Google gives devs an Android L emulator image for Intel-powered devices

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Google gives devs an Android L emulator image for Intel-powered devices
Intel has been pushing for a long time to get official support for its processors from Google, going so far as to help contribute to the Androidx86 project and release source code for Android running on Intel chips. Now, Google is finally giving developers tools to make sure apps work on Intel-based hardware with a new emulator image released today.

Google had promised 64-bit support for Android L, and had added support back in July to the Native Development Kit (NDK) revision 10 for "arm64-v8a, x86_64, mips64". Unfortunately, there was no good way for developers to test out their apps on Intel hardware, but this new emulator image changes that. Now, developers can test out apps in an Intel environment with full 64-bit compatibility. 

This is more interesting because, as mentioned before, the vast majority of the work so far has been Intel trying to prove that its platform is worth Android support. It has gotten Asus to release an Intel smartphone in Taiwan and some Intel tablets, Lenovo released a smartphone for China, Dell had a tablet, and Motorola even had an Intel variant of the RAZR for its favorite markets (Europe, Mexico, and Brazil). The RAZR could have been viewed as Google officially adopting Intel, but this is the proof that Android is giving its support to Intel. 

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