If you mentioned BlueStacks to anyone before reading this article, they would probably know about the Android emulator for running apps on a PC, of which BlueStacks claim that there are around 90 million users of their software on a Windows platform. That total is bound to increase, now that BlueStacks is announcing that their Android emulator software will now be available for Mac users.
If you’re not familiar with BlueStacks, it is basically this – an Android emulator that allows for running of x86-based and ARM-based apps, even Android TV apps, on your laptop or desktop computer. It allows users to download Android apps from the Google Play Store as they would in any normal Android device – only, they get to run it on their computers. Pretty nifty.
Before this announcement, there was only a token effort of bringing BlueStacks to Mac – there was an alpha release in 2012, and that was pretty much it. It will probably please all you Mac users out there that you’re going to be able to play your mobile games and apps from your laptop now, as BlueStacks has announced an official release of the BlueStacks App Player for Mac today. The company has said that it took a lot of effort in optimizing the program for Retina Display and even the touch gestures on Apple’s trackpads.
The software is now available for download (free!!!) at the BlueStacks site, check out the download link for the software below. If this is the first time you’re hearing about BlueStacks, it might sound like a hack job for Android, but it’s really not. It has the support of several tech companies such as Intel, Andreessen-Horowitz, Qualcomm, and AMD. Some manufacturers are even talking right now about pre-loading BlueStacks on their laptops and PCs – this list includes Lenovo, Asus, and MSI.
DOWNLOAD: BlueStacks
Last I tried running Bluestacks on OSX it was painfully slow. I hope they’ve sped things up a bit.