As you all may well know, not all apps render nicely on the small screens of smartwatches. Market Helper is one of these apps and is impossible to use on a TS in its current state, I've modded it to work on our small screens.
Market Helper is by redphx and all credit belongs to him.
Related
I went through my Heros settings and found that in "menu>settings>applications" theres a check-box named "unknown sources" which while checked allows install of non-Market applications.
Why is there such a setting? Since Android OS is open-sourced, isn't the whole point that everybody should be able to upload apps to the Marketplace without Google having to accept them first? If it is like that, why wouldn't all apps be on the market place?
The only reason i see for this is so that you would be able to install apps that Google wont allow, but if they don't allow the app, why would they have a setting so you can install it?
Please tell my why there is such a setting.
Thank you /nofowuw
my only guess is that that setting is equivalent to a Release of Liability form. Any damage caused by apps installed from external sources, not on the Market where it can be rated and commented upon (maybe filtered too?) cannot thus be blamed on Google?
nofowuw said:
Why is there such a setting? Since Android OS is open-sourced, isn't the whole point that everybody should be able to upload apps to the Marketplace without Google having to accept them first? If it is like that, why wouldn't all apps be on the market place?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The fact that Android is open source has absolutely *nothing* to do with the Market. There are many reasons why a developer might not want to put their apps on the Market - a core consideration might be that they want to sell their apps, but paid apps are not available in their region, so perhaps they want to use a different distribution method.
Similarly, in some regions, Android phones do not ship with the Market app at all, presumably because Google charge a licence to ship their closed source apps.
Regards,
Dve
google does not check the apps in the market. every app comes to the market, but there is the self-controlling mechanism: if several users complain about an app (and rate it bad) it will be taken out of the market. also you wouldn't install an app that has 1 star and several warnings in the comments. this way you can be pretty (not 100%) sure that the app from the market won't harm your phone. last but not least through the market it can be tracked down to the dev who created the app.
now if you download an app or someone sends it to you all that is gone. no user ratings, no comments, no dev. this is why you have to check that box when you want to install apps from other sources...
ohh, ok... umm.
So how do you install these applications? Just put the application-file on the SD and the phone does the rest? Is there any community that host a library of apps to download?
Since i live in a non-full market region and cant buy apps, i guess this can be usefull for me
Hi,
First of fall I've searched the forums and found no recommendations so far, except for this thread, which only lists the alternatives.
So, my issue is that many apps on Google Play are rendered incompatible with my Samsung Galaxy Nexus (Stock 4.0.4) after I've changed my DPI.
What I'd like is a good alternative to Google Play which:
i) Contains most of the apps on Google Play.
ii) Doesn't render them incompatible unless there's a compatibility issue with the Android version, or something more critical than changed DPI.
I don't mind using the list in the thread mentioned above, but I'd like to save time on testing by asking you for recommendations. Especially developers would probably know which ones they usually use in addition to Google Play.
- rlmaers
There is no other market...
There are unofficial markets. I only found out about there being unofficial ones because of a news report saying how a lot of apps/games have been loaded with some sort of nastyware. For example, Angry Birds Space
worldwideweb.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2167511/cybercriminals-malware-infected-angry-birds-game-target-smartphone-users
With that in mind I wouldn't really try to venture too far down unofficial markets.
Here is an example, AndroLib, of an unofficial market: worldwideweb.androlib.com
Replace worldwideweb with appropriate meaning
There is absolutely no market comparable to Google Play, that has even remotely as much content as it.
Closest you're going to get is the Amazon App Store.
that market is really the worst thing on android. it has so many restrictions its outwitting itself at times. even under stock i couldn't download a ton of apps with my nexus. but when i sideloaded them it always worked.
what you can do is try hacks, there are several here on xda. i made one for my tablet mode topic, you might wanna try: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1543892 it works for me and a bunch of others.
you might want to try amazon market too
Thanks for the input, from all of you.
Apps loaded with malware isn't even an option, so I guess I'll have to stick with Google Play (and perhaps Amazon App Store).
@molesarecoming: Who's done the hack on the Play app you've linked? (I guess I'm paranoid about malware every time I download something, even on XDA).
i did it, but you can trust me ... i guess.
seriously, i had the same problem that you have right now and i did something about it, no evil intentions.
play store mod
about 2 or 3 days ago there was a post on portal about a moded play store
i think it was on i9000 forum
the moded store allows to install incompatible apps or apps that are for other countries.
i tried it and it was fine but i removed it because i didnt use it.
i think it might be helpfull for you
Please use the Q&A Forum for questions &
Read the Forum Rules Ref Posting
Moving to Q&A
Thanks for the help. I'll try it out!
it's old, i know.
