Androrid Apps for PlayBook in App World? The Where and How Explained. | BlackBerry PlayBook 2.0 News

Androrid Apps for PlayBook in App World? The Where and How Explained.
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12:11 pm
February 22, 2012

Randy

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Yesterday and so far today we have received a surprisingly large number of messages from people needing help getting Android apps onto their freshly updated BlackBerry PlayBook. Many were wondering where they go to get the Android apps because they could not find any inside App World. Some users thought that they hadn't even gotten Android App Player with the update. The large amount of confusion Shows that RIM at least partially accomplished what they set out to do with Android App Player. One of their primary goals for Android App Player was for PlayBook users to not even notice if an app was originally an Android App or not. They seem to have done a pretty good job with that, considering we heard from users that had converted apps installed on their PlayBook and they had no idea that the apps weren't native. After all the questions we had sent in, I decided that I would take a bit of time to explain the Android App Player and hopefully help some of you understand it better.

First of all. There isn't a single Android App available in BlackBerry App World. There has never been any and I imagine there never will be. That might add a little bit more confusion at first, but it's actually pretty simple.

Android apps are APK files. Or Android application package file. This is the file format used to distribute and install software onto the Android operating system. APK files are made by compiling a program written for Android and all the individual parts of the application are packaged into this one APK file. All BlackBerry PlayBook apps are BAR files. They are made the same way as a APK file is for the most part, but they aren't the same thing. So technically there are no Android apps in App World.

What RIM has done is make it very easy for Android developers to convert and sign their apps so that they will work on the BlackBerry PlayBook. The process of converting a Android APK file to a BlackBerry BAR file takes less than 30 seconds in most cases. Once converted and signed these apps still go through the same submission and testing process as native PlayBook apps do. The only difference is they run inside Android App Player, which is needed mostly because of the different ways users interact with applications on the two platforms. On Android you have buttons. On the PlayBook you have gestures that control pretty much everything. With Android App Player RIM did the hard part for Android developers. Instead of each individual app needing changed by the developers to make your gesture register as a button press it happens automatically.

Conclusion, If you see an app that sounds good in App World download it. Try it out. With most of the apps you wont know if it is a port until you've launched it for the first time.

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4:58 pm
February 22, 2012

speculator2000

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Thanks for the explanation. I was confused myself and searched in App world for 'Android' and actually found a few apps, but then I noticed that those were the ones that had 'android' in the name of the developer or app itself. So there are actually hundreds of more android apps out there overall.

What I would like though is for more people to rate the apps they download. This way we can easily know those that are worth downloading. I am using a pretty slow connection here in Nigeria and would prefer to download only the apps that are truly worth it. Thanks guys.

3:18 pm
February 24, 2012

DrFlesh

New Member

posts 1

I am very new to this so sorry if the question I ask is answered somewhere else.

First I must say this is a greatsite and the forum has really helped me.

I am confused on how to get the "cool" android apps onto my Playbook.

What are the steps involved? Do I goto Amazon and dowload them then the playbook will convert them to bar files?

Do I goto a Torrent site and download the android app and then I need a converter program to convert them to bar files?

Do I do all of these steps on my computer, playbook or both?

Just a simple step by step instruction would be awesome for a simple man like myself.

Also there are many books on the Amazon site, how do I get them into my playbook and read them as if I had a Kindle? (what ereader program is the best as well?)

Thanks so much for the great work!

6:09 pm
February 26, 2012

Joe Styer