HyperShadow
Lurker
Hi everyone - here is a tip for any frustrated Tattoo owners that might want to access the full android market and try out unavailable apps on their market-deprived phone.
The following is intended for Windows users that, like me, have near-to-no experience with linux and have just recently learnt what the letters "SDK" stand for
1. Install Android SDK on your PC
2. Have it update a few packages. The ones I chose to install were
SDK Android Platform 1.6
Google APIs by Google Inc Android API 4 Revision 2
USB Driver package Revision 3
3. Create a new AVD: Name it, set the target to Android 1.6. Set a size for the SD card (I chose a few hundred MBs but I'm sure that's excessive for this to work). To play safe I also added every single bit of hardware from the list. (This was my first time messing about with the SDK so I didn't know what to expect)
4. Before starting the AVD, go to control panel, system properties, advanced system settings, environment variables. Create a new variable called ANDROID_SDK_HOME and enter it's value to be the path of your ".android" folder which should have been created in your windows User folder (so the path should be something like "C:\User\yourname\")
5. If you start the AVD now, you will find that there is no android market. To fix that, go to this site and download the ready-made 1.6 image which has android market built-in (Thanks to Kumar Bibek there, incredibly helpful). Simply place the system.img file in the same folder as all the other img files. (The folder is named after the new avd you just created).
6. Start the AVD now, making sure you tick "Wipe user data", otherwise it won't load. You should only have to do this the first time.
7. When the emulator starts for the first time and asks you to open the keyboard, just change the orientation using Ctrl + F11 (thanks clanger9).
8. Access the android market and install "Estrong File Explorer" (other file managers will probably work too).
9. Install any app you would otherwise not have access to on the Tattoo android market. Open the file manager, click the "cog wheel" icon to display a list of installed apps. Long press the app and click "backup".
10. Navigate to your sd card folder where you should find a folder "backups", with the freshly made .apk file residing in it. Long press the .apk file and simply send it by email to yourself.
11. Transfer the .apk file from your PC to a folder on your Tattoo's sd card. (Trying to access the apk through the Tattoo's email application will result in an error). Use a file manager on your Tattoo (again, many to choose from) to run the application and install. Make sure you have ticked "Unknown Sources" first in Application settings!
That's it! Hopefully you'll now be running apps on your Tattoo that are not officially available for the device. In my experience, many apps simply work, although I have come across a few that don't. I used the above technique to get hold of the recently released Digg application, which works fine.
I do realize that there is probably a MUCH simpler way to do this, but I personally couldn't find one (for windows). Any additional tips would obviously be appreciated. Enjoy!
The following is intended for Windows users that, like me, have near-to-no experience with linux and have just recently learnt what the letters "SDK" stand for
1. Install Android SDK on your PC
2. Have it update a few packages. The ones I chose to install were
SDK Android Platform 1.6
Google APIs by Google Inc Android API 4 Revision 2
USB Driver package Revision 3
3. Create a new AVD: Name it, set the target to Android 1.6. Set a size for the SD card (I chose a few hundred MBs but I'm sure that's excessive for this to work). To play safe I also added every single bit of hardware from the list. (This was my first time messing about with the SDK so I didn't know what to expect)
4. Before starting the AVD, go to control panel, system properties, advanced system settings, environment variables. Create a new variable called ANDROID_SDK_HOME and enter it's value to be the path of your ".android" folder which should have been created in your windows User folder (so the path should be something like "C:\User\yourname\")
5. If you start the AVD now, you will find that there is no android market. To fix that, go to this site and download the ready-made 1.6 image which has android market built-in (Thanks to Kumar Bibek there, incredibly helpful). Simply place the system.img file in the same folder as all the other img files. (The folder is named after the new avd you just created).
6. Start the AVD now, making sure you tick "Wipe user data", otherwise it won't load. You should only have to do this the first time.
7. When the emulator starts for the first time and asks you to open the keyboard, just change the orientation using Ctrl + F11 (thanks clanger9).
8. Access the android market and install "Estrong File Explorer" (other file managers will probably work too).
9. Install any app you would otherwise not have access to on the Tattoo android market. Open the file manager, click the "cog wheel" icon to display a list of installed apps. Long press the app and click "backup".
10. Navigate to your sd card folder where you should find a folder "backups", with the freshly made .apk file residing in it. Long press the .apk file and simply send it by email to yourself.
11. Transfer the .apk file from your PC to a folder on your Tattoo's sd card. (Trying to access the apk through the Tattoo's email application will result in an error). Use a file manager on your Tattoo (again, many to choose from) to run the application and install. Make sure you have ticked "Unknown Sources" first in Application settings!
That's it! Hopefully you'll now be running apps on your Tattoo that are not officially available for the device. In my experience, many apps simply work, although I have come across a few that don't. I used the above technique to get hold of the recently released Digg application, which works fine.
I do realize that there is probably a MUCH simpler way to do this, but I personally couldn't find one (for windows). Any additional tips would obviously be appreciated. Enjoy!
