*UPDATE* Our friend JD has made a one-click install for Android apps. Read more about it here.
If you installed the recently leaked Android app player for your BlackBerry PlayBook, you’re probably wondering “So, how do I get apps?” Here’s a quick rundown of the necessary steps to get Android apps on your PlayBook, while using the leaked beta version of the Android app player. We’re sure RIM will make it much easier to download Android apps once this thing officially releases.
Software you’ll need to download:
You will need to have your PlayBook set to development mode. You can set this by going to the security options.
Let us first start with the Netflix app. You’ll need to download the .APK file
here. Once you’ve downloaded all the appropriate software and installed the platform tools, then launch cmd and cd to: C:\Program Files\android\android-sdk\
tools
Now follow these command prompts:
C:\Program Files\Android\android-sdk\
platform-tools>adb connect 169.254.0.1:5555
connected to 169.254.0.1:5555
C:\Program Files\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools>adb root
restarting adbd as root
C:\Program Files\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools>adb connect 169.254.0.1:5555
connected to 169.254.0.1:5555
C:\Program Files\Android\android-sdk\platform-tools>adb install com.netflix.medi
aclient.1.3.apk
2533 KB/s (7378353 bytes in 2.843s)
pkg: /data/local/tmp/com.netflix.mediaclient.1.3.apk
We can’t guarantee all apps will load correctly. Some users have reported that they don’t work just yet. Nonetheless, if you’ve got the time and know-how you may want to see if you can get some shiny new Android apps on your PlayBook.
*DISCLAIMER* – This is an unofficial RIM software release. If you choose to install, do so at your own risk! N4BB.COM is not responsible for any malfunctions or abnormalities that may occur.
That was quick Lucas!
Does this Android Netflix app actually let you stream movies, or only manage your DVD queue? Thanks!
This is pretty cool….thanks! But does the Netflix app work for you? Because I get “The application Netflix (process con.netflix.mediaclient) has stopped unexpectedly. Please try again. And of course, when I do, I get the same thing again.
I am going to try some others though….I realize that some will likely work and some won’t.
Ya, unfortunately the Netflix app is not working
Hey Lucas, did you try the Kindle app? It will be great if it works
Amazon Kindle works great!!!
here are some apps: http://www.mediafire.com/?356lvpvuai5vj4b
Either is Fring or skype (skype loads but doesn’t login, it ask for reinstall
).
But, IM+ is working!!!! YEAHH!!
Where can i download im+ ??
I still don’t understand. The IP address has to be 169.254.0.1 and port 5555??
check the ip on the development mode icon in the top of your playbook. in my case im connected via Wifi so its something 192.168.xx.xx port 5555
Followed the instructions above. Just a few comments. The Android SDK now has the ADB tool in platform-tools. You don’t need the port number when connecting, it defaults to port 5555. You have to have the Android App running on the Playbook.
Tried 4 Apps, Netflix, Kindle, Adobe Reader and PDF Viewer.
Netflix….crashes
Kindle…very frustrating. Can get to my books and downloaded an archived book, but I cannot get the screen to display any actual pages of any book so far
Adobe/PDF… both seem to work but I don’t have PDFs in the Android JVM so I’m not sure how to access the native PB file system to test further.
Jonathan Stark outlines the near pefrect way to get your product onto the Android market. Building Android Apps, with HTML CSS and JavaScript is THE book! Android is writen in Java, which is not JavaScript or anything close. Mr. Stark requires downloading the SDK, (Software Development Kit,) the ADT, (Android Development Tools,) from the Google site, which extols the virtues of Eclipse as an IDE, (Integrated Development Environment.) There are online tutorials for learning Java and Eclipse. Use the keywords total beginer. to find it. Eclipse is owned by IBM, but partially indicates big blues, realization that open source is here to stay. I am into chapter 6 now and it is not a piece of cake. I think that Stark is an Apple guy. Using a Windows environ is covered in enough detail for the adventurous. I have not had to do a system restore. Sometimes I do get to a place where I have to restart, but that is probably my own doing. The book and text are available from O’Reilly, though through their works-in-progress links. The recommended link in the book only gives a zipped download for the first few chapters. I have taken the O’Reilly HTML and PHP classes. I bought the book from Fry’s for about $13. I have gotten a free book from O’Reilly. In Learning PHP, MySQL, and JavaScript, by Robin Nixon covers three languages in one integrated book and I am just getting to the JavaScript part of this book. Zend which Nixon now uses over Wamp which was the state of the art when he wrote the book took some time to learn. Having a local host to test programs is good. The O’Reilly sandbox way is okay, but requires dues. Using your own local host will teach you more than you want to know about paths, and directory trees, but is probably essential in the long run. Make no mistake, doing this stuff takes serious dedication. I’m nearly 70 years old and loosing mental capacity, so if I can do it so can you! Get the book write your app!
if you want ebooks (and audiobooks), OverDrive Media Console seems to work. you can download it from overdrive.com and install it using the adb command described in this article.
http://overdrive.com/partners/redirects.aspx?product=OMCForAndroid
I am getting an error in the Command Prompt \can’t find ‘com.netflixmediaclient.1.3.apk’ to install\. Where am I suppose to save the .apk files in order to install them?
why do i get a access denied everytime i try to run the command?
Do you have dev mode turned on?
I got netflix installed but am unable to get it running. I see there are several newer versions of the .apk out there.. -2,-3 etc. I have also read a couple of posts about the app doing device detection and having to spoof being a supported device in order to get it to work on a rooted droid… much less the playbook. Has anyone else had any success with it yet?
Netflix install of file referenced above went fine. I get the same error as Steve above: “The application Netflix (process con.netflix.mediaclient) has stopped unexpectedly.” Kindle is running flawlessly as is Scanner Radio Pro and IM+ Pro.
I keep getting “unable to connect to 169.254.0.1:5555″ after having used
adb connect 169.254.0.1
i have also used ping adb connect 169.254.0.1 and all 4 tries were succesfull. Not sure what i have done wrong. Debug mode is on.
Thanks you for the tutorial, this is very useful for me..
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