In the annals of history, the scrappy fight betwixt the megaliths of e-reading and their respective tablet progeny will yield an underground victor. Much like the sleepy hacker hit that was the Nook Color, Barnes and Noble’s big bro tab looks to be carrying on that legacy of unapproved use and this time there’s a lot less microSD card swapping required. In fact, there’s none needed at all, as the barrier for entry here is super low. All it takes to sidestep B&N’s app store for a host of third party options (like Amazon’s App Store shown above) is the tab’s own browser. Yes, it’s almost that simple and also kind of hit or miss. See, once you attempt to install an application via the web, a previously hidden settings menu should pop up asking for permission. Grant the slate access, find the app in your download queue, re-install it and, presto magico, it’ll work and then… vanish from your homescreen. But don’t fret, the app’s still there, you’ll just need to search for it using the “n” hardware button. Confused? Excited? Unsure of how to feel? Why not just give it a go and report back in the comments below.

Nook Tablet forgets to use protection, lets outside apps in originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 17 Nov 2011 17:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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First Drive, now Maps — Nokia’s exclusive Windows Phone 7 apps simply refuse to stay, well, exclusive. Now, Nokia Maps will officially be ported to non-Finish-manufactured Microsoft handsets, but when exactly it might land in the Marketplace is anyone’s guess. If you’ve jailbroken your WP7 device, then there’s no need to wait any longer. Simply head on over the XDA forums (at the source link) and sideload it. While you’re there, you might as well grab Drive too — after all, what good is a map app without voice-guided navigation.

Nokia Maps hacked, delivered to all Windows Phones thanks to XDA devs originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Nov 2011 09:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Want in on some Honeycomb optimized Google Voice action without going through all the trouble of sideloading? Today’s your lucky day; the boys of El Goog silently pushed out Google Voice 0.4.2.36 to the Android market this morning, adding native tablet support. You can snatch up this update right now directly from Google itself — but we wouldn’t blame you if you decided to sideload it anyway, just for old time’s sake.

[Thanks, Ryan]

Google Voice for Honeycomb tablets now officially available, no sideloading necessary originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 03 Sep 2011 01:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft just earned itself a boatload of geek-cred and made Apple and Sony look pretty bad in the process. We knew the Windows Phone team was playing nice with the jailbreakers from ChevronWP7, but we didn’t realize just how cozy the two were going to get. Today the devs announced that ChevronWP7 Labs would open up soon, with the approval of Redmond, allowing users to load homebrew apps on their handsets. Unlike tools from the iPhone Dev Team, this service won’t be free. Instead, customers will have to cough up a small fee via PayPal — but we’re sure many of you are more than willing to pay a reasonable price to avoid the sort of cat and mouse game Apple has been playing with hackers since 2007.

ChevronWP7 Labs will jailbreak your Windows Phone with Microsoft’s approval originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 18 Jun 2011 13:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s the end of an era, folks. See that block of text up there? That’s AT&T’s promise not to keep you from installing whatever Android apps you choose. Starting with the Samsung Infuse 4G, you can expect the carrier’s new Google-powered phones to have that all-important “Unknown sources” box available to toggle at will. As we heard in March, the measure was designed to let third-party markets like the Amazon Appstore function properly, but don’t let that keep you from having a little fun — we’re sure your own repurposed creations are just as good. Of course, none of this helps your existing AT&T droid one bit… unless it’s also true that the Aria, Captivate and Inspire 4G will also have sideloading enabled ASAP. We can hope.

AT&T sideloading officially a go, designed to allow Amazon Appstore downloads originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 May 2011 19:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s a classic romantic tale of “network meets OS, network disables OS,” and just like any love story, this one is building up to a happy ending. Fourteen months after AT&T introduced a lineup of crippled Android phones that weren’t allowed to install third-party apps, the carrier extended an olive branch to fans of the OS by quietly slipping the sideloading capability onto the Samsung Infuse 4G; now, the network is reportedly updating three members of its Android lineup — the HTC Inspire 4G, HTC Aria, and Samsung Captivate — sometime today. We’re sure there were many Atrix users scanning this short list with fingers crossed, but unfortunately your phone did not make the cut this time. No word on why your favs were left out, but at least four devices with Amazon Appstore access is still better than zero. At present time we haven’t seen the updates get pushed to our phones, however, so we’d love to hear if any of you have seen differently down in comments below.

