Finding apk application for your PBO Alpine (stock firmware)

[snappy46]

Given the fact that the PBO Alpine does not have access to the Google Market .... now called Google play here are some good sites to get apk files.

http://androiddev.orkitra.com/download/apps/
http://www.freewarelovers.com/android
http://www.freeandroidware.com/

There are many more; please let me know if you find other good ones and I will add them to the list.

To install apk to your PBO Alpine do the following:

1) Copy the downloaded apk file on a USB device and connect it to your PBO Alpine. You can also use the PBO Alpine browser to find what you are looking for; but the slow browsing speed makes it almost unbearable.

2) Now use the OI file manager to navigate to your USB stick (or download location if you used the PBO Browser) and select that apk file (press enter). This should start the installation of that application onto the PBO Alpine.

That's pretty much it; the new application should be available in your application screen.

---------- A word of warning ---------------------

If you start installing some application you will quickly realised that it is very much a hit and miss situation. The actual PBO android platform has actually been somewhat modified to make the PBO Alpine what it is and even some library files have been move around therefore many apps depending on those libraries just won't work. By the way this is not uncommon for many devices based on Android; including my own Android tablet.

Also unlike many other Android devices; the PBO Alpine does not use the standard android media player libraries to do it's magic. The PBO Alpine actually uses mplayer which is a Linux application and a socket listener available at the Android platform level. What this mean is that any applications that try to use the standard android media player libraries do not work .... or very slow frame rate even on low resolution video or just sound alone. The good news is that many applications that require to play a video do not actually implement a video player but rather ask the Android system if it has any application that can play video (In the android development world this is call an "implicit intent" vs an "explicit intent" statement). Those application will work fine on the PBO Alpine because the video will be pass to the video handler which is a socket to mplayer. Mplayer has been customised to take advantage of the hardware decoder available on the PBO Alpine.

Also some application will required to have a mouse connected to your PBO Alpine to work properly since a lot of application assume that you can touch some button with your finger and can not get focus simply by using the up / down etc.... arrows on the remote.

To conclude if you find any application that work well with the PBO Alpine please let us know. Eventually it would be nice to have a full list that anyone can refer to.

That's it for now; sorry for the long and wordy post.

Cheers !!!!

PS: I will provide a list shortly of some of the application that I know work well with the PBO Alpine.


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Here's some apps that I found that worked fine and well suited for a media player. Unfortunately I can not remember where I downloaded those from so I put them on my dropbox account. All those apps are free and legal, however if the developper has any issues with the apps being on my dropbox account just let me know and I will remove them. Regardless those apps will be deleted from my account once I find the original location.

accuweather simpleweather v1.5 Weather forecast application. (Ads supported)

RssDemonAd-1.apk Excellent RSS feed (audio, video and text) Mouse and wifi connection are needed to add new feeds and recommend keyboard. (Ads supported)

ttorrent.lite_v0.9.1 Torrent client, will allow you to use your PBO Alpine as a torrent client. TTorrent lite is limited to a download speed of 250KB/s (Ads supported)

QSystemInfoPro_1.9.5 Provides various infomation on your android system and application, very useful.

transdroid-1.0.4 Torrrent interface compatible with various torrent client (transmission etc...) and allows you to control download/upload of those torrent client from the PBO Alpine thru the network.

z4root.1.3.0 Automatically root the PBO Alpine to grant root access to apps / .adb session and install busybox on the PBO Alpine.

Dolphin HD Internet browser 7.3.0 Recommend the usage of a mouse, this app is much better than the stock web browser.

Google Map 5.11.0 A little slow but works fine; mouse is required to use that application.

SambaFilesharing-dev-111105 Samba server application. Allows you to share your PBO Alpine content with a PC or whatever samba client you may have on your network. Requires the PBO Alpine to be rooted to work. I recommend Z4root; see link above to easily root your PBO Alpine. It also requires an SD card to be inserted in the PBO Alpine to work properly. SD card will be shared automatically but USB devices connected to the PBO alpine can easily be added.

Servers Ultimate DLNA,DNS,DDNS,Email,FTP,IRC,Proxy,SMS,SSH,Telnet,T est,Time,Web,WebDAV server! Run your own free DLNA, DNS, Dynamic DNS, Email, FTP(S), IRC, Proxy, SMS Gateway, Socks, SSH, Socks, Telnet, Test, Time, HTTP(S) and/or (secure) WebDAV server (yes, 15 different servers)! From one all-including app: Servers Ultimate. You can even run multiple instances of the same server type at the same time for most! Limited to 2 servers with the free version.

More apps can be found here Thank you pageauc for sharing and your efforts.

Snappy

[Patriot_Ben]

Thanks snappy46, good stuff.

I just wanted to add that this would apply to the current stock firmware.

We will be releasing a "Matrix version" firmware built from the ground up using things more native to the Android 2.2 platform. Once the Matrix firmware will be released, the unit will be much more compatible from traditional app places such as Google Play.

[snappy46]

Apps have been added to the list. See first post.

Enjoy!

[Das Capitolin]

I've discovered apktops.com and torrapk.com are also very good APK sources, although most applications are still not compatible with PBO Alpine.

[lordmayo]

Given the fact that the PBO Alpine does not have access to the Google Market .... now called Google play here are some good sites to get apk files.

http://androiddev.orkitra.com/download/apps/
http://www.freewarelovers.com/android
http://www.freeandroidware.com/

There are many more; please let me know if you find other good ones and I will add them to the list.

Snappy

ConnectBot v1.7.1 has been a helpful Android command line tool that installs just fine on the Alpine. It allows you to navigate via command line and execute basic commands either on the Alpine (I run connectbot and use ANDROID as host, which connects to current machine) or ssh to any other machine on your network. Best used with a keyboard connected but it comes with an onscreen virtual keyboard.

You can read more

http://code.google.com/p/connectbot/

Videos
http://jsharkey.org/downloads/ssh.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mPNL3dBsns

[snappy46]

I just added servers ultimate to the list of application (see first post); this is a very neat application that allows many servers to run on the PBO. I only tried the telnet and web server and both worked great.

Enjoy !!!

[lordmayo]

I just added servers ultimate to the list of application (see first post); this is a very neat application that allows many servers to run on the PBO. I only tried the telnet and web server and both worked great.

Enjoy !!!

does this mean access to the Alpine remotely (from outside of the wifi network)??

[snappy46]

does this mean access to the Alpine remotely (from outside of the wifi network)??

Any server running on any devices (PC, PBO etc...) can be access on the internet if they are setup that way. In other words in order to access any running server from the internet you need to open (port forwarding) ports on your router. Once you have correctly setup port forwarding you can access it thru the Internet. That being said most of us have dynamic internet ip's that keeps changing therefore you need a service like DynDNS to keep track of your ip address so that you can access your server even if your ip address get change while you are away.

Cheers !!!

[lordmayo]

you need a service like DynDNS to keep track of your ip address so that you can access your server even if your ip address get change while you are away.

Cheers !!!

hey snappy46 right thanks for the details - i definitely have port forwarding already set up and i've been like a bloodhound looking for ways to open that Alpine box up on the web for remote access so i'll be toying with this new app. thanks!

[snappy46]

hey snappy46 right thanks for the details - i definitely have port forwarding already set up and i've been like a bloodhound looking for ways to open that Alpine box up on the web for remote access so i'll be toying with this new app. thanks!

Just to add to this many router have a build in capability to communicate with DynDNS and automatically forward the new IP address to DynDNS. Look at your router options; if such option does not exist then you will need to run a resident software on your PC or possibly running on the PBO (linux version) to be running (see DynDNS for more info).

Cheers !!!