1. GreekBoii's Avatar
    I just recently got a playbook, love it to death, very impressed with it. Now ive been reading all this talk about android player, and the android market and such, and some people are saying its hard to do and others find it a breeze. My question is without rooting my playbook, will the android market become available natively through an OS update for the playbook? Or is this something that can only be done by rooting it using Dingleberry?
    12-24-11 01:22 AM
  2. Deathcommand's Avatar
    It will probably never get the Android Marketplace natively because it would take away from RIM's Sales.

    Rooting is easy, If you use a compatible computer. (mine had missing drivers at first).

    Install Google Market on your rooted Playbook in 4 EASY steps! | OpenSourceBB.com - The best freakin' hybrids. Period.
    If you want to give it a try.
    12-24-11 01:34 AM
  3. Megacharge's Avatar
    It can be done only through rooting.
    12-24-11 01:36 AM
  4. alekza's Avatar
    the market itself is only available with rooting and running an emulator. thefiles downloaded from the market will only work in the emulator runtime and there will be no icons (yet) of those apps in the main os.

    On feb.. (or whenever os2 is officially released) there should be some android apps available on app world.
    there is a list around here of decent android apps (free) converted to .bar files that you can install in your pb. to be honest, all the android apps i currently use ive got the from these lists or converted them myself.

    app compatability is pretty much the same if you install it throu the market or sideloaded... which means that if an app didnt work when sideloaded it wont work if its installed on the market and vice-versa.

    Rooting and installing the market is simple but requieres some patience if ur not familiar with the tools... but if you follow the video, you should be fine.
    12-24-11 01:48 AM
  5. GreekBoii's Avatar
    okay thanks a bunch! i guess eventually im going to root it myself just to see what its like.
    12-24-11 11:10 AM
  6. lynntarbox's Avatar
    its kind of crappy. i had mine rooted and had the market installed and etc. but the problem is you can't switch between android apps at all.

    you either have to hit the back button multiple times just to get back to the launcher to launch another app. i find it a lot better just to sideload apps and not bother with the market at all. that way you can actually multitask between android apps.

    yes apps are easier to install via the marketplace, but much harder to actually to use.
    12-24-11 12:39 PM
  7. Unsure2's Avatar
    If RIM follows through on the promises, we'll have OS2 in February, which will include a built-in Android Player. But, that doesn't mean the Playbook will become an Android machine; OS2 is still the QNX operating system. The Android Player is essentially an Android interpreter app, that will run the Android apps. Android apps won't run as fast on the Playbook as they would if it were running the Android OS, because of the extra interpreter layer. The Playbook running OS2 won't work with all Android apps and, without rooting, it won't allow direct access to the Android Market. Android apps will need to be repackaged, tested, and placed on AppWorld.

    I've been using the Beta OS2, which is already available, and I find it quite stable. Side-loaded Android apps are a mixed bag, but enough work for me to think Android Player is worthwhile. Native QNX apps would certainly be better. Best of both worlds would be for the Playbook to "dual boot" QNX and/or Android; but, unless the people over at XDA suddenly get very interested in developing a version of Android for the Playbook, we're unlikely ever to see that happen.
    12-24-11 04:39 PM
  8. conix67's Avatar
    Here's my findings on the Android player so far.

    - rooting and getting android market doesn't add much benefit, in fact it makes it more cumbersome to launch android apps, as those downloaded from Android Market does not show up on the PB interface.
    - Compatibility is good for apps that do not require camera, GPS, video playback, and Android market. It runs Kindle very well, which is why I think it's worth it. Many other apps missing from RIM's App World runs well.
    - While you can run Android apps, they are not integrated into Playbook. For instance, you can use Android app ES file explorer and open video files. It will try to play it using Android video player apps, but cannot pass it onto PB's native video player which is far better.

    I don't know what improvements the final OS 2.0 will bring, but I'm hoping for seamless operation between PB and Android Apps.
    12-24-11 05:05 PM
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