BlackBerry® PlayBook™

[GrandadDave]

I am finding a lot of things are NOT available for playbook, ie Skype, MSN, Sky Go etc. It seems developers are concentrating on the (Spit Spit) iphone, or Android. Having heard rumors that we can run android apps on the playbook I did some research, it seems that we need to 'root' it. I am not about to start messing with the machine, I like it actually working! So, my question is... are RIM going to create a way that we can run android apps? or was this all just hype?

BTW, I am running the latest OS, (2.1.0.1314) on the 32 gb playbook .

[tonyArmitage · Accepted solution]

Have a look at the goodEreader website.. they have some android apps that they have adapted to run on te playbook.

[GrandadDave]

brilliant, many thanks! does this now mean I can source *.bar files elsewhere and add them using the prog i installed from there?

[JSanders Resident Expert]

---

GrandadDave wrote:

brilliant, many thanks! does this now mean I can source *.bar files elsewhere and add them using the prog i installed from there?

---

Yes, it does mean that.

However Skype will not work on the PlayBook.

[GrandadDave]

well colour me pleased! Took a bit of fiddling to set up the bar installer and make it work, discivered you have to also enter password in bb desktop software to unlock it and allow access with the other prog. couldnt download the 3d bowling. next Question, if I downloaded the files onto my PC and used the bar installer, would it find the bar file on drive whatever and send it to playbook or must I download onto playbook? and anyone know any other source of converted bar files?

As for skype, dont know, none of my contacts are online

[JSanders Resident Expert]

I can assure you, Skype doesn't work, I believe only the chat module works.

Yes, you can copy .bar files to your PC, connect your PlayBook (in Developer Mode) to the PC, run the DDPB app on your PC, tell it where the bar files are located, etc.

Details here:  http://blackberryempire.com/how-to-sideload-android-apps-on-playbook-2.0-using-ddpb/

[TexTucker]

---

GrandadDave wrote:

brilliant, many thanks! does this now mean I can source *.bar files elsewhere and add them using the prog i installed from there?

---

Caution!  Whereas goodereader.com endorses their .bar files and are sponsored by some big name advertisers, other sites contain more doubtful bar files. I once installed an app from another site, and when I asked the developer for help I was told that it had been illegally engineered, it was normally a paid for app, and to remove it or face legal action.  Stick to goodereader.

[GrandadDave]

sound advice methinks, I have lookearound for .bar files, and the amount of warnings I have had from my antivirus just trying to connect to the sites is amazing!

What I would like to find if anyone knows of it is sky go...

[jaysus858]

I use localbar to sideload my apps no longer use ddpb

[TexTucker]

---

jaysus858 wrote:
I use localbar to sideload my apps no longer use ddpb

---

Keep meaning to try it. Does it sideload apps from PC or from the web? If PC, is it Wifi or USB?

I like the Chrome Playbook App Manager extension as  it works on Wifi and after a wipe you just stack all your bar files on the PC/Mac into the queue and it sideloads them in batch. Also works on Mac and Linux.