Sideloading apps on the PlayBook (and Android apps as well)- A How-To
The BlackBerry PlayBook has been out for a few months, and for some, they are blissfully happy with it as is. There are those of us, however, that just can’t leave well enough alone. Recently, the coming Android App Player for the PlayBook leaked, and while it is still a very beta version, there are some who wanted to use it. This presented those people with two problems, namely that they had a file they did not know how to get onto their PlayBook, and if they figured that out, a whole library of apps to install. Neither one of these is an intuitive process, so I figured I would put together a bit of a newbie guide to help you along.
This guide can also be a resource for those who are interested in beta testing for developers of PlayBook apps, as the sideloading process is necessary to install them. While there are a couple tools available to assist in the sideloading of apps to the PlayBook, this is what I have found to be the most efficient and reliable method.
ConvertIt – Unit conversion application for the PlayBook
First thing’s first, I’ll be completely up front about my bias towards this app. I am the creator, it’s my baby. I’m not going to give it glowing reviews, I’m simply going to give you a brief rundown about it, as I promised I would blog it for those who followed along with it’s creation. It’s up to you to download it and judge for yourself.
ConvertIt is a simple unit conversion app, featuring three separate categories of unit conversion to choose from. The user can choose from Distance, Weight, and Cooking measurements from the main drop down menu. The appropriate units will then display in the conversion dropdowns, allowing you to choose from 6 different measurements for each category. Distance and Weight are pretty standard conversion units, but to my knowledge this is the only one so far that does basic cooking measurements. (Hard to determine, as App World will not allow me to sort specifically by the PlayBook apps).
PlayBook or Bust – The Final Chapter
It has been a little over 4 weeks since I first posted my intentions to attempt creating an application for the PlayBook in 9 days. I figured that I owed it to you guys to post a final word on it, and update you on the last few things.
For those who haven’t followed along, I decided to challenge myself to create an application, from scratch and with no prior programming experience, in 9 days. The endeavour ended up spanning a full 4 weeks, from start to finish, even though I succeeded in coding a fully working application within the 9 day timespan.
PlayBook App Development – Some Helpful Links
During my recent crash course in PlayBook development, I spent a lot of time with my nose in books, and exercising every ounce of my Google-Fu to glean as much information as I could. In the process of doing so, I accumulated a large number of bookmarks, and a couple new books that have aided me greatly.
Since sharing knowledge is part of the fundamental belief system here at GSL, and part of my natural inclination, I figured that it might help one or two of you if I collected some of the links I used here in one post. Not all of the links I collected would help in a general sense, since some are specific to what my goal was, so I’ve omitted them. By no means is this a comprehensive guide, but it might serve to get you started when you are staring at your screen wondering where to begin.
PlayBook after purchase – where’s the love?
We all love our gadgets, and whether you are doing it out of love or just being conscious of fashion, any gadget lover is going to accessorize. You’ve just gone out and laid out plenty of cash to have that shiny new device, and you want to keep it safe. It doesn’t hurt if it looks great too, because who really wants to carry around a foam rubber brick?
A month ago, the buzz in my twitter timeline was everyone pre-ordering their iPad 2. One thing that I noticed quite quickly, was that almost every single person that said they had pre-ordered was already looking to order a case for their new acquisition. This is before they had even gotten a shipping date, much less had the device in their hands.
April Fool’s Day Pranks – Geeks Unite!
Having been so busy lately, I completely lost track of my calendar, and only just realized that tomorrow is April 1st, also known as April Fool’s Day. I briefly considered making an erroneous post tomorrow morning to catch the unaware, but that really doesn’t suit my style.
Instead of having some fun with our readers, I decided to help our readers have a little April Fool’s fun themselves. It’s a yearly tradition for me to wreak a little geeky havoc in our office, and I have entirely too much fun with it.
PlayBook or Bust – Final Day
It has been a long 9 days, and I have to apologize that I haven’t been a little more regular with updating you guys. I knew that this was going to be a challenge, but I didn’t fully grasp how much of my time and effort it was going to take up to accomplish. For those who haven’t been following along, here’s the brief synopsis.
Last week, I announced here that I had presented myself with a challenge. RIM was offering up a free PlayBook to anyone submitting an approved PlayBook application by today, and my desire for a PlayBook caused an idea to form. I decided to try my hand at it, and attempt to create an app, despite having no experience with programming or development. I gave myself 9 days to do it, setting today as the deadline, as today is the last day to qualify for the offer.
PlayBook or Bust – Update
I’ve been quiet for the last few days, dedicating all of my free time to this project as the deadline looms nearer and nearer. I have been living and breathing the development process for almost a week now, and figured I was due to give you an update.
In my last journal entry, I had mentioned that i had been attempting to jump into the coding process, but had found that my knowledge wasn’t quite up to par for the task I was setting for myself. So I took a step back, unplugged, and hit the books.
Dear Twitter, can I please have a minimal theme?
There are those of you reading this that follow me on Twitter. There are some of you who don’t. If you are one of the former, I can still guarantee that 90% have probably never looked at my Twitter page, simply because you already have a mobile application that allowed you to find and follow me. That said, there are still a ton of people that use the web interface at Twitter.com for their daily Twitter fix.
Stats published by Twitter as late as last fall showed over 80% of their usage coming from Twitter.com and m.twitter.com. This means that someone is more likely to view my profile on Twitter.com than any other way (in a relative sense, based on a “new” person, not one of my current followers). New Twitter came into being months ago, and promptly killed one of the main reasons to enhance the design of your Twitter page.
LiveProfile for BlackBerry hits open beta
Yet another cross-platform messaging app has hit the smartphone market, and although LiveProfile has been out for Android and iOS for a bit already, it finally came into an open beta for BlackBerry today. Aiming to be another “BBM-like” experience, it has a host of features that BlackBerry users will recognize.
Visually, the app is quite polished, and I have to say that I really do enjoy the look of it on my 9800. Up until now, I have been using WhatsApp for my cross-platform needs, which is quite functional, but tends to fall a little short on visual appeal.