I use aptoide store and f-droid
f-droid is really small, but I support it in it's approach (open Software)
aptoide features alot of apps and actually I'm not missing much
NO google-software on my phone!
toggler said:
it's old, i know.
I use aptoide store and f-droid
f-droid is really small, but I support it in it's approach (open Software)
aptoide features alot of apps and actually I'm not missing much
NO google-software on my phone!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Aptoide is "quite" good, yes it has a lot of apps because they let people upload any app in their own store.
The problem is that they do not check that published app are owned by the people who publish it, so it contains a lot of hacked apps !
Other serious app stores: amazon, opera
I installed the black market alpha .apk on my phone and it works perfectly. tonight i downloaded Easy Voice Recorder Pro on my phone from BMA which is supposed to be 3.99 from the play store and on BMA it had the price crossed out through the number with a line and i downloaded it without a problem. the app opens and works fine. Here's The Conundrum. when i try to make a recording it stops itself after one second and says could not find market license!! so what i don't understand is, what is the point of black market alpha even though it does work and gets the app if the app still knows you don't have the license and doesn't give you permission?
i should also add the fact that i noticed the free version, easy voice recorder(without the pro) works by having advertisements and if you are rooted and use ad away you can just have no ads anyway. although there also seems to be some other limitations such as recording time length etc
but really my question stands, what is the point of BMA if the app can still not find license permission? perhaps easy voice recorder pro is atypical of most things and most other pay apps don't have this issue off of BMA but i was rather shocked. the bottom line is this app in particular still wont function even if obtained off of BMA
This is against the rules. Xda doesn't allow threads that deal with, or distribute warez ( paid stuff for free ). Please make an effort to read the xda rules
Reported
i should also add that other PAY apps i've obtained off of BMA haven't had this issue and this is the first i've run into. but it gave me serious pause for concern. should i expect more apps to follow suit in the future? if an app developer is aware of this and can simply make the app need the market license so it wont work if obtained from BMA so you have to pay for it from the play store anyway then i would expect at some point the BMA would just become completely useless and redundant
my apologies. i was under the impression that using BMA was in the same vein as rooting and apps that use SU perms. i'm quite sure that ad away which uses root SU perms would be just as frowned upon since it blocks ads from apps
No its not the same. Pirating payed for apps is not the same as blocking ads that no one clicks on anyway. You will find not help here on this. Thread closed.
Sent from the Bat Cave
Well then... now that android is a major contender in the mobile OS wars. Had the G1 from day one.
My only complaint from android... is the quality of apps. Also, repeat of the same apps over and over again in the play store. Recently I've been scouring the market place and I noticed that there are a lot of apps that seem kinda... a waste... For example... just how many weather apps and widgets do you need? most of the time they copy HTC, Samsung, or Sony apps (weather, clock, calendar etc) and slap on a generic name onto it.
Now Im all for "oh android is OPEN" but at least put some effort on making an app
this raises the question... should android have a tighter quality control over apps? Im not saying to make android "closed" but anyone that wants to submit an App on the play store needs to follow guidelines so there isn't repeats of apps that makes android fragmented. I mean there's 700,000 apps on the play store right now but prlly only a few 100 are only worth using because of how polished they are.
What do you guys thing? does Google need have tighter control of the play store?
I agree with you. I think holo ui on apps is the best thing ever happened to android. Apps started to look high quality and developers did great job with holo. But there are still tons of non-holo apps that hasn't been updated since 2009/2010 and most of them not even work on new devices they just give force closes. I think Google should give those developers 2 month to update their apps with their guideline and otherwise just delete it. I started get sick of these old apps.
The other thing bothering me is the themes. Go themes, adw themes, launcher pro themes, they are everywhere. I hate to see all those themes when I simply search "launcher" on play store. Most of them are not even compatible with the latest versions of their launcher. I hope Google will do something about it.
