[khalmarri]

I tested the OS 2.0. Side loaded some android apps and I am really unhappy about the experience all together.

I thought that the Android Player is just a marketing name for the Dalvik JVM and it will run once the PlayBook is up and running. It is now an actual Android Player with Android apps only running in the background with its specific multitasking and browser and Apps only working in the Android Player environment? This is RIM going cheap. I hate to say that but RIM is going really cheap with Android Player. Either it is done the right way or never.

I think they should unify the gestures for all apps not just Android apps. I mean sliding left and right or the option key thing should be unified among all apps for the user not to feel any differences between this Android app and any other non-Android apps.

I would wait and wait even more. But can't wait for such cheapness. Is this how it is going to be? How it is going to be with BBX on phones? Android Player??? With that stupid Android environment???? This is a nightmare!

Please I beg you guyz to prove me wrong!!!

[adrenaline_x]

How is it cheap?

You can launch multiple android apps and swipe between android/native apps?

Its quite funny that you are not happy with it.. Personally i'm really happy with it so far.. The fact that i have RDP is enough for me

Pretty sure my android apps still run in the background in showcase mode..

unless you are trying to run multiple apss within one launch windows.

[alucardme87]

Man, you're overreacting. It's still too soon to tell what really is what. Yes this is maybe the double edge knife RIM is holding, but we'll see.

[demzzy]

to be honest to the OP... if you wanted a full android experience you should buy an android tablet.. its as simple as that... they never said it would be a full android experience.. it gives the consumer options...

[crazymuzzi]

Hi,

I got myself to download the OS 2.0.0.3778 on the PB.

Unfortunately, I cannot find the Android Player - am i missing something?

If i need to Sideload applications, do I work with the .bar or .apk files? Or do do I need to repack the .apk as .bar to work?

Thank you all in advance.

[z_scorpio_z]

Android player is baked in the OS. You need to sideload .bar files, head over to the playbook apps forums, there are two sticky threads with android apk already converted to bar.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[Detective M Downs]

Here is a video

[z_scorpio_z]

@OP don't know what this cheapness is that you are referring to, but why not get android tab for android experience, there are many 7" tabs and/or kindle fire?

Android player just helps fill the app gap for playbook, there are lot of development tools announced at the devcon and I think they will make it easy for developers to write or simple port their code PB when they write Android/iOS apps (plugins that integrate into existing IDEs, Unity, Marmalade, POSIX (linux/unix apps), etc).

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[melander]

It is cheap in the same way that companies develop "appliances" where they just take a Linux distro, throw some readily available and mostly free software on it and sell it to you for $40k a pop.

It's called Android Player for a reason. It is not integrated with PlaybookOS which means that RIM is taking the cheap way out by not doing too much development on their side. It's a slippery slope. They never should have gone down the Android path to begin with IMO.

[kbz1960]

It is cheap in the same way that companies develop "appliances" where they just take a Linux distro, throw some readily available and mostly free software on it and sell it to you for $40k a pop.

It's called Android Player for a reason. It is not integrated with PlaybookOS which means that RIM is taking the cheap way out by not doing too much development on their side. It's a slippery slope. They never should have gone down the Android path to begin with IMO.

Nope, it's a quick get the app count up. Good devs will want to make their apps better by being native. There will be competition.

[trsbbs]

I tested the OS 2.0. Side loaded some android apps and I am really unhappy about the experience all together.

I thought that the Android Player is just a marketing name for the Dalvik JVM and it will run once the PlayBook is up and running. It is now an actual Android Player with Android apps only running in the background with its specific multitasking and browser and Apps only working in the Android Player environment? This is RIM going cheap. I hate to say that but RIM is going really cheap with Android Player. Either it is done the right way or never.

I think they should unify the gestures for all apps not just Android apps. I mean sliding left and right or the option key thing should be unified among all apps for the user not to feel any differences between this Android app and any other non-Android apps.

I would wait and wait even more. But can't wait for such cheapness. Is this how it is going to be? How it is going to be with BBX on phones? Android Player??? With that stupid Android environment???? This is a nightmare!

Please I beg you guyz to prove me wrong!!!

1. Do you even own a Playbook? It's not listed under you name. Only a 9780.
2. You've given 2 thanks in the year you have been on CB.
3. You posted and left.

It works fine for being something extra on a non-Droid platform.

Like others have mentioned, if you want a true Droid, go get one.

Tim

[howarmat]

Actually the way they have the android player in the Playbook OS is very nice. Much better than I think most people expected. All android devs have to do is convert the app to a bar file and submit to RIM. RIM stamps it OK and puts it in appworld. You download it like any other app that is already in appworld. You really dont even know the difference. Its great. RIM deserves a pat on the back along with a huge kick in the *** right now.

[Crackberrykills]

Actually the way they have the android player in the Playbook OS is very nice. Much better than I think most people expected. All android devs have to do is convert the app to a bar file and submit to RIM. RIM stamps it OK and puts it in appworld. You download it like any other app that is already in appworld. You really dont even know the difference. Its great. RIM deserves a pat on the back along with a huge kick in the *** right now.

Indeed, sir. I was pleasantly surprised of the job they did on the android player. Still needs a bit more polish, but it is beyond what I thought it could be after the initial view of the player a few months ago.

[peter_betos]

First off, they have already considered the UI update on the android player to make it look like the Playbook UI:

Will the Android Framework UI be updated on the of... - BlackBerry Support Community Forums

Second, it is highly expensive to research for your own to translate the APK's dalvik, when there is already an existing project (Myriad Alien Dalvik) that can do the translation for you (but I think there are licensing fees on that), and better yet an open source Android kernel where you can translate the APK files natively.

