BlackBerry® PlayBook™

[gravenors]

I am thinking of buying the 64gb Playbook currently on sale from PCWORLD in the Uk.

Can anyone advise if this model will run Android apps or if it can easily be upgraded to the

BB software that does allow this?

Thanks

Steve

[nikmaster]

All Playbook models are the same. They run same software. Playbook can not directly run android apps. They need to be rebuilded by developers or someone else. It was possible to root older firmwares and some users managed to install Android Store (Google Play) on their PlayBooks, but as I am concerned now it is not possible.

So this is only a software limitation, perhaps there is a legal issue to allow android apps run on BlackBerry without modification

[gravenors]

Thankyou for getting back to me...it is much appreciated.

I am now somewhat confused as it says on the spec for

OS.2.0 that there is support for Android?

[nikmaster]

There is support for android apps, but they need to be repacked. You can not just download them as they are. Probably you can repack someones apps yourself, but I am not sure if that is legal. There are some tutorials on that.

[gravenors]

Thankyou very much.

What do you think of the playbook compared to other tablets on the market?

I am thinking of buying them for my children for Christmas and I guess they'll mainly

use it for email, facebook, youtube.

Also they would probably use it for taking notes in lectures via a blue tooth keyboard?

What do you think?

[saugen48]

http://forums.crackberry.com/android-app-sideloading-f258/made-list-links-243-bars-689706/There are some android apps that have been converted so are able to be side-loaded to the Blackberry Playbook..Note: Blackberry does not have Skype ( I know some kids really need/want this) but does have something called video chat where BB users can video chat with other BB users

There are some very good detailed instructions of how to sideload apps on this board

[jarviser]

The first advice you got was incomplete. We have been sideloading converted (.bar) android apps since OS 2.0

Get app from here http://goodereader.com/apps/playbook/playbook-android-apps/ and download to your personal computer. 

The following works on PC, Mac or Ubuntu which is why I use it rather than the tool recommended by goodereader.

Get google chrome browser on your computer from here http://www.google.com/chrome

(for Ubuntu install Chromium)

When installed get chrome Extension called Playbook App Manager and install.

Put PlayBook into "Development  mode" at diagonal top swipe, settings, security, preferably using same password as main playbook password

Diagonal swipe again to get the icons bar and tap the dev mode icon (white person with star) and make a note of the dev mode ip address 

Run the chrome extension and follow the simple instructions to install (ie sideload) the  app, using the above ip address. 

[JSanders Resident Expert]

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nikmaster wrote:

 Playbook can not directly run android apps.

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Not true. There are many Android apps already converted and residing in BlackBerry AppWorld for immediate download.

Others not there, can be easily converted and side-loaded per the instructions above.

[nikmaster]

It depends on the price. Playbook has some advantages and major drawbacks. Flash player is one of the advantages. Second is playing avi files without conversion. And I love watching movies on it. I am not sure about lectures. Screen seems too small for me. As for drawbacs, os is not working as smooth as iOS, and sometimes playbook lags a lot. And lack of software is also a major drawback.
BB 10 os will be released for playbook sometime next year. This may solve few problems.

[nikmaster]

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JSanders wrote:

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nikmaster wrote:

 Playbook can not directly run android apps.

---

Not true. There are many Android apps already converted and residing in BlackBerry AppWorld for immediate download.

Others not there, can be easily converted and side-loaded per the instructions above.

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But they still need to be converted. And there are a lot of apps that do not work at all, or have limited functionality