Google started letting Android turn into new Windows. Every manufacturer can put bloatware in it. Millions of useless programs in the Internet. Most of them aren't updated since XP. Most of the people choose Linux or Mac(I still like windows more than mac ) over windows just because of the bloatware. Think about the toolbars of ie . Google should manage apps better in play store. Otherwise Android will start killing itself.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using XDA Premium HD app
No, Android is an open platform and things like this may discourage developers. Google will feature apps that are designed well, but banning apps because they are deemed outdated looking or not useful is not what I want to see.
I do agree there is a lot of junk in Google Play but there is also the same junk in the iTunes app store. I would like to see Google allow more advanced searching in Google Play, they are Google afterall. Google Play's search should add sort by date app updated, filter by compatible Android version, and I'm sure there are more. That way you could find newer and better apps in your search.
spunker88 said:
No, Android is an open platform and things like this may discourage developers. Google will feature apps that are designed well, but banning apps because they are deemed outdated looking or not useful is not what I want to see.
I do agree there is a lot of junk in Google Play but there is also the same junk in the iTunes app store. I would like to see Google allow more advanced searching in Google Play, they are Google afterall. Google Play's search should add sort by date app updated, filter by compatible Android version, and I'm sure there are more. That way you could find newer and better apps in your search.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so your saying that google should just let those junk apps stay in the play store. sure ios has junk apps but it isnt as bad as android.
yea discourage the developers that makes junk apps. thats the point. if a developer is constantly putting out updates then it shouldn't worry about having its apps being deleted. im just saying that google needs remove crappy apps from the play store. it just makes google play look lazy
leventccc said:
I agree with you. I think holo ui on apps is the best thing ever happened to android. Apps started to look high quality and developers did great job with holo. But there are still tons of non-holo apps that hasn't been updated since 2009/2010 and most of them not even work on new devices they just give force closes. I think Google should give those developers 2 month to update their apps with their guideline and otherwise just delete it. I started get sick of these old apps.
The other thing bothering me is the themes. Go themes, adw themes, launcher pro themes, they are everywhere. I hate to see all those themes when I simply search "launcher" on play store. Most of them are not even compatible with the latest versions of their launcher. I hope Google will do something about it.
Google started letting Android turn into new Windows. Every manufacturer can put bloatware in it. Millions of useless programs in the Internet. Most of them aren't updated since XP. Most of the people choose Linux or Mac(I still like windows more than mac ) over windows just because of the bloatware. Think about the toolbars of ie . Google should manage apps better in play store. Otherwise Android will start killing itself.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using XDA Premium HD app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
your right about some of the themes... some of those themes are copying other manufacturer's skins
look at beautiful widgets... they copied htc sense clocks. im suprised that htc didnt take them down.
spunker88 said:
No, Android is an open platform and things like this may discourage developers. Google will feature apps that are designed well, but banning apps because they are deemed outdated looking or not useful is not what I want to see.
I do agree there is a lot of junk in Google Play but there is also the same junk in the iTunes app store. I would like to see Google allow more advanced searching in Google Play, they are Google afterall. Google Play's search should add sort by date app updated, filter by compatible Android version, and I'm sure there are more. That way you could find newer and better apps in your search.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There isn't thousands of outdated launcher themes and not working apps in the app store. The ones at app store still work on newer iphones and don't look outdated. But the ones at play store look stretched and outdated.
i agree with you
I believe one thing that would help is better search functionality in the play store. Seams to me that a major search engine would have better search options in their store.
Sent from my DROID BIONIC using xda premium
I have an app I really like, but the developers have gone down a really bad route. It's been turned into a horrible web app that is now slow to load, clunky to use, and has adopted many iOS UI things.
I have the last known version before they went this horrible way, and they apparently don't care about their plummeting store ratings, and adamant they aren't going back.
I have prevented auto update of the app, but I also want to remove notification in the Play store (and anywhere else) that an update even exists for this app. Is this possible without root?
I am thinking perhaps changing the APK signing key, or package name, or some other way of mangling the app? or some easier way?
Just for reference resigning with a different key will make the app stop appearing in Play Store updates.
I will come out an name and shame UnTappd for not caring what their users want or think about thieir (un)responsive web app garbage.
If anyone wants the original last native APK (2.8.4), I have it, and I also have a resigned on that won't try and update via the play store.
Original (signed by Untappd):
http://hostracon.com/uploads/1763759451.Untappd Discover Beer_v2.8.4_apkpure.com.apk
Modified with new cert:
http://hostracon.com/uploads/439004733.untapped284 alt sign.apk
Hope someone finds them useful.