A Sideloader's Best Friend

Remember my tablet?

Yeah, that one.

If you do, you'll remember that I had to root it so I could run Google products on it.  Well there was one slight downfall to doing that.  It's a minor one but still pretty annoying.  It turns out that there are several apps that are flagged as not being compatible with my device in the Play Store.  Of course this is hogwash because I'm running Android Ice Cream Sandwich.  The latest release, Jellybean, only came out about 2 months ago so right now everything should be compatible with Ice Cream Sandwich.

Now, there is a way to fix this provided you have root access (which I do) and are willing to mess with the build.prop file (which I'm not; maybe some other time).  So I'm stuck with the next best option: sideloading.  Sideloading is the process of procuring the Android APK installation file and installing it manually.  It's actually pretty easy.  The trick is finding the APKs.

Today I found a nifty tool that lets me back up APKs from "approved" devices so I can transfer them wherever I want.  It's called File Expert.  I used to be able to do this on a different tool I had installed but in the latest version that option is gone; more likely moved to a separate paid app.  Well File Expert is free and it works.  Just list your apps on the interface, put checkmark next to it and use the Backup button.  I've been happily transferring apps that I use on my cell phone to my tablet and so far none of the programs have given me any issues.

I may however finally decided to mess with the build.prop.  Reason being that "incompatible" apps are invisible to Play so it likely won't update them when newer versions come out.

And on that note...I just edited the build.prop (LOL!  That didn't take long right.)  Let's turn it on and see what's new. :)

Hmm, didn't work.  Trying a different tact.

Nope, still nothing.  Guess I'm stuck with sideloading.