[wvafan]

Ok everyone out there who knows all about the app stuff.

There are on this forum wonderful instructions about converting .apk's to .bars.

I now feel confident that I can do it and am looking forward to converting them.....at least as soon as I can find the key to the magic kingdom where the .apk files are found. So far, that huge moat with allegators in it has kept me from crossing.

Anyway, I wanted know though, why is it neccessary to convert .apk files to .bar files in the first place?

I mean, isn't the 2.0 equipped with an Android emulator? Isn't the whole purpose of an Android emulator to play the .apk apps?

Now, bear in mind that I have had my PB for less than a week, so I may be asking a totally stupid question here. The necessity to convert these files may only apply to 1.0 users, IDK.

But the mere fact that many of us are converting .apk files makes me wonder the next question, and it is this: If we are converting these files, could it be that our built in Android emulator is simply that RIM is converting the Android apps to .bar files on their end, and these "Android apps" that we now have access to are really just .apk apps that have been converted to .bar's? If so, it might help explain why the apps have been so slow in coming over to App World.

Just a stupid question.

[taylortbb]

The apps you see in App World are just APKs converted to BARs. However, RIM cannot legally post apps to App World, only the app's developer can do that. That's the biggest thing holding back wider availability of Android apps in App World.

As for why? There's two reasons.

One is for security, the APK to BAR conversion process is fully automated but requires the resulting BAR be signed with code signing keys. This is a key part of RIM's security design as it protects against malicious upgrades and provides accountability for malicious apps.

The other is simply compatibility. Even if the security wasn't required the PlayBook has been designed to handle BAR files. App World takes BAR files, the sideloading tools take BAR files, the PB's installation services take BAR files, etc. It's just easier for everything to be standardized on BAR. It also provides an opportunity for additional QNX-specific settings, like a different icon resolution, to be added.

[wvafan]

Ok then, that confirms part of my suspicion. That is, our "Android" apps that are in Appworld are really .bar files, not .apk files. So in reality, they are not Android apps. They started out as Android apps and were developed for such, but upon conversion, they become Blackberry apps.

So then, do we really have an Android emulator in the 2.0? I mean, if we have an Android emulator in 2.0, then why the need to convert the files? Shouldn't an Android emulator run .apk files without conversion? So if we have an Android emulator, then what was the purpose of putting it in there if we will never have a chance to use it since Marketplace won't allow us in there anyway?

[taylortbb]

The conversion process didn't actually change anything about the APK. A more accurate way to understand it is that a BAR holds an APK + extras. The APK is put inside the BAR rather than being converted.

It's an Android emulator because the conversion process makes no changes to the APK's contents.

[wvafan]

OK, I get it. So when the pb actually acesses one of these apps, it sees it as a .Bar file, but then once it opens it, it plays it (at least in part) as an apk.

[coolaide]

The bar file is the packaging (cardboard and label) and the APK is the content.

[wvafan]

Crunchy on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside.