[rupam95]

Now that Android 4.1 Jelly Bean has been released to android open source project, will RIM be able to upgrade the current android os on the PlayBook (2.1) to Jelly Bean (4.1)?

Maybe in time for BB10 for the Playbook?

[howarmat]

i think they could with ICS also. I am not sure how much effort i want RIM to put into the android player. I want to see more work done for native features while android support is on the back burner. By updgrading to ICS or JB it wont change much IMO. The same apps that dont work now wont work after that kind of an update. BB10 needs to stand natively and not rely on the android player. That will make the platform a success. One that RIM will be very proud of too.

[JR A]

If BB10 is all that it's cracked up to be (see what I did there?), they won't need to integrate Android anymore.

Big name apps will have a native BB version. But that is a BIG order to fill.


BB10 better be all that it's made out to be and more.

[greatwiseone]

I'm pretty sure the Android Player is the back burner. There's quite a bit of differences between the ICS code and the Gingerbread code, and so it will take some time for RIM to put all of ICS and JB into the Android Player. Given that most apps still support Gingerbread, it's highly unlikely RIM is going to update the Android Player before BB10 launches.

[szparaj]

There is a lot of apps that do not work right on ICS. I have rolled back my Android tablet because it wasn't worth it at this time.

[rkennedy01]

I have had no trouble finding good Android apps that work well under PB OS 2.1. TapaTalk, gReader, Twitter, Swarm, ES File Explorer, Google Maps - all work great with the beta. So, no rush on an ICS or JB update.

RCK

[GreyGhostRos]

If I'm not mistaken playbook is running dalvik based on 2.3.3 gingerbread series..
Pretty much the most widely used version by Android devices so mostly all apps are /were made to run on that..
Unless there is substantial apis added to 4.x series and unless majority apps go on to 4.x and break backward compatibility..don't see why RIM would report it..
Depends on how much has changed codewise too I guess..
And it's only dalvik updates that matter to PB not the whole native OS anyway..

[Sith_Apprentice]

Android Player is 2.3.3 isnt it? Which is, according to Google, by far the largest percentage of users?

Dashboards | Android Developers

I pull up software info in an android app and it shows 2.3.3 as the OS version, the architecture being the OMAP4430 Winchester Rev 07

[SifJar]

Yeah, the current one is based on Android 2.3. The big problem with that is that 2.3 is designed for phones, not tablets. 3.X was for tablets (but wasn't open sourced until 4.0 arrived, so that people wouldn't put it on phones), 4.0+ support both phones and tablets, with frameworks in place to allow apps to adapt to whatever device they find themselves on. So as it stands, we see apps as they are designed to be used by phones. With 4.0+, many of the same apps would look different, they would look more like tablet apps, rather than oversized phone apps. Plus there are an increasing number of apps being released that support 4.0 as a minimum OS (in some ways, the fragmentation of Android is a blessing in that with so many devices still on 2.3 or even lower, many apps are still being released with support for these old, depreciated versions of the OS).

Of course, it would require a lot of effort to bring it up to ICS or JB (ICS source has been available for a while, and there is no indication from RIM they are working on updating the Android player for it, so I don't see why they would for JB either), and the gain would probably not make it worth the effort. Besides, there are other elements of the Android player that could be improved if RIM are still working on improving it (e.g. supporting native code - I don't know about processor architectures etc., but perhaps a dynamic recompiler could be used to recompile the code to whatever it needs to be to run on the PB; I have seen this done on Android for devices with MIPS processors instead of ARM processors. If this were done, it would greatly improve compatibility, and probably make apps like Netflix and Skype work)

[Hobbes2099]

Of course, it would require a lot of effort to bring it up to ICS or JB (ICS source has been available for a while, and there is no indication from RIM they are working on updating the Android player for it, so I don't see why they would for JB either), and the gain would probably not make it worth the effort. Besides, there are other elements of the Android player that could be improved if RIM are still working on improving it (e.g. supporting native code - I don't know about processor architectures etc., but perhaps a dynamic recompiler could be used to recompile the code to whatever it needs to be to run on the PB; I have seen this done on Android for devices with MIPS processors instead of ARM processors. If this were done, it would greatly improve compatibility, and probably make apps like Netflix and Skype work)

I agree. I think the entire community would go crazy if BB was allocating resources to a competing OS instead of doing everything humanly possible to release BB10 faster.

RIM's strategy for adopting a competing a competing OS did not work out. Android Player was one of many strategies RIM used to appeal to the developer community. We see no big releases on Android for QNX from any big studio. The only Android App I've downloaded from App World is LastPass, everything else I've sideloaded.

Take a look at our own forums, the vast majority of threads are sideload conversion requests, there's minimal talk about Android Player apps available through App World.

RIM should not spend any more time on Android compatibility until BB10 is done and positive reviews start appearing. Only then should RIM consider 4.1, Jelly Bean, to ease users onto the QNX platform, and only for that particular reason.

[superdookie67]

I have been wondering about this for awhile myself. It would be nice to see some android apps formatted into a more tablet friendly screen. But BB10 needs to come first. Thanks for the info in this post.

Sent from my BlackBerry using Tapatalk 2

[bbaleno]

they can do both. while putting more programers on bb10 wont help, they already have enough im sure. they can have a seprate team working concurrently on android player, with out interferring with bb10.

"RIM's strategy for adopting a competing a competing OS did not work out. Android Player was one of many strategies RIM used to appeal to the developer community. We see no big releases on Android for QNX from any big studio. The only Android App I've downloaded from App World is LastPass, everything else I've sideloaded."

the point is that you can sideload. I wish the vendors would just subbmit thier apps to appword, but they aren't. Does that stop me from having google maps? No it doesnt." if the android play wasn't on the playbook the choices would be far less.

Take a look at our own forums, the vast majority of threads are sideload conversion requests, there's minimal talk about Android Player apps available through App World.
That would be a problem that the developer relations team should work on. mybe they should look at the most common adroind apps being converted and used and go back to the vendors, and explain or convert the apps for them so they can go into app world. If someone like myself (who is not a delevoper) can do it. surely rim or the developer can do it. even if amazon with kindle doesnt want to do it. rimm should give them some incentive, I am sure they are working on things, I have a feeling(which are always wrong) that there will be a lot of big names when bb10 is released. but these should be available now.

[Kishore Ambekar]

Hi,
I recently bought a BB Playbook, I've trouble in installing and running Android player and Android apps. Could you kindly suggest me the correct download links for Android player and apps?

Appreciate it very much.

Cheers
K

[pacoman03]

Hi,
I recently bought a BB Playbook, I've trouble in installing and running Android player and Android apps. Could you kindly suggest me the correct download links for Android player and apps?

K

You don't install the android player. If you have OS 2.0 or later the android player is already on your PB. The player will not appear on your homescreen as an app, but will open whenever you open a ported android app on your PB. Android apps are available in app world, though they are not identified as such. They can also be sideloaded- see the Sideloading subforum for more info on this. Do not try to sideload any android player on your PB- you'll only most likely screw up the android player already on it.

[bambinoitaliano]

You don't install the android player. If you have OS 2.0 or later the android player is already on your PB. The player will not appear on your homescreen as an app, but will open whenever you open a ported android app on your PB. Android apps are available in app world, though they are not identified as such. They can also be sideloaded- see the Sideloading subforum for more info on this. Do not try to sideload any android player on your PB- you'll only most likely screw up the android player already on it.

http://forums.crackberry.com/android...eloading-f258/

[purehazel97]

i don't know how...
can you all suggest how to istall that??