smartphone but it uses the USB connection to the iPhone to stream the picture to the touchscreen.


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