Select AT&T Android devices may get app sideloading as early as today originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 16 May 2011 17:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Angry Birds developer Rovio announced on its Facebook account a few hours ago that “AT&T is also working on enabling purchases from the Amazon Appstore soon,” which would mark a pretty big move on AT&T’s part since they’ve been firm in their resolve to keep apps from outside the Android Market ecosystem off their branded Android devices — a frustrating (and arguably illogical) stance, to say the least. Well, first the good news — AT&T has confirmed to us that they are, in fact, setting up access to Amazon’s store:

“We’re working to give our Android customers access to third party application stores. This requires updates to our systems and finalizing arrangements with Amazon. We will share more info with our customers in the near future.”

The bad news is that AT&T’s having any discussions with Amazon about this at all, which would seem to indicate that they’re planning on making an exception to their Android Market policy for the Amazon Appstore rather than simply enabling sideloading on devices altogether and calling it a day. We suppose this could involve a round of firmware updates that drops the Appstore in ROM, but that seems like an awful lot of work considering how much red tape is involved in pushing even a single update for one handset on a major carrier. More on this as we get it; hopefully, AT&T subscribers will have their Angry Birds Rio fix soon enough.

[Thanks, Thomas]

AT&T planning access to Amazon Appstore, sideloading still an open question originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Mar 2011 11:50:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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As Android gets more popular and mainstream, new users are coming out of the woodwork!  I’m very happy to say that a portion of those users are running Linux on their desktops, and they’re hungry to learn the things we try to teach all you Windows users.  Since we have more than a few Linux-using Advisers and senior members in the forums, this is something we’re more than happy to do.  And we’re going to start with something that’s pretty important to me — sideloading apps on phones that have been altered.

It’s not hard, it’s all done through the terminal using commands you can cut and paste, and the setup from start to finish is laid out pretty clearly.  Check it out in the forums, and be on the lookout for more Linux tips and tricks from Android Central.  And if you’re not a Linux user, but need to get your sideload on, check out the Sideload Wonder Machine for Windows.

Sideload apps on your AT&T phones using Linux [How-To] posted originally by Android Central

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There are three things I love — open source, Linux, and ingenuity.  Android Central forum member 42turkeys brings all three together, along with some serious Mac love in his versions of the Sideload Wonder Machine for Linux and Mac.  Using the same premise as we did with the Windows version, you can now sideload apps to your crippled AT&T branded Android phones using your Mac or Linux computer. 

Because Linux and MacOS have a robust shell, these are terminal applications.  It’s a fair trade — you’re not getting the point and click GUI, but you can do a bit more through the menu.  And if you’re using Mac OS, or especially Linux, you shouldn’t be afraid of the terminal.  Hit 42turkey’s forum thread HERE to download either version, and get you some sideload on.

Nice work Mr. turkeys … very nice! [Android Central Forums]

Posted originally at Android Central

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When it comes to installing Android applications, there are two ways of going about it. The most popular, of course, is directly through the Android Market. And that’s how most of us do it. But from time to time we need to be able to sideload apps. Maybe you purchased it directly from a developer or some other perfectly legitimate method.

Or maybe *ahem* your phone doesn’t allow you to directly sideload apps, for whatever reason. And that’s where the Android Central Sideload Wonder Machine comes in. We’ve rigged up a simple Windows program that allows you to install any .apk file (that’s the extension for an Android app) via your computer. It’s completely legit — nobody’s going to track you down and take away your phone — it’s completely free (and open source!)  and now you’re back on the same playing field as everybody else, no rooting necessary.

Want to see it in action first? No problem. Video and download instructions are after the break.

Posted originally at Android Central

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