It would be highly time consuming for them to research on how they could make only a single kernel translate Dalvik and QNX VM's, and it would not be practical to spend that much money on licensing (especially if the licensing is per-device basis) just to have a sub-kernel for Dalvik on top of the main kernel for QNX.

[melander]

2. You've given 2 thanks in the year you have been on CB.

The statistics say that of 34 posts, he received 2 thanks, gave 17 and after likes were instituted, received 2 while giving 3.

[lawguyman]

I am also not happy with how the Android Player works. It is better than the leaked version was but there is still a long way to go, IMO.

For this to really work, the experience has to be seamless. From a UI perspective, it has to be irrelevant if the app is Android, native, flash or anything else. As it is with all the android apps running in the player, it kills it for me. I don't think consumers would accept this kind of experience. Also, all the in app calls have to go to the Playbook, not to the Android OS. The Android looking notifications and messages and other things like the circle "loading" animation have to go.

Also, many Apps that should work still do not. Puzzling. I don't know how a bunch of volunteers working part time can get Android working better on the HP Touchpad in one month than RIM has done so far with this. Touchpad can run many more Android Apps! I understand the differences but RIM has much greater resources and has had a lot more time.

That said, the speed is much better than the leak. This was something I was very concerned about.

There is still a lot of work to do here.

[anon(4018671)]

maybe we are victim of a drive by trolling? by some kid drunk on kool-aid lol

In the future I suppose RIM could take advantage of QNX scaleability and build a tablet with 10 cores so that BBX could have multiple Android kernels running at the same time. Would you call cheap too?

[dadymon]

Actually the way they have the android player in the Playbook OS is very nice. Much better than I think most people expected. All android devs have to do is convert the app to a bar file and submit to RIM. RIM stamps it OK and puts it in appworld. You download it like any other app that is already in appworld. You really dont even know the difference. Its great. RIM deserves a pat on the back along with a huge kick in the *** right now.

Thanks for clearing this up! I was afraid that the only way to get android apps was to side load them (sounded like a pain in the b***). Any idea when os2 will be released to the general public?

[howarmat]

Thanks for clearing this up! I was afraid that the only way to get android apps was to side load them (sounded like a pain in the b***). Any idea when os2 will be released to the general public?

60 days, end of summer or devcon 2012

[donjunto]

To be honest, I Don't have words to describe the effort that RIM is putting into the PB. The ability to play apps from a different platform should be a very good reason to call the Playbook a very interesting Device..... No other Tablet has the ability to have a virtual machine baked into the OS so we can enjoy them almost flawlessly with little startup wait....You OP call that cheapness??? I guess you just want to call people's attention by creating useless threads on this forum.

[khalmarri]

1. Do you even own a Playbook? It's not listed under you name. Only a 9780.
2. You've given 2 thanks in the year you have been on CB.
3. You posted and left.

It works fine for being something extra on a non-Droid platform.

Like others have mentioned, if you want a true Droid, go get one.

Tim

Yes I have two PlayBooks. It's written in my profile that I am a BlackBerry collector. I collect anything BlackBerry

Being able to run Android apps is great. It's the best but I was just unhappy with the implementation. I guess it will look nicer on the BBX phones because BB phones have BACK and OPTION buttons.

I was just thinking that having a whole Android system inside the QNX platform is wrong. When Apple restricted Adobe Air on iOS, Adobe made it possible to export the Air program to be run natively on the iOS and it is running 4X faster than on any Android system. If you tried the Nokia N9, the programs are written in Java but when compiled and deployed, they run like native C++ apps. There should be a better way or implementation for porting Android apps to the PlayBook.

They said they may change the Android implementation. We'll just wait and see.

[BSFA2008]

to be honest to the OP... if you wanted a full android experience you should buy an android tablet.. its as simple as that... they never said it would be a full android experience.. it gives the consumer options...

You should read more closely. OP doesn't want a full android experience; he wants NO android experience at all. I don't see HOW you missed that.

OP wants more apps, but he wants them to be more integrated into the playbook OS. He wants the experience to be uniform across all apps. He wants the blackberry interface, menus, controls, swipe gestures .... NOT the android UI.

He clearly dislikes the android user interface and doesn't want it on his PB. "A full android experience" is the last thing OP wants.

His original post was extremely clear.

[BSFA2008]

Android Player??? With that stupid Android environment???? This is a nightmare!

Okay, I went back and read the entire first page now .... and there are several of you who keep responding to the OP as if he wants the android experience... I'm baffled by the lack of basic reading comprehension here.

Count me in with OP. I've seen the screenshots of the ported apps with the android crap menus. I'm glad to have SOMETHING, but I DON'T like seeing vestigial signs of the android OS running on my PB.

That said, it's a beta, and I'm hoping they polish it up a bit more before release. Goodness, knows they're taking their time!

[RicZoh]

I tested the OS 2.0. Side loaded some android apps and I am really unhappy about the experience all together.

I thought that the Android Player is just a marketing name for the Dalvik JVM and it will run once the PlayBook is up and running. It is now an actual Android Player with Android apps only running in the background with its specific multitasking and browser and Apps only working in the Android Player environment? This is RIM going cheap. I hate to say that but RIM is going really cheap with Android Player. Either it is done the right way or never.

I think they should unify the gestures for all apps not just Android apps. I mean sliding left and right or the option key thing should be unified among all apps for the user not to feel any differences between this Android app and any other non-Android apps.

I would wait and wait even more. But can't wait for such cheapness. Is this how it is going to be? How it is going to be with BBX on phones? Android Player??? With that stupid Android environment???? This is a nightmare!

Please I beg you guyz to prove me wrong!!!

Bit if an over statement, don't you think? Come down off the ledge my friend.